The African Tragedy —
Superstition or Religion?
At this period of time in history, in 2004,
when homo sapiens africana, alias homo “erectus” africanus is supposed
to be more erect (which is never the case since we are more bent than
ever), there are many people in Africa who would do everything to get
hinged to the so-called African credos to justify the sub-saharan
precariousness and therefore shift our incompetence, ineptitude,
selfishness and the immutable lethargy, the actual culprits of our
failure, on someone else or on ideas. Here in Africa it appears common
sense is very beyond the reach of the majority so corruption and
tribalism continue with amazing prevalence.
In 1856, wrote Alan Moorehead in “The White Nile,” Richard Francis
Burton, a British explorer had these to say about Africans, “They were
cursed by an external suspicion combined with a mullish opposition to
change, a savage conservatism. They were utterly dishonest: when they
assert they probably lie, when they swear they certainly lie.” In his
forever contemptous arrogance he asserted “The African seems to belong
to one of those childish races which, never rising to man’s estate, fall
like worn-out links from the great chain of animated nature.” “To
Burton,” writes Moorehead, “the Africans were to blame for their own
savagery, and from the first to last he treats them as delinquent
children with marked criminal tendencies.”
These observations about the people of Africa, the craddle of humanity,
may unfortunately be considered extravagant, if not discriminatory, and
many Africans may consider them scandalous and may go lengths to prove
the opposite. Yet one can hardly deny, that civilisation has exacerbated
the tendencies which are amplifed in function of the increase in
populations. While other explorers of Burton’s era did certainly not
feel this way many shared varied opinions almost along the same lines of
reasoning. For instance, Sir Samuel Baker, Moorehead wrote, “had a
theory that Africans were not and could not ever be equal to white men.”
This time around, over a hundred years, in 2004, what is the reading on
the scale of ethics in Africa? A quick eye-sweep horizontally and
vertically across the continent is worth its tale, and those views, far
from being denied, could now be certified and endorsed. In fact other
words have found their way into the big game; materialism and
illiteracy, in a continent where the majority is still overshadowed by
ignorance. So with limited thought-process characterising our
rudimentary behaviours we have no motivation for or inclination towards
refinement. Now, if Burton’s assertions are not true what are we doing
as a nation (African) to prove our unrightness? If it is true what are
we doing to revamp our moral precepts and lift our image? Are we
sufficiently on any right track to change?
A lot of ink and time have been spent so far in our endeavours to
explain the causes of underdevelopment in Africa, and while some are in
fact half-truths and do not really address with objectivity and
erudition the causes of the African tragedy others reflect the mindset
of the average African in arguments which for most part are as illusory
as mirages in the Sahara.
Of late Ghanaians have been fuming over an idea of Pat Buchanan, a
United States politician as he treated our dear land as a « failed state
» and why someone could take offence at all at such a fleeting
classification is as mysterious as the sub-saharan African who is never
taught to accept truths if even they were engraved on his forehead. If
anything could be said about that misplaced remark it is the occasion
which prompted him to it as he referred to the Secretary General of the
United Nations Organisation, Kofi Annan, in an issue having nothing to
do with Ghana as a country. Otherwise, turning the question round, one
could vividly ask if Ghana, (a country of very “intelligent” humans, a
tropical country with excellent annual rainfall, a country with several
mineral resources, a country with one of the best Education systems
since 50s) fifty years after independence, is a successful state?
Others find solace in blaming our underdevelopment on colonisation and
the infamous slavery. Recently “The trial of Irrationality in West
Africa” by Kofi Akosah-Sarpong and commented on in a rejoinder by Y.
Fredua-Kwarteng on the GhanaWeb, which sought to inculpate superstitions
made interesting reading but fell short of explaining the real problem.
While agreeing with them that superstitions are very degrading,
irrational and help us understand the moral and psychological bearing of
the people finding any satisfaction from them it is only fair to admit
that our first major problem lies in the head: The Conscience of the
African. The second is that of Identity: Who we are and where we are
going, we, as a defined historical entity. The third most people know:
Tribes and Ethnicity, which, I am afraid, may never be easily overcome.
The reason is Simple; as I write everything is being done every one
metre square area on the African continent to enlarge cracks already
developed by the ill-assorted history of our existence. And our failure
to recognise the fact, effect a change and shed the old cloaks myopia
raises us to individuals with selfish minds which outweigh our
collective interest, that of putting the state above and before
everything else. In passing, our moral judgement is eclipsed, nullified
by our greedy attempts to raise ourselves above our means at whatever
the cost and in the midst of chaos.
What is even more disturbing is the unabashed attempt to put religion
into the fray. Nowhere in Ghana’s history is religion forced on anyone.
Even Islam, misinterpreted by some of its followers in most countries to
include violence, is moderate and civilised in Ghana. The New Testament
on which is based Christianity preaches standards so entrenched in
priciples of moral domain that a society like ours predominantly
christian should necessarily have got very efficient and effective
governing institutions where values play their role. Now, those who
really believe in these religions do so in good faith and this hurts
no-one. The so-called church leaders, child-raping, women-coveting and
money-conscious pastors et all the ceteras go to the church with those
ideas as prime intention, just like the unloyal African politician. Such
religious leaders exploit the weak for their great faith. It is not
surprising therefore, that most of their victims are women and children.
After all there isn’t any African country more religious than is Brazil
yet corruption is very much controlled there, and the progress they are
making in development could not be underestimated. Other countries like
Italy, Greece, Poland are but few examples.
Mr. Kofi Akosah-Sarpong writes that “Much of the reason for the sharp
rise of attacks against certain cultural values that are today deemed to
be counter-productive to West Africa’s development is the fact that the
region is rated by the UN as the poorest in the world; Nigerian defence
researchers have revealed that of the 37 successful coup detats in
Africa 32 have occurred in West Africa (making the region the most
unstable in Africa); and security experts have concluded that nearly all
of the most horrendous civil wars, communal violence, high profile
corruption cases and crimes in Africa have occurred in West Africa. Most
of these troubles are rooted in West African culture.” I find it
particularly unreasonable to believe corruption and crimes could be
rooted in a person’s culture. The challenge we face here in Africa is
that of ill-will, narrow-mindedness and the refusal to raise moral
standards to requisite heights. What do we see as consequence? Empty
heads who are presidents, pastors who are politicians, thieves who are
military officers, farmers who are engineers and bureaucrats!
Other examples will edify one’s understanding of the problems:
In Ghana people were unsatisfied with Nkrumah’s political orientation
and constituted a notorious renegade bent on sabotage which we all know
about. Then came a british-educated “highly intelligent” Amankwa Afrifa
patted on by the CIA to overthrow the regime, and those involved in
those plots known to everybody today refused to think about the future
of the country and were occupied incubating their ambitions projected
for the future. What price do we pay today? General Ignatius Kutu
Acheampong and his cohorts did a “better” job with the disco-on-wheels,
women with fat backs and whose standing “bobbies” could enter mouths as
a criteria for qualification for golf cars, and the famous “Yentua”
policies which « helped better shape » the country as it is now are a
few examples of the real intention of coup plotters. It would be inane,
if not preposterous to wrap these in superstitions. All these
hyper-crooks in military uniforms whose sum-actions derailed the smooth
course of the country’s economic and political bearing are the main
architects of our present predicament. And these were the people given
“fitting burials” as if someone is content with what they did to the
country. In certain countries people face capital punishment for taking
the life of others. General Acheampong and his accomplices assassinated
a whole state! Where is the place of superstition or juju-marabou in
this?
It is pitiful, when one considers for instance the ignoble and
disgraceful situation in Darfur in Sudan – the tear-inviting TV images
showing mal-nourished children with flies all over the face as if all,
together with their mothers were issues of inanimate matter, that is,
belonging to no-one or nowhere. What a shame! This dreadful situation
started brewing since long and nobody cared. It is noteworthy that the
Sudan has suffered almost similar situation long ago. This is what Alan
Moorehead has to say, “...In the Sudan the old pattern had
collapsed...The country was becoming depopulated. Slatin at a later
stage estimated that, of the nine million inhabitants, about 75 per cent
were exterminated during the Khalifa’s rule. The continual wars and the
slave trade destroyed many thousands every year, deseases such as small
pox and syphilis were endemic, and now in 1889 (emphasis mine) the
country was overwhelmed by famine. Great areas of cultivable land had
been left idle while the Arabs went off to war or congregated in the
capital and in the province of Darfur where the Khalifa had put down a
revolt with the utmost brutality, wild animals had taken possession of
the empty plains...” Rudof Carl von Slatin, who himself became a victim
of the brutality, was a young Viennese officer sent to Darfur to help
govern and check the excessive slavery and massacre of the Africans by
the Arabs. The Khalifa Abdullah was an “unbelievably” cruel ruler of the
Sudan at the time. Now more than a century what do we see?
The unpardonable Rwadan genocide, which should have been discouraged by
Christian teachings and also by lessons from Western wars such as the
napoleonic campaigns in Europe and the hitlerian second world war,
depicted one of human beings’ most atrocitious conflicts in history, and
the African mind at its best. A country such as Rwanda, blessed with
lesser tribelines than any West African nation, and an overwhelming
majority of christians should have known better. As if in defiance of
“Thou shall not kill” and “Love thy neighbour as thyself,” and of God
(The majority of Africans believe in the supreme deity) the worst
carnage occured in the churches! Do those who perpetrate the sub-human
acts believe in the Christian God or were they obeying the dictates of
superstition and religion? Where was their collective conscience? As if
not enough for the poverty-ridden continent the West African sub-region
was to see its turn of such wickedness in Liberia, Sierra Leone and now
Ivory Coast. And the best we could do is blame culture!
When Mobutu was slated to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, the one who
engaged his services, he executed this in appreciation of some of his
compatriots. Little did his followers know what was ahead of their
country when his excellency, Field Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Gbendu
Wanga Banga, formerly known as Joseph Desiré Mobutu would buy over
twenty mansions, houses and castles around the world, covet people’s
wives, kill his opponents and have millions of Dollars in private
accounts. Has this anything to do with superstition? Now, where is the
pride of Congo the most richest state in Africa? Mobutu in one of his
fantastic daydreams thought it enticing to build rockets and missiles
and actually tried at the moment when structural reform animated the
imagination of countries in Asia.
When the President-rapist, the mass murderer Etienne Eyadema, now
Gnasingbé (Because Mobutu his best friend asked him to change his
whiteman’s name) went around extorting people’s wives and murdering
others who demurred, some with their husbands the Togolese people
adopted the classic ostrich approach and continued lavishly their
“animations” in full praise of their demi-god. Tax-payers money was
distributed free of charge, the future and the welfare of the state
could go to hell. This tyrant had girlfriends all over, even in Ghana
and in Zaire, and is he said to have companies in South Africa. While
emergent democratic nations like Ghana ought to decry the dictatorial
Togolese government long supported by France President Kufuor skipped
all reasons and said in an interview accorded “Jeune Afrique
l’Intelligent” that he took all the advice such a person gave him,
endorsing his long reign in the process. When you praise someone like
this you actually condone his beliefs. Now what kind of advice could
Eyadema give someone? How can development in Africa be achieved with
this kind of negligence by President Kufuor?
In Ivory Coast the “ghost” of the late President Felix Houphouët-Boigny
may have been lamenting regretfully in disbelief over the chaos in his
country. Even alive he may never have believed situations could turn
round dangerously after his death. Helas, Ivory Coast, world’s first
cocoa producer, like others in similar conflits, risks fading into
oblivion as empty windbags like Guillaume Soro tries to make his field
day. All politicians in Ivory Coast including Alassane Ouattara and
Laurent Gbagbo are selfish Africans whose presence on the political
platform would never give Ivorians any respite. Whose fault?
Superstition or religion? At the end of the Eighties the former Ivorian
President, one of France’s most privileged suggested and invited others
to let burn stocks of cocoa in protest of the pathetic price offer of
the Western markets, an idea he opposed long ago when Kwame Nkrumah
proposed it, and for the same reasons. He was one of those short-sighted
African leaders who fervently opposed Nkrumah in his famous quest for
African Unity. Houphouët-Boigny refused for mainly two reasons: He and
other french colonies would remain under the french rule, so he could,
as his mind suggested, become what he became. Secondly he didn’t see it
praticable that “rich” nations should share their riches with the poor
nations of the desert! So the nice president who in later part of his
years is alleged to have fed humans to his crocodiles remained deaf to
all efforts deployed by the Osagyefo. In truth the U.S of Africa would
not have worked; problem of mentality. The idea was therefore buried
with all the dreams and consequences. On the other hand a very highly
coordinated Pan-African military intervention force of the Africa
envisioned by Nkrumah, had it worked, could have quenched the Ivorian
fire long ago. The conflict may not even have got started anyway since
the question of ethnicity, part of which is the problem, may have been
attenuated to its minimum. In retrospect it is worthwhile believing the
African leaders at the time simply had no foresight and that Nkrumah was
far in advance of his time. ECOMOG failed in Liberia for lack of
coordination.
Mr. Kofi Akosah-Sarpong stated that “General. Sani Abacha revealed how
juju-marabou mediums have been undermining the stability of Nigeria.”
Abacha’s hypocritical interpretation of things failed to tell him that
the biggest factor undermining stability is stealing state coffers and
that Nigeria is by far weaker after he stole four billion dollars
belonging to that country.
Coming back to Ghana, in 2004, when we are supposed to be more effective
and lucid in the course of our duties to the country the wilfully
maladroit Finance Minister of the Fifth Republic of Ghana tried to
convince Ghanaians he signed in the name of the Government and twenty
million people documents in Germany without knowing their contents
because they were in German language! Is this a farce or does he
consider his position a child’s playground? This man who occupies the
most critical state position actually engaged very ignominous loan
agreements unpardonable in any success-minded state. Could any of these
have been inspired by superstition or religion? To say the least, the
Mr. Finance Minister has no sense of nationalism. President Kufuor,
confronted on allegations of corruption in his government retorted
corruption started with Adam and that in every society there is
corruption. The implications are a catastrophe and very frightful.
Unfortunately, however, this was the same person, in opposition, who
went on top of his voice accusing the previous government of corruption.
Where are we going with this kind of thinking?
I recently read on the GhanaWeb that the P&T, with the same workers,
functioned better with a foreign than Ghanaian management. Why should it
be so? I could remember remotedly a news report in one of the Ghanaian
Newspapers in the Eighties, that Neoplan (Ghana) Limited, after a
breakdown in one of their operating machines asked for assistance from
their parent company in Germany, which reluctantly sent an expert only
for the expert to come and find out the problem was actually lack of
hydraulic oil in the one of the systems! And Neoplan is said to have
trained experts in Germany prior to establishing that company! One time
too in 1986 I had the chance, as a curious individual, of visiting the
famous VORADEP in Ho in order to appreciate how efficient the
Agricultural projet was taking root and was shocked to realise on a
normal work day at 1030hrs Greenwich Meantime four-fifths of the workers
were absent. I was to learn that most of the workers, in efforts to
complement their meager salaries have gone for their personal jobs and
may not be available till the next morning. The truth was that they were
overstaffed. So where is the superstition in all these?
The President Omar Bongo of Gabon, who was not only content with his
extravagant taste for suits running into several hundreds of thousands
of french francs apiece had young ladies delivered to him along with the
dresses by his french fashion house! For the rest, think a little of the
self proclaimed emperor Bokassa who gave his country free for
exploitation by the French, Idi Amin enjoying in the Gulf after his
massacre of some 350000 Ugandans, Charles Taylors, Foday Sankos,
Babangidas... Superstition or religion?
A person who is not asleep and pretends to be asleep is difficult to
wake. Africa pretends to be asleep and in her refusal to wake up remains
dormant. She may, forever, remain behind in the race. The worst is to
provoke very bad-taste mockery from others and get trampled upon as our
“presidents” hold pans begging for money and food around.
Ghana is just about 50 years old. If really we are intelligent it’s
never too late to mend. If we are not, well, this is our country... One
more thing, it is necessary to feed the masses, to educate them, to
widden their scope of understanding, to clothe them, to house them, and
most of all not to relegate anyone to second or third class citizens and
the superstitious beliefs would have no place. Stupid political
ambitions and antagonisms will only let grievances live: Politicians
often forget one great ingredient for development is peace.
Finally I recommend the reading of “THE BLUE NILE” and “THE WHITE NILE,”
both by Alan Moorehead. This could permit the understanding that
Africans are stubborn and impervious to change, and that our
underdevelopment comes forth from the head, an old problem of mentality,
as old as the day we saw this world. If someone thinks of creating a
company one should think of a company capable of cleaning inside the
brain of every African, especially those occupying spaces in and below
the Sahara. Problems may be involved, certainly: Nepotism and Bribery,
since families may want to be better of than others. In any case Martin
Luther King Jr would not have put it better as he said, “I am convinced,
that if we must go through the right type of world revolution we as a
nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly
begin to shift from person-oriented (emphasis mine) society to
thing-oriented society...” Any prospects for any tomorrow? The end of
the tunnel is nowhere near...
reprinted from
GhanaWeb
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