Hilarious Decolonization : An African Child's Encounter With Western Schooling and the Case for African Science: The Wonderful Intellectual Autobiography of Jonathan Chimakonam, Professor of Philosophy
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Hilarious Decolonization
An African Child's Encounter With Western Schooling and the Case for African Science
The Wonderful Intellectual Autobiography of Jonathan Chimakonam, Professor of Philosophy
By Jonathan O Chimakonam (Edited by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju)
Jonathan O Chimakonam
Abstract
This preface recounts the author's (Jonathan O Chimakonam) childhood passage from an intact Igbo intellectual and linguistic world into a colonial-derived school system that demanded the wholesale rejection of that world as a precondition for “civilization.”
Through episodes of forced transliteration, mathematical incomprehension, ridicule for “fetish” reasoning, and an eventual turn toward self-possessed thinking that the author's peers came to call “the wise man” and later “Demiurge,” the narrative argues that Western education, left unmediated, estranges the African child from an original and valid mode of reasoning rather than simply adding new knowledge to it.
This personal history frames the broader project that follows:
an attempt to systematize African science on its own terms, situating the
effort within an established but still-emerging body of Nigerian and African
scholarship on indigenous thought systems, and outlining the aims, scope, and
chapter structure of the resulting work.
Original text is culled from the Preface of the Book Introducing African Science (2012) by Jonathan O Chimakonam. Some words have been changed for grammatical purposes, an abstract added and the text divided into sections with title heads. Every other thing is as the author wrote them in 2012.
( Great thanks to the author for the permission to reproduce this text and for guidance in presenting it to an online audience).
A Native Intelligence Before School
I remember my first days in school. The only language I spoke was Igbo. I could not remember learning it. My mathematical orientation was the Igbo numeric system, again I could not remember taking lessons from anyone not even from my parents or playmates yet I know it, just as if it is in me, and it is. I fully understand what anyone means when he utters a sentence in ordinary language and I follow the most rigorous description of reality done in the mathematical language of my people. Once I form an idea in my mind, I do not think of the words to employ in expressing it, the perfect words very readily begin to flow out of my mouth.
The First Shock: A Banished Mother Tongue
However, in my first days in school after a lengthy excitement, I came to be faced with the first shock of my life: “knowledge is essential in this world and one has to learn every piece of knowledge to survive in it. So have I learnt anything before? No! Since I have never sat to take lessons, I know nothing. What does this mean? It means that everything I thought I knew was nonessential. The real knowledge is the Whiteman's own, do you have any? No! Since I do not have any, I was not just ignorant, I was a fool.
To wash this off, I had to be prepared to reject every rubbish that found its way into my mind, including my language which was [ nothing more than] a primitive noise making. The very first step to my becoming civilized was to banish it forever from my tongue and make haste to speak the true language of civilized men (in my case, English).
I remember now with bitterness one of the very first shocking discussions I held with my peers after our first day in school.
Some of us folded our arms across our chests in awe, disbelief and great confusion. Our teacher, a slender lady who never uttered a single word of the Igbo language that day, instructed us with a dry countenance that it was prohibited to speak our beloved mother tongue. She reminded us that the class monitor was standing by to take down the name of anyone who broke this strange law. Such a bushman would sweep the class and darken the board for seven days. We were animals, it was the duty of the teachers to wean us and turn us into civilized humans. "So our language was a bush language?'', some of us wondered in awe. So everything we knew was nothing sensible?
Grammar, Transliteration, and the Vicious Circle
And then the class started in earnest. Fearful though we were of this unexpected shock, some of us were resolute to impress our elegant Miss with our willingness to abandon the bush ways of our fathers. We learnt the parts of speech, a totally abstruse and complicated subject. After some days in this struggle, some of us were beginning to cram the lot the teacher had been saying.
John is a good boy.
We had with great difficulty marked the part of speech each of the words was. Then all of a sudden, the teacher changed her example:
Peter is a good boy.
No one was sure what part of speech Peter was. This became a tricky business. After some months we still got confused each time familiar words were changed. Then some smart ones among us discovered an easy way out: learn the meaning of every word then transliterate to Igbo for proper understanding. Also, symphony and transliteration became a way out for unfamiliar words.
Jesus spoke to the multitude
Transliterates by symphony to: Jesos gwara ndi mmuo n’eti udu okwu and translates back to English as:
Jesus spoke to the masquerades who were beating drums.
Thus we began to score poorly sometimes. To escape the shameful confusion that ensued each time a word was changed, we had to abandon pictorial symbolization and cramming and seek for understanding. To get this, consulting with our mother tongue was a smart escape route. This helped to a great extent but invaluable time and energy were lost and a terrible vicious circle ensued.
After the morning lessons, we went on break. Those who could not withstand the madness anymore ran home while some of us who had been sternly warned not to run back home braved it and stayed for the remainder of the school hour. It was eventually time for class work.
School is a great place of learning, mention other two great places of learning.
As usual we began to transliterate . . . Ulo akwukwo bu obodobo ebe mmuta; kaa udidi abuo ozo? . . . translates back to English as . . . school is a big wide big place of imitation; state two other types. With this already distorted meaning, we wrestled much longer, sweating from our brow and twisting hard our brains ensnared in the vicious circle of transliterating and translating back and forth. Finally, weary and sullen we produced our answers:
St. Steven's primary school and St. Augustine's primary school.
Our own school was the big wide big place of imitation; the two above are just the other types.
The Arithmetic That Would Not Add Up
This problem with ordinary language was nothing compared to what awaited us in mathematical language. One, we eventually learned, was the same as Otu. 2 is a sign that has the same meaning as two. O.k., but to us is hanging, it is not really meaningful until we know what it qualifies. So if 2 is the same as our two, then 2 what? And we were told it does not matter whether it was 2 something or 2 nothing, 2 is always 2. This made no sense at all. But rather than annoy us, it confirmed our worst fears. We were bush men indeed, who not only knew nothing, but may never be able to learn civilization. There was no smart way out. We knew that two tubers of yam added to another two tubers would be four tubers but we did not know that two added to two would be four. To us they were empty.
Brilliant Chaps and Coconut Heads
Some of us who were able to let go of the way we reason and struggle to make sense of the senseless Whiteman's ways became known as brilliant and intelligent chaps. Some of us who only then were not smart enough to do this, became the dullards or more usual, coconut heads; who, term after term took home the teachers recommendation that “we be sent to learn some trade”, to our most times, agonized parents. The thought of being deployed to the big market at Onitsha or the one at Aba for trade apprenticeship under some imposing master pressured some of us to strive even harder. In our days, the kids who got such recommendations were the dummies of this world, the shame of their families. To escape this lowly fate, most of us wedged a longish identity war, confused and petrified, just to get civilized.
Evolutionism and the Ancestors
As we got pushed over from class to class we began to learn social studies, integrated science etc., where they taught us some theories. One of such theories was“evolutionism”. Life, including human life, has evolved. Man even shared genealogy with apes. At death, man turns into dust and fertilizes the crops. That our fathers were sons of apes made no sense, that our elders perish to become mere dust sounded like a joke. What happened to life after life? What of the ancestors? What of reincarnation? Are all these things also lies? Very few of us had begun to suspect the Whiteman's civilization, while many had fully imbibed it and long forgotten our ways. Those of us who were still too dull to shake off our native reasoning hid this great weakness with the gut of our lives and in great confusion, managed every now and then to admire those who had succeeded in doing this long ago.
A Pagan's Poor Grades
I cannot remember excelling in any subject however hard I tried to impress my teachers. My own inclinations . . . the reasoning pattern of my native Africa was a great barrier, discolouring the good civilizations I was taught and thereby always giving me poor grades. I remember in my junior secondary class, one of my teachers asked with the intent to mock, “if I was a pagan”. It was after a test in introductory technology. At that stage I had started writing a volume and in that instance I remember describing how the powers of the great deities could be harnessed for technological purposes. The question was “mention five uses of technology”. To my great undoing, I had become notorious to my teachers for what they called my fetish write ups. Some, as I came to learn years later, regarded me as a poor disoriented boy with slight brain damage. How on earth could a sensible man refuse civilization? But I was not refusing civilization; I was fighting hard to civilize without success.
From “Wise Man” to “Demiurge”
By the time I got to the senior class, after I had read a great deal of western literature and especially history, upon which I began to learn to stop fighting myself. What I had was an advantage and worth keeping. My superior mindset and efficacious reasoning pattern was beginning to distinguish me among my peers. Thinking outside the box was a general problem for them, creating solutions was a hard task for them too, yet I excelled. I lived and thought from our native African reasoning pattern.
For this, it was easy for me to harness the powers of my mind. For them, they had been indoctrinated with the western thought system but because it was strange to them, they never could think out of the box, no matter how hard they tried. The apparatus was a barrier which lured them into a vicious circle. For this godly ability, my peers nicknamed me “the wise man”, a name most of them still call me to this day. They wondered how I came to think so deeply and see things hidden from everyone. It was also after this realization that I began to score good grades. I had learned during my examinations to keep my inclinations aside and see what the teachers wanted me to see. Before long, I was excelling in literature, government, commerce and even won some school awards in these subjects.
During this period, I had started some experimentation in the backyard of my father's house. I could not make the science class because of my notorious poor grades. But I started experiments in chemistry, physics, architecture, and astronomy. This was a period I reached a conviction after studying the map of the galaxy and gazing repeatedly at the horizon from my village hilltop that there must be many other planets besides the nine we were taught in school. By 2010, some years later, the tenth planet was discovered and by 2011 additional fifty followed. But in discussing the possibility of many planets with the excellent science students in those days, they laughed me off and quoted many theories I had not known.
The belief in such western created paradigms was a barrier to them. Instead of seeing the textbook theories as mere occasional references, they had been trained to see them as the basis, the laws, the guides and the roof of all thinking. They only struggled to read all there is. The problem therefore, was that in terms of practice, they could never think beyond those doctrines. It had become a dogma to them. And because the books contained solved problems and sometimes footnotes of unsolved ones, the solved problems offered no inspiration for new research and the unsolved ones become for them unsolvable.
I lived with these annoying circumstances. The university was a place of research, I reasoned. ''I was going to excel there'', was my little consolation. When I finally secured admission and attended the first few classes, some of my teachers humiliated me when I answered questions in class, wondering where this man was coming from. That reminded me of my secondary school chemistry teacher who in a similar circumstance had asked if I came from a zoo. My answer to his question probably depicted a man who had not been civilized. Quickly, I switched back to my formula of keeping my inclinations aside during examinations, but during class debates, I vented them.
Soon, I began to win followership among my classmates and I would come around to teach them mental liberation after classes. Once again my obvious superior mindset and deep thinking ability so enamored them that they gave me a nickname “Demiurge”. Demiurge was a Greek god, a divine craftsman in Plato's writings. So I became a god among them and most of them still call me by this name to this day. Very few actually remember my real name.
What This Story Is Meant to Show
The point of this tedious personal story is to show how the western system robs the African off his originality, the shock the African child experiences initially, how he learnt about the subhuman nature of Africans and their ways and how he began a struggle to civilize. Eventually, he loses everything African and find to his humiliation that despite his learning, he could not help thinking within the western thought system. He acts without positive thought and thinks without positive action. If he is a physicist, he becomes a technician fixing bolts and nuts he could never invent. If he was a pharmacist, he become one who prescribes drugs; he could never produce one himself.
And so Africa boasts of millions of scientists who could not invent any technology. The problem is not only the school system, but that this system has produced guinea pig teachers who are in turn producing other guinea pigs. It does look as if there is no way of breaking out of this box, but maybe we should start somewhere. If after reading this book you find in it any conviction that Africa has a peculiar thought system then the purpose for undertaking this difficult task might have been achieved.
Toward a Systematized African Science
I have taken time in this little book to systematize African science fit with the African thought system. The way we look at reality is different from the way Europeans and the Asians look at reality. Their possibilities are not always our possibilities and ours may not always be theirs. There is no rule that validates theirs and invalidates ours. The only difference is that excellence for the African, the Caucasoid and the Mongoloid is tied to their unique thought systems. A native African can never think successfully within the Caucasian's system and vice versa.
For us therefore, systematizing African science is about foregrounding its methods, criteria, theories, methodologies, schools and other basic explanations. We also recognize the need to adopt from the West some of its advances but then adapt such to the African systems. The section on the logic of African science is aimed at describing how Africans reason, which is different from how the Western people do [ The has also developed a robust system of African logic called Ezumezu, which is African culture-inspired but universally applicable. In it, he argues that while all humans reason alike, crucial nuances exist] .This is important in understanding the African mindset and the great advantage it provides for the African researcher. This work describes what scientists do and what makes science different from other spheres of knowledge, only that it does this with reference to African science. On this score, it provides the intending African scientist with a platform and direction.
This book is also written to inspire and instigate but it is not written to control or suggest. The intending African scientist must generate his research ideas and pursue them to the level he wishes. This is a rule book only as far as it draws a line between what is scientific and what is superstitious on one hand, and what is African science and what is Western science on the other hand. Finally, this book should not be construed as containing research codes beyond the thought system of Africans, else it becomes a barrier on another race. A great deal of scientific terminologies have been coined using a native African language and where essential, ingredients of African logic and mathematics have been employed to produce explanations.
Situating the Work Among African Scholars
For some years now, scholars in many African universities, especially in Nigeria, have been occupied with the concept and system of African Science. Some notable ones include Professor Udo Etuk and his work on New Humanism; Associate Professor Kyrian Ojong in his Philosophy of Science for Africa; Professor Andrew Uduigwomen and Dr. Chris Apkan in their paper on “The Methods of African Science”, Prof. Innocent Asouzu in his works on Complementary Reflection and Ibuanyidanda Ontology, Late Prof. Panteleon Iroegbu in his works on Kpim series, Prof. Emmanuel Edeh in his pioneering work on Igbo Metaphysics, Prof. Uzodimma Nwala in his historic Igbo Philosophy, Prof. Godfrey Ozumba in his Philosophy and Method of Integrative Humanism, Prof. Chris Ijiomah's theory of Harmonious Monism and Dr. Egbai Ojah's dissertation on Comparative Study of Western and African Science: Explanations on Certain Realities to mention just a few.
Also, a number of conference papers have also been presented on the topic. Notably, Associate Professor Francis Njoku in his paper “The Identity of the Particular: An African Basis for Philosophy, Science and Development”; C Osuagwu in his “African Cybercosmos, Science and World Order” etc. Personally, I have presented a few in different conferences.
Some of such papers include, “Project on African Logic, From Thought System to Algorithmic Model: Impact on Science, Technology and Human Development”, “Outline of African Logic for the Development of Thought, Science and Technology in Africa”, “G. O. Ozumba's Integrative Humanism Project as a Veritable Theory for a Model of Explanation in African Science”, “Systematizing African Science: Methods and Theories”, “Philosophy and Africa's Return to History” and “Systematizing African Science: The Genesis”. Further, we may still mention all those who have done foundational research such as Tempels Placid, late Prof. C. S. Momoh, Prof. Kwasi Wiredu, John Mbiti, Prof. Udobata Onunwa, Prof. Onyewuenyi, Anyanwu and Ruch etc.
Their works are precursors to the present research and as such a huge honour is due the authors. It is no doubt therefore that there will soon emerge a course on African Science in our universities. What I have done in this work represents a modest attempt at systematizing Africa's age-long scientific practices. Some African scholars currently working on this same project might find my presentation unsatisfactory in some respects, but it is my wish that it challenges them to publish theirs and that they see the whole project as an on-going effort into this great endeavor. Finally, I have chosen the title Introducing African Science . . . based on the advice of my editors for it seems this is likely the first text on the subject.
Outline of the Chapters
In chapter one of this work, we gave an historical and metaphysical background to the theory of African science and offered a justification for the project. This is because in order to make sense of a people's thought system, understanding their background metaphysics is paramount. Chapter two describes the logic of our science, for we believe that to understand any theory an adequate grasp of its logic is vital. In chapter three, we produced an African science interpretation to such fundamental scientific terms as space, the natural world, matter, anti matter and energy. Chapter four dwells on such areas as nature and scientific truth, time and motion, space and the sub-natural world as well as thought and extension.
Explanations offered to these subjects further give shape to the project. The methods of doing African science are the focus of chapter five, while chapter six explicates the basic criteria of African science. In chapter seven, the methodologies of African science are discussed just as chapter eight focuses on systematized theories in our science.
Chapter nine dwelt on its laws and chapter ten discusses African logic and the principle of deniability. In chapter eleven we focus on the schools of African science in addition to the dicey issue of the metaphysics of African experimental science. In the final chapter, we discuss the subject of explanation in African science, make striking comments in the postscript and outline some of the major challenges of the newly systematized science. This book surely deserves to be chewed, swallowed and digested, as a great scholar once said!
Acknowledgments
Finally, from the year 2007, when this research commenced, to its completion, I have benefited from the advice, encouragement and recommendations of some persons. I owe enormous gratitude to you all; teachers, colleagues and relations. I take special delight also in my divine inspirer who illuminates my mind without season. However, one name that must be mentioned here is Lady Elizabeth Okeke 1960-2012, my resilient mother, for training me in character and funding my learning; you always reminded me that whatever dreams I had must be realized here, for there was no vision in eternity, the completion of this research is a heed well taken. For all of those and the ones I can't quite mention here, I deeply appreciate them with fond memories.
( Jonathan O Chimakonam is a renowned professor of logic and African philosophy. His works have been translated into various languages and taught as part of classroom curricula in some universities in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. He is a multiple-award winning philosopher, theorist and social thinker).