Jakkals Prys Sy Eie Stert
I had never seen such a big book. It was thicker than the Bible. The Oxford dictionary I sometimes used as a doorstop was thin in comparison to the tome lying on the display table at the front of the Exclusive Bookshop store.
Western Civilization and Its Achievements, or something akin to that, was the title of the book.
I took a cursory glance at the blurb at the back of the book and then inspected the table of contents.
I was disappointed to find no chapter dealing with the discovery of where the universe starts and where it ends.
I had told myself, if I found such a chapter, I would rush out of the shop, hug and kiss the first white man I met, shake his hand and say: “My broer, jy is ah real genius.”
But no, I did not find a single reference to such a momentous discovery, and was not happy. On the other hand, however, if there was somebody who could tell us where the universe starts and ends, I would say to myself: “So what? Who cares?” Nobody cares except perhaps one Bullard and those of his ilk.
These are the western chauvinists who believe that Western civilisation is God’s gift to mankind, especially in Africa, for which Africans should be eternally grateful.
But the truth is, many of the inventions and ways of the West are detrimental to everybody and have brought only misery and mayhem: To mention a few, arms and ammunition sold by the West to developing countries; western lifestyles, adopted by blacks, which have brought us illnesses unknown before the white man set foot in Africa; illnesses which have to be treated with expensive Western medicines, for which we thank the West profusely; thanking the poisoner for providing the antidote. No wonder Bullard thinks we are stupid.
In any case, for those compatriots of goodwill, both black and white, who are smarting from Bullard’s venom, here is the antidote: I quote randomly from the poem Desiderata:
AVOID LOUD AND AGGRESSIVE PERSONS
THEY ARE VEXATIONS OF THE SPIRIT.
IF YOU COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS
YOU MAY BECOME VAIN AND BITTER,
FOR ALWAYS THERE WILL BE GREATER OR LESSOR PEOPLE THAN YOURSELF.
ENJOY YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS, AS WELL AS YOUR PLANS.
KEEP INTERESTED IN YOUR OWN CAREER HOWEVER HUMBLE.
IT IS A REAL POSSESSION IN THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF TIME…….
BEYOND A WHOLESOME DISCIPLINE, BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF.
YOU ARE A CHILD OF THE UNIVERSE
NO LESS THAN THE TREES AND THE STARS
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HERE.
AND WHETHER IT IS CLEAR TO YOU OR NOT (or Bullard)
NO DOUBT THE UNIVERSE IS UNFOLDING AS IT SHOULD.
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Comments
Pat
This is quite a tameletjie, isn't it. Seeing as there is no way of knowing what Africa would've been like had it never been invaded as opposed to how it is now, I don't think there will ever be an answer. But I do think people should guard against thinking it would have remained exactly the same as it was before the arrival of the colonialists. There would have been some kind of change - every small advance in human thinking makes nature take three steps back.
Might have been utopia, might have been worse than the hell-hole it is today. But the point is: it is what it is. What now?
on second thoughts i should perhaps leave the thinking to the thinkers.
Dex
What is Africa now? We see the UN institutions, the IMF the World Bank etc. etc dominated by African managers. Africa suffers a brain drain exactly because its revolution in education has been so hugely successful that it has outstripped its economic development. Much of that economic development has been obstructed by the extractive industries. The colonial economies was structured to lock Africa into a global system in which Africa became the supplier of raw materials and minerals, while secondary and tertiary industry occurred in the first world.
Even today, the value of South Africa's platinum is realised in London, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. This is because the ownership of the extractive industries are not in Africa but in the Northern Hemisphere. How did this global ownership pattern arise? It arose through violent conquest. What people of European extraction do not understand is that they could have traded with Africa on an equal basis without the the need to subjugate and colonise the continent. Africa had been trading with the middle East and Asia for centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
The evidence of African pre-colonial prosperity is all over the African archaeological landscape, even here in South Africa. The myths of Apartheid history that black people in South Africa were bloodthirsty savages who were in constant genocidal war is exactly that, a myth. A myth perpetuated to rationalise Apartheid.
We rape a continent and then blame it for its post rape trauma. People like Bullard then wishes us to continue flogging the rape victim blaming her for the fact that she was raped. I am not surprised that black South Africans have had their fill of him.
You ask what now?
Africa has been a very accommodating continent, it has accommodated slave traders from the Arab world, it has accommodated slave traders from the western world. It has accommodated all kinds of riff-raff from Europe coming here to carry off what ever they can lay their hands on - from ivory, skins and horns to gold, diamonds and platinum. I think that it is time for Africa to become less accommodating and to insist on keeping its wealth for itself.
However, because Africans do not share the same possessive, materialistic, selfish and aggressive hang ups as those of the European mind set, Africa will be unable to switch to becoming less accommodating of the demands of the rest of the world. Show me an African dictator and I will show you the global mining interests that operated in the shadows effecting his rise and continuance in power. Let us take the murder of Ken Sarowiwa - who was complicit in his murder? was it only the Nigerian military dictatorship of the time?
There is also a tendency by outsiders, some of them born on the continent, to generalise about Africa. I am guilty of that myself in this very article. Not all news from Africa is bad news. How is it for example that countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, and Botswana are able to maintain a much lower crime rate than South Africa. Why is it that Africa is the only continent that has any wild life left in significant quantities? There are many African countries that are at peace, but we never hear about them in the news. Why when we hear about conflict or crime in one part of Africa do we generalise that to all of Africa?
David
My kop is seer.
I'll try and think up a reasonable reply on my way to work.
Sorry Dex
I do not want this to sound as if this is a personal attack on you. It is not. It is as much an attack on the perceptions and prejudices I have grown up with. My Norwegian friend Lars walked across Africa from Mombassa to Nigeria and fell in love with the people of Africa. Why? Because where ever he went he was not attacked and robbed but welcomed by greetings of "how are you? do you you have something to eat? do you have a place to rest your head?" Poor people who had very little were always prepared to share with him. That was 30 years ago. He has never left Africa since. White South Africans need to undertake some adventures, leave their psychological baggage behind and explore the continent on which they live. They will find a place very different from their preconceived perceptions.
Bra Pat
A question. Which perhaps alludes to a conspiracy theory. But tolerate me if you will. Why do you believe it is in the interests of the West to keep Africa out of power? If you follow the study of genetics and the human genome etc all evidence points to Africa being the birthplace of humanity and civilization. If I was a conspiracy theorist I would say there is great value in curtailing Africa's power and place from a global perspective. What's your take on this?
FranklyWankles
It is the parable of the Prodigal Son gone horribly wrong. After returning home and feasting on the fatted calf, he slipped poison, acquired in foreign lands, into the morning coffee of his father who had welcomed him back with open arms, and that of his brother who had grudginglly acknowledged his return. After their burial he hired a manager on a contract basis to look after the family farm and send him the profits every month and left for foreign climes again.
The contract is renewed every two years by a process which has come to be known over the centuries as elections.
Bra Pat
Bra Pat
I always thought that storytellers were incredibly smart people and wondered why they were never in politics. Now that I have gotten a bit older I am thankful that they are not.
And thank you. Very much. I love your stories.
just...
...shout less...
Micatyro
Spot on. By all means blow your own trumpet, but do it softly. Some of us don't like your blermusiek and prefer soothing Soul or Jazz. We also enjoy our sleep. Dont disturb us, please.
This is easier said than done; it is like asking a dog barking at the moon to bark softly, isn't it?.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste
And remember what peace there may be in silence....
Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to all
Even the dull and the ignorant, they, too, have their story. More wisdom from Desiderata.
Bra Pat
Ruyard Kilpling - if.
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son
I just love this poem...
Mr Kipling
Certainly had his moments
Western Civilisation
On being asked what he thought of ‘Western Civilisation’ Mahatma Ghandi responded, ‘I think it will be a good idea.’