Friday, January 26, 2018
Monday, January 22, 2018
IT'S
ENOUGH!
(A Bird's
eye view on the contemporary youth)
Kingsley Anagolu
University of Bonn, Germany
ENTRY POINT
Oh yes my
dear friend, have the courage to be satisfied lest you suffer from
constipation. Or do you really not know that it demands a lot of courage to be
satisfied? It does! Like all children, when I was one, I remember on several
occasions I had to be advised by my mother, father or sibling to stop eating
when I would rather continue because of the deliciousness of the food. Despite
the fact that my stomach was filled to breaking point, I continued eating and
as I think of it now, I laugh because, then, on each occasion, after the meal,
I always needed Andrews Lever Salt or kerosene to free myself and to save me
from the probability of a blasting tummy. It is called over-feeding. Not that I
did not know when I was satisfied, No! I always knew because nature made it so.
There is a limit to everything. But I never had that courage to stop myself
because I used to think I would never see such delicious meal again, whether
delicious or not I can't remember again now. I was wrong as a lie. Today, when
I see even more delicious food in its overflowing variety around me and not
even having the appetite to eat, I laugh all the more and reminisce on those
early days. Had I known that food would never finish from this world, had I
known then that I was injuring my health, had I known then that even better
food unknown to me exists, and that food was only for me to live, I would have
had the courage always to respect myself when I was satisfied. But I didn't.
And so many children, if not all today still behave as such, eating themselves
to stupor till they begin to cry due to over-filled tummy. Did it happen to you
as a kid? Now, still look around you, you may still see such children. Tell
them 'it is enough', lest they die.
ONE STEP AHEAD
Now, am no
more a kid and perhaps you are no more. I have come to discover that so many
things needed the courage to put a hold on them lest they hold us to perpetual
ransom and push us to negative reckoning. Nowadays I project myself into my old
age when I would be around 90 or 100 years and I think to myself: 'what are the
things I do now that I might have the cause in that old age to look back and
laugh at because of its folly. I think I know those things but because am so
beclouded now, because I think I could make a point by going ahead in doing
them, just because am more interested in satisfying peoples expectations of me
and my present want, I run beyond my speed and wouldn't have the courage to
stop. So with every other person. This article is interested in the world of
the youths and what forms their major driving force.
Of course
the magma at the background of the volcanic eruption we see in the life of the
youth today is the quest for success. But as soon as I have mentioned this factor
of success, have I equally come to notice that the concept of success in itself
is begging to be understood even for once. What is success and who is a
successful person? We don't intend to go into definitions here but 'success'
today means different things to different people. Hence, 'he is a successful
politician, for instance, if he is a Governor, the President, a senator, or
occupying one of the different known political positions, even irrespective of
how he made it there, irrespective of how many lives he might have claimed,
irrespective of how many feet he might have stepped on. But in so far as he is
there, he is a success. No please! He is not a success! He is a successful
student when he has passed his exams irrespective of the known and unknown exam
malpractices he/she might have indulged in. No please! He is not a successful
student. He is a successful businessman because he has wealth unending, with
fleets of cars and innumerable houses in choice places of the major cities,
irrespective of missing persons around his personality and his dastard
ritualistic deep seatedness, irrespective of his dark night of a soul. No! He
is not successful. Indeed, these people are stark failures if they continue
that way. And so today, success is judged in terms of what is immediately perceived-result
orientation, position and money, in terms of physical positioning judged within
the measure of what one has especially money, because money gives people the
position. But maybe I have to disappoint you here by telling you that, that is
far from what success is. Fortunately or unfortunately, success is not a point
reached just like failure is not a point reached. Success is not a point or an
end, it is a process and this process includes the 'howness' this process or progression
is followed. Success is more defined by the content of ones approach towards a
certain pursuit and holding unto that process till the very end. When the
process is noble, there is success on its way but when this process is dotted
and punctuated by negativity, failure takes over. So success or failure are not
a place or a status where people reach like reaching the top of mountain
Everest, it is more of the way to this place and as such one can even be the
president and be a failure in life. One can be very poor and yet very
successful.
Back to the
youth once more. Their basic success drive needs to be oriented accordingly and
adequately repositioned to fall into the proper descriptions of success or
failure. Let them know that honest effort is more desirable than result and
satisfaction comes from here, that I know I am making honest effort of which,
of course, good result is a natural end thereof. Important truth here is that
the result of such effort, if it is in terms of money, is better managed and
preserved than foul money which most at times disappears through the same way
they arrived. But our youths need to know all these things.
BUT HOW?
Definitely
something is wrong somewhere. Somehow, but it is only somehow, I am tempted to
excuse the youths from their radicalism and banal approach to issues especially
the pursuit of money. This is because they are working with the kind of
equipment the society supplied them. Everybody is a child of his environment,
the philosopher would say and so, let us apportion blames accordingly:
a) THE
FAMILY: somebody said, 'The society is man writ large.' This includes that
there could be no society without the elemental individuals that make it up.
These individuals come from the basic foundation of the society, namely, the
Family. Have our fathers and mothers and relatives done sufficiently enough to
point the right direction to their children and wards or have they done so
little or nothing at all in this right direction? Or are they even directly responsible
as a matter of positive action of theirs in pushing their children-the youths
in a wrong direction? As a matter of fact, every indication points to the fact
that parents are guilty as charged, guilty as death. The family system today is
on death toll, in fact, it has collapsed. Discord and disunity is avalanche.
The whole process has been thrown out of gear and the young people have ended
up with very questionable value system and moral codes. These discordant
families care less about their children, not on the right education that could
regulate their social conscience, not on the good old values of integrity and
righteousness, not on the virtues of hard work, not on sincerity, not on
nobility. These misguided young people out of naivety and oblivion therefore
wreck havoc on themselves and society, resulting in their mortality and
societal decay. Of course a fish thrown out of water needs to struggle lest it
dies and hence the struggle for survival kicks off-any which way. Nowadays,
parents even expect more than desirable from their children in terms of money,
both males and females and the result is unabated decadence in morality as our
ladies take to the streets while the boys hit the roads, day and night,
waylaying innocent wayfarers. Or they take to the neo-money making methods of
today: ritual in its most bizarre lunatic unthinkable, sacrificing father,
mother, siblings and at times parts of their body. Today we get to come across
or hear tales of young people, males and females alike who go crazy all of a sudden
because they could not meet up with the demand of certain devious money making
directives. Our youths, let it be known, are searching for identity and when
they don't get it from their family, they turn 360 degrees.
b) THE
SOCIETY: the youth mirrors the various ramifications of the society within
which he lives. Here, in the society, everything seems like children in the
market square playing hide and seek. Nobody hears anybody and nobody discovers
anybody because the whole atmosphere is charged up in noise and totally peopled
up with men and women of different intentions. No co-ordination and there is no
meeting point. The meaning is that the society is not ready for the youth and
as such, they (the youth) make out meaning out of what they think this society
is telling them. It's like a politician trying to interpret the weather. Of
course if he tells you it will not rain, better go and buy a very big umbrella.
Today, what has taking centre stage is money talk and ostentacity. Money
phenomenon has worldwide dominated discussions, in the print and electronic
Media: dailies and Television, Radio and others available are filled with hypes
about how to make a certain million in one week or two. Or the Internet? Just a
click to check your mail and you see the pop up, 'you are one click away
from 1 Million USD,' if not more. And the rest of the Media, the story is
all the same, and our youths fall one million times for these hooplas, over and
over again. The whole culture is adrift with myths about money and its power of
influence as such that it has become an ear worm nay a huge day to day issue in
the lives of most people. Many spend a majority of their waking hours making
money, spending money, worrying about money, fighting over money, and trying to
protect their money. Igbo wisdom says that when the mother Goat chews its food,
its young ones observe and learn. Most of the things people do are what they
have learnt one way or the other and the result is always self evident. Most of
our computer internet centres today are riddled with the youth-in search of the
furtherance of the theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein? Or searching for
how to remedy the perilous Ozone layer? Or how to discover the cure to the
immune deficiency syndrome of our age?-No! They are there in the internet, day
and night, waiting for the next one minute click to the doorstep of Mr. Bill
Gates. What a shame! And the society makes the ground so favourable. Value is
no more placed on these youths and capital investment on this age group is
thrown over board. The result is that Cyber Fraudsterism and Yahoo-yahooism
become a reactionary choice. Money is a very powerful driving force and dynamo
and due to the inexperience and illusion of these young minds, their weak
psychological components could easily be swayed into positions contrary to
noble interests. Not seldom, young people are enticed en mass to adopt these
social and cultural value systems alien to their genuine interests and crime
rolls on top of one another.
Well, it is
these breakdown of social institutions and the consequent complexity thereof
that have led to these current unprecedented widespread disaffection in youths,
and these complexities are often overlooked by all concerned while being
presented in distorted and simplistic terms or are wholly misrepresented.
Hence, the people who are supposed to be on the disapproving forefront of this
issue are really on the approving side because of what they said or what they
refused to say. Ironically, this same society turns to complain-'our sons and
daughters have no direction-they say. Comrade President O P Tambo says here
that we don't deserve a future. What a shame!
c.
THE
YOUTH: not to be
left out in this blame distribution are the youths themselves because they are
the direct players. While it is true that many a time their choice are so
limited and it's like they are ambushed by their environment, yet, it is still
left to be said that whatever we do in this life, that we have chosen to do, be
that as it may. This is a truth beyond discussion, beyond all reasons and
excuses. The old age wisdom of dragging a horse to the river applies here. Only
that the horse cannot be forced to drink unless it decides. True as the night
following the day is that often times, not most of the times, the world of the
youth is so negatively backed up-parent's expectations, society and all that,
yet, it is left for the one concerned to chose, which direction he wants to
steer his ship. Always, the last blame or praise goes to a person who committed
an act. One who is caught as an armed robber receives the judgement despite his
godfather if he has any. That I am hungry and goes to steal is understandable
that hunger pushed me but where lies my power of decision not to go by way of
stealing because it is not a one way traffic that whoever is hungry must steal.
Solutions are there only that many times, we are too lazy, too impatient and
lack the courage to go the right way. The right way is always hard and
demanding no doubt but it is worth it. That the youths today are an easy prey
to the errors of the society is because the society has seen the easy
disposition of this youth to it. Not everybody is involved in evil. Though the
percentage might be minimal, nevertheless, does it mean that this minimal
percentage doesn't belong to this society? It is a matter of choice and
decision, what one wants to do. Very many no
more want the hard way. There are little or no more dreams and the little
percentage that still have dreams lack the courage to pursue it. Everybody is
on the speed lane to economic independence and belongingness in order to
satisfy one expectation or the other, external or internal. So the
youths are as guilty as charged.
EXIT
(Alls
well ends well)
Perhaps
there could be a meeting point, an agreement, a resolution, in all of this. We
hope so. There is nothing wrong with money or making it. In fact, there is
something wrong with not having it because without it, it's hard to do
anything. It only becomes dangerous when its pursuit is an end. When we develop
a love relationship with it, it gives birth to untold evils: 'for the love of
money is the root of all evil: which some coveted after, they have erred from
the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (cf 1 Tim. 6:10 ). At this point, it can never be
enough again. But as a means, money can be enough when we know what we need it
for. Does this sound strange? Not at all. First of all is the regulation of our
needs so that our means could run in direct proportion to what we need. At this
point is an agreement of our needs and our means. The consequence is satisfaction
because then we will see that excess of it just like over feeding brings
unnecessary constipation and economic suffocation. At this point is the moment
of diminishing return and counter productivity. Without those necessary
streamlining of what we need money for, for sure, we would run into monetary
overdrive where satisfaction and contentment becomes illogical. The basic
equipment for the kind of economic maturity talked about here is education
which prepares for meaningful career wisdom of knowing when to apply the
breaks.
Our
generation seems to have forgotten so many things to our peril. We seem to have
forgotten that slow and steady wins the race, that he who is in a hurry worries
a lot, and that he who worries cannot change anything by doing so. Jesus the
Christ has something to that effect: 'therefore I say unto you, worry not for
your life, what you shall eat or drink or wear ......because life is worth more
than all of these' (Mtt.6:25ff). This is because there is an eternal wisdom
responsible for creation. All we have to do is seeking the Kingdom of God
Social osmosis: the case of brain drain and human capital wastage – the Nigerian nay African experience.
Social osmosis: the case of brain drain and human capital wastage – the Nigerian nay African
experience.
Kingsley Anagolu
University of Bonn, Germany
Introit
“…no be all deez corrupt ministers and useless
hungry goaties for the glass house wey no go give the boys dia deserved match
bonus, now dem tink say de boys no go aluta for dia pepper? We sabi how to
blame our boiz, that dem no de play well, dis, dat, bla bla bla, but we sabi
say gud soup na moni make am. How dem go de play well when dem no de get dia
due. Europe no de joke wit dia players and dem de deliver. Abeg my broda no
just de worry ur head die I de comot hia oo, make I kukuma go do better tin
joor.” Rubbish!
As I slowly turned, I saw those two black men,
discussing. At first, I was not so sure which country they were coming from
because it is a common sight, indeed, a very common sight to see black people,
scattered all over Europe, America and Asia, well, everywhere, speaking pidgin english. But when they started
discussing football – mentioning “Glass house”, and putting it in the context
of an ongoing confederation cup in Brazil, exactly on the day Nigeria played against
Tahiti, with almost all the Nigerian players out of form and will-power, I told
my friend that those two black men behind us at that train station in Germany were
Nigerians.
It was
unmistaken, not only because they were discussing the confederation cup in the
context of the “big boys” at the “Glass House”, too, because Nigeria was the
only African country participating in that tournament owing to the fact that it
was a continent-representative tournament. But again because the second man
spoke in a clear non-broken English, and when he did speak, I confirmed my
suspicion of their nationality – NIGERIANS! English is not English! Having
lived in Europe for some time, I have come to realize that the Nigerian English
is quite different in tonal cadence and movement, in timbre, emphasis and
frequency, from those of other African countries due to the Nigerians high sociological
propinquity and receptive disposition to other world cultures.
I went to the men to greet them. They were in their
mid-50s: “good day sirs”, actually I did not know whether to speak in English
or pidgin, so I added “I de hail una oo.”
They looked at me with suspicion. Of course because it´s not only Nigerians
that speak pidgin – though again there, theirs is quite different. The first
man was trying to ascertain my identity when McDavidson, my friend – with whom
I was with – sold me out for 30 pieces of silver: “Bia nwokem”, he shouted, “train
don de comot oo, agam ahafukwa gi ebea, imakwa na anyi ejego late.” I hated
him for that because I had wanted to do some brain-guess-work with the men.
Caught pants down, the man with me asked me without much ado: “Nwokem olee ije, unu abukwanu ndi ebe?”
“Enugu
state!”
“Ebe na Enugu?”
„Awgu!“
„Ebe na Awgu?“
„Obeagu!“
„Chineke mee,
the world is so microscopic and handy,“ said the man. How he said the
“microscopic and handy” revealed a man of education and competence, and I got
interested in him right away. McDavidson and his train can go to hell as long
as I care. The man and I got discussing. Mr. Bernard as I later discovered, as
that was his name, comes from Awgu local Govt. Area and his friend from Udi.
One thing interesting about Bernard is that when he speaks pidgin English, he does it with flawlessness, like the Warri boys,
and when he speaks Igbo language it was so with competence and mastery, that
the late Tony Ubesie (Igbo novel writer) would have been glad he was the person
who reviewed his “Isi akwu dara na ala.”
It was even more attracting when this man speaks English language, he does it with
grace and with effortless impeccability that one would think he is an ex
foreign minister of external affairs in the UK. Interesting! Who could these
people be?
On a more
serious note…
These men – Bernard and his friend – who were they and
where were they going? As I later learnt, they were going to check their goods
consignment, which was ready for shipment to Nigeria, from the Hamburg wharf –
northern Germany. That is what they do professionally. Business men. They go
about town, collecting used articles ranging from second value clothes to thrown
away Televisions, Radios, Sofas, car parts, used cars, pressing irons, all sorts
of household floatsams and jetsams, articles abandoned, thrown away or no more
needed by the owners. They package and ship these stuffs from Europe back to
Nigeria, where they are sold at relative high prices, with the people who
bought them, feeling different from others because they now use “foreign materials”
in their houses. Bernard and his friend go periodically to a place called in
Germany “Floh-markt”, where 3rd, 4th and 5th
valued articles are sold at cents and small euros. They package and ship these
“foreign” goods to Nigeria, making huge profits out of them, and Nigerian
consumers, how do they feel about these? Of course on top of the world, that
they use “obodo oyibo” materials.
However, this write up is not about those article of goods nor those who use
them. It is rather about Bernard, his friend and tens of thousands like them
scattered all over the wide world outside the shores of Nigeria.
I did come to realize from curiosity on further
inquiry, due to his high level of linguistic competence and sound knowledge of
people and events, that Mr. Bernard, is something more than meet the eye, only that
he is but a fall out and consequence of a catastrophic Nigerian polity. Maybe a
little profile of these human specimen will make this point clearer:
Name: ….., Bernard (surname because of discretion
withheld)
High school: College of Immaculate Conception, Enugu
University: University of Nigeria, Nsukka/University
of Nigeria, Enugu campus
Majored in: Medicine, obstetrics and gynecology
Graduated: First class honours.
And his friend?
Name:……, Emmanuel (surname withheld)
High school: College of Immaculate Conception, Enugu
University: University of Benin
Majored in: Education
Graduated: 2nd Class honours.
Now, by fate, they became business partners in Europe
– importers and exporters, with branches – all over the world because they gave
me their complimentary cards. I call them “Professionals turned into
scavengers!” The word-phrase that came into my head at the end of my encounter
with Mr. Bernard and his friend Emmanuel was “Brain drain.” This is the large-scale emigration of a large group
of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include
two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals. In terms of
countries, the reasons may be social environment (in source countries: lack of
opportunities, political instability or oppression, economic depression, health
risks, corruption, etc.; in host countries: rich opportunities, political
stability and freedom, developed economy, better living conditions, etc.). In
terms of individual reasons, there are family influences (overseas relatives)
and personal preferences: preference for exploring, ambition for an improved
career, etc. Although the term originally referred to technology workers
leaving a nation, the meaning has broadened into: "the departure of
educated or professional people from one country, economic sector, or field for
another, usually for better pay or living conditions." Brain drain is
usually regarded as an economic cost, since emigrants usually take with them
the fraction of value of their training sponsored by the government or other
organizations. It is a parallel of capital flight, which refers to the same
movement of financial capital. Brain drain is often associated with de-skilling
of emigrants in their country of destination, while their country of emigration
experiences the draining of skilled individuals. De-skilling because they
never, in most cases, get a job correspondent to their level of education and
competence.
As I was ruminating over this brain drain syndrome,
another phenomenon occurred to me, a phenomenon we learnt in High school,
slowly, it started forming in my head. It is of course – “the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a partially permeable
membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that
tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides, or simply put,
the movement of soluble from a region of lower concentration to the region of
higher concentration through a semi permeable membrane – Osmosis. It describes a motion from region of lower concentration
to that of a higher concentration. This movement is occasioned by a factor
known as osmotic pressure which increases the viscosity of elemental molecules,
enabling them to acquire a high permeability tendency once the membrane or
medium is even semi-permeable. But why all these - brain drain and osmosis, and
what do they have to do with us here? Important question though.
Now, why would
and how could a medical doctor and a professional educationist migrate away
from their homeland and seek for settlement/asylum elsewhere? Why would and how
could they so easily relapse from professionalism to common roadside and street
scavengers? Why would and how could they not care again whether they applied to
use what they learnt in school or not? Why would and how could they not think
about improving their own homeland with their competence and know-how? Why
would and how could they so run away from their natural and cultural
socio-economic soil? Well I did not ask them these because I know the answer –
every right thinking person does: Societal osmotic pressure was on them. It leads
to migration! A pressure that has heavily impacted so negatively on the lives
of the people, draining away their life´s greenery. And now a land which ought
to hold a green coloration of hope is dried up and saturated with hopelessness
and lack of direction. The comfort concentration has drastically reduced to low
pressure. Of course, people seek for this lacking greenery (green pastures)
elsewhere, no matter under what condition or regardless of what is it they do
in a foreign land, ranging from truck or cab driving to public loo washing, “akata” servicing, hotel or hospital
mopping, drug dealing, car washing – private and public, street sweeping, trash
can carrying, etc. They have to chase their rainbows anyhow, and this must have
to be in a foreign country, mostly Europe and America, but then Asia also. Most
of the times, they find nothing and because of the dominant background
mentality of “My bros dey outside, nwam
no obodo oyibo”, they lack the courage to make a prodigal return back home.
It crystalizes down therefore to “professional spectatorship”; heavy African
economists, medical doctors, engineers, educationists, politicians, strategists,
intellectuals, putting their professionalism on hold – in search of “greener
pastures” and usually, they are seriously underused in their land of sojourn,
either because their competence is in question or from the fact that they are foreigners.
Finding nothing, they relapse to leading a vegetative life in a foreign land.
I met a man
from Ghana in Switzerland who called himself “The Nemesis.” I did not ask him
why he calls himself that. Whatever that means, only he and his god know. He
owns an African shop, where all sorts of African food items and condiments are
sold. For him, he is successful, very successful indeed. He has a white lady of
a wife with two hi-breed children. He now thinks in terms of Okro, Crayfish, Ogbono, Okporoko, fresh Fish,
Azu ndu, Ugba, Pepper, Maggi, Rice
Abakaliki, Beans, mashed Potatoes, and all other conceivable African foods.
He makes every effort to keep a smiling face to friends and foes, men and
women, elders and kids alike who come by his shop in order to retain them as
customers – good attitude if you ask me – but the shock was that this man was an
english university Lecturer before he decided to make it big in the foreign
land – greener pasture. He actually got a scholarship (or so he thought) to
further his academics but on arrival to the Swiss, he discovered that it was
all a farce. The scholarship could not work out again and going back home for
him was utterly out of the question. He stayed back, sort for other
scholarships but to no avail. Soon, he was running out of residence permit and
money, then he did the lunatic unthinkable. He married a white lady, got
himself permanent residence permit and citizenship and decided then, not to go
into academics again, but to “business”: african shop business. Whenever I see
him, what occurs to me is always – wasted brain! I always feel the urge to take
up a “bulala” and whip the living
daylight out of him. But how many will I whip because he is just one example
among many? Am still waiting for a nice day to give him that whipping, to whip
him back to consciousness. He deserves it.
But how did all these begin? Indeed
why all these madness?
In 1972, Walter
Rodney wrote the famous timeless classic of Anti-imperialist literature – “How
Europe underdeveloped Africa”. At
the core is the concept of development and contemporary Marxism as the main
theoretical underpinning. Both concept and theory is utilized to explore,
evaluate and explain the historical exploitation and the damage done to African
development. He denounces the global capitalist system early in the literature
by reinforcing the conclusion that “African
development is possible only on the basis of a radical break with the
international capitalist system,” (Rodney, 1973: Preface).
From a historical materialist perspective, Rodney
delivers the argument that both European power politics and European economic
exploitation and oppression led to the impoverishment of African societies. The
main subject matter analyzed in the book has a rich socio-historical context.
In the chapter headings, he raised some important issues bordering on some questions on development, how Africa developed before
the coming of the Europeans up to the 15th Century,
Africa’s contribution to European capitalist development –the pre-colonial period,
Europe and the roots of African under development – to 1885, Africa’s
contribution to the capitalist development of Europe – the colonial period and colonialism
as a system for under developing Africa. Within these contexts, political
economy, popular struggles, technology, power, politics and culture are
analyzed, in addition to other socio-historical contexts. There are myriads of
issues of pre-colonial African contributions to the European capitalist system
on the underdevelopment of Africa and the development of Europe into an
imperialist; issues focusing on how the Europeans started the underdevelopment
of Africa at the Berlin conference of 1885. Under the leadership of Chairman
Otto Von Bismark of Germany, the partition of Africa was done in Germany.
Following this revelation, Rodney introduces the exploited and oppressed
slave trade era and how the slave trade led to the decline of economic and
technological development in Africa prior to and during colonization.
Furthermore, Rodney discusses African contribution to
the European capitalist system during the colonial period and then he made a
summary of the various strategies utilized for underdevelopment during
colonization. Moreover, Rodney provides strategies to combat underdevelopment
in Africa at the close of the book´s chapter. The main theory used for analysis
is historical materialism, or Marxism. Historical materialists believe power
and private ownership based in economic and material production must be
abandoned because it leads to the concentration of power among the capitalists,
or the elites. It also leads to alienation, the creation of ideology, class
structure and social inequality. Karl Marx is the founding father of historical
materialism, for his theory would greatly influence Frederick Engels, Antonio
Gramsci, V.I. Lenin, W.E.B. Dubois and Walter Rodney. Marx believes man
possesses an unlimited capacity to develop and reach his highest potential
under social circumstances that are equal (Zeitlin, 2001:140). He believes any
social circumstance that represses man’s creative capabilities is virtually
harmful and should not be (Zeitlin, 2001:140). As a historical materialist,
Walter Rodney focuses on colonialism, imperialism and liberation struggles.
With a Marxist perspective, he states that “power is the ultimate determinant
in human society, being basic to the relations within any group and between
groups. It implies the ability to defend one’s interests and if necessary to
impose ones will by any means available. In relations between peoples, the
question of power determines maneuverability in bargaining, the extent to which
a people survive as a physical and cultural entity. When one society finds
itself forced to relinquish its power entirely, that is a form of
underdevelopment,” (Rodney, 1973: Ch.6:115). Marx openly expresses his contempt
for the industrial capital system. Using the labor theory of value, Marx
analyzed the relationship between wage labor and productive capital. He argued
that “the profit of the capitalist was based on the exploitation of the laborer,”
(Ritzer, 2004: 25). Marx views industrial capital and wage labour as
interdependent entities. In the industrial capital system, wages (labour power)
are essentially treated as a priced commodity dictated by the supply and demand
of all commodities. He thus concludes that the more the wage labour produces
for the elites, the more the elites capitalize, therefore, the greater the
social distinction between the two emerges.
Rodney utilizes this theory throughout the book. For
example, in chapter three: Africa’s Contribution to European Capitalist
Development—the Pre-Colonial Period, Rodney lifts up Europe’s assumption of
power to make decisions within the international trading system (Rodney, 1973: Ch.3:3). He illustrates that “international law,” which
regulated the conduct of nations on the high seas was simply European law and
Africans did not participate in its conception and Africans were really
exploited, for the law identified them as transportable merchandise (Rodney,
1973:Ch.3:3). These victims known as transportable merchandise came to be known
as slaves. Rodney notes that Europeans used the superiority of their ships and
cannon to gain control of the world’s waterways, commencing in the 15th
century. This ownership and power eventually leads to domination of the seas,
transforming several parts of Africa and Asia into economic satellites (Rodney,
1973: Ch.3:3). Rodney highlights colonialism as not simply a system of
exploitation, but a system whose essential purpose was to return the profits to
the “mother country” (Rodney, 1973:Ch.5:1). Earlier in the work he states that
“the exploitation of land and labour is essential for human social advance, but
only on the assumption that the product is made available within the area where
the exploitation takes place,”(Rodney, 1973: Ch.5:1). However, in Africa, this
did not occur. Yet, there was ongoing expatriation of surplus produced by
African labour out of African resources. Yet, “it meant the development of
Europe as part of the same dialectical process in which Africa was
underdeveloped” (Rodney, 1973: Ch.5:1). Rodney discusses also Africa’s contribution
to the economy and beliefs of early capitalist Europe. He mentions that Karl
Marx was “the bitterest critic of capitalism,” and what Europe benefited from what
was obtained through the relentless exploitation and oppression of Africans and
American Indians (Rodney, 1973:Ch.3:8). In addition, he states that Marx noted
that “the discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement
and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the turning of Africa
into a commercial warrant for the hunting of black skins signalized the “rosy” dawn
of the era of capitalist production”(Rodney, 1973: Ch.3:8). Now that is deep!
The use of historical materialism brings to the analysis that social change is
revolutionary (anti-capitalist) and part of the solution. As noted earlier,
Rodney states, “African development is
possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist
system”. The agents of this change are specifically Africans who are
conscious of the international capitalist system that has underdeveloped
Africa. Agents of change include other movement builders (receptive to all — race/ethnicity,
class and gender) who work for the overthrow and transformation of a system
that has exploited and oppressed African society. In this timeless classic, Walter
Rodney reveals a hidden truth on the underdevelopment of Africa by Europeans.
Commenting…
The foregone section of this write up is meant to throw a little light over
the osmotic pressure that systematically drained the energy level concentration
of Africa, rendering it too low in terms of economy, politics and education. The
aforementioned trans-Atlantic slave trade so much eroded the African human
capital, sucking to empty level the African human soul and that was the
beginning of the brain drain and induced osmotic motion. Consequently Africa
was politically impoverished, in mentality impoverished, economically
impoverished and in terms of education and society – impoverished. This process
is unfortunately not over yet. For though the Atlantic slavery or the "African Holocaust" or "Holocaust
of Enslavement" as Marimba Ani and
Maulana Karenga would call it has
academically stopped, they continue nevertheless in a new and more deadly wave
of human capital flight, where it is seen that almost every African family
wants to leave the shores of their land. The foreign embassies are daily filled
to brim while Africa is today considered to be barren, unproductive,
underdeveloped, corrupt and visionless. True to fact, the external seduction is
infinite and the erosion continues with many no more being carried on the slave
master´s transporting ships but walk willingly through the deserts of Arab and
Sahara just to cross over, or through other means. And many die in the process.
What a shame!
Unfortunately though, as earlier mentioned, those who arrive only arrive in
the foreign land to play a second fiddle as “indentured servants” or “apprentices for life”, with a great percentage of the ladies prostituting away their lives while
another great percentage in the men folk waste away in prison, where most of
them will never see the light of the day no more.
Back to the root
From the Nigerian angle, one
has to take note once more that the above mentioned Berlin conference of 1885
gave impetus to the west to launch a political assault on the African soil. The
resultant colonialism of divide and rule or assimilation as the case may be
gave rise to the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates which
resulted to the contraption called Nigeria we know today and due to the
negativities of this unholy union, everyone is still on the run because the
fire of non-cohesion is raging. Due to the high level of poverty in the land,
those who can afford to leave the land are the elites or those being exploited
b them, leaving behind a people enmeshed in a culture of consumerism and
acceptance while it is a constant struggle for survival. The west knows this
because they have become the host countries, playing patronage to the
“refugees”, both elite refugees and non-elite refugees. The west (host
countries) is highly concentrated with and in rich opportunities, political stability and freedom,
developed economy, better living conditions, etc, and the attraction is high, and
because of this if I may turn the other side of the coin, Nigerian well
meaning, academically well placed, techno and electro-geniuses who find
themselves outside have no more desire and drive to return back to the root.
They would rather stay behind enriching their host countries while the Nigerian
speed race down the drain is on the increase. The timeless truth remains that they
will ever be second class citizens, playing the second fiddle but playing the
second fiddle brings no one a step further though. The likes of Bernard, his
friend Emmanuel and the Ghanaian “the Nemesis” must do a soul search, not for
their sake alone but for the cause of a whole African history. And as Walter
Rodney noted, it remains true for all times that African development is
possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist
system. This will
guarantee the energy balance between Africa and the west, which though what it promises is huge but remains only the
sound of the bitter cola in the ear. The taste remains for the eater to tell.
Peace!
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