Over the last few days, I have had reason to hope that young people in this country can own their future. Two things on this site have built my confidence:
- The emerging questioning of blind religious faith
Nothing has perhaps underdeveloped Africa, and Kenya, like religion, especially the White Man’s religion. It has subverted both social and economic development by selling an incredibly dubious illusion of eternal bliss.
In every village and town, you will for example find huge cathedrals built with funds contributed by poverty-stricken masses, but no schools or dispensaries. Millions of these ordinary people are routinely conned of their hard-earned money each day in the name of a foreign god. Thousands more refuse to take their children for immunisation in the name of the so-called god. Others refuse condoms and contract HIV, in the name of the same god. And thats just the start of it.
Imagine the man hours wasted in useless prayer. Imagine the failure to take responsibility in avoidable accidents, deaths, etc etc because “its an act of god” - my generation elevated religion into some sort of wichcraft that explained everything as the will of this silly god, and absolved everyone of responsibility. So if Moi wanted to become a dictator, he said leaders are chosen by god. If a matatu driver caused a fatal accident by stupid driving, we said it is an act of god! The social malignacy this has spawned will take years to cure.
So how do the young come in.
More than at any other time, THEY ARE QUESTIONING THE ILLOGIC AND SILLINESS OF RELIGION. They want realistic solutions to real problems, not some mumbo jumbo about a Jewish myth. No, leaders do not come from god, we elect them and if they are bad we should remove them, they are saying. If a driver causes an accident and he is to blame, let him go jail.
This is the beginning of a new start.
- I will be short in the next reason - Mabenda’s listing.
When I was in a national high school, so many years ago, the speaking of vernacular was banned and looked down upon. Yet, we could speak French and English in school!
The net effect of this was to create generations of Africans with a sense of inferiority complex - our languages were vulgar, dirty, primitive. I could say ferk, but I couldn’t say guthicwo without blushing. Even today I suffer this embarrassment.
Looking at Mabenda’s thread, though, I was taken aback at the depth of understanding of vernacular by the young people of today. Many spoke with the confidence and wisdom of their forefathers, using proverbs and ageold anecdotes to spice their contributions. That many could write fluently despite never having been taught the language shows an acute awakening of cultural identity.
This is symptomatic of all Kenyan communities, AND NOT JUST THE KIKUYU.
Now, you may wonder what this has to do with development of a modern state like Kenya?
The fact IS THERE’S NO COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THAT HAS MADE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS BY ADOPTING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. YES, English is the universal language of business, BUT IF YOU GO TO ALL THE ASIAN TIGERS they speak their own languages! Han Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, etc etc. Even the little new European states that have emerged over the last 20 years - Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, etc etc know this.
The re-emergence of our indigenous languages should make us go one step further - to elevate Swahili above English. Our indigenous languages should also get pride of place. I do not understand why our schools offer French and German but not Maasai and Luo to say Kikuyu kids. I would have loved to study Maasai in high school.
The fact that young people are by themselves starting to redress these colonial hangovers means well for our future.
It means that we, as Africans, are starting to shed those yokes that have for centuries put us down. We are starting to reclaim our pride. Am I reading too much from these two simple things?
I don’t thing so.