Building The True African Personaliy

By Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo

Under my article titled, “The Holy Grail of Afrocentric Culture” published on ghanaweb on February 14, 2014, a contributor called Mark Osei glibly wrote, “Nobody should pretend that we are the same as WHITES. The BLACKMAN is the most idiotic creature to walk the face of the earth….. The attitude of African politicians is a true testimony. The gross mismanagement, embezzlement of state funds, reckless dissipation of public funds, love of political power, lack of accountability etc. of African politicians today have confirmed what Lord Lugard wrote almost a hundred years ago.”

According to Terry, another contributor, Lord Lugard, the former governor-general of Nigeria, in 1926, wrote his unfiltered thought about Nigerians. From his book, “The Dual Mandates” comes these excerpts: "In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person, lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewelry. His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals' placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the state he has reached.

"Through the ages, the African appears to have evolved no organized religious creed, and though some tribes appear to believe in a deity, the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural. He lacks the power of organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business. He loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility - he will work hard with a less incentive than most races. He has the courage of the fighting animal, an instinct rather than a moral virtue. In brief, the virtues and defects of this race -type are those of attractive children, whose confidence when it is won is given ungrudgingly as to an older and wiser superior and without envy. Perhaps, the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and his lack of ability to visualize the future." Surprisingly, other commentators agreed with this pin-headed description of the Blackman. This made me reflect on what has been the source of problems with my two close relatives who tenaciously hold on to the belief that the Whiteman is a better human being than the Blackman. This deep-seated feeling of inferiority among our people may well account for why here on ghanaweb, even the most educated scholars struggle to outdo each other in sheer stupidity and ethnocentric diatribe. We are trying hard to affirm ancient pseudo-scientific notions of our inherent inferiority, forgetting that the notional Blackman is not a monolithic automaton, or a creature that talks the same way, thinks the same way or behaves the same way. Or that those infidels who want to denigrate our race go for the worst in our species to describe us, while they choose the best among themselves to describe themselves.

It is superfluous now to engage in a trite debate to affirm our common humanity. More capable individuals have rendered the discourse exceedingly moot and properly placed Lugard’s stupid albeit alarming assertions in the dustbin of pseudo-science. Here, I can only add to the corpus of existing epistemology to re-orient the misperceptions of the self-doubting ones. I do this with the following philosophical offering:

What is our role and purpose in life as Ghanaians…as human beings? Are we fated to conduct our lives in predetermined ways because of our race or ethnicity? Are we mere pawns in the hands of a higher power to be used and abused? Since time immemorial, religious and political pundits have posited a hierarchy of humanity and set up social classifications based on an imaginary nomenclature of human quality. Exactly whatever informs this racial and ethnic classification is variously detailed in the bosom of folk literature, both sacred and profane. Within these scriptures however, there is a convergence of thoughts about conduct, ethics and behavior that points to humankind’s unique purposes as distinguished from that of beasts. Beasts exist as a resource for other beasts; but all humans exist as the crowning glory of nature-as creatures divined to be the best adornment of all creation. Being the best that we can be elevates our status beyond beasts, while being the worst that we can be diminishes us and equates us to them. One good book accentuates this fact when it asserts that we are created in the image of God. The meaning of “image” here is important insofar as it cannot refer to the physical self. The variegated nature of the human race, physique and appearances makes the meaning of “image” more metaphorical in this context than literal, and it could only suggest the intrinsic quality, virtue or goodness we carry in our personalities when we make a choice to be the best that we can be. In short, we are on earth to embark upon a journey to be “in image” with the holy other no matter our race, creed or ethnicity. As we move forward and gather experiences and knowledge, as we form friendships, foster peace, perform acts of charity and extend goodwill to humanity, we build upon those characteristics and credentials that draw our image closer and closer to that of God’s. In the end, we become perfected in His image when we have done the most good to the most people for the most time. When we reach this moral pinnacle, we accomplish the purpose of our lives, which is to graduate into the spiritual pantheon of the gods through selfless acts of righteousness. At this point in our lives, our purpose is complete, our nobility affirmed, and our joy fulfilled. We would have reached a cultural crux that cuts across the pastime of little people, and raised our status as good men and women, not only by the standard of our little language, ethnic or racial groupings.

The evolution towards this godlike state could not be the product of any immutable pigmentation or cultural contraption. Admittedly, factors about which we can do nothing-like race and genetic blueprint- elevate or denigrate the outcomes of our best and noblest efforts. Sigmund Freud says anatomy is destiny….. But anatomy and the social context offers only a transient and infinitesimal aspect of the exploitable potential of individuals. A far enduring part consists in the effort we make in life, and the use to which we put our natural endowments and the opportunities that come our way. In this respect, there is as much danger in natural talents than there is in the lack thereof. There appears encoded in human nature a perfect proportion of opportunities and disabilities that constantly reinforce each other, and this is true no matter our race, physique or talents. An individual is as much likely to waste a sea of opportunities as he/she is likely to exploit it. And a person may well be motivated to better his or her circumstances as a result of the deprivation into which he or she is born. Riches and beauty may foster complacency and carelessness, while poverty and necessity may foster perseverance, strength of character and creative invention. We are therefore masters of our destiny to the extent that each of us-Blacks, Whites, Asians or Indians-has been given the chance to improve ourselves and to reach our highest possible potential no matter what we have or lack. Each person is given according to his/her needs, and we could, if we so choose exploit our inner talents to the fullest extent of our desires. Indeed, we can re-arrange our destinies to suit our lives’ ambitious goals no matter how titanic our frustrations, because for every opportunity we consider denied or lost, there are a thousand others waiting to be tapped. We are therefore not what we are because of any immutable destiny imposed on us by the aberration of nature. We are what we are because within a particular set of variable circumstances, we opted to act in certain peculiar ways to trigger certain unique outcomes. Throughout our lives, many such circumstances remain in flux, and will greatly influence the lives of individuals willing and able to exploit these intrinsic dynamics for good, for bad or for the ugly. What we are today is the result of what we have done with our lives these past years. What we will become tomorrow is simply the sum total of what we are doing with our lives today. To this formula of existence, there is none superior.

If we are not in the bondage as a result of our skin pigmentation, where does the discovery of our lives’ purposes and the full exploitation of our opportunities and potential leave us? The answer is the happier life, the fuller life, the purposeful life, the life lived with no regret, the life lived with the inner contentment that there is none better, or no better. Whereas this higher status in life might still contain its enormous challenges, it is the preferred life because it is relatively healthier and worthier. This state of existence then ought to be christened the human state, the apex of salvation, the apotheosis of all life, not the cultural heritage of a few but of all humanity.

Indeed to be human is a long process not reserved for a particular race, sex or creed. All our lives, we call each other human beings, forgetting that the present continuous tense of this expression suggests an effort in perpetuity, a search for humanhood which can only terminate in death and the final fulfillment. We are all “beings” struggling to be, and our god-like state is attained when we accomplish all our goals and cease to be.

All life ought to be a journey to the highest ideals, an autonomous narrative with a progressive beginning, middle and end, an independent plot of existence and a separate package of experience all reaching for the apogee. If we understand this, we will not look at skin pigmentation or ethnic identification to question the validity of our common humanity. Each of us will seek the deeper essences of our lives right here on earth to validate our existence. Imagine a world in which all life is invested with a purpose, a world in which each person embarks on an odyssey with fate and a quest to celebrate our common humanity and beautiful diversity through acts of charity, nobility, honesty, sacrifice and dedication to duty, a world in which the culture we celebrate is based on the universally acceptable value…..Such a life brings heaven right here on earth and saves all humanity from discrete, cabalistic and esoteric practices in which we fantasize our uniqueness in horrible practices, while the very custodians and scholars of these “African Area Studies” have blatantly refused to recognize the obvious fact that our fellow human beings are also our fellow human beings, thereby unashamedly condoning ill-reputed Lord Lugard’s discredited notions of the noble African.

Samuel Adjei Sarfo, Doctor of Law, is a general legal practitioner in Austin, Texas. You can email him at sarfoadjei@yahoo.com.