The problems Chimamanda talks about are not limited to social media. And they don't come from a character flaw. They are the fruit of the neoliberal hijack of social change which she also benefited from. So those who attack her, as she unwittingly admits, are her disciples.
As an arts teacher who has challenged Kenya's colonial education system, I can tell you that under this neoliberal era, we have given nothing to our young people to help them read life in its complexity. To expect otherwise is to seek to reap where we have not sown.
Every time Kenyans repeat that nonsense about arts having no "relevance," and of reducing education to job market and economic success, they are planting the seeds of the fruit Chimamanda now criticizes: entitlement, puritanical vision of life, little emotional intelligence etc.
I have had to teach my students what colonialism is. Yes. They don't know. We don't teach them because KEPSA says it doesn't produce workers to export to Uganda. Neoliberalism defunded education. So it made us diseducate our youth and produce the people Chimamanda now describes.
Chimamanda might not know this because her generation escaped the neoliberal war on education. So she went through the accolades, spoke at think tanks, and thought she could teach the younger generation the same path. She didn't realize they grew up in a different world order.
In our days, liberation heroes did not get awards, invitations to give talks. To fight even for women's issues attracted abuse. But these days, you get prizes, awards, TED talks, invitations to think tanks, etc. So younger people see material rewards for raising social issues.
That's how neoliberalism has corrupted social commentary and intellectual production. People who want to continue in that path need to be conscious of that, and to be very cautious about the kinds of invitations, prizes, awards and fellowships they accept.
And if you choose the path of accompanying your literary prowess with such material awards, prepare to go through what Chimamanda has gone through. I do sympathize with her, truly, but this is the nature of the neoliberal beast.
I invite her to fight against the commercialization of education and the war against the arts. The US has spread that disease to Africa in the name of "education reform." Her voice would be more useful in education, than in the neoliberal path of workshops and mentoring.
An education system in which the arts form an integral part, and a society which values humanity over achieving targets, where ideas are grappled with, rather than celebrated, is what will raise a generation that values being good to people over the appearance of goodness.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
