Re: [Jambo] Recolonising the Mind

Mr. Odhiambo:

Greetings.

I have been meaning to respond to your piece on Recolonising the Mind and haven't had a chance to until today.

On Prof. Liyong's assertion that "Ngugi's thought process is at variance with his actions.": Ngugi's trappings with ideologies (all foreign as Prof Liyong points out) are not unique to just Ngugi, it is a common phenomenon. Karl Marx, the Marxist himself, would not have comfortably spent the rest of his life pursuing his ideologies if not for financial support by Engels, with funds from his father's Textile milling company. (In fact, it is written that even though he tried to live as a communist, he sometimes submitted to the luxuries of the bourgeois because he felt that his wife and children deserved them based on their social standing).

Arundhati Roy, the author of The God of Small Things, has been criticized by scholars the world over (including her native India) for her impassioned dislike for the West's policies, yet, what enables her to pursue her lobbying for peace is the over two million pounds she got as advances for her one book--which has now sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

For a scholar to indulge in the quest for answers and ideas, or in change for that matter, there is need for financial, emotional, and intellectual support--even if it must come from well-meaning capitalists. It is for this reason that places such as the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton (where Einstein died) exist.


I find Taban's criticism of Ngugi wanting in the context of the modern world. Had Ngugi fled to Havana as an academic refuge, he would still have committed to a foreign ideal. You mention that the African Research and Resource Forum "reserved the best for themselves at the Windsor...while the proletariat...were served crumbs". Why is one crowd eating delicate hors d'oeuvres and sipping vintage wine in the pretext of the intellect while another is subjected to a less honorable venue for the same? The pursuit of the intellect must not have such divides. To be fair to Ngugi, when he lived in New Jersey, he had an open door policy 24/7 for Africans and Americans alike at his private residence where he encouraged scholarly dialogue, and in all honesty, we have not seen him indulge in the excesses of the West. Although confused by his new book--it reads almost like a Gabriel Marquez--he is a scholar trying to find his place in a world that extends beyond idealogy. And, we all know that you can create your own history and legacy--however mired and judged the journey might be. My only bone of contention is that we haven't seen much effort on his part to encourage and nurture contemporary African writers.

A few things on Recolonising Kenya:
  [].Most media content is driven by profits--the machine of capitalism is in high gear, as they say--and thus we can't afford to leave the baby-sitting to television. We always have the option to shun television as opposed to letting a few individuals, dictated by advertisers, choose what we watch. It is not forgivable, for instance, that the show Sex and the City would air in Kenya, a place where women are gang-raped everyday in broad daylight, where gender
violence is on the rise, and women are still afraid to say no to sex without condoms. Where are the women of Kenya supposed to drink their Cosmos and wear their Manolo Blahniks? (Metaphorically speaking).
  [].We have billionaires in Kenya (as most people are finally learning from the high-profile divorces in Kenya). Where do our rich men and women do their
philanthropy? Aren't their children cocooned in fancy lofts/apartments in the West without being taught the responsibilities that come with wealth? Why should Bill Gates, an American, give 30 billion dollars to eradicate certain diseases in the third-world while our own money-class--most rich from corruption and tax-payer money--stash their loot abroad? Is there a difference between them and Mobutu who owned a Concorde and bought his family Louis Vuitton bags and Cartier jewelry when the children of his country were
dying of starvation? Why aren't they sharing in the burden to relieve Kenyan poverty--let alone global poverty?
  [].We need a revolution in Kenya--the one of the mind. We must all support civic education and teach each other to choose leadership based on accountability, performance, personal integrity, and a willingness to die to the self so Kenya can rise. We, the younger people, must remove the blindfold and raise our children to understand that the greatness of our country can only be achieved by each individual taking personal responsibility and making sacrifices. Our respect and love for each other must also increase. Otherwise, we are doomed to recycled politicians who would be totally clueless as to what youtube is!

Thanks,

Kerubo