Page 98 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 5

COMMUNITY
these days. A greater sense of
our commonality is present in
foreign lands perhaps.
In modern day Afrika, it is more
common to film people being
beaten to death or stripped na-
ked and to post these videos on
social media – instead of inter-
vening in the senseless murder
to both protect the life of the one
under assault or the soul of the
one tempted into murder and to
cover the shame of the abused.
Stories of actual compassion
and brotherhood have become
a novelty. Even in the home of
Ubuntu.
Something Imor Pesa said when
we interviewed him for the last
issue of this magazine has re-
mained with me. We asked him
what he would say to Afrika and
he said, “I want to tell everyone
to go back to their roots and his- himself and his family to survive
tory. The African heritage. We
Africans we used to do things
as a society, we used to help
each other. Community is what
defines us as Africans, the little
that we had, we shared. Until the
moment we were colonized and
were introduced to education,
religion and the element of pri-
vacy: fencing your farm, keep-
ing secrets from your neighbors,
everyone working hard for their
own.”
This is an issue that Dr. Mfunisel- siblings. This became the new
wa J. Bhengu addresses in his
writings on Afrikonomics Theory,
which can be found in this mag-
azine, by kind courtesy of the
author. In laying out the problem
statement, Dr. Bhengu makes
this powerful point: “… through
Western capitalism (which em-
bodies Western culture), African
ethics and African economic re-
lations (which embody African
culture) were disrupted and put
almost into non-existence, be-
cause Western capitalism tends
to be a science of self interest,
98 | heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika
of how to best accommodate ous. Brotherhood as we know
individual behavior by means of it seems to be going the way of
markets and the commodifica- the rhino. To its extinction. The
tion of human relations.” modern Afrikan has been de-
How, I put it to you, could it then formed socially and spiritually by
be possible in a western culture this new paradigm and so Afri-
of capitalism that forced the Af- ka has suffered greatly because
rikan mind out of the communal of this lack of compassion and
mode so aptly described by Imor, brotherhood. I have seen this
and into the self-interest mode hardened circling of the wagons
as elaborated by Dr. Bhengu, to ‘protect what’s mine’ in those
for one to maintain a sense of who say they believe in Jesus,
compassion and concern for his and those who don’t. This spirit
brother or sister? He has been takes no prisoners and it takes
reduced to the form and shape everything that one can muster
of an animal, where the Afrikan to fight against it to avoid an ex-
- like the caveman or hunter clusionary approach to life and
gatherer - is now determined to living.
eke out an existence on this new Consider this. I have US$15 to
barren landscape of capitalism take me and my family through
– killing the competition, battling the next few days and my broth-
the elements, stealing and de- er or sister calls me and says
stroying so as to get enough for they have no food. I have little or
no food, but I am now faced with
on, afraid he will run out. a tough choice. Do I eat for the
It is important to point out at this next few days while my brother or
juncture that the colonialist had sister starves or is forced to beg
succeeded in convincing the from someone else who will not
Afrikan mind that his primary in- treat them with the same heart
terest should be his immediate as I? (Although, to be fair, there
family as a priority and his ‘ex- are those who are not related by
tended’ family next and if any- blood who demonstrate a higher
thing remained, the ‘stranger’ level of compassion than those
out there. So father, mother, chil- related by blood.) There was a
dren (and a dog) and the house time when this dilemma would
help and gardener were the new have been a no-brainer. The an-
priority over (grand)parents and swer would have been: we all
eat. These days, however, I see
reality for increasing numbers and experience more of let me
of Afrikans across the continent send you one dollar when I have
from the late 1950s who were finished spending 14 on myself
getting ‘modern’ jobs … where- and my family… or the ignored
as before, all were considered to WhatsApp message. But Chio-
be a part of this wonderful thing ma, what am I supposed to do?
called ‘family’ – including those Let my family starve? I’m just be-
with no home or parents or blood ing responsible. Well, let me an-
relations. Thus, Capitalism and swer you as someone who has
a western viewpoint on family faced this choice time and time
effectively disrupted the Afrikan again and has faced the conse-
social and economic structure to quence of making the sacrificial
the point where our very human- choice and the self-preserving
ity has been put on the brink of one. I found peace in us both
annihilation. Yes, it is that seri- eating and making it through one