African Oral Tradition: an Appreciation
By Maurice Maina
African oral tradition is full of insights that defies modern scientific tool analysis.
Take, for example, the concept of ‘Ituika’ which literally means ‘break from’. It applied in situations where an older generation of leaders would hand over their leadership positions in favor of younger generation.
In the good old days, it was a voluntary ritual undertaken regularly to ensure that the community was in safe and in stronger hands. It was also a form of social security, where the younger would take the important role of protecting the society.
With the advent of modernity, this ritual is no more. Or so, it can be argued.Take Kenya, for example, since independence the cabinet has, by and large, always comprised of the elderly. There are reasons for that. Older people, for instance, are more likely to have accumulated more resources for the, notoriously expensive, political campaigns. They also have better networks.
We, also, can observe, as in the case of Zimbabwe and Senegal, a situation where, the older are increasingly becoming stingy with their privileged positions.
The result of which has been a void that threatens a bleak future, where social security is not guaranteed to anyone.
When this occurs a conflict develops pitying generations. In East Africa there is, for example, the Alshabab, Mungiki, and many other gangs whose common thrust is politico economic revolution.
Look at it this way: Michael Marangi is middle aged. His parents couldn’t afford to take him to school. He works as a painter, but even then the job requires computer skills for color mixing and so on which he doesn’t have. His children have just started school. He just realized that they may suffer the same fate, given his limited chances of upward mobility.
His wife blames him for not being like ‘other men’, meaning their elderly tycoon neighbor. She considers him good for nothing because he cannot, even, afford to buy uniform and pay exam fees for their two bright children.
Marangi lapses in to depression and consumption of cheap liquor. The wife, literally, throws him out of the house and marries another man. The children drop out of school.
The only people keen on him are the terrorist gangs. They, furthermore, finance his alcohol addiction.
In the meantime, his eighty year old tycoon neighbor celebrates each new day with barbecued beef tender loins. He shuttles his great grand children to schools to Europe for their education. He is quite oblivious of Marangi’s woes. He only seems to note Marangi during campaigns when seeking his vote.
The tycoon manages to win the election. He, literally, buys the victory through the terror gangs. He dies mid term, of old age.
During the ensuing by elections the terror groups decide to sponsor Marangi’s candidature for the replacement. Marangi wins and becomes the representative.
Tragedy is that Marangi doesn’t have an idea about modern management.
Partly due to revenge and ignorance Marangi uses his term trying to win back his wife and redeem the children. Since the wife is already married to another tycoon, a feud ensues.
Every morning a human head is discovered at the local market. Fear engulfs the villagers and people no longer trust one another. The society disintegrates further.
The result is an implosion and the whole society is no more.
We now have Somali and so many dysfunctional communities all over Africa.
It is the high time we learn to nurture and co exist: young, the not young; rich and the not rich; male and female. Think about that.