A young mother usually cuts away fish’s head and tail before frying the remaining fish length, until her daughter questioned if the head and tail were poisonous. The young mother couldn’t answer because she learnt without questioning from her own mother, who also learnt from hers till the fourth grand-mother. The great-grandma later explained that their olden-day frying-pan were small, and could not contain the whole length of the fish. So, they cut off fish’s head and tail so that the fish can fit into their olden-day smaller frying-pan.[1] Without questioning existing protocols and traditions, people may never know the futility or purpose of many dogmatic practices in the society.
Cultures are people’s way of adapting to and managing their environment, which is carried from one generation to another. Elements of culture include language, food, clothes, occupations, ceremonies, music, thoughts and modes of interactions. These are unique elements that distinguish between one people and the other. Though cultures interact and borrow from one another, enduring cultures retain the core values that distinguish them from the rest. Without retaining their core values about human relationship, and the relationship with material resources, they lose their identity and purpose.
Before colonial invasion, various African societies were known for relational communalism, which extends beyond one’s locality.[2] This communalism was guided through traditional institutions by values of sincerity, moderation, collaborative productivity and social responsibility. The sense of family and community was so strong that people work together for security, productivity, education and life. Though the education system at the time was informal, it was practical and bearing on real life people. The system of social organization at the time was not very advanced, yet, it was effective for common good.
Instead of building on the social values for common good, the colonial invasion distorted the Africans social organization and values. So, the colonialists merged the various independent communities and kingdoms under militarized governments and constitutions. These new governments were made to seize[3][4][5] and sell the various people’s land and resources to highest bidders. Thus, they deny the people of their basic means of livelihood and print money for people to struggle before earning a living.
“The African was compelled to enter into the money economy… From the condition of relative peace and reasonable certainty to satisfy the basic necessities of life, the African was suddenly plunged into poverty. There was no longer the reasonable certainty to meet the basic necessities of life unless money was available. Having been thus rendered poor by the stroke of the pen backed by the use of armed force, the African was compelled to find money to assure not only individual survival but also to pay tax for owning a hut.”[6]
This sudden change eroded the communal outlook and responsibility of individuals from their ethnic communities and kingdoms. The formal education moved from practicing real processes of production to cramming and counting imported items and trends.[7] So, everyone is desperately struggling against everybody to get money for individual survival. You fight to get right of way, life or fair-hearing, fight to earn money, even fight to pay money. The persons who shout, fight, deceive or outsmart others, especially for the government, receives survival benefits.
Unfortunately, the younger generation meet and absorb this desperate situations of individualistic survival as existing protocols of African reality. They have not encountered better situations in Africa, where collaboration leads to harmonious productivity, coexistence and justice. Instead, they embrace the media hype of the few managing ones as models for their individualistic fight for survival. Adjusting to the current Western definition of Africa, the older folks abandon/deny their founding communal values ‘as irrational’.[8] Today, many Africans even will fight their brothers who disagree with the western-imposed African ‘reality’.[9]
Now, it appears that our different cultures have been twisted, and our African reality redefined by the colonialists. They tell us which food to eat, language to speak, governance, knowledge, wears and sexual orientation to adopt. We now adopt the masks of conformism for their social experiments, even when we know they are not right.
Though these attributes have flooded our society, they are not the true realities of Africa. To redefine the African reality, the different communities and kingdoms have to re-discover and emphasize their values. Hence, they can educate their members for modern productivity, and also retrieve access to their resources for production of goods and services.
[1] Story from a reflection by Angelbert Chikere about mass-mindedness in the teaching of P. Josef Kentenich. 2010
[2] Pieter H. Coetzee, “Morality in African thoughts” in African Philosophy Reader (2nd Edition) edited by P. H. Coetzee and A. P. J. Roux (New York: Routledge, 2003) p.324
[3] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 2
[4] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 2, paragraph 1
[5] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 3
[6] Mogobe B. Ramose, “The struggle for reason in African” in African Philosophy Reader, ibid. p.2
[7] Ogban Ogban-Iyam, Re-Inventing Nigeria through Pre-colonial Traditions In Issues in contemporary political economy of Nigeria.edited by Hassan A. Saliu.(Ilorin: T.A. Olayeri press, 1999). P.73
[8] Cf. Ibid. p4
[9] Walter Rodney, How Europe underdeveloped Africa (Abuja: Panaf, 2009 edition) p.25