RE-ORIENTING THE AFRICAN MIND

Onward Chartered Soldiers, on to heathen lands,

Prayer books in your pockets, rifles in your hands.
Take the glorious tidings where trade can be done,
Spread the peaceful gospel with a Maxim gun.
Tell the wretched natives, sinful are their hearts,
Turn their heathen temples into spirit marts.
And if to your teaching they will not succumb,
Give them another sermon with the Maxim gun.
When the Ten Commandments they quite understand,
You their Chief must hocus, and annex their land;
And if they misguided call to account,
Give them another sermon with a Maxim from the Mount.
- The anthem of Cecil Rhodess mercenaries in Matabeleland in 1893
Fellow Africans, sisters and brothers, hotep!
Please be rest assured, that your past was a royal heritage. Yes! The antecedents of what we
call this modern age today, was what our indefatigable ancestors left behind as a firm
foundation, to which the West arbitrarily erected a structure Babylon, and termed it Western
Civilisation.
The latter is the neon sign we hapless Africans, have tagged in our errant minds, as the
direction we must follow...Hamlins piped song, children that we have become, moths on a
kamikaze flight to so-called light...whilst disparaging our profound past because ours was not of
gun boat diplomacy...ours was not of the rat -tat- tat of a Maxim gun...of conquest and
despoliation...ours was not of the imposition by force of our belief systems on vast swathes of
lands on the globe...ours was not of the thief that came to a home and seized and raped by the
barrel of a gun, hitherto peaceful folk, and became their lord and master. Civilisation they term it,
barbarity more like.
Who amongst you brethren, has not heard of or read the documented history of the singular
greatness of ancient Mali, Kemet (Egypt), Kush, Punt, Nubia, Songhai, Ghana, Benin, Kanem
Bornu, Kano, Zimbabwe, Oyo, Igbo Ukwu, Timbuktu, Garamantes, etc? Civilising forces, them
all, in what they achieved and above all, what they left behind, be it in scrolls, hieroglyphics,
hieratic writings, ideograms, technology, pharmacology, sculptures, paintings, symbols, epics,
proverbs, language skills, diverse culinary fare, inspired music, dances and above all
organizational skills, having created a distinct sense of community our much vaunted
communalism, the vestiges of which we still experience today in bits and pieces, here and there
on the continent.

In fact, at an even earlier time, at mankinds dawn, ions ago, our African ancestors discovered
and created the basic fixtures of humanity which we take for granted today. They were the
original scientists and not a few may have died as a result of experimentation that went wrong.
The renowned late British historian, Basil Davidson, in his book, The African Genius', was
unequivocal about his stance on our ancestors ingenuity which we have forsaken. He states
this succinctly:
Without suggesting that the achievements of the ancientAfricans were the same as those of
the Greeks, it may bereasonable to think that they were in one great aspect superior. They
really did evolve much out of little or out ofnothing at all. If one should praise the Greek spirit
assplendidly creative and inventive, one may perhaps express some admiration for an African
spirit which wasfar less favourably placed for the elaboration of the arts of life, but none the less
made this continent supply theneeds of man. Where, after all, lay the precedent for thesocial
and ideological structures built by the Africans, sovarious and resilient, so intricately held
together, so mucha skilful interweaving of the possible and the desirable? Where did these
systems draw their sap and vigourexcept from populations who evolved them out of theirown
creativeness? Even allowing for the distantprecedents of Egypt, the peoples who settled Africa
hadsurely less to go upon than the ancestors of Pericles. The balance needs adjusting here.
Aside from a treasure trove of discoveries, our ancestors left behind a compass a humane
and sustainable direction a sacramental pathway for us, their progeny - to follow, despite our
diverse nationalities. They left a holy grail for us to assimilate and build on, which ensured some
continuity despite the profound disruptions by the West and their Arabian cousins. If not, these
conquering hordes would not have found strong, able bodied folk, to cart off over vast seas and
deserts, for well fed, toned bodies, are a distinct sign of enablement...culinary options...of I dare
say, civilization. The underfed indentured slaves of Europe and the Middle East, could not cope
under the extreme conditions created by a mercantilist and wicked elite which sought an
alternative in Africa to build their societies. For the naysayers who are quick to chant: BRAWN!
Thats all Africans are good for, please be reminded that this continent was surfeit with great
personalities before and after the Common Era.
Pray, which one of you has not read or heard about these great African personalities; Ramses,
Yaa Asantewa, Imhotep, Shango, Chaka, Oba Esigie, Osei Tutu, Okomfu Anokye, Saint
Augustine, Hannibal, Amina, Mansa Musa, Sundiata, Asamoah Nkwante, Bai Burei, Nefertiti,
Candace, etc?
Yet, despite the foregoing evidence of a stellar past, it would not be remiss to state that Africans
are today, faced with a profound crisis of consciousness the lack thereof...Despite the glitter
of the seeming success of the one percentile on the continent certificates, cars, private jets,
etc, the majority of Africans live in abject poverty (Please check all the UN indices or stats on
development, despite the Western hyped AFRICA RISING tripe). Ayi Kwei Armahs concern
about this dismal situation certainly holds true, in this intriguing conversation of fictional
characters in his book, Osiris Rising:
How real is the difference, in this case?

Plenty real. Liberation is the African problem. The elite is interested in something else, belly
level.
Like money.
Like money. Like power. The magic ability to fly high above famine, inflation, civil war. The
charmed life while the continent burns. Money. Politics. The bureaucratic trip. Local
directorships in multinational corporations. Diplomatic posts. Lucrative positions in international
organizations to fight illiteracy, disease, whatever. Money traps, such jobs are called. Thats
where the African elite soul is headed. So you get one member who chalks up an exciting
academic record and then decides the intelligent life is not the hunt for dollars and privilege but
the struggle to liberate the continent from criminals. Look at it any way you want, that fellow is
making a terrible criticism of his contemporaries as they claw their way up their bureaucratic
grease poles.
The purpose of Shkr as a platform is essentially one of service to the African at home and in
the Diaspora. We share the same concern of our revered thinker Ayi Kwei Armah, on the African
condition. Clearly, We, Africans, need a new content and context reframing of our minds. As we
say in local parlance, what we are looking for in Sokoto is already in our Shokoto. Let us prove
to the world, that we are worthy of our great ancestors. Africans have the advantage of history,
of a great past...let us utilize it in coming up with original solutions to the challenges we face in
all spheres of our life from politics to economics, and much more, our belief systems. Let us
proffer African answers to our challenges. Let us again become our brothers keepers. Let us
take to heart, Lenrie Peters poem:
It is time for reckoning Africa
Time for taking stock
Never mind New York, America
Its ours; is here, and running short...
Africa! Africa! A cow without a tail will be mocked by little flies.

OBanya