Ideology in worlds apart may offend rules of logic
4 min readBy Charles Kanjama
The Black Awareness Project in America had several chapters and champions.
The towering black champion of the slavery abolition struggle was Frederick Douglass.
One century later, when black awareness rose against segregation, the two towering figures were great orators and enigmatic characters. They also had character flaws that they carried to their sudden violent deaths.
Martin Luther King is celebrated for his embrace of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha, the doctrine of non-violent resistance. The Christian flavour of King’s assault against the scandal of segregation is epitomised in his "I have a dream" speech.
Malcolm X’s brand of resistance was different: Violent and scathing, but more introspective. He adopted the surname "X" and repudiated his birth surname "Little" to protest neo-slavery. One of Malcolm X’s famous speeches was on black awareness. "There are two kinds of Negroes", he explained, "the house Negro and the field Negro." The house Negro lived in the master’s house, in the basement or attic, ate the leftovers of master’s food, and wore the castoffs of master’s clothes. But he was proud of his status, and loved the master more than the master loved himself. When the master fell sick, he asked him, "master, are we sick?"
The house Negro was used to suppress the field Negro. The field Negroes were the majority and life for them was hell. They tasted the master’s cruel lash and were worked like beasts. They ate low quality food, wore rags for clothes, lived in shacks and were denied basic human dignity. The field Negro hated his master. When a fire came upon the master’s house, they prayed for a strong wind. When the master fell sick, they rejoiced. This was the field Negro. Malcolm X concludes: "I am a field Negro."
Malcolm X’s distinction, minus the hyperbole, is true of every resistance movement in history. Thus, the Mau Mau war and every rebellion was at heart a civil war; and the biggest weakness of any army is the fifth column, the enemy within. ‘Loyalist’, ‘quisling’, ‘home-guard’, ‘traitor’ none of the words identifying Malcolm X’s house Negro has a nice sound. They all have the sound of cowardice, the squeak of spinelessness and the ring of shame and degradation.
A few weeks ago, more than 1 billion dollars of Malawi’s financial aid was withdrawn by aid agencies and made conditional on decriminalising sodomy from their Penal Code. Dr Ntaba, chief political adviser of Malawi’s President, recognised that while they could not do without foreign aid, "it is absurd for those countries to force Malawi to embrace immoral cultures. We are a sovereign country and we deserve to be treated as such, aid or no aid."
Africa faces these pressures, and is called to resist them. Yet our resistance is crippled by modern-day house Negroes. In Kenya, we find some house Negroes in civil society, in the media and in public life. They favour everything foreign, sniff at the concept of ‘sovereignty’, and readily vomit on the nation’s culture.
"Mwacha mila ni mtumwa" (a person without culture is a slave) is a Swahili proverb they don’t understand. Neither do they comprehend true civility, born of the related saying Heshima si utumwa (showing respect does not mean servitude).
The mindset of the Kenyan house Negro accepts uncritically the latest orthodoxies from foreign aid agencies. They also vigorously support ICC trials and deportation of Kenyans to Jersey Island. House Negroes are quick to imbibe the population-control agenda of Western aid agencies, embrace secularism, advocate for abortions and support homosexual relations.
In contrast, the field Negro resisted colonialism, and now promotes sovereign development. They put Africa in the Non-Aligned Movement, and now welcome Western and Oriental economic models so as to pick the most efficient and least intrusive. In the ideological conflict of two kinds of Negroes, I am with the field Negro.
The author is an Advocate of the High Court in Kenya.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/columnists/InsidePage.php?id=2000040751&cid=501&
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