Abstract
The leadership question in Africa has, for a long time, been on the front burner. Many problems plaguing African societies have been hung on the neck of poor leadership. Excellent leadership seems to be a rarity in Africa. This perhaps explains why certain awards have been instituted to reward outstanding leadership in Africa. At times, some of these awards could not be made simply because there was no worthy candidate to be so honoured. The paper considers the leadership question in Africa and a possible panacea for it within the framework of the Paradigm of Ethical Development (Salawu, 2004; 2006b). This paradigm promotes an advanced and organized state of human social development brought about by the cultivation of mind for the higher ideals of the society. The contention of this paper is that African oral ethics is indispensable for inculcating in Africans, right from childhood, the values of good citizenry and leadership, necessary to create a Civilization.
Introduction
The dearth of quality leadership in Africa was accentuated with the decision of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation not to award its annual Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2009 and 2010. 1 The award is for African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents, and who democratically transfer power to their successors. 2
With a $5 million initial payment, plus $200,000 a year for life, the prize is believed to be the world's largest, exceeding the $1.3 m Nobel Peace Prize. The first award was given to President Joacquim Chissano in 2007 for ‘his role in leading Mozambique from conflict to peace and democracy’. 3
In 2008, the award went to President Festus Mogae for outstanding leadership. He had ensured Botswana’s continued stability and prosperity in the face of an HIV/AIDS pandemic, which threatened the future of his country and people. 4 The Foundation did not award the prize in 2009 and 2010 because the award panel could not find an African leader who merited it.
This observation is in line with that of Ake (1996) that three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa had yielded meagre returns. He blamed this on political conditions in Africa, contending that African leaders are power zealous, intolerant of opposition, selfish and corrupt. For Africa to surmount the problem of underdevelopment (as evident in hunger, sickness and diseases, ignorance and homelessness), we first need to set right the issue of ethics in our work and social lives. Unless there is a right attitude, this paper assumes, Africa will continue to be traumatized with every imaginable malaise. To have the right attitude is to grapple with those good values as prevalent in the traditional African society (Salawu, 2004). And in order to inculcate these values, the African media, which speak the values, must be employed. Attitude is a question of mind; and without the mind being healthy or regenerated, the attitude cannot be positive.
This is where Civilization, which is the cultivation of mind for the higher ideals of the society, comes in. As I argued elsewhere, this Civilization is the essence of the Paradigm of Ethical Development (Salawu 2004; 2006a; 2006b). Civilization – the cultivation of mind – would lead to Civilization, which is an advanced and organized state of human social development. The idea is represented in this equation:
The Paradigm of Ethical Development and similar approaches
Among Western approaches to ethics, utilitarianism is closest to the Paradigm as both call for the maximization of good and the creation of greatest goodness for the greatest number. Utilitarianism ‘is a universal teleological system that calls for the maximisation of goodness in society – for the greatest goodness for the greatest number’ (Pojman, n.d.: 74). Similarly, ubuntuism, which the Paradigm affirms, is the capacity in African culture to express compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony and humanity in the interest of building and maintaining a community with justice and mutual caring (cf. Nussbaum 2003: 1). Ubuntu is a Zulu (South African) word which is contained in the maxim, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, meaning ‘a person is a person through other persons’ or ‘I am, because of others’. This maxim is also present in different African cultures to mean ‘a person is defined in relation to the community’, ‘that I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am’ etc. Utilitarians typically conceive good as pleasure, which can promote some of the values which the Paradigm affirms, but, in general, the Paradigm must embrace a broader notion of the good and the greatest good for the greatest number if we are to capture the full import of the African maxim.
The Paradigm, in its shared interest with utilitarians to promote the good of society, explicitly embraces peace, good health, abundance and progress in all their forms. In short, the Paradigm equates happiness with civilization. In doing so, it maintains its kinship with utilitarianism while broadening the understanding of the greatest good.
Value-normative complexes
Even though this thesis does not subscribe to modernization theory, there are certain components of it that are of relevance to the thesis. For instance, certain theories on modernization argue that it is not the character of society but of individuals that is important (Weiner, 1966). This thesis agrees to this with the contention that nothing is called the society but the aggregate of individuals that make it up. While Weiner believed that attitudinal and value changes were prerequisites to creating a modern society, this paper brings out that attitudinal and value changes are prerequisites to creating a civilized society.
David McClelland was one of the important scholars of modernization theory to emphasize individual values and attitudes. Melkote (1991) reported that McClelland (1966) was interested in identifying and measuring the variable that might be the impulse to modernization. McClelland tagged a mental virus that made people behave in a particularly energetic way, n-Ach or need for achievement. The n-Ach has to do with thoughts of doing something better than it had been done before, doing things more efficiently and faster with less labour.
Melkote (1991: 46), meanwhile, noted that McClelland cautioned that n-Ach by itself was not enough. The other input which was equally important was social consciousness, i.e. working for the common good. Therefore, in summary, the impulse to modernization (for this thesis, civilization), according to McClelland, consisted in part of a personal variable – n-Ach – and in part of a social virtue – interest in the welfare of others. To this extent, we would regard McClelland’s position as in consonance with the position of this paper.
The Paradigm of Ethical Development
As stated, a motivation for embracing this Paradigm is its promise for ameliorating conditions in Africa. We noted above that progress in African society has been seriously hampered by widespread corruption and fraud, both in financial and behavioural terms; and that at the base of this malaise are egocentricity, greed and mindlessness resulting in violence, instability, destruction, hunger, want, diseases and ignorance.
I offer that there can be no genuine development in Africa unless the ‘modern’ African mind is refined and cultivated in accordance with the teachings of the Paradigm. As already pointed out, the original African spirit cherishes the virtues of good conduct, altruism, hard work and productivity, fairness and honesty and is committed to the well-being of the society. Westernization and modernization undermined these African values and replaced them with materialism, egocentrism, and a myriad of vices and traumas. Although Westernization and modernization brought good things like Western education and technology, they did so at a heavy cost. African people lost their values and developed a warped sense of values.
Let us turn to the basic tenets of the Paradigm and how they develop civilization in both of the senses we have identified above. The tenets include:
Ensuring the cultivation and regeneration of mind Embracing the African traditional value system Encouraging good citizenship and patriotism Promoting the virtues of honesty, discipline, responsibility, integrity and hard work Promoting merit and competence over mediocrity Promoting learning and intellectualism Promoting creativity and innovation
As for the mechanism for instilling these values and developing Civilization, the Paradigm calls on people to listen frequently to the stories, myths and folklore that tell of these values. It calls for a reinstatement of Africa’s long tradition of transmitting these values by the spoken word.
African oral ethics for leadership ethics
Oramedia are artistic components of folklore. They are popular arts which include opera, music, dance; and of course, drama, poetry and folktales. Jefkins and Ugboajah (1986: 154–61) assert the inextricability of Oramedia and Folklores:
Oramedia cannot be separated from folk cultures. One can see oramedia as group media but it is better to regard them as interpersonal media, speaking to the common man in his language, in his idiom, and dealing with problems of direct relevance to his situation.
Oral Arts are essential aspects of folklores. They are so fundamental that they may be regarded as synonymous to folklores. They can be described as the vehicle for the transmission of the folklores or as the repository of the folklores. Oral Arts are so called because they are created without the aid of writing, delivered by mouth and received through the ear.
Finnegan (1970: 28) refers to Oral Arts as Oral Traditions having classes which include myths, folktale, proverb, music, song, poetry. Oral Arts can also be delineated into the following forms: prose (if it is slow, non-rhythmical), poetry (if it is fast, rhythmical) and drama (if it involves actions).
Nzewi (1979) postulates that the purpose of theatre is to inculcate values, ethics and mores in order to ensure an ordered society. The objectives are to inform everyone in society of their social, moral and humanistic values; assist governments in popularizing progressive policies; and promote peace, human understanding and the brotherhood of mankind.
Significantly, Dzurgba (1999: 83-91) refers to the Oral Traditions as Oral Ethics because they convey ethical messages for the African people. Bayard (1953: 1–17) asserts that mythological stories, for instance, are told about what constitutes good or bad conduct in society. For good behaviour, there is public honour and commendation, while bad behaviour attracts ostracism, punishment and disgrace.
Likewise, African songs are an important medium for communicating the ethics of the society (Bowra, 1962: 82; Jones 1959: 70). The songs are informative and meaningful, having contents that teach ethical values of honesty, dedication to duty, humility, selflessness, justice etc. (Beier, 1956: 26; Awe, 1974: 29). In the same vein, proverbs communicate ethical values that people need to apply to daily social relations (Boverd, 1977, cited in Ayantayo, 2001: 42).
Similarly, the Ifa literary corpus among the Yoruba is a storehouse of information on moral matters (Adewale, 1986: 60–61). Thus, Abimbola (1976: 1-11) argues that Ifa is a repository of the Yoruba traditional body of knowledge embracing ethics, philosophy, medicine and folktale.
Convinced that national development is only achievable in a conducive atmosphere, in a society where cherished norms and values are appreciated and preserved, Uzochukwu (2001: 114) argues that Oral Literature (as he chooses to call it) helps to create this state of affairs in the Igbo society. Referring to a 1985 publication of his where he discloses that the accepted patterns of behaviour in Igbo society are based on the ideal of ‘live and let live’, he asserts:
… this ideal, the epitome of Igbo philosophical view of life, is traceable in most verbal art through which some values are expressed in Igbo traditional society (Uzochukwu, 1985a: 106).
The objective of praise-poetry in Igbo society, as it is in other African societies, is to bring to focus the admirable qualities expected in the society so that the necessary atmosphere conducive for national development is created. Conversely, the folktale contains some moral lesson that serves as a tool for correcting anti-social behaviour. Uzochukwu (2001: 120) remarks: ‘wickedness does not go unpunished in the moral world of the folktale.’ He adds that the implication is always a warning to people to adhere to the norms of the society.
We shall highlight some samples of the ethical contents of the African oral arts. We start by considering two children’s poems written in the Yoruba language:
Ise l’oogun ise, Mura si se ore e mi, Ise l’a fi n d’eni giga. Bi a ko ba r’eni f’ehin ti, Bi ole l’aa ri; Bi a ko ba r’eni gb’okan le, A te’ra mo’se eni. Iya a re le l’owo l’owo, Ki baba a re l’esin le’kan, Bi o ba gb’oju le won, O te tan ni mo so fun o. Iya n be f’omo ti o gbon Ekun n be f’omo ti n sa kiri. Ma f’owuro sere ore e mi, Ise l’a fi n d’eni giga.
Translation:
Work is the antidote to poverty, Be hardworking, my friend, Work is the ladder of elevation. Without a sponsor, One does not appear diligent, Without support, One has to be hardworking. Your mother may be rich, Your father may be resourceful, If you depend on them, You are finished. Wretchedness awaits the unwise, Sorrow is the lot of the unserious. Do not toy with your beginning, Work is the ladder to greatness.
This poem enjoins us, especially the young ones, to be hardworking, dutiful and diligent, not just for our well-being today, but more as a preparation for our future. This kind of message would produce responsible citizens, and in the aggregate, would bring about productivity and efficiency in the polity, all for the overall growth and development of the nation.
Ewure je eran ile T’o maa n j’iya pupo Nitori aigboran re. Ti a ba na ewura, A gbon eti meji pepe, A tun pada si ‘bi ti O ti ji’ ya l’eekan. Eyin omode, e gbo, E ma se bi ewure, Eran alaigboran.
Translation:
The goat is a domestic animal That suffers punishment a lot Because of its disobedience. If the goat is flogged, It will only shake its ears And go back to where it was flogged. Children, listen, Do not be like the goat, The disobedient animal.
This song-poem about disobedience is meant to make children to become law-abiding citizens. If we have law-abiding citizens, the problem of crime and violence in the polity will reduce to a minimal level.
Ja itanna t’o n tan T’o tutu, t’o si dara. Ma duro d’ojo ola, Akoko sure tete.
This poem, just in tune with the first one, counsels that the young should make hay while the sun shines. This implies that the young should judiciously make use of their time of youth, in preparation for their future, so that the future can be glorious for them. The poem, which emphasizes the fleeting nature of time, indicates that any young one who is not serious with his life may end up being a social misfit, and a servant to his contemporaries. The following song has a similar message. It enjoins pupils/students to be serious with their studies so that they can be in exalted positions later in life. The song goes thus:
Bi nba mo’we mi, Bata mi a dun ko ko ka; Bi n ba mo’we mi, Bata mi a wo perere ni’le.
The next two songs in Yoruba preach good conduct. While the first one admonishes children to be respectful to their parents, the second one stresses the importance of being helpful to fellow human beings. They go thus:
Omo t’o mo’ya a re l’oju o, Osi ni o ta’mo naa pa (twice). Baba to j’iya po l’ori e, Mama t’o j’iya po l’ori e. Omo t’o mo’ya a re l’oju o, Osi ni o ta’mo naa pa.
Translation:
Any child who disrespects his/her mother Will never be successful (twice). The father who toils for you, The mother who toils for you, Any child who disrespects his/her mother Will never be successful (twice). Enikeni ti’wo ba ni’pa Lati se iranlowo fun o, Oun naa l’enikeji re, Tooju u re. Oun l’enikeji re o, ranti, Ranti o, Oun l’enikeji i re o, ha, Ranti o.
Translation:
Whoever you have the means to assist Is your fellow, Take care of him/her. S/he is your fellow, be mindful, Be mindful, S/he is your fellow, be mindful.
It is important to note that these value-laden songs, poems or proverbs are intended to instill the values in children and adults alike. As we have poems and songs enjoining children to honour their parents, so do we have such that enjoin parents and the elderly to take care of their children, honour the young ones and plan for the future of their children.
Yoruba proverbs and wise sayings also have intrinsic ethical values. The following two sayings preach goodness, good conduct:
Iwa rere l’eso eniyan (Good character is an ornament). Oruko rere san ju wura ati fadaka lo (A good name is better than gold and silver).
The first saying is about the beauty of good character. The second stresses the advantage of good reputation over abundance of riches. This is a message that a society that thrives on materialism needs to regenerate itself. Because of worldly riches, many have become involved in corruption, stealing, robbery, murder and related ills. In the name of making money, people are ready to do anything without minding what image they have in the public eye. If political office holders, for instance, were to inscribe this saying on their hearts, they would care more about having good names than the dubious wealth amassed through nefarious activities.
The following Igbo poem stresses the need to aid the helpless, to pay attention to farm work, to settle quarrels promptly so that they may not escalate and disrupt the equilibrium (Uzochukwu, 2001: 118).
Nga o mmiri ji onye mkoumkpu, Nga ahu ka o ji onje toro ogologo Onye puta na ndu uzo hu nwa mmadu Nga o na-arisi imi, Q buru ukpa n’ isi, ya butuo ukpa, Hichaa nwata imi Onye ma ihe o ga-aru na o bilite-ee? Chukwu new ike-ee. O buru na I jewe ije, nwa Uzochukwu-uu, I jewe ije, Rote mgbe Iga-atugba ji na mbubo. Na-akowa ji-oo. Ajo onu kpaa mmadu n’ezi be gi, Were uriom okuko chuo aja, Gboro ha ogu umu ndi mmuo, Lkpe adiwara Chukwu (Uzochukwu, 1985b: 96-7). As the diminutive is liable to be drenched by rain water, So is the tall person. When on the road, one sees a child Unkempt, with mucus running down from the nose, He should leave all engagement, Take down the long basket he may be carrying, And take care of the child For who knows what he would grow to be? As God is all-powerful. When you are engaged in other pursuits, son of Uzochukwu, In your pursuit of other engagements, Remember to give due attention to yam farming When people are embroiled with quarrelling in your compound, Offer sacrifice with a newly hatched chick, To forestall the evil temptation.
The following Igbo proverb also encourages selflessness: ‘Egbe bere Ugo bere’ (Let the kite perch, Let the eagle perch) (Uzochukwu, 2001: 114).
These are just a few examples of the rich African heritage of oral ethics that are largely lost today – a situation that calls for rediscovery and re-application.
Conclusion
It is the contention of this paper that the cultivation of mind for the higher ideals of society is already embedded in the culture of the African, as encapsulated in ubuntuism, and as demonstrated in the culture of the people typified in its songs, poems, proverbs, folktales etc. This culture needs to be ingrained in all Africans since leaders of tomorrow normally come from the rank of followers of today. If the follower today does not imbibe the culture, s/he will go into the leadership position tomorrow with a warped sense of values. While it is true that leadership is important for the direction a society will take, the task of creating a better society will be daunting and unachievable if the vast majority of followers fail to imbibe the culture of altruism, honesty, integrity and diligence.
As such it is the entire society that needs to be cultivated for there to be a better society. Communication is pivotal in this regard, as the message of ethics needs be communicated to people from time to time; and from childhood (Salawu, 2006c). All media platforms, including radio, television and print, need be deployed to disseminate the messages of ethics in various forms such as tales, songs, poems, proverbs etc. Africa has a rich repertoire of oral ethics that can shape the orientation of individuals for the positive development of society. It is now time to go into this repertoire and recite these works to raise the ethical consciousness of all concerned and make way for civilization
The family as an institution is very critical in this ethical revolution being canvassed. Since the character of an adult is most likely formed from childhood, the family would play a pivotal role in moulding the character of the child who would later grow into adulthood. Most of the anti-social behaviours prevalent in society could be as a result of the breakdown in the family system. Almond (2006) laments the fragmentation of the traditional family in the Western societies, observing that this is a cause of serious social problems. The traditional family is well positioned for the ethical revolution. Apart from the parents showing good examples and guiding their children in the moral path through admonition and chastisement, they also create time to tell them tales and teach them folksongs that are value-laden. In traditional African societies, such activities are referred to as tales by moonlight because they take place in the villages under the moonlight, which is after a day’s work and shortly before bedtime.
The institution of school also has a big role to play in the ethical revolution. Salawu (2006c) notes:
Schools can adopt various value-laden songs and poems as anthems for recitation during (school) assemblies. It is believed that if these songs and poems are recited everyday that schools open, pupils and students would have them internalised. As such, they are most likely to live in consciousness of the messages of the recitations and have them as guides in all their conducts (Salawu 2006c: 309).
Of great importance is to have African leaders who are selfless. A selfless leader will not be corrupt because s/he would realize that corruption can only mess the economy, thereby making the people vulnerable to poverty and want. A selfless leader would realize that the happiness of his people is more important than all the riches he can acquire through immoral acts. A selfless leader would know that if things were not working in his society, it would affect the people and their progress. A selfless leader would definitely be a shining example to his or her people, and s/he would propel them to higher ideals.