LET YOUR PAST SHAPE YOUR FUTURE
Michael Ewetuga
A child that is destined to sleep on the floor if placed on the bed will fall off.
A bastard points to his father’s house with his left finger.
Yoruba’s proverbs
I believe the above quoted proverbs are apposite to what I intend to discuss hereunder.
Whether or not the reason why Africa was regarded as a dark continent goes beyond the
above quoted definition is neither here nor there. As a young undergraduate I wondered
if there were ideas, religions, thoughts, customs, that were indigenous to Africa that are
appropriate for university level education aside the languages of course. Take
philosophy and other areas of human endeavors for example.
Philosophical thoughts cannot be limited to the great thinkers in history because
everyone thinks but not everyone is capable of complex thoughts. While some people
are good at mundane thoughts some are preoccupied with astral and celestial thoughts
wondering how the world came to be, trying to answer that question, strengthening or
questioning the existence of God.
At the matriculation ceremony, welcoming us to the University community at Ile-Ife, the
Vice Chancellor then, Prof. Osuntokun, advised us not to just pass through the University
but to let the University pass through us. That was my intention anyway because some
incidents between my high school and university days opened my eyes to so many
issues and I wanted some of the questions in my mind answered. I listened
passionately to Dr. Dipo Fashina (Jingo) and my REL 101 lecturer, a Reverend
gentleman whose name I can’t readily remember. Despite the fact that he was a Rev. he
told us at the beginning of the class that he will venture to be as objective as he could
because his job was not to convert us to Christianity, that was not what he was paid to
do, his job was to put the various religions side by side in order to give us the opportunity
of making informed decisions. I heard about a lot of religions that I had no knowledge
about irrespective of the fact that I was not a JAMBITE in the real sense of the word since
I took similar classes at Lagos State University.
My philosophy class was really interesting and provocative, PHI 101. I was always eager
to attend the classes; I believe it held on Mondays and Wednesday. My energetic
lecturer, Dr. Fashina, who never seemed to be tired, did justice to the course. Rumor
had it on campus that he chose not to start a family, in order words, he had no child and
some even claim he wasn’t having sex. If he wasn’t perhaps that will account for his
boundless energy, I hope to ask him that question when next I visit Nigeria, as if it is any
business of mine.
We were subjected to the thoughts of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, René Descartes, and a
whole lot of others. The church also produced philosophers like St. Augustine of Hippo,
St. Thomas Aquinas and some others
. The church got tired of killing those who logically opposed its stand on issues and
decided to meet them logic for logic. If the church had its way most of the technological
breakthrough that make life easier for us today will not exist.
I fell in love with philosophy and envied philosophy students who in turn envied me
because majority of them ended up in philosophy due to inability to make the cut off
marks for law, there were few who read philosophy because of their love for philosophy. I
loved philosophy so much that I spent more time reading philosophy than I spent
reading law. When I came across Lord Denning’s judgments I increased time spent on
law a bit more because of the apparent justice in most of his judgments, he probably
would have arrived at a different conclusion from the Court of Appeal’s in Atiku’s case.
Despite his well thought out judgments anyway philosophy continued to be first in my
quest for knowledge.
In the course of my researches, I read a lot of books that said Socrates never wrote, the
thoughts credited to Socrates were allegedly written by Plato. I also read somewhere
that Socrates, like Jesus Christ, was born by a virgin, an assertion that is directly in
conflict with the law of nature and biology, as a matter of fact it was said that virgins
having children is not an uncommon phenomenon before Christ, Deganawidah,
the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque amongst others were said to have virgin
mothers.
Before I started studying philosophy, there were some questions agitating my mind
about some of the stories in the bible, but you dare not ask the pastors, you were
supposed to just listen and believe, no question asked. In my philosophical class, I later
learned that most of the thinkers then were killed because they were accused of
polluting the mind of the youths. That was the reason for Socrates death and if one
studies the death of Jesus it more or less amounts to conviction for similar allegation,
calling himself Christ and preaching what then was regarded by the Jews as
unconventional, in order words, he committed what then was regarded as heresies.
What we were taught in those classes is not the purpose of this present but absence of
Philosophers and/or philosophical thoughts indigenous to Africa. We were taught about
Greeks, Europeans but nothing was said about African Philosophy or should I say
African philosophers. In REL. 101, the lecturer told us about some African Traditional
Religions and how most of them were roundly condemned without any effort to
understand them. It was also taught us that most of the critics of the African religions
never even observed the practitioners worship in other to arrive at an informed
conclusion about the religious believes. The preconceived conclusion seemed to be “if it
was African, nothing good could come out of it”. If we were taught about African
Philosophers then whatever it was they told us about them did not make any impression
on me, which means it was probably unimpressive if at all.
It is a common trend for those who believe they are inferior to others to want to be like
those they regard as being superior to them, they look up to these superiors for
guidance, they regard this “superiors” as role models. In the case of blacks it is not just
an inferiority complex, it is a slave mentality. The mentality to want to be like the slave
owners, the masters, to talk like them, to walk like them, to be them. That mentality is the
reason why we denied our heritage, our philosophy, our civilization, our identity. That is
why we are not developed, that is why we shall continue to live in darkness and that is
why our continent will continue to be regarded as a dark continent and we ourselves not
better than animals. See below, Lord Lugard’s impression about the black man:
"In character and temperament the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless,
excitable person. Lacking in self control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous,
and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond
of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewelry. His thoughts are concentrated
on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for
the future, or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the
European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals’ placidity and want of desire
to rise beyond the State he has reached. Through the ages the African appears to have
evolved no organized religious creed, and though some tribes appear to believe in a
deity, the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more
often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural"
Philosophy is nothing but thoughts, ways of life, view points, ideas and what have you.
The question is did Africa not produce philosophers, people who wondered about life
and how it came to be? People who wondered about God and life after death? Were
Africans so dumb that they did not proffer some solutions to diseases in other words no
medical philosophy; were black men so dumb that they have no idea about military
strategy? Were they so dumb that they have no idea about architecture, which will explain
why “they lived on trees”? Were they so dumb that they had no idea about medicine, how
did they deliver babies etc?
What about traditional dresses, what about traditional shoes, what about traditional
fashion generally? Did the white men teach us to wear clothes? What about nutrition,
they taught us to eat too? What about the order that is inherent in some African traditional
system of government before the white man’s invasion? What about the mud houses?
What about the checks and balances inherent in Oyo Kingdom and similar kingdoms all
over Africa? How come they shared legislative, executive and judicial functions if they
have no sense of justice?
Was it dark when the white man came? The answer is NO. According to what we were
taught, Lord Lugard himself in administering the protectorates now known as Nigeria
met sophisticated system of governments in place, systems of government that he was
so impressed with that he chose not to disrupt. He made use of the system for the
purposes of administering the different components of Nigeria via a method referred to
as “Indirect Rule”. He adopted the same method of administration in some other African
countries with similar systems and also in some Asia countries that he administered on
behalf of the British Empire.
The old Africans philosophized which can be deducted from their proverbs but the fools
who succeeded them did not have enough brain to appreciate their philosophy. They
had medical practices which probably were on the same level as the primitive medicine
of the Europeans in the dark ages and which perhaps would have attained some
sophistication today if their successors had built on it instead of jettisoning it for another
man’s medicine. They had laws, they had lawyers and judges and they were spiritual
because they had religions.
The fools are their children who are too lazy to study their fathers’ way and so readily
agreed with the outsiders that their fathers were primitive and foolish; the fools are their
children who cannot identify with their heritage because they allowed outsiders to build a
sense of worthlessness in them. To Africans, like the Europeans everything African is
primitive. Anytime our ancestors are mentioned we don’t want to hear about it. African
account of how the world came to be is foolish to us but then we are eagerly ready to
take hook, line and sinker anything that is told us by the Europeans no matter how stupid
it sounds.
What if our fathers were right? What if they saw the truth? What if the way they
worshipped God is the way God instructed them to Worship him? To every community
God revealed himself in a way that the community will understand him. Why are we so
foreign in our thinking and in our thoughts, why are the Jews prophets and Arabic
prophets our prophets? Why are our philosophers Greek and why are our gods not like
us. Why do we hate ourselves so much?
Our slave mentality is the reason Africa is backward and will continue to be because we
have nothing to give to the world, nothing to raise their curiosity or elicit their
appreciation. We are imitators. Why should the Jews want to know about us when we
are practicing their religion? Why should the Arabs want to know about us when we are
trying so much to speak their language? Why should the Europeans want to know about
us when we try our best to speak, eat and talk like them? Why are we so blind as not to
see that the reason any race is respected is because they have their own believes and
cultures. That is why the Chinese, Indians Mexicans and so on are respected, they dare
to be different. We are so ashamed of our heritage we don’t even want our children to
speak our language, which from all indications might become extinct one day. We are a
race of followers, that is all we do.
Until we learn to respect ourselves we will not be respected, until we start to believe in
ourselves we will not be believed, until we sit down to find out who we really are and
what our purpose is on this earth we will forever appear lost. Until that day that Africans
bring forth the civilization that we gleefully condemned we shall always be aliens even in
our own continent.
Michael Ewetuga
A child that is destined to sleep on the floor if placed on the bed will fall off.
A bastard points to his father’s house with his left finger.
Yoruba’s proverbs
I believe the above quoted proverbs are apposite to what I intend to discuss hereunder.
Whether or not the reason why Africa was regarded as a dark continent goes beyond the
above quoted definition is neither here nor there. As a young undergraduate I wondered
if there were ideas, religions, thoughts, customs, that were indigenous to Africa that are
appropriate for university level education aside the languages of course. Take
philosophy and other areas of human endeavors for example.
Philosophical thoughts cannot be limited to the great thinkers in history because
everyone thinks but not everyone is capable of complex thoughts. While some people
are good at mundane thoughts some are preoccupied with astral and celestial thoughts
wondering how the world came to be, trying to answer that question, strengthening or
questioning the existence of God.
At the matriculation ceremony, welcoming us to the University community at Ile-Ife, the
Vice Chancellor then, Prof. Osuntokun, advised us not to just pass through the University
but to let the University pass through us. That was my intention anyway because some
incidents between my high school and university days opened my eyes to so many
issues and I wanted some of the questions in my mind answered. I listened
passionately to Dr. Dipo Fashina (Jingo) and my REL 101 lecturer, a Reverend
gentleman whose name I can’t readily remember. Despite the fact that he was a Rev. he
told us at the beginning of the class that he will venture to be as objective as he could
because his job was not to convert us to Christianity, that was not what he was paid to
do, his job was to put the various religions side by side in order to give us the opportunity
of making informed decisions. I heard about a lot of religions that I had no knowledge
about irrespective of the fact that I was not a JAMBITE in the real sense of the word since
I took similar classes at Lagos State University.
My philosophy class was really interesting and provocative, PHI 101. I was always eager
to attend the classes; I believe it held on Mondays and Wednesday. My energetic
lecturer, Dr. Fashina, who never seemed to be tired, did justice to the course. Rumor
had it on campus that he chose not to start a family, in order words, he had no child and
some even claim he wasn’t having sex. If he wasn’t perhaps that will account for his
boundless energy, I hope to ask him that question when next I visit Nigeria, as if it is any
business of mine.
We were subjected to the thoughts of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, René Descartes, and a
whole lot of others. The church also produced philosophers like St. Augustine of Hippo,
St. Thomas Aquinas and some others
. The church got tired of killing those who logically opposed its stand on issues and
decided to meet them logic for logic. If the church had its way most of the technological
breakthrough that make life easier for us today will not exist.
I fell in love with philosophy and envied philosophy students who in turn envied me
because majority of them ended up in philosophy due to inability to make the cut off
marks for law, there were few who read philosophy because of their love for philosophy. I
loved philosophy so much that I spent more time reading philosophy than I spent
reading law. When I came across Lord Denning’s judgments I increased time spent on
law a bit more because of the apparent justice in most of his judgments, he probably
would have arrived at a different conclusion from the Court of Appeal’s in Atiku’s case.
Despite his well thought out judgments anyway philosophy continued to be first in my
quest for knowledge.
In the course of my researches, I read a lot of books that said Socrates never wrote, the
thoughts credited to Socrates were allegedly written by Plato. I also read somewhere
that Socrates, like Jesus Christ, was born by a virgin, an assertion that is directly in
conflict with the law of nature and biology, as a matter of fact it was said that virgins
having children is not an uncommon phenomenon before Christ, Deganawidah,
the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque amongst others were said to have virgin
mothers.
Before I started studying philosophy, there were some questions agitating my mind
about some of the stories in the bible, but you dare not ask the pastors, you were
supposed to just listen and believe, no question asked. In my philosophical class, I later
learned that most of the thinkers then were killed because they were accused of
polluting the mind of the youths. That was the reason for Socrates death and if one
studies the death of Jesus it more or less amounts to conviction for similar allegation,
calling himself Christ and preaching what then was regarded by the Jews as
unconventional, in order words, he committed what then was regarded as heresies.
What we were taught in those classes is not the purpose of this present but absence of
Philosophers and/or philosophical thoughts indigenous to Africa. We were taught about
Greeks, Europeans but nothing was said about African Philosophy or should I say
African philosophers. In REL. 101, the lecturer told us about some African Traditional
Religions and how most of them were roundly condemned without any effort to
understand them. It was also taught us that most of the critics of the African religions
never even observed the practitioners worship in other to arrive at an informed
conclusion about the religious believes. The preconceived conclusion seemed to be “if it
was African, nothing good could come out of it”. If we were taught about African
Philosophers then whatever it was they told us about them did not make any impression
on me, which means it was probably unimpressive if at all.
It is a common trend for those who believe they are inferior to others to want to be like
those they regard as being superior to them, they look up to these superiors for
guidance, they regard this “superiors” as role models. In the case of blacks it is not just
an inferiority complex, it is a slave mentality. The mentality to want to be like the slave
owners, the masters, to talk like them, to walk like them, to be them. That mentality is the
reason why we denied our heritage, our philosophy, our civilization, our identity. That is
why we are not developed, that is why we shall continue to live in darkness and that is
why our continent will continue to be regarded as a dark continent and we ourselves not
better than animals. See below, Lord Lugard’s impression about the black man:
"In character and temperament the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless,
excitable person. Lacking in self control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous,
and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond
of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewelry. His thoughts are concentrated
on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for
the future, or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the
European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals’ placidity and want of desire
to rise beyond the State he has reached. Through the ages the African appears to have
evolved no organized religious creed, and though some tribes appear to believe in a
deity, the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more
often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural"
Philosophy is nothing but thoughts, ways of life, view points, ideas and what have you.
The question is did Africa not produce philosophers, people who wondered about life
and how it came to be? People who wondered about God and life after death? Were
Africans so dumb that they did not proffer some solutions to diseases in other words no
medical philosophy; were black men so dumb that they have no idea about military
strategy? Were they so dumb that they have no idea about architecture, which will explain
why “they lived on trees”? Were they so dumb that they had no idea about medicine, how
did they deliver babies etc?
What about traditional dresses, what about traditional shoes, what about traditional
fashion generally? Did the white men teach us to wear clothes? What about nutrition,
they taught us to eat too? What about the order that is inherent in some African traditional
system of government before the white man’s invasion? What about the mud houses?
What about the checks and balances inherent in Oyo Kingdom and similar kingdoms all
over Africa? How come they shared legislative, executive and judicial functions if they
have no sense of justice?
Was it dark when the white man came? The answer is NO. According to what we were
taught, Lord Lugard himself in administering the protectorates now known as Nigeria
met sophisticated system of governments in place, systems of government that he was
so impressed with that he chose not to disrupt. He made use of the system for the
purposes of administering the different components of Nigeria via a method referred to
as “Indirect Rule”. He adopted the same method of administration in some other African
countries with similar systems and also in some Asia countries that he administered on
behalf of the British Empire.
The old Africans philosophized which can be deducted from their proverbs but the fools
who succeeded them did not have enough brain to appreciate their philosophy. They
had medical practices which probably were on the same level as the primitive medicine
of the Europeans in the dark ages and which perhaps would have attained some
sophistication today if their successors had built on it instead of jettisoning it for another
man’s medicine. They had laws, they had lawyers and judges and they were spiritual
because they had religions.
The fools are their children who are too lazy to study their fathers’ way and so readily
agreed with the outsiders that their fathers were primitive and foolish; the fools are their
children who cannot identify with their heritage because they allowed outsiders to build a
sense of worthlessness in them. To Africans, like the Europeans everything African is
primitive. Anytime our ancestors are mentioned we don’t want to hear about it. African
account of how the world came to be is foolish to us but then we are eagerly ready to
take hook, line and sinker anything that is told us by the Europeans no matter how stupid
it sounds.
What if our fathers were right? What if they saw the truth? What if the way they
worshipped God is the way God instructed them to Worship him? To every community
God revealed himself in a way that the community will understand him. Why are we so
foreign in our thinking and in our thoughts, why are the Jews prophets and Arabic
prophets our prophets? Why are our philosophers Greek and why are our gods not like
us. Why do we hate ourselves so much?
Our slave mentality is the reason Africa is backward and will continue to be because we
have nothing to give to the world, nothing to raise their curiosity or elicit their
appreciation. We are imitators. Why should the Jews want to know about us when we
are practicing their religion? Why should the Arabs want to know about us when we are
trying so much to speak their language? Why should the Europeans want to know about
us when we try our best to speak, eat and talk like them? Why are we so blind as not to
see that the reason any race is respected is because they have their own believes and
cultures. That is why the Chinese, Indians Mexicans and so on are respected, they dare
to be different. We are so ashamed of our heritage we don’t even want our children to
speak our language, which from all indications might become extinct one day. We are a
race of followers, that is all we do.
Until we learn to respect ourselves we will not be respected, until we start to believe in
ourselves we will not be believed, until we sit down to find out who we really are and
what our purpose is on this earth we will forever appear lost. Until that day that Africans
bring forth the civilization that we gleefully condemned we shall always be aliens even in
our own continent.
minorities interests
We build your website
for less and ensure you
don't throw money away
We save you money
We build your website
for less and ensure you
don't throw money away
We save you money
Minorities Interests
Knowledge, Culture, Social
Meet And Share
Knowledge, Culture, Social
Meet And Share
