[africa101]

Returning to Africa's Roots/Modernizing the Indigenous

The most maddening and unfathomable aspect of African reform is the fact that the very solutions required to save the continent are in Africa itself -- in its own backyard. Africa does not have to copy the American, French, or Asian model. "Africans have their own way of solving their own problems if you stay out of the way," observed Roberto Chavez, a World Bank delegate to Mozambique (The News & Observer, Jan 4, 1998, A18).

All Africa needs to do is to return to its roots and build on and modernize its own indigenous institutions. There is now a greater awareness of the need to reexamine Africa's own heritage. Return to traditional institutions will ensure not only peace but stability as well: In Mali each existing ethnic group is recognized for its distinct heritage. "Ethnicity cannot be manipulated in this society," said educator Lalla Ben Barkar. "The people may be from the north or the south, but in the end they realize they are one nation, and that is Mali" (The Washington Post, 24 March 1996, A28).

Carl M. Peterson and Daniel T. Barkely offered a reason why Somalia imploded: The previous government [Siad Barre's] failed to incorporate the institutional aspects of Somalia's indigenous culture into a functioning national body. [Therefore] a stable, viable and fair political system must comprise the essential characteristics of Somalia's complex society. This means revitalizing indigenous institutions, restoring traditional powers and giving clans a legitimate outlet for political expression. (New African, June 1993, 20).

After its long civil war, "Mozambicans settled 500,000 property claims with only verbal agreement mediated by village chiefs. Mozambique has no psychiatric care, but local healers cleared up numerous cases of severe post-traumatic stress disorders" (The News & Observer, 4 January 1998, A18). Institutions that have helped Africans survived for centuries cannot be that deficient. At least, they are superior to the hastily imported systems that could not last for even 30 years. According to Hitchens (1994,) "The Swahili word for this concept, now coming back into vogue after a long series of experiments with foreign models, is majimbo. It stands for the idea of local initiative and trust in traditional wisdom" (Vanity Fair, November 1994, 117). Adebayo Adedeji, former executive secretary of U.N. Economic Commission for Africa and director of the African Center for Development and Strategic Studies in Nigeria, would agree: "Unfortunately, the leadership that took over from the departing colonial authorities did not go back to our past to revive and revitalize our democratic roots. They took the line of least resistance and convenience and continued with despotism, autocracy, and authoritarianism. But the basic democratic culture is still there" (Africa Report, November/December 1993, 58).

E. F. Kolajo of Thoyandou, South Africa, concurred: "The Japanese, Chinese, and Indians still maintain their roots, and they are thriving as nations. Africa embraces foreign cultures at the expense of its own, and this is why nothing seems to work for us" (New African, February 1995, 4). In fact, according to The Bangkok Post, "Japan's postwar success has demonstrated that modernization does not mean Westernization. Japan has modernized spectacularly, yet remains utterly different from the West. Economic success in Japan has nothing to do with individualism. It is the fruit of sheer discipline -- the ability to work in groups and to conform" (cited by The Washington Times, 9 November 1996, A8).


Signed
What have you done for Kenya lately?