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African
intellectuals still have slave mentality - Soyinka
Accra, Nov. 5, Ghanadot/GNA - Professor Wole Sonyinka, a Nobel
Literature Laureate, on Thursday said Africa's inability to
progress beyond liberation from colonialism was due to the
lingering slave mentality of its leaders and intellectuals.
He said even though African countries had long gained
independence from western powers, "the slave mentality continues
to govern our thinking and our writings".
Prof. Soyinka was speaking on the topic: "Race and Solidarity in
a 'Versus' Syndrome" at a ceremony to mark the 17th
International African Writers' Day.
The ceremony, organized by the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA)
was under the theme: "Language, Literature and Society in a
Fractured World."
Prof. Soyinka said African writers and intellectuals had a duty
to move away from what had held Africans bound and to focus on
how the peoples of the continent could harness their rich
resources for the their progress.
He said there was a limit to what extent Africans could blame
the colonialist and neo-colonialists for the woes of the
continent and that African leaders were as guilty as the
colonialists for the current state of the continent.
The Nobel Laureate said the "we and they syndrome" had assumed a
new characteristic, saying, it was not just about Africans and
the west but also more so about Africans and their own leaders.
"We can blame the west for a lot of things but we can't blame
them for what is happening in Zimbabwe right now - neither can
we blame them for one man's attempt to truncate rule of law in
Nigeria and stay in power for a third term," he said.
Prof. Jophus Anamua-Mensah, who presided at the ceremony, said
he agreed with Prof. Soyinka, in that most Africa writers
focused on the negative events of "our past" and strengthened
the slave mentality more than encouraging people to progress.
He said the reading culture had dropped drastically on the
continent and as a result African writers had also lost the
courage to write.
Prof. Anamua-Mensah blamed Africa's woes, characterized by
disease, hunger, conflicts and poverty, on the high level of
illiteracy due to lack of reading and writing.
"Lately we see more of text books than supplementary readings
like novels, fictions and history in our schools and that is
affecting the use of language on the continent," he said.
Prof. Anamua-Mensah said government should set up a fund to
support publishers to produce more African writers' series for
schools.
He called on PAWA to also collect manuscripts from individual
writers and establish a supplementary fund to publish them for
the benefit of the masses.
Prof. Anamua-Mensah said there were many possibilities for
Africa in building and properly using literature and language,
adding that the universities and colleges had a role to play in
ensuring the proper use of language and literature for the
benefit of the continent.
Prof. Atukwei Okai, General Secretary of PAWA, said in the midst
of the fractured world, characterized by the global financial
meltdown, disease, conflicts, climate change and others, some
African shone.
He mentioned the Black Satellites, who won the FIFA Under-20
World Cup, Efo Kodzo Mawugbe, who won a BBC Players Writers'
competition, but said on the flipside, unacceptable incidences,
like the massacre of Africans by their fellow Africans, also
occurred on the continent.
The 17th International African Writers' Day would also be marked
by a serious of conferences and lectures during the week.
GNA
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