Professor George Ayittey
Let us use the example of Mali, is the problem of the people of Mali today
intellectual freedom or a freedom from the bombs being thrown into their
country by France United Kingdom, United States and Canada? Are Libyans
today suffering to this point due to lack of intellectual freedom? How about
Kenyans where United States has started to pile up its soldiers just before
their election? At what point does Intellectual freedom help The Congolese
that The UN has just last week sent in 2,500 more soldiers into a region of
only Eastern DRC that has almost 9 million dead? And I am not here to oppose
what you have written but some of us are starting to realize that at the
speed Obama is sending the army into African countries, by the end of his
term we are not going to have a single stable African country. Have these
countries been stable? It is so strange for we are starting to consider
Africa more stable when it had The dictators than when they are removed by
these war mongers. There was a country before Gaddafi left power today there
is a war zone, there was a country when Mubarak was in power today there is
chaos. There was a country when Assad was in power today it is grave after
grave. There is acountry with Mugabe in power, tomorrow after the removal of
Mugabe half the population of Zimbabwe is going to be blown up. We are at a
point where one can question even the use of your debate today when what we
need is to see African babies back into beds. And one can wonder how that
intellectual freedom can help any of these people.
And you stand up to even bring a question of intellectual Freedom today?
Geez !!!!
EM
On the 49th
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of George Ayittey
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 6:51 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Mwananchi] The Importance of Intellectual Freedom
The importance of intellectual freedom
By this freedom is meant the whole gamut of freedom of expression, of
thought, of worship, of the media, etc. It underscores not only the freedom
to say, or write what you want but also encompasses artistic freedom the
freedom to express yourself and thoughts in various artistic forms
drawings, paintings, music, sculpturing, etc.
Societies that advance are those that respect, uphold and allow intellectual
freedom to flourish. This freedom is vital is exposing problems of society
and indispensable in the search for optimal solutions to those problems
because it allows debates and discussions about these solutions to be made.
As an Ethiopian proverb instructs, He who conceals his disease cannot
expect to be cured. That is, he who suppresses intellectual freedom to
prevent a problem from being exposed, cannot expect the problem to be
solved.
Intellectual freedom is also critical for education (to impart knowledge),
the development of the arts (art, music, theater, etc.), dissemination of
information (though books, newspapers, radio, television) and the richness
of culture (to develop and spread cultural artifacts).
Intellectual freedom is not a Western construct, nor alien to Africa. For
centuries, Africans have educated their children through the oral
tradition the freedom to transmit knowledge by word of mouth. Griots
passed on historical knowledge and fashioned story telling into a
profession. The proliferation of griots and slew of musicians, artists,
sculptors, drummers and even religions attest to the existence of
intellectual freedom. People could say or express themselves in whatever way
they wanted; they didnt need permission from a traditional ruler. And no
chief or king would dare arrest any griot or musician for telling a story
they did not like.
Timbuktu, the ancient African town of Mali, flourished in the 13th century
because of intellectual freedom. Timbuktu was the site of one of the worlds
earliest universities. It was the center of literature and scholars from
around the world visited the town. It was also a great market town, situated
at the end of the trans-Saharan trade route and where goods from North
Africa and the coastal West African communities were exchanged freely.
Aside from its 14th-century mud mosques, and a fabled name, Timbuktu houses
at least 100,000 ancient manuscripts that date from the 11th century, and
account for some of the medieval world's most sophisticated scholarship.
Subjects include medicine, law, astronomy and botany
<http://tiny.cc/y7jvrw> http://tiny.cc/y7jvrw
Intellectual freedom allowed Africa to create an incredible beauty of
diversity of cultures, music, arts, etc. After independence, however,
educated barbarians have banished intellectual freedom from Africa. The
press is controlled by corrupt and incompetent government; private
newspapers are censored. They seek to control the internet as well and their
thugs infiltrate and troll the internet social media, hounding and
threatening government critics. Say or write something a modern African
government doesnt like and Poof! you are either in jail or dead. Just try
and name 20 famous African writers. Why so few? In traditional Africa, one
could name over 100 famous griots.
It is this intellectual barbarism that has held Africas development back
and prevented her from solving her problems. Corruption cant be solved
because it can[t be exposed due to the lack of intellectual freedom to
expose it. For the same reason, economic mismanagement, repression and human
rights violations cannot be exposed either. Of the 26 countries at the
bottom of the UNDPs Human Development Index, 25 are African countries. Of
that lot, only two (Benin, Zambia) permit some semblance of intellectual
freedom. The rest include such roguee countries as Central African Republic,
Chad, Congo DR, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Rwanda where intellectual
freedom has been outlawed by educated barbarians. <http://tiny.cc/pzkvrw>
http://tiny.cc/pzkvrw
Without intellectual freedom, Africans will never be able to find their own
African solutions for their African problems.
--
George Ayittey,
Washington, DC
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