TRADITION WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH OUR CULTURAL PAST ? ODOGWU IBEZIMAKO There is very little that is traditional about tradition or modern about modernity. Both categories are deeply related to each other. Societies that are characterized as traditional inherit ideas, beliefs, and institutions from their past and are never culturally static. Traditions are socially inherited ideas, beliefs, institutions, rituals, principles and practices that organize thought and action. They are embedded so deeply into the contours of any society that they are not visible to an untrained eye, yet they organize the texture of our lives.
tradition lives here.
What should we do with our cultural past? There are a range of responses to this, but ultimately they fall into two camps; revivalist and anti-revivalist. Anti-revivalists want to keep the past in the past. They want Indigenous intuitions, practices, and ideas that have survived colonization to be dismantled and erased. They argue that you must abandon any Indigenous cultural ethic, because this ethic has already been defeated through colonial conquest. For them, if two societies were to come into contact, and one triumphs, then surely the cultures of the triumphant must be cultivated by the subjugated. They argue that it is in the best interest of the subjugated groups to “catch up” with advanced industrial societies and to do so, they must abandon their cultural heritage, which they perceive to be pre-scientific.
Redemption Theologists believe that inheriting the mentality of former colonial governors makes the African a subservient global citizen. They are dissatisfied with the acceptance of alien cultural values and believe only a freedom of the mind will heal such a society from the corrupting influences of forced modernity. You will hear them sing “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves, can free our minds!” Dr Munyaradzi Mawere and Dr. Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu are contemporary scholars in the Indigenous Knowledge school. They leverage knowledge systems, spirituality and technologies to fashion a future built on a knowable traditional African way. They look to revitalize Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) for Africa’s development. They believe African Indigenous knowledge systems should be the basis of development in the modern world and Indigenous resources and traditions should be harnessed to meet modern goals.
Revivalist fall under several sub categories. Cultural revivalists look to their cultural past for a sense of cultural pride and identity. They draw from cultural products to call for cultural unity and use these cultural products to form the basis for an authentic and original contribution to global culture.
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Julius Nyere was the founding father of Tanzania and was one of the Nation Builders tasked with creating a modern African State. He drew upon what he saw as similarities between the many sub-ethnic nationalities of the Tanzanian people to form one national identity and national ethic.
