Society must work towards inculcating the noble idea of a progressive, decolonised African mind, writes Thabile Wonci.
I had the privilege of listening to Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s public lecture at Wits University last week under the theme “Secure the base, decolonise the mind”.
Ngugi is considered the founding father of decolonisation discourse. He is radical in thought and in action and all this can be traced back to his early years as a student activist and academic.
History has it on record that when there was a student protest at Nairobi University back in 1968, which led to many ring-leaders being expelled, Ngugi had apparently taken this struggle so much to heart that he resigned from the English Department in protest.
Unfortunately we can never talk about decolonisation without looking into the colonisation of Africa by the Western countries.
When the Western countries invaded Africa as colonisers, they had only one intention - to plunder African people of their wealth and cultural heritage.
It is against this background that Ngugi posed a striking question during his address: “After 50 years, have we regained our cultural and intellectual independence that we lost to colonisation?”
In fact, Adisa Ajamu calls this “intellectual colonialism”.
The truth about people who are cut off from their heritage and culture is that they become more easily manipulated and controlled than the people who are not. And, in the process, they lose a significant part of their culture and heritage, including its character.
Frantz Fanon argues that decolonisation can be described precisely by the words, “the last shall be first and the first last”, and that it must be an act of putting into practice these words.
Fanon goes on to suggest that, if the last shall be first, this will never happen without a murderous and decisive struggle between the two protagonists.
The reality that we can deduce from this is that, in order to realise a complete decolonised society, apart from clarity and unity in purpose, we must also be willing to bare the brunt of the consequences for embarking on such a programme of action.
With the West successfully colonising Africa, its heritage and culture, this paved the way to a successfully colonised African mind.
The Western world views and lifestyle choices started to become a norm among African people, hence Ngugi’s observation that the West “gave us their accents in exchange for our resources”, among other things.
The nicety and feel of sounding white and aspiring to whiteness became our overnight obsession as opposed to embarking on a revolutionised process of transforming Africa, its people and mind into a purposeful continent.
The founding father of decolonisation was quick to remind the audience that, in fact, “Africa has been the eternal donor to the world but because of the colonised mind, we’ve been made to believe that it is us who actually need the aid”.
This imposition of the Western posture among Africans seems to be prevalent among the Christian society and African intellectuals, including members of the ruling elite. Intellectuals and our political masters need to roll up their sleeves and tackle this call for decolonising the African mind head-on.
Nothing is stopping the intelligentsia, the political elite and professionals from playing a pivotal role or even leading the revolutionary programme of decolonising the African mind.
Instead we see this lot sitting comfortably on the sidelines.
It’s no exaggeration to suggest that in South Africa the decolonisation programme has largely been driven by university students under the banner of the #FeesMustFall movement. This progressive cult of young people has realised that the miseducation of the African child in our institutions of higher learning has led to the imprisonment of the African child in white belief systems and knowledge bases.
The students have realised this miseducation of the African child effectively restricts their range of thought as the education system effectively draws from the Western traditional norms.
Be that as it may, these African students have since lost patience with sitting in a mental prison, that is, a colonised university curriculum that has only one set of lenses, European lenses.
It should be everyone’s duty in the country and African continent to play a critical role in deepening the decolonisation agenda of the African mind and university curriculum. It is also our duty as responsible citizens to protect these defenceless university students who are driving this agenda from the brutal, trigger-happy police whose aggressiveness towards students’ protests leaves a lot to be desired.
We must recognise and accept the effective role that the students’ movement ought to play in shaping the political climate of the country. This also means that our society must play a role in securing ways and means to ensure that South African and Africa raise credible and progressive leaders of tomorrow.
These leaders of tomorrow must never act for their own selfish and personal interest but must put the interest of society, Africa and its people in the forefront at all times.
We find ourselves at such a crucial epoch as a nation. Young people are calling for the decolonisation of the university system and the realisation of economic freedom in our lifetime.
Our education system should be directed at full development of the human personality and strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
In addition, our education system must liberate an African child from the shackles of colonial miseducation by developing an African-centred curriculum with one sole intent of recovering the long-lost traditional African knowledge base.
And this is in line with Professor Molefi Asante’s assertion that “the task of the university is to explain what it is that we understand about ourselves, and in African terms this means to assist students in processing information.
“People can understand things they cannot explain; it is the true reason that we seek methods to interpret the legacies of our ancestors.”
However, students need to realise that in order to preserve this political philosophy, the decolonsation agenda, as a way of life, they need to build a highly disciplined revolutionary machine.
Media reports that Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s talk at UCT was disrupted by a small group of students, where one told him to “ask the oppressors to leave the venue before his address”, are unfortunate.
With all the merits and demerits of this call, in reality, it was misdirected, attention-seeking and was a knee-jerk reaction by ill-disciplined forces.
Ngugi’s overall message on how we should secure the base and decolonise the African mind resonates with every thinking person in our country.
He lived and walked the talk in his quest to perpetrate the decolonisation agenda in his native Kenya.
True to his word, he lived earnestly by Fanon’s caution of willingness to bear the consequences of the decolonisation struggle when he was detained in 1977 for a year without trial.
Lastly, all freedom-seeking Africans must take a firm stance and fight the colonial thinking that is ravaging their minds.
Young people, academics, the political elite and society must be galvanised to be part of the revolution and help inculcate the noble idea of a progressive, decolonised African mind.
This is the ideal that Ngugi wa Thiong’o lived all his life for. By so doing, we will be honouring him while he’s still alive!
* Wonci is an industry professional within the financial services sector.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.