EDUCATION AMERICANA 2024 – THISDAYLIVE

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Africa must inspire and fund inventions by women, argues Okello Oculi

‘’Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it’’. That call to war by Franz Fanon is cited by many. It would almost certainly provoke makers of history in fields ranging from politics, academia, manufacturing to diplomacy.

Fanon had just come from transiting

from being a medical student from the island of Martinique in the Caribbean, to serving as a medical doctors in a French army with a mission to slaughter ‘’dirty Arabs’’ fighting for Algeria’s UHURU; to joining as a fighter and diplomat for Algeria. In his biography ‘’obscurity’’ had travelled from a speck of land floating on a vast Caribbean Ocean via Paris’ medical wards to a free Algeria’s share of the Sahara Desert.

As I beheld the last runner in an American women’s relay team on the final evening of ‘’Olympic Paris 2024’’, I could not help wondering if Fanon’s words propelled her forward with each slapping of that earth. She was so far away from those labouring to fulfil their own ambitions that a television viewer sprung up spontaneously to celebrate her grab for a destiny fulfilled.

There are those who blame America for contaminating the rest of the world with racial prejudice against Africans. Under that hostile umbrella hid hunters for wealth from Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and other European lands that hauled African people in centuries of ‘’human trafficking’’ (or ‘’slave trade’’). What is missed was the current American lesson of several European teams fielding athletes of African descent in their Olympic teams.

The racial mix in American men’s and women’s Basketball teams was matched by Canada, England, France in football and Volleyball. France’s gold-grabbing Volleyball team had exciting strikers from Mali and South Sudan stamped under the sweat and grit on their faces. From China to Indonesia, the absence of Africa’s genius was only interrupted by the goalkeeper in Japan’s Football team.

America’s lesson of racial alchemy has gripped Canada and most of South America. Argentina showed a black player in their football team only towards the end of their last game in Brazil’s Olympic tournament. The leadership of their sports was severely rebuked for doubting the French character of its Football Teams. It has been remarked that revulsion with Pele’s global worship Brazil’s football selectors increasingly field ‘’mestizo’’(of light-skinned ‘’half-caste’’) players.

The media’s coverage of the Convention festival of the Democratic Party taught a lesson about politics as mass rallies which compete, albeit poorly, with popular sports like football, rugby and Madagascan game of a daring young man hanging from both hands around a neck of an irritated bull. That ritual of preparing for an election as a form of an impending martial campaign replaces the image of a process monopolised by alcohol-gulping cynical members of cabals.

What is not shown are the research and policy drafting work by delegations from different states; the lobbying of other delegations to support demands of special interest; evolving strategies with other delegations that share common interests, and learning new skills and policy frontiers. In contrast to conventions in many newly-independent countries where delegations are ‘’bought’’ with American dollars are rarely expected to dabble in ideology and conception of policy issues. It is not clear that American intervention in building democratic governance beyond its borders has included exporting this political drama.

A network of tributaries that feed into a Party Convention are themselves fed by little tributaries consisting of a culture of volunteering to do community tasks without expecting to be paid for it. I recall being driven to a youth football game and seeing a group of women pulling out weeds from a row of flowers along a community road. Opposite them was a High School whose very well trimmed lawn and flowers were maintained by volunteers. This principle of individual and group voluntary participation in community service is a vital nutritional diet for democratic politics.

The promotion of community libraries is anchored on the view that citizens whose intellectual development is anchored on a culture of reading and examining data is vital for ensuring that officials at all levels are accountable. This, in itself, is anchored on providing a critical level of education and literacy.

Emphasis on providing education to citizens was much promised in speeches of politicians in the struggle for ending colonial dictatorship. After independence, the absence of community libraries in budgets is loud and scandalous.

Literacy democratised a culture of INVENTION in American industrialisation. President Robert Mugabe warned against African women wearing wigs from India and Brazil which block wisdom and inventions from our Ancestors entering their heads. Women in Democratic Republic of Congo have been fecund inventors, including an artificial traffic warden in Kinshasa. Nigerian women invented GARI. Africa must inspire and fund inventions by women.

· Prof Oculi writes from Abuja

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