Challenge of Culture in Africa: From Restoration to Integration

Educating to Unman

25 Challenge of Culture in Africa: From Restoration to Integration Educating to Unman W hen colonialism came, it realised naturally that this warrior spirit was its most dangerous enemy. Colonialism cannot thrive where there is no submission. And if there is to be submission, the colonised must be disarmed in body and soul, their spirit must be broken, the warrior must be reduced into a cringing coward. And thus wherever you find it, from ancient days to ours, colonialism has always aimed at stripping men of their manhood –at total emasculation. This it achieves in two ways. The first and obvious one is by striking terror into its victims by the use of might. That is why it is rare in history to find any colonial subjugation that was not accompanied by brute force. Of all the literature I have read on colonialism I have nowhere found a description that hits that system off so tersely and so tellingly as a passage in a. speech that Tacitus, the Roman historian, in his life of Agricola, his father-inlaw and Roman Governor in Britain, reports to have been made by a British chief, Calgacus by name, haranguing his hordes before joining battle, when the Briton rose, in 83 A.D. to strike for the Island’s freedom against the might and rule of Rome. Talking about Roman imperialism the Briton said: Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant6 . 26 Bernard N. Fonlon Robbery, butchery and rapine the liars call empire; and when they make a desert, they call it peace. In fact, in all colonial history we read of pacification; and this has always meant the same thing: the use of armed might to reduce its victims to silence, the silence of the wilderness, the silence of fear. The second effective way whereby colonial rulers unman their victims is through education. Under colonial government the new education is reserved for the few; and to these few it is not manly courage and valour that are held up as ideals worthy of their pursuit. No, rather it is pleasure; it is the hoarding of wealth, of money, as the surest road to pleasure. And colonial conquerors have always known that there is hardly a means more insidious, more infallible of emptying a people of manliness and making them willing slaves than to excite, especially in their elite and leadership, an insatiable thirst for pleasure. Soon the spirit gets esta-blished that pleasure is the highest good and a deadly germ of ruin sets to work within the very vitals of that society. Hedonism, as this philosophy is called, is, indeed, one of the archenemies of human freedom. This colonial education policy was no brain wave hit upon in recent times by the genius of any empire-building schemer in London or Paris. The Romans knew it long ago. For, writing about the education policy of the same Roman Governor, Agricola, for his British subjects, Tacitus has this to report: Namque ut homines dispersi ac rudes eoque in bella faciles quieti et otio per voluptates adsuescerent, hortari privatim, adiuvare publice, 27 Challenge of Culture in Africa: From Restoration to Integration ut templa fora domos extruerent, laudando promptos et castigando segnes : ita honoris aemulatio pro necessitate erat. lam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire, et ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteierre, ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent. lnde etiam habitus nostri honor et jrequens toga. Paulatimque discessum ad delenimenta vitiorum, porticus et balinea et conviviorum elegantiam: Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset7 . In order that a people scattered and uncivilized, and for that reason ever ready to fight, should be accustomed through lives of pleasure to peace and tranquillity, he encouraged them privately and assisted them publicly, in erecting temples, market-places, and houses, praising the forward and censuring the slothful, so that rivalry for honour took the place of compulsion. Then he began to give the sons of chiefs a liberal education and was wont to express a preference for the natural talents of the Britons as against the industry of the Gauls, with the result that a nation which had lately rejected the Roman language were now eager to learn eloquence. Next even our manner of dress became a distinction, and the toga was frequently to be seen. Gradually they turned aside to the things which make vice seductive, porticoes, baths...