RATIONALITY AND DEVELOPMENT
I have not read Femi Taiwo's new book but I will. I wish to congratulate a great friend and a brother. We were together in graduate school in Toronto and I recall clearly Femi regularly falls on the snow-laden park near Charles Street and he never failed to inform and warm us to be careful of the dangerous slippery snow. We were part of the golden season at the University of Ife, most of us ended up in graduate school outside of Nigeria with Ayo Olukotun, the best student union president ever. Needless to say, I do not agree with Femi that an embrace of Christianity is necessarily a slide into "irrationality". It is inconceivable that Femi will prefer for us to remain idol worshipers but I wait to read his book first. Of course Irrationality is the act of making an object with your hands, pouring palm oil on it to deify and worship it.
However, let me make a short remark on Awopegba's response to Ayo Olukotun's article. The 18th century, the time of "rationality" shaped by scientific thinking as far as Western Civilization goes was considered the height of enlightenment but it was I argue more about the core values of the European societies. These core values evolve from a set of ideas that took hold over time into sets of institutions that came to shape the evolution of a scientific and technological/industrial society with roots firmly in the Britain's industrial revolution. Several rules governing human behavior some written down and explicitly coded in constitutions and legal documents (patent system for instance) and others, informal institutions, evolved into diverse rules and codes. For example, economic rules of engagement which govern the allocation, exchange and transaction of goods and services became institutions by which society play by. Over time rules evolve to influence consumers' tastes, preferences, values and personalities and to contain through disincentive mechanisms, contrary behavior such as opportunism, cheating, and corruption. Even now our society still struggles as Western societies still do (read the regulatory extremities that led to the housing and financial crisis in the US). We are perennially still contending with corruption and bad behavior in finance, insurance, marketing, and credit institutions; recent instances, the pension scheme scam and the stock exchange rip off.
In the same manner, political institutions which over a long historical time have come to determine the interaction between individuals and the government (and the political elites who control the government) in ways to prevent corruption and bare face robbery of the public treasure as we have in our country. Some of these are referred to as property right institutions designed to regulate assets appropriation but unregulated, create huge inequities in society. Electoral rules and registration of parties and their behavior belong in this category.
In order words, it was not a single movement or school of scientific thought and it does not necessarily mean that men of science and men of the spirit are so separated by invisible forces; it was not so much the "rationality" of science but more a convergent core set of values. Central to the changes to European established order was of course a critical challenge of traditional institutions, customs, and morals, and of course a strong belief in rationality and science. The end of the century eventually witnessed major challenges to Christian religion as an institution, an argument that persists until today. However, contention to dominant institutions does not mean that spiritual individuals are necessarily "irrational". Awopegba had asked: what is it we have as the dominant strand in Nigerian Pentecostal Christianity represented by the pastors Ayo Olukotun mentioned? I differ with Toyin Awopegba that the Christian leaders cited by Ayo Olukotun are driven solely by "fanatical irrationality based on a world-view where witches are ever after you, and no effort at serious discourse on the metaphysics of the classical African religions they seek to overthrow". Seriously do we expect such a discourse of "African cosmology" to be undertaken by churches and these Christian leaders or rather by people like Awopegba? Does Awopegba really regard these individuals as ignoramus because they speak against certain practices and chose to follow their determined purpose?
To be sure several "rational" scientists and mathematicians have combined a life of scientific inquiry comfortably with the life in the spirit. For instance, Isaac Newton mentioned by Awopegba is still regarded as one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians in history. However, Newton's study of the Bible and of the early Church Fathers, were among his greatest passions. He wrote Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. Michael Faraday was a church elder at some point in his life and he devoted considerable time to a discussion of the relationship of science and religion; a preoccupation that did not diminish his contributions in establishing the electromagnetic theory and his work in chemistry such as electrolysis and the discovery of benzene.
James Clerk Maxwell was an evangelical Christian who built on the work of Faraday, a brilliant mathematician who laid the basis of modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena on the work of another Christian physicist and mathematician. History has it that Albert Einstein; one of the three most influential scientists of the millennium (Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell and Einstein) kept a picture of these other greats in his study. Physicist Ernest Rutherford, son of a Christian minister who wrote a book on "Natural Theology" and contributed to developing with the field of fluid mechanics was at the same time the president of the Royal Society. George Salmon won several medals for his work in mathematics and in the same breath wrote a widely read and influential book titled: "An Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament". Henry B. Tristram was a founding member of the British Ornithologists' Union who wrote several books on Christian thought among which are, "The Natural History of the Bible". Several Nobel Prize winners among them: Richard Smalley who died in 2005 won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry but was an ardent Christian. He is joined by distinguished professor of physics (winner of Templeton Prize in Physics) like Stanley Jaki (died 2009) who argued that modern science must have had its root in Christianity.
My point is that our scientific/industrial and economic backwardness has very little to do with our emergent Pentecostalism and far more with our lack of agreement on the kinds of core values we want as a country. This set of values must make central, development dynamics that focus on eliminating poverty and widespread inequalities in income, health inequities and huge spatial inequalities. Technological change during the industrial revolution and beyond was directed at endogenous capacities and empowerment of British citizens; the rules were set by the states coded over time in economic, political and social institutions. The Pentecostal pastors are not the custodian of the rules and they do not decide on policies; they are on their part doing what they can to solve the problems of caused by a parasitic state. I suggest we reserve our vitriol for those we elected into offices and through concerted purpose call to action men and women in the executive and the National Assembly earning double what British parliamentarians earn!!
Professor Banji Oyeyinka,
Director, United Nations; Nairobi
Subject: Fw: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: ARE WE FALLING OFF THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE MAP?
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From: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 19:12:03 +0000
Reply-To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, August 16, 2013 11:17 AM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: ARE WE FALLING OFF THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE MAP?
A fanatical irrationality based on a world-view where witches are ever after you, and no effort at serious discourse on the metaphysics of the classical African religions they seek to overthrow.
The Catholic Church has long suffered various forms of corruption but it has never failed to operate as a cultural centre, and to some degree, a cultural catalyst. The older Protestant churches, the Church of England and others, represent a cultural bulwark of European achievement.
They also represent hope and refreshment in the midst of infrastructural breakdown and social despair.
What quality of knowing is being advanced in those locations? What cultural scope do they represent?
Thanks
Beautiful write-up - so beautifully written, all I could say was "Amen" after reading the last sentence of the critique. It's so good and so true that it brought tears to my eyes. From Karin Barber's observation, to the appraisal of Femi Taiwo's book (including its error of illicit simplification of Christianity), and the worthwhile indictment of our nation (Nigeria) in its abysmal failure to capitalize and institutionalize its natural cum cultural artifacts, Professor Olukotun was right on the money. His is the proverbial praying mantis who laments on discharging her filial duty of birthing her baby, noting that the skill of dancing or a lack thereof, is in the hands of the youngster. If any gap at all, it would be in the list of iconic names of previous and current Ibadan residents conjured to indict Nigeria of short-sightedness. I was hoping to see names like Akinwumi Isola, Chinua Achebe, Adelabu Adegoke "Penkelemeesi" and many more. But I can understand; the list is endless but the space is limited. This small gap takes nothing from the sacrosanctity of the write-up. This essay is a classic discourse of one of a million things wrong with Nigeria and until that time comes when Nigeria is blessed with true leadership, these would continue to be nothing but beautiful music in the ears of the hearing impaired, and water in the back of the duck. But people like Olukotun should not be discouraged because someday their cries would be heard and their dreams of Nigeria would become a reality. The mountain called Nigeria has a summit, and someday, we shall be there. Until then, keep writing, keep talking, keep hoping, keep hiking, keep moving . . .
M. O. Afolayan
USA
From: "ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com" <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 10:39 PM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: ARE WE FALLING OFF THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE MAP?
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From: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 16:09:54 +0100 (BST)ReplyTo: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>Subject: ARE WE FALLING OFF THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE MAP?
ARE WE FALLING OFF THE GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE MAP?Ayo Olukotun"Regrettably, Nigerian governments do not fund documentation and safeguarding. Government implements economic injunctions from the World Bank but neglects those on culture, which is the foundation of sustainable development and modernisation" – Professor Karin Barber 2013Have you read Professor Femi Taiwo's latest book: 'Africa Must be Modern?' The question was put to me in a gentle whisper by G. G. Darah, Professor of oral literature and folklore at last week's Conference of the Nigerian Oral Literature Association (NOLA) held in Ibadan. At Darah's beckoning, I sat next to him in one of the plenary sessions. Sitting close to Darah and myself was renowned Kenyan academic and poet, Professor Chris Wanjala who in the course of his trip would later weep for Nigeria when he saw the desolation that had overtaken the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu since the Festac colloquium of 1977 when he last visited the country.Answering Darah's question, I said, "No, I haven't but Taiwo mentioned the book to me in the course of our ecstatic reunion in my office at Lead City University last month." Femi Taiwo is one of Nigeria's finest minds and Professor of philosophy at Cornell University in New York. Of course, I needed no further prodding to grab a copy of the book at the earliest opportunity and to race through its brilliant, polemical, sometimes actively debatable contents for the next two days. It turned out that one of the most interesting sections of the book, at least for me, relates to the search for indigenous narratives and tropes on which to anchor our development experience and scholarship – one of the key themes of the Oral Literature conference.Obviously, the matter of creating a knowledge society in Nigeria, and by implication, a modern one is related to emerging concerns about how knowledge generation, transmission and sharing are context bound activities. In other words, folklore, cultural and linguistic diversities are increasingly viewed as central to and affect the architecture of knowledge systems.Let us illustrate this with reference to the way in which farmers adopt or reject high yielding crop varieties introduced from the industrialised West. A rural geographer and international development expert, Dr. Oluwayomi Atte told the story once of how shocked some development experts were when farmers in a particular locale, unanimously opted for a local grain variety rather than an imported version which grew rapidly and boosted production. Upon interrogation of the farmers on this apparently irrational behaviour, the experts were told that the farmers could put the local grain to a variety of culinary uses which the imported variety did not afford. The dialogue between the experts and the farmers resulted in the adoption of both varieties of grain, one for export and the other to cater to the different food tastes of the farmers.This buttresses the point about different knowledge cultures in which in the words of one expert 'knowledge is understood to gain meaning as a result of the way it is used in the context of interaction.' This also provides the context for Taiwo's critique of our universities as externally oriented to the extent that its workers are more inclined to 'garnering honours from outside' than producing knowledge that will impact on Nigerian on African problems.A knowledge society is one which sets out to employ knowledge to ameliorate the human condition and one in which knowledge is prized as a principal resource both for its own sake and in problem solving capacities. We are, Taiwo insists, not developing knowledge communities constituted by expertise on Nigerian and African conditions; enriched by debates on local problems and developing policy competencies around indigenous puzzles. To illustrate his point, Taiwo refers to the insistence of our universities that the results of researches on local themes should be published in so called 'international journals' to be recognised.He argues, first of all, that all international journals are local in their countries of origin. There is also, he maintains an element of self devaluation in appealing to experts' validation in a context where most of these experts are not very informed about Africa. Taiwo's position, which must of course be weighed against the possibility of the rigging of internal evaluation criteria ('man know man') is of more general application in our national life.If Nigeria were a knowledge society, Taiwo says, the city of Ibadan, location of several momentous events in Nigerian history such as the assassination that preceded the second military coup of 1966 would have generated its own academic mini-industry. Similarly, the activities of the charmed circle of writers and iconic artists such as Wole Soyinka, Ulli Beier, Chinua Achebe, J. P. Clark, Duro Ladipo, who at one point all flourished in Ibadan, would have produced several memorable studies.In contrast to such expectations, Taiwo laments that, "Ibadan, as far as I know, does not even have a historical society, has no bodies for historical preservation; and hosts no archivist of its intellectual and material artefacts." What is true of Ibadan, one of the largest cities on the continent is also true for the rest of the country and reflects just how much taste or attention we have for documentation, storage and retrieval. Is it any wonder then that young Nigerians educated abroad, write with reverence about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other American founding fathers but know next to nothing about Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo or Ahmadu Bello?Taiwo, like several eminent Nigerian academics, is in my view mistaken, however, when he sees the spreading embrace of Christianity as "a slide to 'irrationality' and the manifestations of a 'virulently anti-knowledge society'". Taiwo must know having lived in the United States for many years that the universities of Harvard, Yale and Princeton were founded by Christian ministers. Princeton's motto, 'Deisub nomine viget' (Under God she flourishes) underlines its Christian origins. In Nigeria, the educational antecedents of Pastor Adeboye, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, Bishop Matthew Kukah, Bishop David Oyedepo all of who not only have doctorate degrees but are in the main founders of universities speak to enlightening auspices. What then is 'irrational' or 'anti-knowledge' about balanced Christianity?Interestingly, Taiwo mentions the divorce between intellectuals based outside the universities and those in the Ivory Tower as an index of weak and incoherent knowledge system. I perfectly agree with him on this score and have often wondered why our Mass Communication departments have no need of the proven journalistic skills of the late Alade Odunewu, Tony Momoh, Mohamed Haruna, Dele Sobowale and Doyin Abiola among others? In Britain, star journalists are appointed to academic departments to 'brand' and legitimate the impartation of knowledge; whereas in Nigeria they are kept at arms' length.What then is the way out? It should be noted that our prospects of successfully driving to a knowledge society is bound up with the emergence of visionary political leadership, which will implement policies that will make the ongoing ASUU strike, for example, unnecessary; and which understands that a society that undervalues scholarship disqualifies itself from being a part of the emergent innovation-driven system of the global knowledge economy. Is anyone listening?Prof Olukotun is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurial Studies at Lead City University, Ibadan. ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com 07055841236
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