Beta-suya beta-suya, n’ahu nnama is an Igbo adage that emphasizes the effect of our lifestyles on the global community. Literarily, it implies that our increased demand for barbecue results in an increased death of livestock. It means that most of the pleasure we enjoy in the society has been, and is being paid for by others either voluntarily or forcibly. Each product we use comes from several elements that are derived from different parts of the world.[1] Many do not know or ask how their governments, suppliers or relatives get the resources for these products. And, if we continue to consume the world’s resources without questioning its costs on other people, we become liable to the guilt of the innocent consumers.
Everybody has physical and material needs: food, house, clothing, family, companionship, health, etc. And human society is formed by the agreement between members of the society to collaborate in producing what they need from their various resources.[2] So, they refine, multiply and trade resources and products for satisfying the people’s needs. Despite the alleged initial agreement to satisfy people’s needs, many people are still living in extreme poverty and disease.[3][4] And when some people cannot get resources for decent lives, they become desperate and dangerous to the beneficiaries of social injustice.[5]
Not all beneficiaries of social injustice are directly involved in creating the unjust situation. Citizens without direct public-responsibility quickly exonerate themselves from local and global injustice since they are not among the decision-makers. Relatives/associates that gain from exploitative activities of public officers quickly exonerate themselves of any fault. Private citizens and lower public officials of oppressive and exploitative nations quickly exonerate themselves of involvement. They believe they are not directly involved, since they only make demands on their government or relatives for higher provision without considering the source and cost. Yet, they bear with them the guilt of the innocent consumers for pushing and supporting others to the main crime.
Societies react differently to social injustice, which is the inequitable distribution of opportunities for satisfying needs in a society. Societies with organic political order readjust their welfare-policies for f education, adequate employment and funding for initiatives. Those with imposed political structure increase legal and security measures against the socially disadvantaged, who are made desperate by poverty, hunger and diseases. Hence, the beneficiaries justify the suppression of the victims of social injustice by criminalizing agitators and blaming them for their misfortune.[6]
What is the effect of our consumption on other people in the world? How much do we contribute to the global problem of hunger, poverty and war just by making extra-demands on our governments and relatives?
There has always been injustice in human history, but the present global gang-up of social injustice was instituted with colonialism.[7] The colonial enterprise installed alienating and exploitative governing structures to disorganize the social-support-systems in the different colonies. This disorganization of social order resulted in the denial of the people’s access to their resources for production in favour of the exploitative colonialists.[8] So, the hungry and poor natives are made to fight for their rights against local puppets and collaborators of foreign exploitation.
In response to outrage about the effects of this social injustice, some beneficiaries of injustice easily form charity groups to mask the effects of social injustice.[9] And some of these charity bodies use them to make more money,[10] while converting Africa, some parts of Asia and South America to world charity theatres for people who seek to launder their images or appease their guilty consciences to shore up their philanthropic status or to identify with a humanitarian cause.[11]
Yet, the problem of social injustice may never be solved by providing food, drugs, cloths, arms and weapons to unproductive people. Instead, it can be solved by developing organic social structures for people to collaborate in using what they have to produce what they need.[12] These are the types of social structures that respect the differences in people’s origin, ethnicity and worldviews. These are the types of social structures that empower the individual with technical knowledge and freedom to access resources for productivity and fulfilment.[13] These are the types of social structures that encourage free negotiation and agreement for collaboration among peoples.
Some people in ‘developed world’ regret their nations’ roles in the barbaric history of colonialism.[14] Some moved from denying their nation’s roles to blaming the victimized societies for their colonial misfortune.[15] Yet, their governments continue to benefit from the resources from the social-structure of exploitation installed during colonialism.[16] Some may wish to erase the pages of their barbaric roles from the history books of the world. Unfortunately, the past may not be undone, but the future effect may be re-ordered through acts of contrition and restitution.
Indigenous beneficiaries of the global exploitation, the favourite slaves of foreign exploiters, assume innocence as they publicize charity works. They rob the people, who are made to beg for parts of their rights as charity. Yet, charity works are not enough to free a people who have been caged in the alien-social-structure imposed and sustained by foreign-policies. In some cases, charity work is like sending ones’ children to feed caged lions that desire freedom to fend for themselves. No matter the type of chicken and chips offered to a caged lion, it may never fulfil its full potential.
The destruction of the support-systems of the pre-colonial African communities led to irresponsibility of the new African elite-class.[17] The different handlers in different levels of the imposed order are not answerable to the people. They are only answerable to the colonialists who imposed the alien political structure from which they benefit.
Having a situation requiring charity creates opportunities for people to appease their guilty hearts or to show off their philanthropy. But without addressing the cause of the problem, we continue to hide under the guilt of the innocent consumers. Both the armed robbers and the partakers of the loot are guilty in the result of injustice in the society. Religious, traditional, academic, charity institutions and citizens who benefit from social injustice, without rebuking the perpetrators are equally guilty. They can only attempt to hide behind as instigators or causal factors, the guilt of the innocent observers.
[1] Leonard Read, I Pencil, https://fee.org/resources/i-pencil-audio-pdf-and-html/
[2] Cf. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan Ed. Michael Oakeshott (New York: Macmillan, 1962).p187
[3] http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi
[4] https://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty
[5] Aristotle, http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/28911.html
[6] Jon Snow, One Law for the rich and another for the poor. https://www.channel4.com/news/by/jon-snow/blogs/law-rich-poor/ retrieved on 01/10/2017
[7] Walter Rodney, How Europe underdeveloped Africa. (2009 edition) Abuja: Panaf Press, 2009. P164. The concept of global economy is a Western gang-up installed in the colonial era to perpetually exploit African resources
[8] Chukwunwike Enekwechi, Are Nigerian youths truly unemployable. http://restartnaija.com/2017/07/25/nigerian-youth-truly-unemployable/ Retrieved on 30/09/2017
[9] cf. Richard Dowden, Africa, altered states, ordinary miracles. (New York: Public Affairs, 2010). p8
[10] Richard Dowden, p8-9
[11] Richard Dowden, p9
[12] Olusegun Oladipo, The idea of African philosophy, third edition (Ibadan: Hope Publications, 2014). p114
[13] Olusegun Oladipo
[14] Daniel Pipes, In Europe Remorse has turned to Masochism. http://www.danielpipes.org/8293/europe-remorse-turned-masochism/April-2017/ retrieved on 01-10-2017 – commentary on Paschal Bruckner’s La Tyrannie de la penitence
[15] French President blames babies, not imperialism for problems in Africa. http://www.catholic.org/news/international/europe/story.php?id=75477/
[16] Walter Rodney, op. cit. 164
[17] Cf. Richard Dowden, op. cit. p445.