Baba, an inspiring piece. I wonder if you can network with other
intellectuals who have the defining qualities and character traits you
have outlined, and start up something to impact our social and
political realities.
I believe you have a lot to offer, and if you can find people who are
similarly situated with the same frame of mind, level of commitment and
sincerity, a lot can be done to advance the cause of social justice and
political plurality.
Political parties have different functions and roles, but a grouping of
intellectuals of the kind you have identified can also contribute
effectively to bring about change. Consider Martin Luther King Jnr and
his Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the civil rights
era.
Consider also an intellectual grouping that produces pamphlets
periodically to address most of the issues that concerns us; organize
symposiums to talk about these issues and do some practical things to
influence public opinion and impact the lives of people.
I don't think it is even a question of being an intellectual, for some
people are naturally endowed with the gift of being averse to
injustice; their whole being an anathema to everything that is morally
corrupt. Nothing can justify for these people to compromise their
conscience. With the added benefit of an intellectual, these are the
people who have a sense of purpose and are always searching to make
their lives meaningful.
Rene
-----Original Message-----
From: Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, Mar 16, 2013 12:37 pm
Subject: [G_L] Provisional thoughts on the intellectual - Corrected
Version
Provisional thoughts on the intellectualBy Baba Galleh JallowIn
Representations of the Intellectual, Edward Said (pronounced sayid)
defines the intellectual as simply that educated person – “an
oppositional figure” - who speaks out against injustices in his
society. The intellectual is not merely one who has obtained an
advanced degree in a particular field of study. They have to be someone
actively engaged in speaking truth to power in the service of their
society and those who are not able to fight back when bullied by the
power structures of society. Said’s characterization of the
intellectual disqualifies many educated persons from claiming the
status of intellectual. An intellectual cannot afford not to take sides
– be on the side of the underdogs - in national discourses of power,
oppression, and exploitation. They are either vocal and therefore with
the mass of oppressed or otherwise underprivileged people, or they are
silent and therefore with the oppressive structures and institutions of
society. They can also join the oppressive power structure and win the
title of “intellectual prostitute” for their pains and in their pursuit
of material gain.Before going further, let me make a small but
significant disclaimer: In this essay, I use the masculine pronoun to
refer to all intellectuals. I hope our dear mothers and sisters will
forgive me for taking this easy way out of the “he/she” conundrum.
Great female intellectuals are to be found in all walks of life and
have made incredibly great contributions to all aspects of human
civilization. Thus, my use of the masculine pronoun in this small essay
is merely for ease of reference. It is certainly not meant to
marginalize or otherwise downplay the tremendous contributions of
females to the world’s intellectual wellbeing and resources. A great
small book titled Essaying the Past by Jim Cullen uses “she” and “her”
throughout the text, making me wonder, why Dr. Cullen, are there no
“he” intellectuals in your world? But of course, I understand that
Jim’s decision to use the feminine pronoun was driven by the need for
ease of reference. I use “he” and “his” here for the same reason.
Moreover, some of the not so complimentary actions of intellectuals
discussed in the essay are mostly perpetrated by male intellectuals,
though females are also sometimes culpable.In Said’s formulation, the
intellectual who keeps mute over the injustices inflicted upon their
compatriots or joins the oppressive system may write and publish many
books in academic presses and articles in learned professional
journals. However, the fact that they condone the tyrannies and
injustices in their home countries renders them disqualified for the
title of an intellectual. These kinds of educated people are mere
academics or professionals contributing to the production of knowledge
in their fields or otherwise belonging to and serving their special
professional and special interests. By their active participation in
the tyrannical system or their silence, they aid and abet tyranny and
injustice where they could have helped neutralize these negative forces
from the lives of their peoples. Said suggests that the intellectual
cannot afford to either be part of an oppressive structure or to sit on
the fence and maintain passive silence in the face of injustice or
aggression.Most studies of the intellectual characterize him as an
outsider, an exile to mainstream society, even if he lives within his
own country, a character marginal to whatever public he finds himself
in. Ironically, the marginality of the intellectual derives precisely
from his inextricable immersion in society. At once existing outside of
society, he is perpetually embedded, energized and motivated by his
engagement with issues of social concern. It is his hatred of
injustice, his total identification with the plight of the poor, the
weak, the oppressed and the otherwise powerless victims of structural
violence that at once makes him an outsider and the quintessential
insider and champion of social justice. Unable to partake of the
ordinary joys of belonging, he nevertheless is the epitome of
belonging. It is his feeling of belonging that makes him an unyielding
champion of a just social order while at the same time keeping him
perpetually outside of his society. Of course, some of the worst
atrocities against human kind both in Africa and around the world have
been committed by people who would characterize themselves as
intellectuals. Almost all of Africa’s founding fathers held academic
qualifications ranging from masters degrees to PhDs. Kwame Nkrumah held
a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Economics (1939) and a Bachelor of
Theology (1942) from Lincoln University. He also held a Master of
Science in Education (1942) and a Master of Arts in Philosophy (1943)
from the University of Pennsylvania. By the time he left America for
the United Kingdom, he was on the verge of finishing work on a
doctorate in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Yet, for all
his great contributions to the forging of a new nation in Ghana and the
advancement of the pan-Africanist cause, Nkrumah was able to justify
passage of such oppressive laws like the Preventive Detention Act of
1958 under which people were detained for up to five years or more
without charges, without trial and without the benefit of habeas corpus
merely because Nkrumah saw them as potential threats to Ghana’s peace
and security. One can understand that Nkrumah was faced with a
particular difficult task of founding a new republic at the height of a
cold war which threatened to sabotage Africa’s emergent independence.
But as Africans faced with a particularly malignant problem of unjust
rulers, we cannot afford to overlook injustices and oppression merely
because the perpetrator has also made great contributions to the
advancement of society. Under no circumstances may acts of injustice
and oppression be condoned, especially when they are perpetrated by
intellectuals who should know better than to assume positions of
infallibility. There are always alternative ways of doing things,
alternative choices to be made which may achieve the same or better
results. Other independence era leaders like Jomo Kenyatta, Hastings
Banda, Leopold Senghor, Houphouet Boigny, and Julius Nyerere, and more
recently Laurent Gbagbo among others, all held higher education
qualifications that placed them firmly in the category of
intellectuals. Yet, most of these African intellectuals proceeded to
impose unjust social orders on their societies simply because they
lacked the capacity to recognize that they might be mistaken in some of
their ideas. It is to be said for Nyerere that once he recognized the
error of his ways, he happily stepped aside and allowed an alternative
system to replace his failed experiment. That is the mark of a true
intellectual – the capacity to recognize error, say sorry, and take
corrective measures in the interest of social wellbeing. Of course, we
also have those African leaders, some very close to home who, much like
cows in a library, carry upon their necks such intellectual titles like
Sheikh, Doctor and Professor. We may term these delusional fools
“underdogtuals” for they lie prostrate at the lowest bottom of the
pseudollectual ladder, making funny noises that are never heard in the
real world. The true intellectual recognizes above everything else his
human fallibility. He certainly expresses strongly held beliefs and
opinions and could prove extremely stubborn in upholding and defending
them. But he never assumes a position of infallibility and certainly
never suggests that his version of whatever issue is at stake is the
only correct version. He always leaves room for the possibility of
error, and depending on his level of maturity as an intellectual, is
always prepared to revisit and revise his position in the light of
strong evidence suggesting that he might be wrong. In short, the true
intellectual is a perpetual student, both of academics and of life. One
of the greatest intellectuals of all time, the Greek philosopher
Socrates famously confessed that the only thing he knew was that he
knew nothing. The true intellectual will not be co-opted by power
structures that bear the tiniest bit of responsibility for human
suffering. He is utterly incapable of inflicting premeditated injustice
except as a response to injustice inflicted upon him or some other
victim. In Africa however, and admittedly in all parts of the world,
people who consider themselves intellectuals often serve as the
spokespersons and legitimating signposts for oppressive and unjust
social orders. Every tyrant has a crop of intellectuals around him,
with some others waiting in the wings, licking his boots, and hoping to
be co-opted into the system for monetary and other benefits. Some go
out of their way to produce works on the tyrant’s non-existent
achievements, or to praise the tyrant’s non-existent magnanimities as a
way of attracting favorable attention and perhaps landing a lucrative
job from the tyrant. Because tyrants are generally insecure and have
grossly over inflated egos in constant need of stroking, they are
famously susceptible to intellectual sycophancy because it tends to
confirm their own unrealistic estimations of themselves. But those
intellectuals who prostitute themselves to unjust power structures and
corrupt institutions for mere monetary gain are not true intellectuals;
they are mere academics out to line their pockets and utterly heedless
of the lessons of history which show just how badly intellectual
prostitutes almost inevitably suffer. They are victims of
self-inflicted mental blindness who assume convenient truths to
convince themselves that the only way they could escape what appears to
be a life-long cycle of material poverty is to court the favors of the
tyrant. Indeed, it is their obsessive preoccupation with material gain
that pushes them into the thorny arms of the tyrant and makes them sell
their souls to the devil. The true intellectual does not dismiss the
necessity of material comfort; but placed against the necessity of
dignity, principle and integrity, material comfort pales into utter
insignificance in the mind of the true intellectual. Then there are
those intellectuals who will neither sell their souls to the devil nor
actively fight the injustices in his society. These seem to be in the
majority. Having obtained higher educational qualifications, they are
well aware of the nature of structural violence in society. However,
they tend to lean more towards silence largely for reasons of
self-preservation, cowardice, or mere laziness. African intellectuals
belonging to this group are often prolific writers and great scholars
working for some of the world’s greatest universities or corporate
institutions. However, they maintain a stony silence while their own
people are bullied and killed by tin pot despots. They place the
conveniences of being able to freely land at their home airports and
bask in the communal glory that greets them back home to the
inconvenience of having to stay out of the country while waging a
battle against unjust social orders. They claim to be not interested in
politics; yet their entire professions deal with politics, a subject
they engage on a daily basis. These are the types of intellectuals the
sociologist C Wright Mills call “inactionaries.” They convince
themselves that they are not doing anything bad, that they are
independent beings who have no bone to pick with the unjust system as
long as it does not attack them or theirs, or that they are not
interested in politics. Assuming these convenient truths, they manage
to willfully maintain what they feel is a clear conscience and go about
their lucrative business. It is to be said for these inactionaries that
they seldom sell their souls to the devil either. The true intellectual
neither sells his soul to the devil nor remains mute over social
injustices. Marginal to society, he is embedded in a sea of social
concerns. His entire being is animated and inspired by an irresistible
urge to speak out against tyranny and injustice in all their various
forms. He cannot survive long in an environment of intolerance and
censorship. He will allow others to control anything about him but his
mind. He is a fiercely independent individual who finds it hard to
belong, yet inextricably and almost literally belongs to his community.
And he will not be silenced, except by brute force that renders him
totally incapable of talking truth to power. Some of the greatest
intellectual treasures of all time were produced by intellectuals in
prison or on the verge of being murdered by unjust regimes. Two
classical examples are Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks and Plato’s The Trial
and Death of Socrates.
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