Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften	17. Nr.	September 2008
Sektion 3.1.	Culture sans frontières / Kultur ohne Grenzen / Culture without Borders Sektionsleiterin | Section Chair: Gertrude Durusoy (Izmir) Dokumentation | Documentation | Documentation

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Recycling Myth and Revisionism in the Post-Colonial Discourse

Divine Che Neba (University of Burundi) [BIO]

Email: nebankiwang@yahoo.com

Myriad of critiques, even at the dawn of the 21st century, still hark back to the clothes of 18th century philosophers  that "… as we see (Negroes) today, so have they always been", with no sense of developing beyond what nature provides them, except through external influence, which to some hardened skeptics, is even impossible. This persistent critical cadence which, seemingly, may never be vectorised amongst “Nation State" scholars, is rooted in centuries of denigration of Blacks as a whole, and from the disdainful treatment of African values in particular. Revisionist African mythologists see beyond this world of Black inferiorisation. Ayi kwei Armah, a renowned revisionist mythologist, attempts in Osiris Rising to demythologize and demystify the eternal notion of "forward never, backward ever" by resuscitating the African past as a means of restoring lost African values. This article therefore attempts – by recommending the process of provincializing former centers - to rule out the idea of "forward never”. The process of resuscitation, recycling and integration will not totally erase previously assimilated values, for Africa owes a debt to the "Nation State" and vice versa. Put simply, it is a process of bringing into limelight what has been rejected or ignored for centuries. My argument hinges on the premise that decentering former spheres of influence give birth to new provinces, where each province has a defined autonomy, enabling it to operate with little constraint within the global milieu. The compass of this article does not allow for a detailed study of Amah's works as a whole; rather, it focuses on Armah’s exposition of the history of a severed continent in Two Thousand Seasons and on his regenerative ability to domesticate and recycle the ancient Egyptian myth about "Osiris" and "Isis" in Osiris Rising, with the intention of building a vibrant Africa. Amah’s proposition on the question of provincializing the "Nation State" includes: reconstructing or mending the dismembered past by making Africans more African, without totally rejecting its past relationship with the "Nation State".

Despite centuries of trying precisely to define what Africa is, many a critic, to date, still finds it difficult to face up to the fact that Africa has entered history. Without raising the ghost of 18th and 19th centuries racist philosophers and critics, the American geneticist Nobel laureate, James Watson, in a newspaper interview (the Independent) this year (2007), reopened an explosive debate about race and science, by stating that he is

 inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa … all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really… people who have to deal with black employees find this not true (Qtd, Ronald Bailey,1)

In another review, he further contends that

There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so. (Qtd Ronald Bailey,1)

This 21st century racist cadence espouses the view of the French leader, Nicholas Sarchozy, in a controversial speech delivered at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) Dakar (2007), where he asseverated at length that

The tragedy of Africa is that the African has not fully entered into history. The African peasant, who for thousands of years has lived according to the seasons, whose life ideal was to be in harmony with nature, only knew the eternal renewal of time, rhythmed by the endless repetition of the same gestures and the same words. In this imaginary world, where everything starts over and over again, there is no place for human adventure or for the idea of progress. In this universe where nature commands all, man escapes from the anguish of history that torments modern man, but he rests immobile in the centre of a static order where everything seems to have been written beforehand. The problem of Africa, and allow a friend of Africa to say it, is to be found here. Africa’s challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history. To take from it the energy, the force, the desire, the willingness to listen and to espouse its own history. Africa’s problem is to stop always repeating, always mulling over, to liberate itself from the myth of the eternal return. It is to realize that the golden age that Africa is forever recalling will not return because it has never existed. ( Brown, 1)

These rhythmic postulations, which Africans find difficult to digest, are not different from the derogatory statements uttered by 18th and 19th century western racist critics. Pondering over His Excellency’s assertion, we may, to an extent, concur with him, depending on his definition of the process of entering history. If entering history entails provoking upheavals around the world, then Africa needs to reconsider its stand; if entering history connotes arming dictatorial governments on the sly and preaching democracy on political podiums, then Africa needs to check its records; if entering history implies provoking terrorists in their closet, then Africa still needs to arm itself; if entering history signifies owning nuclear power and preventing others from enjoying the same privilege, then Africa needs to reconsider if it really wants to join the world mafia that has transformed the globe into a terrorists battlefield – indeed, into an arena where diplomacy has become synonymous with deceit, and no longer  signifies an entente between nations; where diplomacy is conditioned more by the forces of demand and supply than by any humanitarian considerations. All this ‘intelligence’ may be what, in Watson’s view, Africans really lack.

It is worth mentioning that Europe and America that are now flaunting their development and progress also lived through a period of snail-paced revolution, but that did not stop them from making history at the time nor did that imply that they were devoid of talented people. The history they made was a history of a particular people, at a given time and, with its peculiarities. Of course, it took centuries for them to be what they are today, so the world cannot expect Africa to create a miracle in less than a century, after their contributions to history and civilization have been carefully effaced by the imperial powers. It is important to note that Africans are not obliged to see their future through the western lens. Gerald Delanty in Inventing Europe: Idea, Identity, Reality contends that

It must be recognized that the dominant ideology, the hegemon, is never entirely a monolith but is fraught with tension and contradictions, for where there is consensus, there is conflict. The dominant ideas are never controlled by any single elite and can be used to subvert power. (7)

The hegemon cited above refers to a single or dominant system of thought – which is dangerous because such a system does not question its presuppositions. More often than not, it sees its presuppositions as divine ordained. The way out can never be the same for all nations. History remains history, be it violent or pacific, slow or fast. The process of making history varies according to the presuppositions of a people, and the circumstances at a given time and space. The idea of a western-piloted hegemon in the making of history, sooner or later phases out in nations beyond Western frontiers, since the people, time and actions are different. It is in this regard that Armah, in Two Thousand Seasons and Osiris Rising, views the African past as a means of redressing and, why not, setting a new pace for remaking the history of a mutilated continent. His historiographic and mythological approach sketches out a project for a new province by decentering former spheres of influence. His project proves that a single hegemon cannot become a yardstick for interpreting the world. Thus, each province, while assuming its independence and identity, has the free will to borrow or not to borrow from other provinces. It is only through such assertions that new centers can emerge to compete with former spheres of influence. Otherwise, the process of making history will forever remain the preserve of western nations, imbued with the belief and conviction that they have a bounden duty to force their values and models down the throats of non-western nations.

From an historical perspective, Amah takes a walk down the memory lane of pre-colonial, slave trade, colonial, and post independent eras in Africa, with the intention of dredging up the memorable African past as evidence that the continent has made history and as justification for the prevalent chaos in the continent. By so doing, he seeks to restore the values ruined by centuries of foreign adulteration - an adulteration which Africa cannot pretend to cleanse itself of totally because the semen is deep in the womb of the continent. These ‘intruders’, to borrow from Amah, came from the West to divert the course of African history.

Examining the relationship between history and literature, Amah in Osiris Rising purports that “what we call historical truth is nothing but raw material for literature…as long as historical truth is not artistically processed… it is not useful to anybody”(6). Here, Armah sees historical truth as a commodity in a supermarket, and literature as the packaging of that commodity. If the packaging is poor, the commodity will obviously create no impact on the customer’s psychology. It is on this note that he carries the reader into his fictional world in Osiris Rising where, from an historical and mythological perspective, he traces the journey of Africans to the source. Drawing the attention of his heroine to a book titled The Journey to the Source, he sets her out on the trail of her ancestry. This journey helps expose archeological evidence such as the “Ankh” (which is a symbol of the livewire of a strong, productive, united African past), the broken Ankh (the stage of betrayal), and wisdom seats like Nwt and Ama Tete, who are ready to reveal the truth about Africa through orature. In the same mould, we find such characters as Cinque (ready to falsify history for self interest) and Set (ready to obstruct any progress). The preparatory stage of this quest is in Two Thousand Seasons, where the author exposes the initial process of dismembering the continent.

Sir Harry Johnson et al in the History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races opine that “The Negro, more than any other human type, has been marked out by his mental and physical characteristics as a servant of other races” (151). This contempt is not limited to the myth of servitude, but is also reflected in the fact of viewing Africans as imbeciles, ferocious by nature or, simply put, as animals. Such distorted images of Africa and Africans, compounded by racist theories, prompted the West and Arabs traders to invade and plunder the continent, rupturing in the process the system in place, as Armah laments in Two Thousand Seasons:

They have taken everything within their reach, things that made the earth good, and they have put nothing back but hard, dead things in place of life destroyed. Even their putting back has nothing of a sense of reciprocity. Their semblance of giving is parcel of their greed. It is their habit to put dead, useless things in the hollowed earth to help them take more coveted things. (7)

Armah adds that

when the White predators from the desert came a second time they found a brood of men ready to be tools of their purpose. This time again the predators came with force to break our bodies. This time they came with guile also – a religion to smash the feeblest minds among us, then turn them as tools against us all. The white men from the desert had a discovery precious to predators and destroyers: the capture of the mind and the body both as a slave far more lasting, far more secure than the conquest of the body alone. (Two Thousand Seasons, 33)

This is part of the politics of fragmenting the pre-colonial African mind and throwing into disarray a continent that had its own way of life. The destroyer later defines the people as a backward people, with little prospects for progress and advancement. Armah once more draws our attention to the fact that amid the new definition given of Africans, the people have their own way which is unique to them – charity unfeigned and devoid hypocrisy. It is this simplicity and open-mindedness that led to their own undoing at the dawn of slavery and colonization. Armah christens this policy ‘our way’:

Our way is reciprocity. This is wholeness. Our way knows no oppression. The way repels destroyers. Our way produces before it consumes. The way produces far more than it consumes. Our way creates. The way destroys only destruction. (Two Thousand Seasons, 39)

If our discussion remains confined to this aspect of Armah’s writings, the author might be viewed merely as an apologist and a praise-singer, glorifying the African past. Armah goes beyond the realms of propaganda to acknowledge the shortsightedness of Africans at the eve of slavery and colonization, and to assert that African history, even of the pre-colonial era, has not always been as smooth as some Africans might want to imply. He maintains in Osiris Rising that

We know the society goes back not centuries but thousands of years into our past. The pattern of its life is not an unbroken line crossing the ages. It has known weakness growing to strength, vigorous life waning to suspension. At times it died. It has known birth and death and rebirth, over and again. (260 – 1)

It is evident, in Armah’s, that not all the values of the African past were worth saving. Even when we read the historicity behind the Ankh (the symbol of Life), we realize that the friendship of the Ankh preserved only the best of African values and its civilization. While Two Thousand Seasons appears as a preparatory exercise for the liberation of the mind, Osiris Rising clubs together intellectual initiative for the decentering of former spheres, and the eventual creation of a new Africa, which valorizes its values, without ignoring its former attachment to the Nation State. This historical process takes us on the journey by Ast (the heroine of Osiris Rising) to the roots, where she discovers the real meaning behind the Ankh, after myriads of the “Cinques versions”. The Historical Cinque, as Ast reports, was:

An African enslaved, and taken to America. Led a revolt, took over the slave ship, [with the impression of liberating other slaves] tried to force the captain to sail back to Africa. Long story.... The story has a twist. Some sources say when Cinque got back to freedom in Africa, the neatest thing he wanted was to go into the slaving business himself. (Emphasis mine, Osiris 80 – 1)

The Cinque Syndrome is therefore the cynical attitude of distorting a people’s history or way of life because of self-interest, or deceiving people for the purpose of satisfying individual egos. Cinque, Armah adds, is “one more victim turned unthinking killer, accepting the definition of freedom as dominion over others” (Osiris Rising, 88).  This Cinque Syndrome is characteristic of the colonizers, slave traders, and the African elite, especially those who work in collusion with the West in furthering its dictatorial policies which consist, among others, in looking at the world through the prism of the West, the centre of the world with its divine hegemon. Today, Africa is full of Cinques in the service of the West. Since their western counterparts constantly need their assistance to ride rough-shod over developing nations which they disdainfully marginalize. The Cinques of the West, in the name of world industrialized nations, with their Janus appearances, are worsening situations for developing nations, as they now practise surrogate diplomacy in favor of superior Cinques called transnational companies. Oswaldo De Rivero in The Myth of Development: The Non-viable Economies postulates that

Gradually, a kind of anonymous global economic and financial dictatorship [in the name IMF, World Bank and WHO to mention a few] is being established as a result of the transnationals’ lack of responsibilities in the face  of unemployment, financial speculations, currency fluctuation and environmental disasters. As globalization of the market increases, democratic national control diminishes and, along with it, the feeling of belonging to a nation or a community. In this way, resignation and social anomie arise, but so do frustration and violence. In the end, the governments have turn over their domestic and international markets to the transnationals without demanding in reciprocity a joint responsibility for solving the problems that the globalization of the economy is creating. (Emphasis mine, 52)

The lesson obtained from this Cinque Syndrome - in the world of the history of economy, where Nation States and their transnational allies are flourishing to the detriment of developing nations, and in Amah’s Osiris Rising, where the fictional character, Ras Jomo Cinque Equiano, and his fake Ethiopian friend falsify the history around the Ankh to crown themselves with African royalty, exploit people, is to satisfy their bestial ambitions, unmask this prejudice by clearly defining premises on which individuals should operate. This unmasking process clamps down on individual egos and drives many to the periphery. When Ama Tete reveals the truth behind the companionship of the Ankh: that it was a symbol of life to Africans as a whole, not a matter of royalty, it automatically drives Ras Jomo Cinque Equiano into his shell, though he threatens to object it. It is in this regard that Edward Said in Culture and Imperialism posits that “on the whole, it is better to explore history rather than repress or deny it (xxvi). What is interesting in this melodrama is the denouement, where, Cinque, together with his fake Ethiopian Prince and Set, has no other option but to hatch a plan to eliminate Asar and Ast for knowing the truth. In the same vein, if these transnational companies, which persistently push developing nations to the periphery, are unmasked (and proved as agents of under-development, dictatorship and imperialism) and sidelined, the immediate effect will be economic wars characterized by hardships brought about by sanctions and artificial inflations, and in some cases western-orchestrated coups d’état. This is to ensure that everything remains at the centre or under the control of a single order.

The quest by Ast and Asar for true history of the people and their attempt to liberate them are thwarted by several obstacles ranging from the falsification of African history, western interventions, and obstruction by the African elite, rape, attempted murder, and murder. However, those who set off in quest of the truth succeed, as the oralist, Ama Tete, narrates the plan that the ancestors had for Africa (by bringing out the symbolism behind the companionship of the Ankh), which further inspires them in their project of making Africa a centre for Africans. They are also satisfied to learn that their people made history, but misfortune came their way and rendered many homeless in the diaspora. Amid this, the broken Ankh (symbol of betrayal) remains as a sign of home, and consequently a broken life, which can however be mended and strengthened. Knowing the truth is therefore the start of the mending process. This process of mending the dismembered Africa draws us to the myth of Osiris and Isis which is paralleled in Osiris Rising.

In order to resuscitate the mutilated history of Africa, Armah as a revisionist recycles the ancient myth of Osiris and Isis and uses the analogy to prove that all is not lost, the broken values of Africa can still be restored. Arthur Cotterell in The Dictionary of World Mythology states that Osiris was an Egyptian savior: the chief deity of death, and the only god to rival the solar cult of Re. Sacred to him was Zedu, a town which derived its name from his fetish - several heaves placed one above the other. There, along the luxuriant waterways of the delta, Osiris was lord of the flood and vegetation as well as the king and judge of the dead. In the myth, Osiris is drowned, dismembered, and scattered over land and water by his brother, Seth. The drowned one floated down the river through one of the mouths of the delta into the Mediterranean Sea, and was carried to the port of Byblos. There, he was discovered by Isis, his wife and sister and daughter of the earth god Geb. Isis literally means a seat. Isis was the mother goddess of Egypt whose spittle, mixed with earth, gave life. In effect, she was also the Egyptian god of fertility. So, out of envy for the happiness of Osiris and Isis arose the undying enmity of Seth, who soon seized the coffin containing the dead god, cut the corpse into more than fourteen pieces, and scattered them throughout the land of Eygpt. Again, Isis sought her husband and with the assistance of Nut, the grand mother of Osiris, she resurrected the body, except his genitals; these had been consumed by fishes in the river. The reborn god, however, did not stay on earth, but became the lord of the departed in the infertile other land. Horus, the son Isis, miraculously conceived of the dead god, was to be the avenger.

The above myth parallels Amah’s plot. Asar, the hero, is the epitome of Osiris. Like Osiris, the  revival god, he has for long been striving to resuscitate African values at the University of Manda, where he is Professor. Despite his efforts, the neocolonial administration in place, spearhead by his fellow brother, and University mate, Set (an imperial security stooge), the embodiment of Seth, are bent on rupturing his attempts at liberating the University in particular and the continent as a whole from the yoke of imperialism, and giving it an identity. The timely intervention of Ast (his wife – a fellow country women and classmate), the quintessence of Isis, inspired by her grand mother Nwt the archetype of Nut, only helps grease Asar’s quest for putting together the dismembered continent. Their scheme at the University materializes, with the adoption of Africa-oriented curricula for History, African studies and Literature Departments. The contention begins in the university, when Professor Wright Woolley (a British), head of the Department of African Studies, greets the news of the imminent curriculum change with contempt: “Another Demand” (Osiris, 211). His resistance is short-lived as the faculty council finally adopts the three curricula. Out of envy, Set and his entourage decide to kill Asar. Like Osiris, Asar “exploded silently into fourteen starry fragments, and the pieces plunged into the peaceful” (Osiris, 305). It is important to indicate that Asar impregnated Ast prior to his assassination. The child in her womb is an exemplar of Horus. Amah therefore uses this myth of rebirth as a response to the eternal western question as to whether Africa has the possibility of changing. Isidore Okpweho in his article “Rethinking Myth” notes that Myth

is simply that of fancy which inform the creative or configurative power of the human mind in varying degrees of intensity: in this sense, we are free to call any narrative of oral tradition – so long as it lays emphasis on fanciful play - a myth. (19)

He adds that, if myth is a quality that marks tales of oral tradition in proportion to their liberation from the constraints of time and experience, then surely, we can identify this mythic quality in modern fictional works according as they are indebted to the received material of the oral tradition in content and/or in form .Viewing the role of myth in literature, it is evident that the author’s intention is not only to parallel situations, but to draw our attention to the fact that, so far as Isis is alive, Osiris must rise again. Isis, represented by Ast, also symbolizes the ideology which Africans in their minds of putting together their dismembered continent. Furthermore, it is clear that if Osiris rises, he can never be the same again, since his genitals were eaten by fishes. The genitals of Africa have been eaten up by slavery, imperialism, colonialism. Thus, a new Africa can only emanate from the combination of thirteen parts, without the fourteenth part that was eaten up. Thus, making Africa complete inevitably entails borrowing a foreign part from elsewhere. Putting together all these parts will result in a stronger Africa. This leads us to the notion of building a stronger Africa by provincializing former spheres of influence.

As earlier indicated at the preliminary stage of this work, provincializing former spheres of influence does not mean rejecting them. The former spheres of influence have, for centuries, been the fabric of most societies around world. Thus, claiming to reject them is a fallacy or mere propaganda. Dipesh Chakrabarty, in Provincialising Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference,holds that:

This Europe, like “the West,” is demonstrably an imaginary entity, but the demonstration as such does not lessen it appeal or power. The project of provincializing Europe has to include certain particular moves: First, the recognition that Europe’s acquisition of the adjective “modern” for itself is an integral part of the story of European imperialism within global history; and second, the understanding that this equating of a certain version of Europe with “modernity” is not the work of European alone; third-world nationalisms, as modernizing ideologies par excellence, have been equal partners in the process. I do not mean to overlook the anti-imperial moments in the careers of these nationalisms; I only underscore the point that the project of provincializing Europe cannot be a nationalist, nativist, atavistic project. (43)

From Chakrabarty’s viewpoint, and in line with our argument, provincializing former spheres means shifting former frontiers with a view to having ample space for the articulation of individual values. It does not entail breaking bridges; for it is only when these frontiers are shifted to a nation’s favor that it can hope to achieve the great leap forward politically, socially, economically and technologically. Otherwise, the tendency will always be for non-western states to constantly drift towards the eternal centre or run the risk of being swallowed in the global network created by Nation States. Thus, the thrust of my argument at this level is that nations should be centers to themselves, and nationals should believe and work hard to maintain these centers by ensuring that their commodities are given an alluring packaging. Such centers will gradually grow (to the displeasure of Nation States) to provincialize former spheres of influence, thereby putting an end to the rule of the hegemon. Nations will dialogue, negotiate,  rather than dictate to others. It is in this light that Asar, Ast and other colleagues adopt a curriculum at the University of Manda that places Africa at the centre with at least fifty per cent of the curriculum devoted to African Studies. European and American and Asian studies come in to complement or for comparative purposes. Their project implies that in African Universities, Africa should be at the centre, and in European universities, European studies should also be at the centre. The creations of these centers will help eradicate the idea of considering the West as the sole vantage point from which the rest of the world is viewed. The university milieu used by Armah serves only as a microcosm of Africa.  If Osiris is to rise again, then he must be ready to accept, integrate and accommodate a new part to make his thirteen parts complete. This is an alternative means of heralding a better era for nations which have been held hostage for centuries or whose progress is only occurring at a snail’s pace.

In a nutshell, the work sets out to prove that decentering former spheres of influence gives birth to new provinces, with each province having a defined autonomy, enabling it to operate with little or no constraints within the global village. In the course of the analysis, we realized that the question of a defined autonomy depends on the nature of the structures put in place. The structures must reflect the people more. That is why Amah proposes a university programme which is Africa-based, and draws our attention in his analogy on the myth of Osiris to the fact that Africa still has a good portion of the dismembered Osiris.  After succeeding in making Africa a geographical expression, the next assignment is making its inhabitants Africans. The work has proved that taking a progressive step entails standing by what is African more than ever, amid the obstacles on the way. We also realized that hackneyed phrases on African inferiority are a marketing strategy for the West to persistently foster it hegemon.  Africans and other non-western states, in order not to commit a similar crime should drift towards a defined dialogism, which primarily places each people at the centre of their activities. A strong spirit of conviction, nationalism and sacrifice is needed to accomplish this task. It is through such a path that non-western states can, to a certain extent, avoid the error of looking at the rest of the world through the prism of their own values.

References:

3.1. Culture sans frontières / Kultur ohne Grenzen / Culture without Borders

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