CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONTINUITY

There was an ancient, isolated community that practiced annual war games that required the death of one – and only one - warrior from each side. The deaths were then exorcised through rituals to alleviate tribal guilt over approving of the death of one of their own as a principle of co-existence. How do we compare the 200 warriors killed in the past century by this “primitive” community with the vast numbers who are victims of the massacres, civil wars, bombings, land-mines and casual urban violence which are part of daily life in this “civilized” modern world? If forced to make a choice between these two models, which appears the less inhumane?

It was with this questioning of our ethical certitudes that Wole Soyinka led off the opening debate of CIFEDHOP’s 16th International Training Session. The Nigerian dissident and Nobel Prize for Literature was not calling for emulation of any particular model, but rather suggesting that cultural practices from all communities deserve study. There are lessons to be learnt from their successes as well as imperfections, and even the process of rejecting certain practices requires a procedure of self-interrogation and re-examination of our presumptions that can be beneficial.

Soyinka continued that the hallmark of colonialism is the denial or denigration of other cultures, and, consequently, the failure to learn from them. From this point of view, the relation of indigenous peoples to their own governments is one of internal colonization in many parts of the world. This development model eradicated the cultural life of a good number of African populations; for example, the Ogoni of Nigeria, who were dehumanized by the elimination of their farmlands, the pollution of traditional food resources, and finally, killed or banished to the forests when they protested. Fighting against the Nigerian regime of the moment, the Ogoni were eventually heard by the United Nations, which recognized the justice of their cause. The Ogoni Bill of Rights that they produced raised a cry on behalf of minority cultures throughout the world. The regime listened as well, but in their fear and anger, responded by killing the Ogoni leader and eight of his fellow activists.

As Soyinka noted, not all regimes go this far, but the goal of silencing the cultural realities of peoples is still achieved. The imposition of uniform clothing regulations and the crushing of the individual personality in the name of religious fervor are but two examples of attempts to destroy cultural diversity and uniqueness, and to impose dominance through trying to mould everyone in the image of the majority. This process of denying minority groups their cultural heritage facilitates their exploitation and their eventual destruction as a viable people. At the very best, they become marginalized curio paraded on ceremonial occasions.

The greatest challenges of our time, according to Soyinka, are the elimination of racism and the eradication of inequality between human beings, as well as between the organizations that support them. In his view, before too long, genuine democracy will be assessed by the visibility, level of cultural development and plural vibrancy granted to every society.


Wole Soyinka concluded that the approaching millenium calls for radical concepts of new patterns of being. Take, for example, the so-called global village; perhaps this is an acceptable expression of the nebulous notion we have for the direction the human community must take. In any case, the global village must draw its roots from each and every one of its component communities. Nations where these “villages” already exist must provide the example by bringing their own neglected units into the larger community, with their ancestral integrity intact yet adapted to the contemporary realities of existence. In this was, they may provide the world with persuasive cultural models towards which the global village may aspire.