Africa

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

>You're the Africa expert. Do tell.
>
>Doug
>

Basil Davidson, "Africa in History":

But the kingdoms and empires were not, of course, the whole of the picture
of political development in these centuries; they were not even, in some
respects, the most familiar or interesting part of it. It may be reasonable
to dwell on their development from one stage to another for the benefit of
readers whose own history has been overwhelmingly one of centralizing
government, class stratification, and the attempt to apply checks and
balances to royal or other forms of despotism. These were situations also
shared, as we have seen, by many African peoples. Yet there were many
others whose development from the numerically frail communities of Early
Iron Age times took a different road. In following this road, they often
displayed an originality and dynamism which make the outcome of their
history far more intriguing than the government of kings, emperors or royal
legates.

These ?non-kingly? societies have been variously described, partly because
of the vagaries of anthropological jargon and partly because the very
diversity of such ?small societies? makes any simple explanation difficult.
Perhaps their commonest label is ?segmentary?. A segmentary society in
Africa (and to some extent in other continents) is said to be one in which
power within a given community is distributed more or less equally between
the heads of its constituent family descent-lines or internal segments.
This kind of organization reflected the structure of daily life in villages
which ran their own affairs but were prepared to accept a relationship of
loyalty, and mutual obligation, with neighbouring villages. Simplifying,
one may say that each village was inhabited by a single major descent-line
whose elders formed its government, although, with the growth of its
population and the ramifications of its marriages, each village would also
have its own internal segmentary pattern. The conceptual form within which
inter-lineage loyalties took shape usually rested in the cult of appointed
ancestors: of those ancestors, that is, who were regarded as standing in
line of communication with the founder-guardians of the people and the
spirit world of their gods.

Now it might at first view appear that this would be an ineffectual and
even primitive way of managing the affairs of a people scattered among
different villages. Such as extreme dispersal of political authority surely
led to conflict and confusion? Generally, the truth was otherwise. Within
their limits of time and place, segmentary societies could show a quite
emphatic capacity for dealing with the changes and chances of life. One may
quote the case of the Igbo peoples of eastern Nigeria.

The Igbo possess an unusually fertile land and a corresponding skill in
making it bear fruit. This has been so for as long as the records indicate:
certainly for many centuries. Over this period the Igbo and their immediate
neighbours have continuously expanded in numbers, to the extent, indeed,
that they were able to suffer enormous losses, through the forced
emigration of the Atlantic slave trade, and yet still produce more people
than their land could easily support. This demographic buoyancy called for
a flexible political system. Segmentary politics met the need. These
provided for the easy solution of conflicts both of ?fission? and of
?fusion?: it was relatively simple, in other words, for Igbo segments to
break away and form new villages of independent authority, and not much
less easy for villages to join together when they wished.

The keynote, in any case, was a vigorous egalitarianism. Though the Igbo
respected age, and leadership devolved on the elders, ?respect was not
servility and was balanced by the belief that birth did not confer
advantage on any man. The Igbo were individualistic and egalitarian, every
man considering himself as good as everyone else and demanding a voice in
his local affairs. Since everyone had a right to rise in the society, Igbo
culture emphasized competition: competition between families, between
lineages and between clans. Competition was promoted by Igbo national
sports, wrestling and mock battles. Although men were born equal, they
could rise to positions of prestige through a combination of wealth and a
record of service to the clan.

===

Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 6 2000

Living in exile, it is easy to begin to forget the simple things. "The
sounds of the morning are different," says Chinua Achebe of the way it
feels to greet the day in his native region in Nigeria. "To hear the
birds." And, of course, he adds, "To be surrounded by the Ibo language."

These pleasures had not been available to the famed Nigerian novelist, the
author of the 1959 classic "Things Fall Apart" - for nine years since
leaving his country in 1990.

A serious car accident and the need for Western medical attention first
prompted him to leave and then a repressive five-year military regime kept
him out.

Shortly after leaving, Mr. Achebe settled in New York's Hudson Valley
region where he has since been teaching literature at Bard College in
Annandale-on-Hudson.

This summer, however, three months after the inauguration of a new civilian
government, Achebe was able to return home for a visit. The journey aroused
so many emotions that even Achebe, a man famed for the power of his
narratives, says he cannot yet find the words to frame them.

In a dialogue with the Congolese novelist Emmanuel Dongala - also teaching
at Bard while he lives in exile from his country's civil war - Achebe spoke
recently in front of Bard faculty and students about what he felt and saw
while in his homeland.

Nigeria has 'ceased to work'

"There is great sadness," says Achebe. "This is a country that has ceased
to work." And yet, he adds, "I kept fighting to see the good in us as
well." Especially at home in his own region, among the Ibo people, he says
he found hope and vitality. "The ordinary people are not passive. They are
viable, even humorous."

The writer flew into the country's former capital of Lagos, but went almost
immediately to his home region 400 miles to the east. He also, at the
invitation of the government, traveled to the new capital of Abuja to meet
with President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Speaking at Bard, Achebe stopped short of wholeheartedly endorsing
President Obasanjo. "Writers are not in the business of endorsing anybody,"
he says. But he did call Obasanjo "the best of the possibilities that we
have right now," adding that he is "a bright man," with "many
qualifications."

Yet a return to civilian rule is only a beginning point for the troubled
country, Achebe points out. "At least now we have turned and are facing in
the right direction," he says. "But that is all that we have done."

Achebe says it was impossible not to be troubled by the poverty and decay
evident in his country. "Even arriving at the airport in Lagos is
depressing," he says. "You suddenly felt that something was wrong. . ."


Louis Proyect
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