Of Prayers for Rain, “Judgement Nights” and “Miracle Money” - Part I

At a research day at Oxford University

I attended a discussion at the Overseas Development Institute in London where the former Nigerian Finance Minister – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - was speaking about her tenure in Nigeria. It was a very enlightening discussion and her explanation of the methods she used to fight corruption and vested interests in Nigeria deserves a separate paper of its own. I only mention this discussion because it was at this event that I met a strategist from Oxford University specialising on the politics of Southern Africa. She had just returned from Zambia so I asked her – without hiding that I thought it was ridiculous – what all that business of praying for rains was about? She, of course, not being of Zambian extraction, had to be politically correct, so said this was in tune with the expectations of the man in the street. Which is to say, the majority of Zambians did not think, like I do, that it was a monumental waste of time to pray for rain when the science is clear what has caused this delay. 

Little did I know that prayers for rains were coming to my own beloved Zimbabwe and, the man on the street would also be gratified that such “positive” “action” had been taken by the government. What’s next? We are going to start praying to get parking spaces next to the store entrance every time we go shopping? Does the bible not caution against praying for frivolous things? There is also an element of deception to the timing of the prayers for rain. I noticed that in Zimbabwe the day for prayers was called when Al Jazeera weather report had already predicted rainfall. Still, this is not the crux of the problem, the problem is that there is a significant number of our countrymen who subscribe to these prayers for rain when the historical record clearly shows there is a pattern to El Nino. This is a terrible misunderstanding of cause and effect.

As the Malawians also had national days of prayer for rain, I do not think the leaders are unaware of the science, instead, they are just doing what they know their constituents will respond positively to. The President of Malawi is a man of science – a Professor – so is his Vice President. Zimbabwe’s leaders are very well educated and, if they so choose, could actually teach a graduate course on El Nino. The fault here lies in civil society (it is civil society that has chosen to believe that the crowing of the cockerel causes the sun to rise). The way for me to explain why this is the case involves me having to go back to my childhood so as to talk about the lessons we learnt from our parents and grandparents. I will then show you why school education could not easily uproot what we internalised as children. Then I will go on to talk about the essence of the national psyche in Southern Africa and the dangers inherent in such a psyche. All this I will do in Part II and Part III as my new thing on this blog, is to make very brief and accessible entries each time.

Talking to a strategist who works on Politics in Southern Africa recently.

Why I Ran In 2016?

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people" - Chinese Proverb.

For all my study of Greek political thought, I couldn’t tell you who predates the other, Sophocles or Aristotle? I only mention this because the point I want to rely on in this blog entry, was made by both authors, yet I cannot decide who was reaffirming the other. Sophocles said call no man happy until he is dead, while Aristotle went even further and said; even if a man lives an excellent and happy life, we cannot call him happy either if his offspring fall into ruin after his death.

This tells me that it is not advisable for any mortal to claim to have the right formula for an excellent life. So, although what I am doing this 2016 is inspired by my own childhood experiences, I know it is only one of the possible pathways to excelling in life. I do not claim to be living the happiest possible life either or, even, to be in the vicinity of my goals in life. What I do claim, instead, is that I am satisficing, by which I mean I am heading in the general direction of those goals. 

What started me off in the general direction of my goals is that, growing up in rural Zimbabwe, my Grandfather had a thick volume Who’s Who among his very few books. Reading what other people had achieved must have sowed the idea in my mind to emulate their pathways. It is this start in life, I wish for every one of my rural countrymen. 

Now, the circuitous introduction I have put up above is only meant to support one idea and one idea only: access to books and knowledge must make for a happier life than living in ignorance. It is with this idea in mind that I have decided to make all my Marathons and Half Marathons in 2016 to be in aid of raising money to send books to rural areas in Zimbabwe. 

My Grandfather - John Kanhutu. Later, I will tell you about the social compact he had with President Mugabe and, my place in that compact.

They Serve God Too, Those Who Act Rather Than Just Pray.

They serve God too, those who act rather than just pray.

That I do not reaffirm my Christian faith as often as I should is remiss, but, sufficiently excused by this passage recited by that Honourable and Ingenious Knight of antiquity; Don Quixote of La Mancha. Summed up, his argument is this; they serve God too, those who act rather than just pray.

"For, if the truth is to be told, the soldier who executes what his captain orders does no less than the captain himself who gives the order. My meaning, is, that churchmen in peace and quiet pray to Heaven for the welfare of the world, but we soldiers and knights carry into effect what they pray for, defending it with the might of our arms and the edge of our swords, not under shelter but in the open air, a target for the intolerable rays of the sun in summer and the piercing frosts of winter. 

Thus are we God's ministers on earth and the arms by which his justice is done there in. And as the business of war and all that relates and belongs to it cannot be conducted without exceeding great sweat, toil, and exertion, it follows that those who make it their profession have undoubtedly more labour than those who in tranquil peace and quiet are engaged in praying to God to help the weak" - Don Quixote: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha.

They serve God too, those who act rather than just pray.

The Land Question Is Zimbabwe's ONLY National Question

The condition of the black farm worker in Zimbabwe between 1893 - 2000

On this issue I cannot prevaricate as all academics do: a country's national question is that question which when resolved satisfactorily, will cause all other questions to resolve themselves. If you resolve the land question - once and for all - everything else will fall into place. Of course, when a crisis has gone on long enough, it's easy to forget the initial condition and thus mistake a concomitant question for the actual national question i.e. mistaking the shadow for the substance. It is also easy to - with hindsight - think there was a better way of doing things and, by so doing, revise history. 

Speaking at Oxford University, the Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters of South Africa - Julius Malema - accused President Robert Mugabe of being an opportunist who only used the land issue as a way to hold on to power when he was falling out of favour in Zimbabwe. Julius Malema then went on to say that land reform could have been done through changing the constitution instead of the extra-legal and violent way it was conducted in Zimbabwe. In this postulation he revises history as, indeed, the legal means were tried (to no avail) and he also fails to realise that land law is not really a sovereign issue - by which I mean, outside forces can frustrate any attempts to enshrine land reform in national constitutions:

Video: Whose Land Is It Anyway

The condition of the black farm owner 2000 - present

Africa Imported The Wrong State

Importing the wrong state.

The argument of "The Imported State" restated, in the fewest possible words, is that Africa imported the wrong State. The operational concept being that every society has an organic way of organising its political life that best fits it (given its values) - there is no one size fits all.

This idea, when diagrammatically represented would be this: the foundation of the State in Africa is circular (round), yet the superstructure it has been sent is in the shape of a square. Thus the imported state will never take root in Africa.

The Tyrannical Character (as desribed as long ago as the 5th Century by Plato).

The Republic

A Synopsis Of Plato’s The Republic

Plato's The Republic is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an inquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as 'guardians' of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by 'philosopher kings.' 

PART IX, BOOK VIII, IMPERFECT SOCIETIES. 

The Tyrannical Character 

Its essential similarity to the criminal 

... ... “There do indeed.”

“In this struggle don’t the people normally put forward a single popular leader, whom they nurse to greatness?”

“Yes, as a rule.”

“Then it should be clear,” I said, “that this leadership is the root from which tyranny invariably springs.”

“Perfectly clear.”

“Then how does the popular leader start to turn into a tyrant? Isn’t it, clearly, when he starts doing what we hear about in the story about the shrine of Zeus Lykaeus in Arcadia?”

“What is the story?”

“That the man who tastes a single piece of human flesh, mixed in with the rest of the sacrifice, is fated to become a wolf. Surely you’ve heard the tale?”

“Yes, I have.”

“The same happens with the popular leader. The mob will do anything he tells them, and the temptation to shed a brother’s blood is too strong. He brings the usual unjust charges against him, takes him to court and murders him, thus destroying a human life, and getting an unholy taste of the blood of his fellows. Exiles, executions, hints of cancellation of debts and redistribution of land follow, till their instigator is inevitably fatally bound either to be destroyed by his enemies, or to change from man to wolf.”

“That is an inevitable necessity.”

“It is he who leads the class war against the owners of property.”

“It is.”

“And if he’s exiled, and then returns in spite of his enemies, he returns a finished tyrant.”

“Obviously.” ... ...

... ... ... “Meanwhile there’s clearly no question of our champion ‘measuring his towering strength in the dust’; he overthrows all opposition and grasps the reins of state, and stands, no longer champion, but the complete tyrant.”

“That’s the inevitable conclusion,” he agreed.

“Then shall we describe the happy conditions of this man, and of the state in which a creature like him is bred?”

“Yes, please, let us.” 

“In his early days he has a smile and a kind word for everyone; he says he’s no tyrant, makes large promises, public and private, frees debtors, distributes land to the people and to his own followers, and puts on a generally mild and kindly air.”

“He has to.”

“But I think we shall find that when he has disposed of his foreign enemies by treaty or destruction, and he has no more to fear from them, he will in the first place continue to stir up war in order that the people may continue to need a leader.”

“Very likely.”

“And the high level of war taxation will also enable him to reduce them to poverty and force them to attend to earning their daily bread rather than to plotting against him.”

“Clearly.”

“Finally if he suspects anyone of having ideas of freedom and not submitting to his rule, he can find an excuse to get rid of them by handing them over to the enemy. For all these reasons a tyrant must always be provoking war.”

“Yes, he must.”

“But all this lays him open to unpopularity.”

“Inevitably.”

“So won’t some of the bolder characters among those who helped him to power, and now hold positions of influence, begin to speak freely to him and each other, and blame him for what is happening?”

“Very probably.”

“Then if he is to retain power, he must root them out, all of them, till there’s not one man of consequence left, whether friend or foe.”

“That’s obvious.”

“So he must keep a sharp eye out for men of courage or vision or intelligence or wealth, for, whether he likes it or not, it is his happy fate to be their constant enemy and to intrigue until he has purged them from the state.”

“A fine kind of purge,” he remarked.

“Yes,” I returned, “and the reverse of a purge in the medical sense. For the doctor removes the poison and leaves the healthy elements in the body, while the tyrant does the opposite.”

“Yes it seems inevitable, if he’s to remain in power.”

“He is compelled to make the happy choice,” I said, “between a life with companions most of whom are worthless and all of whom hate him, and an inevitable death.”

“That is his fate.”

... ... .... 

... “But we are digressing,” I said. “We must go back to what we were saying about our tyrant’s ... . How is he going to maintain the changing ranks of this splendid and motley gang?”

“Obviously he’ll use any temple treasures there are, so long as they last, and the property of his victims. That will enable him to tax the people less.”

“And when these sources fail?”

“Then he and his gang, boy-friends and girl-friends, will live on his parents’ estate.” 

“I see,” I said. “You mean that the people who have bred him will have to maintain him and his crew.” 

“They will have no option.” 

“No option,” I said. “But what if they get annoyed and say that it’s not right for a father to keep his son when he’s grown up - it’s the son who should keep the father: and that they never intended, when they bred him and set him up, that when he grew great they should be enslaved by their own slaves, and have to keep him and his servile rabble; on the contrary, he was to be their champion and free them from the power of the wealthy and so-called upper classes? What if they then order him and his partisans to leave the country, like a father ordering his son out of the house with his riotous friends?”

“Then,” said he with emphasis, “people will find out soon enough what sort of beast they’ve bred and groomed for greatness. He’ll be too strong for them to turn out.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “Do you mean that the tyrant will dare to use violence against the people who fathered him, and raise his hand against them if they oppose him?”

“Yes,” he said, “when he has disarmed them.”

“So the tyrant is a parricide,” said I, “and little comfort to his old parent. In fact, here we have real tyranny, open and avowed, and the people find, as the saying is, that they’ve jumped out of the frying pan of subjection to free men into the fire of subjection to slaves, and exchanged their excessive and untimely freedom for the harshest and bitterest of servitudes, where the slave is the master.”

“That is exactly what happens.”

“Well,” I said, “I think we can fairly claim to have given an adequate description of how democracy turns to tyranny and what tyranny is like.”

“I think we can.”

The Tyrannical Character

Notes: 

Plato. (2007) The Republic. Translated by Desmond Lee. London: Penguin Books. pp 298 - 308.

What Goods Do The Political Elites Really Manufacture?

"Suppose that France suddenly lost fifty of her best physicists, chemists, physiologists, mathematicians, poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, writers; fifty of her best mechanical engineers, civil and military engineers, artillery experts, architects, doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, seamen, clockmakers; fifty of her best bankers, two hundred of her best business men, two hundred of her best farmers, fifty of her best ironmasters, arms manufacturers, tanners, dyers, miners, clothmakers, cotton manufacturers, silk-makers, linen-makers, manufacturers of hardware, of pottery and china, of crystal and glass, ship chandlers, carriers, printers, engravers, goldsmiths, and other metal-workers; her fifty best masons, carpenters, joiners, farriers, locksmiths, cutlers, smelters, and a hundred other persons of various unspecified occupations, eminent in the sciences, fine arts and professions; making in all the three thousand leading scientists, artists and artisans of France.

These men are the Frenchmen who are the most essential producers, those who make the most important products, those who direct the enterprises most useful to the nation, those who contribute to its achievements in the sciences, fine arts and professions. They are in the most real sense the flower of French society; they are, above all Frenchmen, the most useful to their country, contribute most to its glory, increasing its civilization and prosperity. The nation would become a lifeless corpse as soon as it lost them. It would immediately fall into a position of inferiority compared with the nations it now rivals, and would continue to be inferior until this loss has been replaced, until it had grown another head. It would require at least a generation for France to repair this misfortune; for men who are distinguished in work of positive ability are exceptions, and nature is not prodigal of exceptions, particularly in this species.

Let us pass on to another assumption. Suppose that France preserves all the men of genius that she possesses in the sciences, fine arts and professions, but has the misfortune to lose in the same day Monsieur the King's brother, Monseigneur le duc d'Angouleme, Monseigneur le duc d'Berry, Monseigneur le duc d'Orleans, Monseigneur le duc de Bourbon, Madame la duchesse d'Anguoleme, Madame la duchesse de Berry, Madame la duchesse d'Orleans, Madame la duchesse de Bourbon, and Madame la duchesse de Conde. Suppose that France loses at the same time all the great officers of the royal household, all the ministers (with or without portfolio), all the councillors of the state, all the chief magistrates, marshals, cardinals, archbishops, vicars-general, and canons, all the prefects and sub-prefects, all the civil servants, and judges, and, in addition, ten thousand of the richest proprietors who live in the style of nobles.

This mischance would certainly distress the French, because they are kind-hearted, and could not see with indifference the sudden disappearance of such a large number of their compatriots. But this loss of thirty-thousand individuals, considered to be the most important in the state, would only grieve them for purely sentimental reasons and would result in no political evil for the State."

Notes:

Henri d Saint-Simon, The Organizer (1819).