Something that struck me in this thread is the role of traditional African spirituality, and the obsession of the colonialists with it.
It struck me because even for Mau Mau, it wasn't the weapons or the politics that the British were obsessed with. It was the oathing.
It struck me because even for Mau Mau, it wasn't the weapons or the politics that the British were obsessed with. It was the oathing.
Yani the British destroyed and tortured whole communities to destroy their core spirituality. What the British did to the #Talai clan was literal genocide. They cut people from the land, took them to where disease would kill them, and then put a stigma to socially kill them.
By its definition, genocide is not only about killing people but killing the memory of their existence.
The story of the people must be retold, otherwise we become complicit in the British project.
The story of the people must be retold, otherwise we become complicit in the British project.
For the Mau Mau, the story was the same. The torture wasn't to find out the Mau Mau military and political strategies. As Maina wa Kinyatti tells us, the British already got intel from the betrayal of General China.
escholarship.org/uc/item/3c8738…
escholarship.org/uc/item/3c8738…
This leads to the conclusion that African spirituality is as powerful as ****. It is the barrier standing between us and complete annihilation of us as a people. The Anglo-American empire is committed to crushing our spiritual core, and even with slavery, they have not succeeded.
In US, the Anglo-Americans preached the Bible but the enslaved turned the exodus into a story of them singing "Let my people go." In Haiti, the Boukman prayer inspired revolution. And even since, US has committed to stamping out Haitian spirituality by making vodou a bad word.
It is that spirituality that produces a Haitian child who can tell an American to his face that his country is a den of robbers.
Watch the video until towards the end and ask if your child can say stuff like this.
Watch the video until towards the end and ask if your child can say stuff like this.
But that said, we need to talk about this: the way our Eurocentric politicians exploit our traditional spirituality for their own ends for empire. And get our traditional elders to support them.
Case 1. standardmedia.co.ke/article/200022…
Case 1. standardmedia.co.ke/article/200022…
Case 2
This happened just recently, with Tekayo's jilted boyfriend and the Talai clan
the-star.co.ke/siasa/2020-06-…
This happened just recently, with Tekayo's jilted boyfriend and the Talai clan
the-star.co.ke/siasa/2020-06-…
What is interesting is that these elders, both from Gema and Talai, are Christians and sometimes pastors. They play this dance between African heritage of struggle and accepting Christianity, and then use that concoction to anoint leaders.
Isn't Gema headed by a clergyman?
Isn't Gema headed by a clergyman?
The end result, dear Kenyans, is that the political project which the spirituality originally inspired gets lost. Instead, we have African spirituality controlled by the same church that called that spirituality "witchcraft," and no freedom struggle that is about us.
The Mau Mau haven't got their land. Neither have the #Talai. And the Talai have a case to make for what happened to them to be declared as genocide at the hands of the British government.
But no, the politicians tap into that spirituality and use it for rigged elections.
But no, the politicians tap into that spirituality and use it for rigged elections.
Fanon warned us in the Wretched of the Earth that while.our African spiritualities are powerful, they can be used for things other than our freedom. Ask yourselves why we have not used them to curse politicians, to put the equivalent of a Xala on them?
I forgot to add the case of the Giriama and the Kamba. The revolt led by Mekatilili, for example, came after the Giriama had repeatedly avoided entering the cash economy. They would use trade with the Waswahili and the Arabs to pay taxes. But the British wanted more than money.
To break the spirit of the Giriama, the British bombed the kayas. That's was when the Giriama had enough and fought. They burned down British installations and beat the British who couldn't afford another war when they were fighting with Germans in TZ. It was 1914.
To cut them off socially, they told us lies about coastals being lazy.
Same for the Kamba. The chiefs used to oath people against working from the British, and that culminated in the 1938 protest against destocking.
But again, what are we told about the Kamba? Ni uchawi tu.
Same for the Kamba. The chiefs used to oath people against working from the British, and that culminated in the 1938 protest against destocking.
But again, what are we told about the Kamba? Ni uchawi tu.
And no, please don't tell me about Africans losing their spirituality sijui because it has been stolen by the church or broken by colonialism. Our spirituality has NEVER died. It is in the Americas. Politicians here are using it. So it's still there. Very intact.
The problem lies in our political consciousness. It is now clear that we have a very narrow consciousness of our history. That is why Tekayo can imply that his family is Mau Mau, they can use oaths, but pursue a colonial settler agenda with no chills.
We who want freedom need to challenge our traditional elders to stop misusing our traditions to support robbers and vampires. We need rituals from them. Rituals to mourn the desecration of colonialism and the ancestors who were killed and have never been commemorated.
We need rituals to protect sacred spaces and curse those who decimate our forests and evict lions for a road for the rich, and leave no space for ordinary people to breathe. Our ancestors are restless because of bs like this.
Our ancestors have always spoken through nature. That's why our traditional moral stories had animal characters. So these Tekayos who raid public space because they've blocked their ears to the roar of lions are a curse to us.
Our beliefs are not compromised. They are controlled by a Eurocentric political class. So we need to end this constant narrative of loss which is dominated by us, the 2% who get a western education. Our problem is our political consciousness. Not loss.
The idea of compromised beliefs or loss comes from the Euro-christian idea of purity (white as snow, or one drop of black blood makes one black, or the princess and the pea).
Africans have never claimed a pure spiritiality unaffected by our experience. We're not that stupid.
Africans have never claimed a pure spiritiality unaffected by our experience. We're not that stupid.
So #upperdeckpeopleKE need to quit whining. If you're unsure what to do, support our artists. Artists are the truth tellers who tap into our spirituality, which is precisely why Ezekiel Mutua and his fans hate artists.
And read. Use the chance you got. Do it for our people.
And read. Use the chance you got. Do it for our people.
