With Okee Sydney-Obiukwu
IT was a dignified language purist and a super-class literary icon of blessed memory, professor chinualumuogu Achebe; writer of the world-shaker, “Things Fall Apart,” and just recently shortly before death visited, dropped another bomb: There was a country: that gave mileage to the adage that, looking at the king’s mouth, one would think he never sucked his mothers breast.
He was a contemporary of Madiba Nelson Mandela, another cerebral writer and lawyer that has helped the cause and self-esteem of the African both at the homeland and the diaspora.
What prompted this piece, really, is the comment of a young South African girl, when asked to make her contribution in a vox pop (voice of the people) interview that CNN was conducting that morning to, gauge Mandela’s popularity.
The young lad, most probably in her early twenties, answered pointedly or should I say, mechanically, like a robot would do devoid of emotions that, what was of utmost important and for which she could break a neck; was not really Mandela but her smart phone and education. What a stone-cold treatment of an international statesman, now wearing the grab of conscience of the world.
But why must we as Africans bother when our youths follow a bush part, that shows that they have lost touch with the African kind and communal spirit? It is because, essentially, we honour the aged and also drink from their ancient fountain of wisdom.
Really, the age of internet and twenty-four hour television, has westernized our youths, to the point where many are still being brain-washed, to believe that every garbage from Europe and America; can always be floated as superior to our decent native culture.
Today, it is still baffling that the Lawyers still copy western-styled dressing, which lives them gasping for breath, most of the time
What is wrong in a lawyer wearing official dress made of Ankarah and other African fancy prints. We really need to welcome a new kind of thinking. Yes, that kind of thought, that role models like Dr Kwame Nkurumah, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and a host of them, will turn in their graves to salute. It is possible.