Leopold Sédar Senghor betrayed Africa.

This is controversial but a line thick enough can be drawn in the matter. I take the side of disagreeing with Senghor.

Leopold Sédar Senghor was born on 9 October 1909 in Joal, a small village in Senegal. Coming from a rich family his childhood was pretty smooth. He went for further studies in France where he met Damas and Cesaire with whom he established the foundations of negritude as an ideology. He went on, in 1960 to become the first President of the Republic of Senegal.

Just after his election, Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech to youths at the University of Dakar, Senegal. Sarkozy praised Senghor and his love for the French language. Asking the African youth to guard their identity, Sarkozy quoted what he called the ‘grande voix’ (great message) of Sengor, a man who spent his life trying to ‘reconcile heritages and cultures which chances and tragedies had placed on Africa’.

Unfortunately Sengor himself did not have much respect for African languages, which defeats one that we the youth of Africa can look up to him to take pride and esteem our identity. He at one time said;

“…we [Africans]are cultural hybrids, and if we feel as Negros, we express ourselves
in French, because French is a language with a universal vocation,
so that our message is also addressed to the French and to the
other men. French gave us a gift of its abstract words - so rare in
our mother tongues. In our mother tongues the words are naturally
haloed with a halation of sap and blood, whereas the French words
radiate with a thousand fires, like diamonds. Rockets which clarify our night."

Sengor despaired at the inadequacy of African Languages (ALs) to capture the totality of today’s world experiences and so he chose to totally condemn them ignoring the fact that a language cannot be inherently inadequate or inferior.

In French Sengor found the missing link in ALs and chose to run away from providing that missing link to his own language. His comparison between French and ALs was at completely parallel fronts in terms of time of exposure of these 2 languages to modern world experiences. There his comparison was not valid.

By insisting that Africans need to discard their languages and embrace European tongues, he was calling for an exchange of a people’s identity with that of another, and foolishly so because one group had become confused and eventually felt inferior.

This identity crisis arose since Africa's transition from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ was overnight. The shift to modern way of life was vey swift especially between 1950 and 1960. In 10 year a cattle raiding worrior in a leather thong became a clerk in a suit, white shirt and tie. Africa therefore carried over its traditional experiences and overlapped them on those of a sudden-appearing modern world. Language as we all know is the reference point of a people's world experiences. From it you can tell what are a people's values, food, seasons, activities etc.

ALs found themselves threatened by 'modernity' in the 20th Century. It was therefore upon their speakers to create words to capture these new concepts of civilization, so that ALs could become adequate as a speech tool to satisfactorily express these new world. Tanzania for instance has overtime developed Kiswahili and added so many new words to for inventions like internet and new technologies.

It is at this point that Sengor, instead of taking over this duty, him being among the very first African intellectuals, chose to go for what was already made – the French language. In his glorification of French Sengor seems to believe that ALs were naturally incapable of adequately serving their speakers at any one time. He therefore chose to trash them. Kiswahili's example proves him wrong.

In incredible betrayal, he joined the ‘White’ in reinforcing the misconception that ‘Black’ was all blood and flesh, a fact that was evident, according to him, in ‘Black’ languages which by that far had only succeeded in capturing blood and flesh experiences. How could ALs capture rockets, nuclear energy etc if these were not part of their speakers’ experiences by the time of his comparison?

Senghor proposed to African that the only way to embrace civilization was by mastering the languages of the ‘civilized’. What is civilisation? Well we embraced. But soon we found out that even with a mastery of these languages there was a very thin line between another peoples’ identity [French/European]and Senghors' idea of civilization. We realized that ‘white’ considered ‘black’ civilized when ‘black’ adopted ‘white’ identity. The tag of civilization was the reward for trashing ALs (your mark of identity).

After this realization, rather late, we tried to search for our identity but it was missing. It was like going back to the house you burned down when you left. Senghor and other first African intelllectuals urged us to trash our identity, only to discover that what we were made to take as civilization was another people’s identity. This was great betrayal. Sengor is one of the betrayers of African identity.

That is why Sarkozy was contradictory (intentionally or not), when he called on the Africa’s youth to guard their identity by following Sengor. How can we harvest mangoes from pawpaw trees? That is a beautiful paradox.

Sengor despaired at the limited state of ALs at the moment of transition to new world, and like many immediate pioneers of post-colonial Africa, laziness, brain wash, fear, confusion and loss of self-esteem did him harm.

These pioneers created language policies designed on the strength of deception, instead of those that could expand the lexicons of ALs to go with the new presentations of modernity and at the same time safeguard identity and pride.

Like a mirror any language can be made by its speakers to reflect all their experiences. No language is ever ‘complete’ unless its speakers cease to encounter new experiences to express, which is impossible. Languages are at a constant growth and vocabulary expansion mode.

Senghor made ‘white’ superior. This is disgusting. His belief of inferiority as an African drove him to advance the growth of the French language in L’Académie Française in Paris at the expense of his own language.

I therefore have no praise for him, neither is his path one I would want to follow.

Victoire Historique des Black Stars!

Congratulations to Ghana for winning the Under-20 World Cup in Cairo, Egypt against Brazil. That despite being one man down. 4-3 after penalties. May that spirit live to 2010 in South Africa.

BLOG ACTION DAY '09: CLIMATE CHANGE

Hey, how real is the threat of climate change? Well, this question gets very vague answers from many people no matter which part of the world you ask it from...an admission that they don't feel threatened that much. It could be because you and I have to see to believe, don't we?

In August I had the chance to climb the 2nd highest Mt in Africa called Mt.Kenya about 180km Northeast of Nairobi, Kenya. From the last camp before you get to the peak, the glaciers are visible when the clouds move. As you advance to the peak, you actually walk by the expansive Lewis glacier, the largest and roll on it if you feel like it.

The guide showed us parts that were once covered by ice, all year long, now nothing but brown faces of a rock. He is 29 years old only and he remembers that the mountain is not as it used to be. It is even warmer he says [I was freezing though, covered like a mummy].

I come from a cold place and my mother tells me how fast certain types of crops used to grow, rain was abundant, seasons were more than one and it was colder. Not anymore. Those days were definitely better and we have been losing.

Thank God we can now see and are one by one realising that man/woman has some power of creation. Creation of deserts. He/she can, rivers, as well. It has had to take the unusual heat of the sun, lost lakes, famine and drought but so be it if only keep us out of zoos as endangered species.


Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 is on climate change and will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web.

Awarding Obama Was Premature

In my opinion President Obama was not deserving of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Put modestly, it was premature.

The decision to award him was stunning to many...including himself. "I am both surprised and deeply humbled and do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as a call to action," Obama said. The Nobel committee said this was to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

It seems Obama was awarded in anticipatition of what he is expected to do and not what he has done already, to manipulate him to respond according to what the world thinks of him.

Willing is not acting and the Nobel committee should have looked further for a more deserving person, not Obama.

Happy Independence Day, Ugandans.

Today is Uganda's 47th independence anniversary. A 7% economic growth in 2008 deserves noting, plus the largely untapped reserves of both crude oil and natural gas. May the future be bright.

People of Ghana awarded for Education

Ghana or the people of Ghana just got themselves awarded from as far as New York City: The AAI African National Achievement Award. All is thanks to education. Africa-America Institute (AAI) is the organisation that gave out the award with much pomp in a gala on September 21. Quite a high profile event if the actress Julianne Moore can have such an effect on a gala night as to have it termed so.

AAI is a New York-based international education and policy organization that educates and trains African leaders and professionals. Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai, Namibian Prime Minister H.E. Nahas Angula, and the CEO of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Dr. Firmino Mucavele are some of its alumni.

Ghana's past is not a sweet story all through. It has had military rule. Since an end to this however, Ghana's democracy is ahead of that of many other countries in Africa. According to AAI The West African country has strengthened human capacity development by seriously investmenting in education.

To wrap it all here is AAI CEO's praise to Ghanaians, "The Ghanaian people have a reputation for displaying equanimity in the face of adversity...throughout the Africa region and beyond, they are also known for their thirst for education, and their inclination toward excellence. They understand, appreciate, and reflect the value of education as a proven means of producing enlightened citizens, without whom democracy is at risk."

I Agree With Dambisa Moyo on Aid Cuts But…

It appears that low income countries are getting deeper into aid faster than they should come out. This is the heartbreaking fact . Well, Dambisa Moyo author of “Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa” believes poor economies should learn the hard way and that even though it tallies, fire baptism is after all the only way to self-dependence. She has called for abrupt cut of aid. I agree with Moyo only that her means to that commonly desired end are tiled with suffering for many families.

Aid is supporting crucial projects that normally determine the growth of any economy; Health, education and infrastructure. Withdrawing aid suddenly is risking the foundation. Off-budget and part of budget expenditure of developing countries, is always pegged on donor inflows, unfortunately some of which remain promises.

In the present world of global recession, developing countries have seen shortfalls in core spending on crucial projects, because sources of aid themselves have not escaped massive foreign spending cuts that come with global economic crisis. G20 nations pledged 50 billion dollars in aid in April 2008 which has come in slowly than expected.

This takes us back to Moyo's observation. True, at one point or other poor nations will have to focus not on day fixes to their growth but serious and practical goals towards self – reliance.

Evidently they can achieve that. The potential and signs are massive. Malawi for instance has upset one of the largest items of aid expenditure: Food. With sustainable planning for agricultural development, personally supervised by President Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi is feeding itself and its neighbours.

Kenya came close to totally funding its budget in 5-6 years ago with tourism and agriculture as its main sources of funding. Of late remittances from its sons and daughters in the Diaspora are becoming noteworthy. However, tourism and agriculture in Kenya are dependent on weather conditions which are cannot be accurately foretold. [Currently Kenya has to raise 500 million dollars to ensure food security after unplanned for drought]

The World Bank is calling for a Crisis Response Facility to cushion various countries from severe shocks of shaken economies. Aid can save the situation. However it is upon every leadership to take donor funding as help for someone willing to help themselves tomorrow.

If the present cash inflows are a way to achieving own-funded economies well and good. The good effects of aid should be irreversible and should, project by project, get poor nations from foreign dependence.