RETRO GRESSIVE TRADITIONS

By Okyeame Kwame

Thelostmoney

Imagine you are 12 years old and you lose your mother's 2000 Cedis. She gives you 25 lashes withhercane. Yourfatheralsoadds 12lashes. I asked 20 university students whether they would give the money to their parents if they found the money under their bed aerwards. Some of them said, yes, they will, to shame their parents. Others said they wouldn't because the money is theirs aer the beangs. Both answers arebadfortheparents.

Ÿ Dowewantourchildrentoloveusorfearus?

Ÿ Who told us to beat our children when they makemistakesordisagreewithus?

Mystory

Dyslexiamadelearningadaunngtaskformeasa child. I remember not liking the idea of school because my Class One teacher would beat me to pulp, saying, "you are a teacher's son but you do notwishtolearn".

The sad thing was, I couldn't tell my parents because they had sanconed her to beat my stupidity out of me. So, my teacher would beat me in school and my parents would beat me at home because I could not recite my ABCs. Again, my mother used to call my uncles to come and beat me because I was a cry-baby They would whip me and ask me not to cry. I remember that atage10,Iusedtosay'Amu,aniopforMnop'.

This depressing paradox broke my spirit. I became mid unl I was 18 years old. Fast forward to the year 1983. I completely and beaufully failed my Ordinary levels, and it was me for my dad to weep. When he saw my results he cried out 'oh mysonwhy!?"

Ÿ Who told us that a child who cannot learn how toaddandregurgitatealphabetsisstupid?

Ÿ Whotoldustousefearasatooltobringupour children?

Generationalvalues

Tradion is defined as the ideas and artefacts handed down from one generaon to the other Most tradions are great, but some are not relevant in modern mes and should be quesoned and cancelled. For example, beang childrenwhentheydisagreewithus.

Some great African tradions are - respecng women, respecng elders, respecng nature, respecng the shared values of the community, respecng God or Gods, respecng our responsibility towards each other and life in general.–Posivetradionsgraphics.

However, there are three major tradions that anchor the African youth and retards their development.

1. RETROGRESSIVE PARADIGMS IN FORMAL EDUCATION.

King Leopold - the Second, told the missionaries to teach the Negros to read and not to reason. They cametotheCongosanddeliveredthismissionwith aptprecision.However,thatwasinthe1800s.

Ÿ Why is quesoning sll an abominaon in some ofourschools?

Ÿ Why has our educaon become a memory contest?

Ÿ Why do we sll enforce this style of learning in mostofourschools?

Ÿ Why am I wrong when I do not reproduce the exactinformaonmylecturerwrote?

Ÿ Why is educaon targeted only at developing a partofmybrainandnotmywholebeing?

Ÿ Why are the white collar courses more respectedthanothercourses?

Ÿ Whyispovertynotadegreecourse?

Ÿ Whyisreasoningnottaughtfromage5?

Ÿ Why is innovaon not a prerequisite for every graduaon?

Theanswerissimple.Thatisnotthetradion. But, we could learn something from what Krishnamur argued that "Intelligence requires doubng and quesoning and not being impressed by other's enthusiasmandenergy".

2. RETROGRESSIVEPARADIGMSINRELIGION

We must credit religion for teaching altruism, upliing the weak, creang equity, and spreading love and hope in the world. Religion serves the purpose of deterrent to deviance, a guide for correctness and therapeuc for pain The transformaon process is what some have seized and turned into an opportunity to make money at the expense of others. Someway, somehow, it has become a way to let Africans live by faith alone, reject logic and evidence and sll feel proud of doingthe"righteous"thing.

Ÿ We dare not queson the source of creaon. The creaon story is perfect. There are many creaon stories and they are all true to their culture. How many mes was the earth created?

Ÿ Some accept completely that the ancestral spirits can and will bring us loo numbers to becomerich,sowhyshouldIwork?

Ÿ The misconcepon that the blood of Jesus can clean my sins on Sunday would obviously encourage my collecon of bribes and, of course,beforgiven.SowhyshouldIbehonest?

Ÿ There are unconfirmed rumours that the fraudulent young man in my village can become invincible with some blood sacrifices or seedsowing and definitely become financially successful. So why should we build factories and promote skills development if we can build more churches, more shrines and more mosques?

Ÿ My prophet says my financial break through is inAmerica,sowhykeepmyGhanaclean?

Ÿ The menstruang woman is unclean, the divorced but remarried man is adulterous, the scienst is an atheist; the philosopher is a nonbeliever.

Ÿ No maer how resourceful, producve, and professional a non-believer is, don't work with himorher.

Ÿ Why do we allow our relaonship with God, who is love, to segregate us into psychological groups, to hate ourselves? In the famous words ofBlack-EyedPeas"whereisthelove?"

We are living in a jar and thinking the lid is the heavens.

When Jesus Christ said love your neighbour, did he mean except your menstruang neighbour, except your unbelieving neighbour, except your disabled neighbour, except your Muslim neighbour? I guess not. But the retrogressive tradion in religion says do so and ask no quesons else you will burn in hell. Well, let me quote the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) "you are not a Muslim unless you've learnt to wish for othersallthegoodyouwishforyourself."

3.RETROGRESSIVEPARADIGMSINCULTURE

Our culture is ever-changing. It is dynamic and never stac. But if the tradions of the culture choke it from evolving, development stays in a revolvingloopandrecurringpaerns.

Ÿ We must eat the same food our foremothers ate.

Ÿ We must wrap ourselves the same way our forefatherwrapped

Ÿ The music is not good if it doesn't have elementsofoldclassics

Ÿ Our art is only beauful if it's essence is connectedtothepast.

Regardless of the spirit behind the reason our ancestors created their lifestyle, we must not changeit.

Ÿ So we kill and eat animal protein and develop many diseases, but sll do it because tradion permits it. Our ancestors needed energy to farm and fish, so they ate a lot of carbohydrates. Some of us who work in the officesslleatlikeour predecessors and suffer roundedness of the belly, but we do not quesonthischoice.Wemustfollowsuitorbe punishedbythegroupforlackoftribeloyalty.

Ÿ In an African marriage, the man is mostly the boss. He gathers and the woman nurtures. His gathering (money and protein) is considered more important the nurturing Woman is supposed to worship her husband whiles he worships his side-chic or side-chics. Woman is supposed to cry but sll treat her husband withrespect.

Today, norms are changing but the retrogressive tradionspersist.

Ÿ The industrious woman can afford a cook and a washing machine, and men cannot stand it, so she is a “bad woman” because she doesn't cook and clean. That's why many marriages arebreaking.

Ÿ A child is forbidden from asking about his sexual organs and innate experience, so he experiments with his peers and is immediately taggedasabadchild.

Ÿ A child cannot, no, should not look straight intohisfather'seyeswhenhespeakstohim.

Ÿ A child must be beaten for trying something newandmakingamistake.

Ÿ Manmustnotcry

Ÿ Boyswillbeboys.

Ÿ Deathismorevaluablethanbirth.

Ÿ 'Diɛ kɔm ɛkun nu, ɛduane ɛbu wo na yiɛ asi'. RetrogressiveTradion.Translate–Thereisan abundance of food at the funeral of the man whodiedstarving.

Ÿ Thecultureofcomparingandcompeon.

Ÿ The culture of Goro, Cola, grease my palms, sort me out. The Accepted tradion of kickbacks turned most of our leaders into soccerplayers.Kickingbackourdevelopment.

Ÿ In my industry - there is the culture of objecfying women in music videos (gyrang in nudity) whiles the man stands in front of his dreamhousesplurgingpropdollars.

Ÿ We have a culture of demanding respect from our children, teaching them to demand respect from their peers. Respect is great, but onceyoudemandit,youdon'tdeserveit.

Ÿ We teach our children to expect more from others than to create for self, creang adult African leaders who are dependent on Europe throughborrowing.

Ÿ We show our children their tribe is superior to others, but their race is inferior. RetrogressiveTradion.

Ÿ We teach our children to fear to love but love fear The consequence of this is, we chain their wings and prepare them to hope instead of flying higher than we reached.

THEWORDISDEVELOPMENTAL.

Howdowedevelopthe'mental'?

Myanswerissimple.

The African youth is born pure with the natural intelligence to coexist with nature in such a way that we survive without destroying our environment. This intelligence willcomebackashorewhenweallowthemtoquesonourtradionsandculture.

Let us teach our children to queson with the intelligence of love and inclusion, and notwithintellectualprejudice.

Let's teach our children to queson the idea that "bad " thoughts come from the devil, so they can find out for themselves that good and bad thoughts come directly fromthemind.

Small thoughts become dominant thoughts, and these thoughts are responsible for our acons and inacons. We are in total control of our thoughts. Second to life, the mindistheulmategifromGod.

Again, let's teach our children to queson the essence of the tradion, queson our limitaons, queson the reason behind the becoming, queson hegemony, quesonourparenng,andquesontheirthoughts.

Let us all together, as Africa's youth, “queson everything unl there are no more quesonsbeforewetakeacons”.