Following are excerpts of a longer article from the Nairobi paper, The East African Standard, that was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200702120166.html . It concerns a Kenyan philosopher Dr. Tom Namwambah, and his work relating to African identity, including language... DZO
Kenya: African Examples The East African Standard (Nairobi) http://www.eastandard.net/ February 10, 2007 Posted to the web February 12, 2007 Wellington Nyongesa Nairobi Kenyatta University lecturer, Dr Tom Namwambah, becomes the only scholar from Africa to sit on the 11-member research team (LITPOST) that is looking at the loss of cultural values by Africans. The team, made up of researchers of international repute from universities in France, Spain, Sweden and Germany, is led by Prof Felicity Hand of the University of Barcelona in Spain. Their work is being funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. They are tasked to research on five Francophone and five Anglophone countries within three years. "Whether politically, economically or even socially, Africa has no standing. All our ways are the ways of Europe. We want to give faceless Africa a face," Namwambah says. He adds: "Africans are alienated from themselves where their language, religion, food and music are all things from the past." Projects meant to benefit the poor He reiterates: "There is knowledge that Africans lack an identity. In the face of globalisation such a person will most certainly become a slave, an economic slave so to say." This is what LITPOST seeks to change. "When you copy another person's ways you are not even a replica but an amorphous animal without shape. It may have three heads and six legs. It lacks a reasonable standing among other animals. That's what we'll be looking at about Africa." Having specialised in Philosophy, an area that is claimed to be too abstract to have any relevance at all in day-to-day life, Namwambah has tried to give action to his otherwise theoretical profession. He has ventured into projects that are meant to benefit the poor and uplift living standards among the disadvantaged. . . . And now Prof Felicity Hand, Coordinator of LITPOST, has appointed him to join her team to find answers to why Africans seem to love things Western; music, art, literature, language and even thought patterns. Is it the negative effects of colonialism? "The focus of this three-year research will be in African countries along the Indian Ocean. We need to contrast the effects of colonialism in these countries and India taking into consideration the fact that the English ruled India for 300 years while in Africa it was less than 100 years, yet Africa seems to have lost most of its cultural values than India." Bid to change the way Africans see Western societies However, Namwambah seems to have an answer already. "Eastern cultures had philosophical tendencies imbued in them. When you look at them you see some principles of thinking while African cultures had no philosophical linings and cannot stand change," he argues. "For instance, Buddhism of India has philosophical principles, the same with Confucianism of China. That is why it was nearly impossible for the English to change the thought patterns of Indians even after ruling them for 300 years, for the Chinese no one has even penetrated and tried to change them." Namwambah says the research is driven by the common knowledge all over the world that Africans posses the least interest in what should be theirs - language, skin colour, music, art and literature. This makes them nonentities in the modern world of globalisation. There are thousands of papers written about Africa following years of research. The rallying call for the emancipation of its peoples from the yolk of poverty appears in most papers. Libraries in Africa and the West are full of such papers, but nothing has come of them. What new aspect is the team Namwambah is joining going to bring? What benefits would come to this continent after the three-year research? "We aim to change the way Africans see Western societies. They think those societies are perfect. One way of changing this is to tell them facts about the West," he says. Namwambah explains: "Ask any young Kenyan what music they listen to and they'll tell you Judy Boucher. You ask them why not Daudi Kabaka and they retort; 'who the hell is that?'" And the situation is made worse by those Africans who have ventured out of the continent even if it's only for a short time. "I meet many Kenyans who go to the US for six months and when they come back, they are lecturing you how 'we Americans influence the world' and their mother tongue is forgotten." . . . Copyright © 2007 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. 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