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Development in a Cultural Void

Daily Champion (Lagos)
Akinwunmi Isola
OPINION
24 July 2007

[Continued from last Wednesday]

The problems of cultural conservation in Africa are many. First, we cannot rely on our present class of political leaders to lead us back to our culture because they would like to retain their privileged position conferred on them by the colonial administrative legacy and by a readiness to collaborate with western powers on economic matters.

Second, our traditional rulers, with should be in the vanguard of the safeguarding are the worst offenders against culture. Many of them now turn their palaces into Christian revival centres where they hold weekly vigils. They make open declarations against African culture and they organize public destruction of shrines! They have become virtual slaves to neo-Pentecostal priests.

Third, the present generation of parents, who should normally socialize the children into the culture, cannot perform that function, because it lacks the competence. Fathers can no longer tell folktales and mothers can no longer sing traditional lullabies. At every ceremony now. Be it funeral or marriage, even at sporting events, the ubiquitous songs are Christian religious like: "O se o, Jesu." (Thank you Jesus) Appropriate traditional songs for such occasions have been forgotten. Now there is hardly any solid culture left because the long neglect of culture by the elite has taken it toll. Disillusioned, the abandoned masses have started imitating the alienated elite who always take their models of behaviour in speech and dress and taste in food from masters abroad. Even the illiterates in the rural areas now possess respectable repertoires of English words and phrases with which they spice their speeches in the local language. Cancerous code mixing!

Fourth, globalization has changed the world. Foreign radio and television channels overwhelm African youths with glamorous garbage. The result is a total disdain for all aspects of Africa culture. English remains the dominant language of the internet and African languages are currently in no position to compete. Really, according to Rieks Smeets,

"The viability of a language is determined first and foremost by the general attitude of its speakers with respect to their traditional culture which their language is considered one the of the most important elements Language endangerment arises in situations of contact between groups A difference in technological know-how may lead to a sense of inferiority in the less highly developed group, which may then be inclined to relinquish its culture, including its language, in favour of that of the more highly developed group."

That is precisely what is happening to African languages in the world today.

Fifth, Christians, especially of the neo-Pentecostal movement, the born-again, ate redoubtable enemies of African culture. They appear to be dangerous victims of globalization. They prefer to speak English with the American accent, using American type of gospel music. Even when they pray in Yoruba, they say Amen! In English! They ensnare their congregation by preaching the fashionable "gospel of prosperity," invading radio and television channels, and:

To advertise a controversial miracle they blow a thousand trumpets.

They relentlessly attack African traditional religion with all the other aspects of the culture, asking members to change their African names and making them reject their family Oriki. They have gone ahead to engage in a cynical interpretation of history by insisting that the Yoruba are not children of Oduduwa but children of Abraham! They do not believe that a good Christian can fully embrace the African culture. They are doing incalculable damage by turning the younger generation away from their cultural heritage.

Some thought on religion

Religion has so rapidly become such an important weapon of social control in Nigeria. The nature of religion makes it a volatile weapon against African culture especially foreign religions that can, on occasion, be anathema to logical thinking in the hands of evangelists.

One verse, in an Odu, a chapter of the Ifa Corpus, Irete-Ogbe or Irentegbe, says about religion:

Religion is about heaven

Heaven is about the unknown

The unknown creates fear

Fear causes spiritual torment

The spiritual tormented seeks solution in religion

We should note that, normally, whenever there is fear there is bound to be hatred. But the fear in religion, because it is of the unknown, the unprovable, it invokes only total surrender. By faith, priests as evangelists must be believed and obeyed, never contradicted by the congregation. This situation encourages many dervishes, illiterate men of God, to say many things about African cultures that are factually very inaccurate. This goes on in churches every day and massively every Sunday. The result is the imposition of foreign culture on Africans and the active rejection of African culture because religion itself is largely culture-bound.

In this regard there have been different views about the right place of African traditional project of safeguarding our culture. There are two schools of thought. The first school supports a holistic approach, that puts African traditional religion at the centre of the safeguarding. Ulli Bieir and Wole Soyinka are the leading scholars in this first school. What they are saying in summary is that if you leave out the religion, you are left with a deformed culture. Therefore safeguarders themselves must espouses African traditional religion.

The second school of thought sees religions as an important aspect of culture that must be respected but not necessarily espoused. In other words, this group is saying that an African can be Christian or Moslem and still take all other aspects of African culture very seriously indeed. This seems to be the more popular view among the educated elite who care about African culture. It looks like the necessary first step in the journey back to their own culture.

What we can do

Let me frankly admit that, right now, I do not know what we can do to our political leaders and traditional rulers who have declared open wars against African future. Perhaps a more rewarding approach is trying to see what we can do to ourselves as important members of the educated elite. To whom much is given, much is expected.

There is a Yoruba proverb that says "Eni ti a waa wo, kii woran" literally, active performers in a spectacle do not themselves stand by as onlookers. Members of this kind of audience are expected to be actively involved in the project of cultural safeguarding precisely because, as discussed earlier, sustainable development has a cultural dimension.

Let us consider the language question for example. First, we must all start speaking our local languages at home and each time occasion demands it. We have to struggle to get out of the pervasive code-mixing. It is not going to be easy. But I think Prof. J.F Ade-Ajayi's approach is very useful. He said that the important thing is to take a decision to speak Yoruba on every appropriate occasion. Initial inadequacies and embarrassments must be ignored. Your decision will force you to think of appropriate Yoruba words for many things. It will make you search for the words you cannot find in your head. Your progress after one or two years will surprise you.

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm