What is a society without a heroic dimension?

 

Joseph Campbell argues that when we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.

 In the present day we fall prey to historical scholarship from the Orient and the West for simple reasons. We argue with our inner selves and with our peers that Africa’s history is not documented and hence is untraceable. We quickly jump into the bandwagon of Oriental and Western historical events and personalities and draw lessons from them all the time. Ghenghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, among others prime our imaginations of the genius of warfare and heroic deeds as we gourd over the generals of time gone by. I too am a result, a product, of this line of thought, at least I have been for far too long. The truth is, it is not a crime nor is it a representation of any inferior quality in us. My only contention is that by so doing we have disallowed ourselves and the other cultures of the world the opportunity to learn about the generals and great leaders of our beloved Continent. We have locked the skulls of our fallen soldiers in the long forgotten unmarked graves of the times gone by.
East Africa, just like other parts of Africa, has had a fair share of heroic deeds that were accomplished by simple individuals who dared imagine a calling higher than their mortal existence. They dared do what other men would not dare dream. I speak of Kinjekitile Ngwale, Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga (Chief Mkwawa), Omukama Kabalega, and Koitalel arap Samoei. These four men have a narrative sufficient to rewrite the perceptions of East Africa and the character of resistance in colonial Africa. Mukwavinyika or Mkwawa means conqueror of many lands. In truth Mkwawa did not so much as conquer many lands as he did conquer the fears of the Hehe people with courage and conquer the German pride and brutality with conviction. He was a conqueror who made it impossible for the Germans to rule over his people. When he was first engaged in the field of battle, he summarily defeated a 300 strong battalion of German soldiers with guns. However, when he got surrounded, he also denied them any retreat or surrender, choosing instead to shoot himself. He then became the Only African Chief whose skull made it to the Treaty of Versailles. “ARTICLE 246. Within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, … Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty’s Government the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa which was removed from the Protectorate of German East Africa and taken to Germany.” Then came Kinjekitile who argued with his followers that a spirit called Hongo had summoned him to help the Tanganyika communities to overcome their differences and meet the common enemy in the battlefield. The common misconception is that he lied to his followers that the “holy water” would protect them from German bullets. However, in reality, Kinjekitile reminded them of how much unity could achieve. He died a month after the rebellion began in German prisons and his skull was not to be seen again. Come over to Kenya and you meet the famed warrior tribe of the 19th century who never shied away from adversity and in spite of being a small tribe of few tens of thousands at the time, established its foothold in the expansive Rift Valley. Among them rose a Man who fulfilled the prophecy of Kimnyole that the community must resist the black snake (Railway line) when it comes. Resist they did, and in the attempts to follow the diplomatic path, he was gunned down, and again his skull taken. The Talai council of elders still remembers him, but the Great Nation of Kenya has placed his contribution as a foot note in the colonial narrative.
If we thought that maybe they were small and thus much less was even known about them, then we might consider looking at Omukama Kabalega. It is true, Kabalega was no saint and wanted power as much as every ambitious man. In fact, if Machiavelli were to use a man’s life to benchmark his writings, Kabalega was the perfect Prince in Machiavellian political thought. However, today, not a street in Uganda is named after him, honors he received from Iddi Amin were rescinded and the only acclaim he got was from the Museveni government in 2009. This is the acclaim for a man who chose resistance and was taken to exile and survived it for the love of his people. Historically, Kabalega died in Jinja, close to the border of his Kingdom when he came from exile in Seychelles. He died a defeated man, but in the historical narrative of colonialism in Uganda, no one resisted as fierce as he did. His resistance led to the death of over 1.8 million subjects, in fact the destruction of population was so complete that the British argued for some time that the tribe called Bunyoro was wiped out during the colonial wars.
Why the past? Why visit it now? My message is simple, and I do apologize if I had to bring all this up to communicate it. Heroic deeds are many, but the word “Hero” is not a noun, it’s a verb. Anybody can own it, use it, believe in it, and inspire generations with it. When you read through Chief Mkwawa, Kinjekitile, Kabalega, and Koitalel, one simple fact comes to your mind, they were the face of Africa then and they never betrayed their calling. Today we betray our calling because of idiosyncrasies that keep us from focusing on the Africa of the future. The challenges are different and so must be the weapons, but the courage to follow our convictions need no oriental or western superhero to teach us. We must always remember that history has tried and failed to forget them, because they belong in our future, not our past.

 The African Context

There has been a constant fear of history repeating itself in the continent due to the unpleasant post-colonial Africa’s human rights record. This is because human rights have been the basis for evaluating the future progress of the continent. A United States of Africa which the continent’s megalomaniac rulers pledged in 1963 is a broken promise a half-century later. Recalling the seemingly hopeless situation, one commentator observed that “like Nero’s Rome, African leaders fiddled while the edifice called “Africa” was engulfed in conflagrations. Increasing political repression, denial of political choice, restrictions of freedom of association, and other human rights violations met with murmurs of dissent from within the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Constitutional governments were routinely overthrown in many African countries, while opponents of autocratic regimes were imprisoned or banished and, in some cases, physically eliminated.”

It is widely acknowledged that Africa’s integration efforts have thus far failed to bear satisfactory fruit. While other regions have successfully used their integration mechanisms to improve their economic welfare, Africa lags behind with respect to GDP growth, per capita income, capital inflows and general living standards and quality of life. This is a problem across most of the continent, in spite of the existence of policy plans and grand visions. The African continent today has no comparable equal in the global family of nations and continents. This is well-evident in the collective continental history from the 1990s and 2013. For instance;

•     In 2009, in Nigeria, the insurgence of religious intolerance and rise of conflict at oil mining regions has seen an aggregate of no less than 200,000 people in the last two years alone.
•     In Egypt, before 2009, at least 444,000 people had lost their lives due to political agitation and curtailing of human rights by the government. With the rise of the Arab revolution, the reported death toll ranged between 250,000 and 1 million dead, injured or displaced in the revolution. 
•       In Kenya, in the post-election violence that ensued following disputed general election results saw the displacement of over 500,000 people and the death of at least 2,000 people between December 2007 and February 2008; and the loss and damage of property of unknown value.
•     From 1997, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, begun a civil strife that is yet to show any signs of abating; spilling refugees into neighbouring nations
•   In 1994, negative ethnicity led to death, displacement and loss of livelihoods for hundreds of thousands-including whole populations- in Rwanda. 
•    In 1992, civil war in Mozambique led to displacements, riots and death of over 500,000 people.
•    In 1991, a civil strife begun in Somalia that by 2013 had claimed no less than 6 million lives, displaced twice the dead, and divided the country along tribal lines, leading to mistrust and continued instability.

These are just but examples of conflicts that have dimed the African star since the advent of colonialism in the continent.

Meanwhile there are no less than 200 organizations in the continent that list regional integration and conflict prevention, peace and peaceful coexistence, cultural preservation and total African unity as programs in their list of activities. In view of the fact that the plans that were articulated by the first generation of the post-colonial leaders failed to materialise, what gives force to the new found optimism that characterise today’s proponents of Africa’s integration? Could there have been something fundamentally wrong with the initial casting of this vision that today’s Africa can successfully rectify, so that Africa can be set on a promising developmental trajectory? This begs the explanation as to whether the current efforts in place are yielding any good, and if so, how much? If not, then why not?

What is the continent missing?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in
everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Nelson Madiba Mandela, you have tought us how and shown us the way. Our spirits are stronger and ready to take on the race to transform Africa. We shall not tire doing this, which we have dedicated our lives to. Thank you. May your soul rest in peace great father.

The founders and substratum of the organization (WICI-Africa) in their attempts to understand the core issues underlying the African quest for unity and peaceful co-existence, realized the need for a truly unity-oriented and well-founded strategy and procrustean approach to the questions that begs the explanation as to whether the current efforts in place for regional integration and conflict prevention, peace and peaceful coexistence, cultural preservation and total African unity are yielding any good, and if so, how much? If not, then why not? What is the continent missing?
We believe Africa has a dream; the dream of unity;the dream of oneness; where all Africans, both on the Africa continent and in the Diaspora, will share not merely a common history, but a common destiny, a destiny to be reached by all Africans leaving none behind. These were and have been the dream of Africa all this period. Those have been the dreams of our forefathers who shared their dignity, interest and blood to fight for an independent Africa. They fought with all their effort so that they could be free and their successors will not suffer the humiliation of slavery and colonialism which left a trail of venom, fatality and mental anguish. The residual effects of these harmful enterprises are difficult, if not impossible to ignore. A United Africa remains a constant theme- a great dream cherished from the earliest days of Pan-Africanism.