Internationally recognized poet, playwright, and literary critic Dr. M\u0129cere G\u0129thae M\u0169go spoke to us about one of her passionate interests, the negative roles that poverty and inequitable resource distribution are playing, often leading to wars, conflicts, and violent upheavals all over Africa and elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go was born in Kenya, one of ten children of parents who were both teachers and political activists. After completing her Bachelor’s degree with the University of East Africa at Makerere, Kampala, Uganda (1966), she went on to study for a Postgraduate Diploma in Education with the University of East Africa at Nairobi, Kenya. She then taught for some years before continuing her education in Canada, where she earned her Masters (1971) and PhD (1973). She returned to Africa and taught at the University of Nairobi where she became the first woman to serve as Dean of a college faculty before being forced into exile by the Moi dictatorship in 1982 due to her activism. She then worked for two years as a Visiting Professor at St. Lawrence University and then moved to teach at the University of Zimbabwe. She joined Syracuse University in 1993 and is currently a Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence as well as chair of the Department of African-American Studies. Her scholarship is impressive, and she has authored and co-authored an extensive list of essays, plays, and poems. Her work has focused on women’s issues, literature, education, revolutionary change, and international human rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go began by complimenting the Women Transcending\nBoundaries name. She praised us for refusing to be contained, bringing down\nfences, and creating bridges instead of barriers. A proverb of Kenya is\n“To hold dialogue is to love;” conversation creates understanding and\nallows us to touch each other. From that understanding comes love. Dr. M\u0169go\nsaid that her talk was intended to create that love and understanding between\nthe WTB audience and Kenya and all of Africa . The members of WTB would say\nthat she succeeded admirably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go passed out a set of four papers. The first showed that\nAfrica is larger than China, the United States, India, Europe, Argentina, and\nNew Zealand combined, and is home to more than 900 million people. The second\nshowed the countries of Africa and the years that they gained independence from\ncolonialism, a process that gained momentum in the 1960s. The third map showed\nAfrican nations and their neighbors today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final page showed the spiral structure representing the\nworldview of the G\u0129k\u0169y\u0169 people of Kenya, with the individual at the center,\nsurrounded by family, then layers of extended family, the community, the\nsociety, and the world which includes the hereafter and the ancestors. All of\nthis is surrounded by nature. The spiral shows how people who are living in\nlife’s war zones, struggling to make a living and address problems of survival\nmanage to affirm each other\u2019s humanity through communal connectedness. The\nlayers are dependent on each other and the layers of interrelationships create\nmeaning and interconnection between all people, leading to the traditional\ngreeting, “I am only well, if you too are well.” Dr. M\u0169go quoted\nProfessor John Beattie, who shared the African philosophy of life: “I am\nbecause you are, and since you are, I am.” Thus in affirming my human\ndignity, I also affirm yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go revealed the wide variety of war zones of life that\nare the legacy of colonialism and deeply affect life in Africa today. She spoke\nof how as a system of domination, colonialism created metaphorical and actual\nwar zones, including the ugly realities of life that inhibit people’s psyches. She\nfocused on Kenya so that she would not generalize too much. Dr. M\u0169go warned\nagainst forgetting history. To remember does not mean to be stagnant. It means\nforcing humanity to recall when the humanity of others has been abused and\ndenied, and making a vow to commit to doing something different. When we\nremember, we come face to face with ugly reality and are forced to do something\nabout it, to change it. If we don’t want to be bothered to do something, we say\nwe didn’t live when the wrongs under scrutiny occurred. For instance, \u201cthere\nwas slavery but I’m not responsible.\u201d Yet such conditions made such a\ndifference that the world is still affected by them as we speak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today we say that America will never be the same since 9\/11.\nWell, Native Americans likewise have never been the same since the white man’s\ninvasions and massacres. Africa has never and will never be the same since the\ninvasion by slave traders and countries bent on colonization. The Middle\nPassage was Africa’s Holocaust, and because it has been suppressed in our collective\nmemories, history has been repeated and hence modern holocausts in the form of\ngenocide such as in Rwanda, Darfur and in Eastern Europe. So the histories of\nslavery and colonization and their effect on the collective memory of humanity\nare war zones that continue even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the many areas of military action in Africa, women and\nchildren suffer in the largest numbers. Eighty percent of refugees are women\nand children, and Africa has the highest number of refugees in the world. Countries\nsuch as Angola and Mozambique have the highest number of amputees in the world\nas a result of mines and amputations and other atrocities by the Renamo\n\u201cbandits,\u201d supported and funded by the United States through then apartheid\nSouth Africa as a part of the war they were waging against communism during the\ncold war era. The United Nations organized a number of conferences to expose\nthe horrors of that war and had victims give testimony, asking journalists,\nwriters and historians to write them down so that the world would remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another war zone was created by Christian missionaries who\nstripped people of their cultures and identities, including their own names. Many\nchildren were taken to mission schools where they were forced to reject their\ncultural heritage, creating a sense of shame and forcing them to deny\nthemselves. When Dr. M\u0169go was registered for school, her given African name,\nM\u0129cere, a name that connected her to her people, was deemed un-Christian, and\nshe was required to adopt Madeleine, a name that was of no meaning or symbolism\nto her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The legacy of colonialism on land distribution created and\ncontinues to create a war zone. Under settler colonialism in Kenya 85% of prime\nland was given to less than two million white colonizers while the local population\nshared the remaining 15% – then designated as “reserves” for\n\u201cnatives\u201d who could be shot and killed for entering their traditional lands\nthen held by whites. The colonial social structure put whites at the top,\nfollowed by Indians, then Arabs and \u201ccoloreds,\u201d then Africans at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These colonial seeds created a war zone of poverty that\npersists to day under neo-colonialism, sometimes causing hunger so intense that\nvictims cannot think. And lest we forget it, extreme hunger in the young stunts\nbrain growth, dooming the individual’s future as well. The World Bank and the\nInternational Monetary Fund have contributed to this war zone. They have\nfocused on debt repayment and the production of cash crops such as tea and\ncoffee that are capital intensive but provide no food for citizens. The\nbeneficiaries are transnational corporations, while the people suffer with\nmalnutrition. Estimates of malnutrition among children run as high as 75% in\nsome countries. These children are robbed of the capacity of the brain to grow,\nand condemned to a sub-standard life because they can never catch up. The\nemphasis on globalization has left the individual to fend for herself without\nresources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go personally experienced another war zone under\ncolonialism – one of racism, discrimination and isolation. In 1961, as a result\nof civil rights activism, the government was looking for an African child to\npioneer integration in a white school that had opened up for one African and\none Asian student. Young M\u0129cere M\u0169go was a student from of a privileged Black\nnational school, with excellent grades. She was chosen to attend the white\nschool to study for A levels. The white girls were shocked that she would use\nthe same bathroom as they, or sit at the same table, and would leave en masse\nwhenever M\u0129cere showed up. M\u0129cere was active in sports and rode on team buses,\nbut although she was a first-rate team member, wherever she sat all the seats\nnear her were always left vacant. She filled the loneliness of these times with\nbooks, finding a kindred spirit in James Baldwin, whom she finally met and\nbecame friends with in 1978.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right-wing Christianity can also create war zones. Some\nfundamentalists teach people to be passive, to accept suffering as a cross to\nbear. They portray suffering as something positive that will lead to a reward\nin heaven. Very convincing speakers and preachers proclaim that if you have\nfaith, your illnesses will be healed, so going to a hospital is a sign of lack\nof faith. Calamities are claimed to be God’s will, either as punishment, or as\na test that will lead to glory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go said she has fought these attitudes even in her own\nfamily. People must understand that God has given wisdom and knowledge to\ndoctors and has given individuals the strength and will to change themselves\nand eventually to change the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Kampala, a rally by Joyce Myers, an American evangelist,\nonce identified Islam as the anti-Christ, to be destroyed at the end of the\nworld. She and similar evangelists such as Morris Cerullo have proclaimed the\nend times, leading to situations where local followers commit to recruit people\nto go to Israel to meet Armageddon. Dr. M\u0169go said that some people with these\nfundamentalist beliefs are in President Bush’s cabinet and others serve as his\nkitchen cabinet or as advisors. So the war exists at many levels. Faith is\nbeing used to create destructive behaviors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go told us about Nishike Mkono, an organization that\nmeans ‘Hold my hand’ or ‘Let’s hold hands.’ A group of Kenyan poor villagers,\nmost of them women, joined together to share their strength and experience\nhuman worth that can be destroyed by pessimism. They look after orphaned\nchildren, widows and the homeless, providing them with food, clothing – walking\nfor miles to render their services. Once a month the group comes together with\ndonations of the little money they can afford. This is given to one member who\nwill use the proceeds to feed her family well for one day, and the process is\nrepeated such that each month the recipient changes. In this way each member\ngets to eventually experience one day of sufficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
E.J. Platt, a Canadian poet, once observed that the line\nbetween humankind, the angel, and the beast is tissue-thin. These people know\nthat humans are capable of acting like animals, but in their sharing they rise\nabove the level of beast and raise each other up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go contributes financially to groups like these and\nsaid that $200 to $300 a month can be stretched to perform miracles. Women, in\nparticular, come together to create alternatives, with elders mentoring the\nyouth. Poverty has driven many to drink, especially on commercial farms, where\nno matter what other amenities are missing, there is always a bar. A small\namount of money can lift these lives from despair and help them affirm each\nother’s dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. M\u0169go read us her poems that speak to real life\nsituations and issues in a conversational manner, arriving at a place which in\nwhich to hold dialogue is to love. The first poem she shared was “In\nPraise of Africa’s Children.” Another she had written was about the Rwanda\ngenocide. After each stanza, she asked the audience to repeat the refrain\n“and all this time, the world looked on, doing nothing.” The\nrecitation was very moving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final poem was her poem of hope, \u201cProsaic Poem\u201d which\nadvocates that a new day will rise for the oppressed. Each stanza began with\nthe audience saying “One day.” We all were moved to contribute to\nthis bright day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to questions, Dr. M\u0169go said that it is wrong to\nsay that the people are ignorant. They may not have book-learning, but they are\neducated by their rich cultural heritage and have a deep understanding of the\nworld. Actually book-learning and clever speakers have been used to take\nadvantage of people or mislead them. In recent times the media has been used to\npromote hatred as in Rwanda, and departments of justice have been used to\nsubjugate. The tools of the state have been used to subjugate the citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When an audience member brought up the refugees who have resettled\nin our area, Dr. M\u0169go said that the difficulties that they face here, of a new\nlanguage, new culture, racism, loneliness for those they have left, constitute\na new war zone, one that we can assist to eradicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of her dynamic and provocative comments, Dr. M\u0169go\nreceived enthusiastic applause, and was then surrounded by members who wanted\nto speak with her privately. As promised, Dr. M\u0169go educated us, stimulated us,\nand guided us in thinking about what remedial actions we might take as individuals\nand as a community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A noted Kenyan author stated that colonialism’s legacies of poverty and inequitable resource distribution have led to wars, conflicts and violent upheavals all over Africa and elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-7801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-advocacy",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7801"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9204,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801\/revisions\/9204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}