Nyathi speaking from Brazil: Breaking the Global-South barrier
Moreover, identity becomes important in understanding the broader framework of nationalism and its importance in explaining issues of higher politics.
THE centre of my analytical focus last month was inclined to revisiting Zimbabwe’s plural political and cultural identities. The review of the publications by Pathisa Nyathi (2005) and Cain Mathema (2013) abetted in the execution of this mandate. Considering the hyped and critical debates around national belonging mainly on social media it was critical that I suspend every other issue and deliver a series on; Turning to the Afrocentric paradigm of conceptualising the “nation”. The protruding national identity debates since February 2016 substantiate the much predicted effects of the 2013 elections which led to the governance reinstatement of ruling Zanu-PF to this date. With no need to specifically give names to all episodes of nation-building dilemma consequences it remains crucial to acknowledge how the cited publications remain essential in explaining our diverse national identities. It remains pivotal to look at the subject of identity in Zimbabwe as a resource for national belonging.
Moreover, identity becomes important in understanding the broader framework of nationalism and its importance in explaining issues of higher politics. The unfolding contemporary national debates became compatible with the national identity homogeneity issues raised through Nyathi (2005) and Mathema (2013) in the previous series. As such I could not have a specific publication reviewed in celebration of the May Africa month.
Now that we are in June, I thought it would be important to zero my focus on revisiting matters of pan-African importance as I was supposed to do in line with my annual pan-African writing rituals. This means that I will temporarily use other platforms to comment on emerging national issues as captured by other writers.
This has been made more possible following Pathisa Nyathi’s visit to Brazil where he presented a paper on “Enduring African Identities” on 1 June, 2016. I hope to use Nyathi’s exchange in Brazil to explain the Global-South experiences from a literary point of view. As such, I made it a key priority to dedicate this space to share Nyathi’s Brazil presentation for the benefit of his local enthusiastic academic followers. Next week as the series continues I will give a detailed account of Nyathi’s pan-African scholarship as an essential dissemination model of the shared Global-South experience.
ENDURING AFRICAN IDENTITIES: UNPACKING THE HIEARCHY OF CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS
Paper presented by Pathisa Nyathi at the Afreaka Festival on 1 June 2016 at Sao Paulo, Brazil
I have, over several years, strenuously argued that our Africanness has got nothing to do with the colour of our skin pigment. Rather, what distinguishes us as Africans in the sub-Saharan region that extends to the Cape Peninsula in South Africa is our worldview, our knowledge of the cosmos or nature, including the spiritual component. It is our cosmology that informs our cultures at the level of cultural practices, rituals, ceremonies, festive events and traditions. The common thread that links and identifies us is that knowledge of the universe and the spiritual realities, and how these interface and interact. Out of these interactions and mutual influences emerge the fundamental perceptions, beliefs, worldviews, cosmologies, values and principles. Here lies our intangible cultural heritage (ICH) which has been undergoing transformation over the centuries as Africans interacted with other peoples of different worldviews, philosophies and cosmologies. Even as Africans were shipped out of Africa into slavery, kicking and screaming to the diaspora, there have been enduring identities that were resident in their minds, notably their spirituality, and the cultural expressions in their broadest diversity (Freland 2009; Nyathi and Chikomo, 2016; UNESCO, 2003).
Initially, it was slave trade and slavery that alienated Africans from their motherland. The centuries old slave trade and slavery of necessity led to cultural innovations in response to the nefarious practice driven by economic considerations, sanitised and justified by racism. For example, the BaTonga people of Zimbabwe had their women knock off their upper front teeth to avoid capture and subsequently being shipped out of the continent to provide labour in sugar plantations in emerging overseas Latin American colonies. Today, more than 200 years since slavery was abolished, the practice continues among the BaTonga women as part of their traditions (Ncube, 2004)
Meanwhile, those Africans that remained on the continent faced colonisation which had the effect of undermining African culture at its basic and fundamental level — that of their beliefs, philosophies, worldviews and cosmologies. Christianity that came riding on the back of colonialism denigrated, demonised and rubbished everything African. The education system, buttressed by religious and health thrusts eroded seminal African cosmologies that served as the central pillars of African cultural practices and related artistic traditions.
The support pillars began to fall apart with the result that African cultural practices were de-emphasised and to some extent demonised. The centuries old traditions came under attack as proselytising religions and general westernisation took root. Relieved of their pride and having been militarily defeated, Africans began to question the value, essence and relevance of their own cultures. The Africans began to laugh at themselves and distance themselves from their past and their ways which had been labelled pagan. Their developmental projectiles took a new orbit where alienation was their daily diet (Freire, 1970).
Inspired by fellow Afro-Americans particularly those in the United States of America (USA) and the Caribbean islands, continental Africans began canvassing for their own political independence. The wind of political change blew with the ferocity of a typhoon. Africans in Southern Africa were denied their political independence. After protracted armed liberation struggles, they too got their political independence. Be that as it may, the more fundamental process of liberation was not vigorously pursued. In most instances a black minority merely got into the shoes of the former white colonial masters and conveniently forgot the more critical fundamentals of colonisation.
The colonial trajectory was pursued with greater vigour, albeit this time by the new black master. Self-denigration and demonisation have continued unabated. Daily the African laughs at himself and freely and willingly carries the burden that colonialism bequeathed upon him (Nyathi and Chikomo, 2013; MacMillan,2013).
Be that as it may, there have been enduring identities both on the African continent and in the African diaspora that continue to render identity to the Africans. These lasting traits are noticeable particularly at the third level within the hierarchies of cultural expressions. This is the level of performances that are characterised by creativity. What is being emphasised in this paper is that the creative or cultural industries are a reflection of the second level in the hierarchies of cultural expressions; that of cultural practices, rituals and ceremonies that inform, inspire and lend character and uniqueness to the artistic creations. There is thus some seminal link that binds together the three levels, the most important of which is the cosmological foundation. It is possible to work in reverse and from the artistic expressions figure out cultural practices that are resident and reflected within an artistic performance. A performance is an artistically created cultural expression which, in essence, is a particular community in motion. From the elements embraced in a performance, we are able to pin down the formative cultural practices and their fundamental seminal cosmologies and beliefs. This is what forms the three-some hierarchy of cultural expressions. (Nyathi, 2016)
What endures beyond the worldviews and cosmologies?
It is our view that the level of underlying worldviews and cosmologies is not accessible to many. Everything at this level is intangible. There are no guitars, flutes, drums or any other musical instruments for that matter. At this level it is those who pose the question “why?” that sample the intricacies of cosmologies and worldviews. These are beliefs and knowledge concerning the universe that exists below the levels of common sense understanding.
It is the philosophical level which seeks to know why things are done the way they are done. What lies behind cultural practices? What informs and conditions them? What are the cosmological underpinnings behind rituals? Our point of departure in this paper is that we do as we believe. This is the level that provides justification of bases for the things that we do, be they agricultural practices or rituals, or the rites of passage. Our cultural practices are fashioned out at this level, an invisible level which, like a seed, remains below ground level and yet sends forth above ground level its tentacles for all to see, partake of and celebrate.
Sadly for those foreigners who came into contact with Africans such as hunters, prospectors, missionaries, colonisers and, in particular, the white native commissioners never sought to understand the philosophical bases for African cultural practices. They were content with identification and documentation of cultural practices, rituals and ceremonies, which are products of and expressions of a people’s worldviews and cosmologies. When the more fundamental cosmologies are not unpacked it is easy to dismiss cultural practices as nonsensical, pagan and superstitious. People are not stupid, whatever they do is firmly grounded on their view of the world, their view of appropriate interpersonal, inter-group and inter-societal relationships. People will not do what they cannot justify. However, some self-appointed cultural masters of the world hardly stop to seek meaning out of observed cultural practices and phenomena (Selous, 1981; Nyathi, 2016).
Given the homogenising tendencies towards the creation of a global village, some cultures will not make it to the village. Their cultural practices are denigrated largely because they are not in line with those of the pacesetters, the ruling class in the global village.
The second level in the hierarchies of cultural expressions is the more visible and one that is easy to dismiss. They are the tips of a larger cultural iceberg. Their visibility renders them vulnerable. What we are saying is that the two lower levels of cultural expressions are facing extinction. It is the third level, that of creative or cultural expressions that endures. We need to understand why this is so. To be continued.
Richard Runyararo Mahomva is an independent academic researcher, Founder of Leaders for Africa Network — LAN, Convener of the Back to Pan-Africanism Conference and the Reading Pan-Africa Symposium (REPS) and can be contacted on rasmkhonto@gmail.com