The drama of individual and by extension national histories occurs before the overarching quest to answer the questions: “who am I?” and “what is my worth?”
These are the great ontological and axiological questions that haunt all of us.
In fact I will be bold and propose that the broad vista of human history is defined by multifarious attempts to answer them.
Seeking to deal with these questions, among the leading philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, Rene Descartes, is credited with having said, “I think, therefore I am”. These simple words captured, like no other, the spirit of his age.
I would like to proffer my own variation: I am, therefore I do. The order is deliberate and important.
It is self-evident that human beings are of inestimable value, even though all of us, to varying degrees, are assailed by vexing self-doubt, from birth.
The nature of this value is intrinsic. That is, it does not depend on any external parameters.
This is no less self-evident than our inherent understanding that kindness is preferable to cruelty. I will not venture to justify this view. For now I will simply take it as self-evident.
Even though that may be the case, it is corroborated by a sweeping glance across the glistening waters of history.
The lesson from history is that we step onto precarious terrain whenever we define the value of human beings in extrinsic terms.
Gender, economic status, beliefs, culture, educational achievements, physical beauty, charm, intelligence, actions and accomplishments of any kind are entirely inadmissible gauges of value.
It is on this basis that the words of the great philosopher trouble me somewhat. An inference can be drawn from them, that to be or to exist, one must first think.
Following that line of reasoning brings us to the problematic conclusion that the greater one’s intellectual powers, the more human they are and vice versa, because humanity is supposedly justified by the capacity to think.
All its positives notwithstanding, it is easy to see how intellectual chauvinism came to be among the unfortunate residues of the Enlightenment.
Let me come to one of the towering injustices of our time: racism.
The injustice of racism consists in its answer to the axiological question according to extrinsic parameters, such as colour, origin or culture.
Its cruelty is that it judges people according to things over which they have absolutely no control, such as where and by whom they were born.
Its roots and justifications are deep, including the supposed “delay” or “incapacity” by certain parts of the world, not least Africa, to join the galloping march of “modernity” - a concept steeped in Eurocentric culture and thought.
Entire societies and people groups have therefore been condemned to the status of perpetual inferiority on the basis of spurious measures, such as their level of technological advancement.
“Christianity, commerce and civilisation”[1], David Livingstone’s rallying cry, was to be brought to them by the more “civilised”, for their own good, even if at gunpoint. Presumably, they would say their thank yous later.
While neither endorsing nor disputing generally accepted definitions of progress, I do have a few questions.
For one, can it be definitely confirmed that the level of personal fulfilment, contentment and happiness of the average New Yorker today is vastly superior to that of the erstwhile “savages”?
You ask, “What gives you the authority to use these measures as the basis of human advancement?” I ask you, in turn, what gives you the authority to consider economic and technological achievements as the true measures of progress?
The point is, whenever we use extrinsic measures to assess human value, we run into countless problems because we invariably use standards informed by our own myopic worldviews that are rooted in our unique cultures and histories.
Their logical weaknesses notwithstanding, the impact of these views continues to afflict those from supposedly less developed societies, who must constantly prove their worth to an intransigently unconvinced world.
I will spare you my thoughts about the hypocrisy of these perspectives for now, even when assessed within the confines of a disputable view of what truly constitutes progress.
I’m therefore left deeply unsettled by the well-meaning but problematic view that the way Africans must dislodge these deeply embedded racist ideas is by first demonstrating equal or superior economic or technological capabilities to the West. As Japan and more recently China and the so-called Asian tigers have done, according to the argument.
While I have no problem with technological and economic advancement, in fact quite the contrary, we risk endorsing a deeply problematic premise when we suggest that the worth of Africans or anyone consists in the sum of their achievements. This stems from the inverted premise that to be, we must first do.
I insist that the indisputable acceptance of our intrinsic value as human beings requires no extrinsic justification.
In fact I argue that only when we refuse to accept the bigoted question marks about our worth, will our natural talents begin to freely find expression in innovations and economic progress, reflecting our unique history and cultures, which will astound the world.
Both China and Japan, not unlike their European counterparts, built their achievements on deeply embedded mythologies about their supposed inherent superiority to other cultures.
For them, from the onset, the question of worth was settled, even if on questionable grounds.
This sense of worth naturally flowed into great economic and technological advancements.
They were, first, and therefore they did. Not the other way round.
Because of our (Africans) late entrance into a foreign socio-economic framework, with its own established rules that we had no part in creating, we have suffered too long from a misplaced sense of worth, which is rooted in the bigoted and deeply flawed ideas that still sadly thrive in the dark shadows of contemporary consciousness.
This diminished sense of worth was systematised and concretised through historical crimes such as colonialism, slavery, apartheid, among other forms of servitude. Given the relative historical proximity of these injustices, it is understandable that Africans are still battling to extricate itself from their deleterious after-effects.
It is up to us not only to refuse to accept these ideas, but to continue doing the hard work of immersing ourselves deeply in the truth that we are beautiful and worthy of dignity, honour and respect.
Just as we are. Before we do anything.
Otherwise, we risk placing ourselves on the perpetual treadmill of justifying our existence, on the basis of standards upon which there is no universal consensus and that are inherently unquantifiable.
Among the weaknesses that accounted for our well documented historical reversals was that we took it for granted that humanity belongs to a common brotherhood that extolls neighbourliness as a virtue.
There is no need to forsake this “weakness”, as our worth as people should not be measured in relation to other people. It derives from no other pillar than our humanity.
From this platform, as others have done, we cannot but naturally demonstrate by our lives that we are no less gifted, intelligent and innovative than any other people group.
As we do that, the world will one day marvel as it witnesses the true glory of Africa emerging from its ashes.
Thus the battle cry must proceed from our beautiful continent. It must bellow and refuse to be restrained: We are, therefore we do!
[1] Those who personally know me may attest my deep commitment to Christ and his cause in the world. Though I have deep respect for great missionaries such as Livingstone, some of their beliefs left much to be desired. Among these is the inability to distinguish the message of the gospel from jingoistic cultural notions. To some of them Christianity equalled eurocentrism. I forgive them because, not unlike me, they too were prisoners of their times. This does not lessen the damage to the cause of the gospel as a result of these mind-sets, which lingers even to this day.
