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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