The postcolonial period has witnessed a struggle
between African (indigenous) civilization and Western civilization. African is
still entangled in colonial legacies, she has not yet moved beyond colonial
pasts. A number of questions emerge from
this trajectory: did independence of the state from colonialism translate into
independence of the mind of an African? If independence of the state was the
answer to the colonial woes, how vague was the question? Did colonialism
corrupt us so much so that we are determined to alienate ourselves from our
cultural history and identity? Is this a case of colonial software (colonial
mindset) running indigenous hardware (native Africans)?
Nobody captures this African predicament than
Ali A. Mazrui who has
noted that the colonial mindset has stimulated “…the development of Western
tastes without Western skills; Western consumption patterns without Western
production techniques; urbanization without industrialization; secularization
(decline of religion) without scientification (the rise of science); and
capitalist greed without capitalist discipline.”
The story of post colonial Africa has been a
story of squandered self-determination and surrendered sovereignty, a tale of
liberated states being occupied by colonized minds. It is a narrative of
forgotten ancestry and eulogized westernization, alienation of indigenous
knowledge in pursuit of western knowledge paradigms. It is a contest between
Western and African civilizations, a case of cultural ambiguity substituting
native identity.
The continent of Africa has undergone three
form of colonialism. The first form ended at the advent of independence of
African states while the remaining two are still in full force:
The first form of colonialism was presided
over by colonial masters from Europe. This form of colonialism took a form of
spreading European civilization - Victorian morality to different corners of
the continent, and occupation of some territories. For the first time the
colonial master stepped on the African land, ruled over Africans of the soil
and blood and acquired native territories. This colonialism set the stage for
two other forms of colonialism. Therefore, one can argue that the subsequent
two forms of colonialism are an elongation of original colonialism.
The second form of colonialism has been
perpetuated and sustained by the Africans of the blood and soil. These Africans
see life through the lens of the former imperialists. They want to live like
Europeans on African soil. They distance themselves from their native cultural
identity. This is synonymous with indigenous new bottles containing colonial
wine. Even after decades after independence, the mindset of this breed of
native Africans is still under colonial servitude. The indigenous hardware is
being run by colonial software.
The third and final form of colonialism is
being applied and presided over by ex-colonizers in their respective countries.
This can be referred to as offshore colonialism, and is executed by proxy.
Under this form of colonialism, economic and political policies are imposed on
‘independent’ African states. These impositions feed into the strategic
geo-economic and political interests of the former colonizers and not the
native people of the continent. State institutions and systems are ran on
models and policies designed and imposed by the West through organisations such
as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Union, among others. The
imposition of neo-liberal economic policies on a number of African countries by
the World Bank and IMF in the 1980s and early 1990s gives a clear snapshot into
the taxonomy of this colonialism. This form of colonialism has been exacerbated
by the aid, humanitarian and charity industry. Political leaders and some
native elites are used as proxy agents in this post-colonial.
But
how did we get here? A number of factors
have converged to fashion this social, cultural, political and social trend. To
understand where we are we need to revisit history. During the colonial rule, Western
education was introduced; the school emerged as the centre for knowledge acquisition,
production and propagation. The colonialists knew that in order to colonize the
natives, they need to imprison and indoctrinate their intellect. The school
changed peoples’ perception of life. The school was eulogized as the only base
and source of knowledge. Nobody illustrates this eloquently that Mahmood
Mamdani in his book Politics and Class
Formation in Uganda. He posits thus:
“The political usefulness of
missionary education, it should be clear, stemmed from its dual nature: it was
technical as well as ideological, that it imparted skills such as reading,
writing, and arithmetics [sic] as well as values such as loyalty to the
existing order and discipline d self-sacrifice in the interest of that order.
This was not education, but training; not liberation, but enslavement. Its
purpose was not to educate a person to understand the objective limits to the
advancement of individual and collective welfare, but to train a person to
accept and even administer the limits in an ‘efficient, reliable and honesty’
way.”
With
school came the foreign language and education systems and models. Intellect and
academic excellence was determined by how good a person a foreign language.
Sadly, this mindset (colonial software) still exists being housed by some indigenous
hardware (native Africans). The school distanced the indigenes from their
families and communities. The rift between natives and their indigenous value,
knowledge and intellectual systems widened. Western oriented books, teachers,
subjects, education systems, procedures, pedagogies constituted the basis of
education. Consequently, tacit, cognitive, psycho-motor and affective
intelligences were all influenced by western education. Cultural identity was
eroded, cultural history lost. Colonial software was being developed to run
indigenous hardware. The road to colonization of the mind was paved.
As we have seen above, western education is
one of the aspects that have determined human existence. Second to education is
religion. Nothing in the history of African civilization has ever titled the social,
cultural and political dynamic than education and religion. Many people converge in schools and churches
than any other spaces or avenues or occasions in African communities. Whereas
education was introduced by colonialists to arrest the intellect, religion was
introduced to capture the faith of Africans indigenes. Indoctrination of the intellect
and faith completed the installation of colonial software (mindset). Schools
and churches acted as installation centers where colonial software was installed
into indigenous hardware (African natives). Like the Western school, the church
dragged, quite forcefully, indigenous people away from their indigenous
knowledge and ways of life. Worst still, the preachers, who were part of the
colonial scheme demonized indigenous knowledge. It was a gospel of indigenous
cultural defamation. The indigenous software inside the indigenous hardware was
crashed, to be replaced with colonial software. The bible, biblical scriptures
and dogmas formed the basic for this colonialism configuration.
Western theology and education situated
outside indigenous knowledge and cultural systems was always going to alienate
continental Africans from their lived existential realities. By constantly pursuing
new western oriented knowledge, native Africans were caught in a web of self
sabotage and self identity obliteration. But was an act of ingenuousness. An
amalgamation of the colonial and indigenous hardware would have been a better
option. Indigenous software was disregarded, the people lost track of its
anthropological, sociological and theological base.
Foreign
Language: A Component of neo-colonialism
In the article Language and the Rule of Law: Convergence and Divergence, Ali A. Mazrui observes that the official language of almost every
constitution south of the Sahara is European. Sub-Saharan constitutional law is
almost entirely Eurocentric in that sense. Every right, every civil liberty,
has to be interpreted in terms of its meaning in the relevant euro-colonial
language. But can legislation be rightly and justly interpreted using foreign
language as the magnifying glass? How does constitutionalism developed on the
benchmarks of foreign language serve the interests of the critical mass,
majority of whom are less educated? Is that constitutionalism just to all
(including those who cannot read and interpret it)? Within the context of
legislation, we again see indigenous hardware (African legal fraternity) being
ran by colonial software (Eurocentric legal language).
The story of language as a driver that has
facilitated and sustained neo-colonialism stretched beyond legal fraternity
that Mazrui posits. In Uganda, for example, English is the official language.
Gladly, it is not the national language. Because Uganda does not have a
national language, this has enabled local languages to survive, and
cross-tribal learning of languages by natives for trade and other social
cultural and political purposes.
In most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, foreign
languages are used within education systems and official work. Foreign
languages as a medium of communication (teaching and learning) in class and
lecture rooms concretize the installation of colonial software (colonial
mindset) and indoctrination of the native mind. This orientation prepares natives
to implement policies, programs and models developed by former colonizers (in their
respective foreign languages).
Post-colonialism,
globalization and the place of native Africans
The post-colonial and globalization era has been a period of continued colonialism.
This time it is not colonization of the state but the mind. The mindset of the
native Africans is under siege from within and without. The gods must be wondering
what happened to their descendants. The ancestors must confused about whether
this is the world that they set their descendants to inherit. The wave of
change is sweeping across the entire continent. This change is taking Africa
far away from her cultural and native history. The African is being
de-africanized. S/he is not European, neither is s/he American nor Asian, and
s/he is not sure whether s/he is still African.
But where does this leave native Africans?
There is a school of thought that believes that the colonial mindset has
globalized native Africans. That foreign culture and lifestyle that is
permeating the demographic walls of Africa has, after all, situated native
Africans at the centre of global enterprise. Yet, Africa is yet to claim her
place in the global arena. She is still at the periphery of the global enterprise.
In fact, the existence of the colonial mindset has prepared native Africans as global
consumers of what is produced by the key players in global market. Native
Africans are not neither global producers nor entrepreneurs.
In Uganda, for example, after 50 years of
political independence, material that is telecast on local television is
predominantly foreign, the leading newspapers are published in English;
classroom textbooks that are used for academic reference are foreign; most of
goods and services consumed are imported (foreign); models, policies, and
programs that run local institutions are foreign. The classroom, living room,
office, church, shopping store is de-africanised.
The advent of computer digitalization came
with hope and excitement that transformation of native Africans was on the
horizon. This excitement is slowly being extinguished by the inability of the
indigenous people to utilize digital technology for human innovation. Never in history of global computerization
has Africa ever invented any digital application that has influenced modern
civilization. Google, facebook, twitter, youtube, myspace, yahoo, etc are all
results of Western productivity. Even internet itself is a Western product. These
are products that indigenous Africans are happy and proud to consume. The
colonial software has successfully dragged the native African/indigenous
software into a club of global consumers.
Africa needs to revisit and redefine her
postcolonial logic. In indigenous knowledge, Africa has the treasure that can
leap her to social, economic, cultural and political excellence. The people of
Africa need to look inside before looking outside for economic, social and
political progression.
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