By Henry Kanyanta Sosala

Zambian intellectuals-the conscience of our society

Generally speaking about eighty percent of educated Zambians of whatever level are obsessed with their academic and professional attainments and refer to themselves as geniuses, intellectuals, philosophers etc. However, some of our leaders have not been impressed with such empty claims and at one time President Kaunda retorted:

‘’Intellectuals! Intellectuals! You call yourselves intellectuals, but what have you ever done?’’

And in the same way, President Chiluba said:

‘’We have intellectuals and professionals in this country who only cough and smile intellectually.’’

And indeed one notable feature is that the supposed claimed intelligence is not based on original scholarship or on sound reasoning.

Most private newspapers give access to their readers to text in their comments on the published stories. And in order to gauge the intellectual out-put, I looked at the commentaries from those who have dubbed themselves as ‘’bloggers’’ in Lusaka Times of 19th July 2014 from which I picked up the following headlines:

1. Honourable Guy Scott —— I qualify to act as President, parentage clause misunderstood by many people. There were 76 comments.
2. Name universities or hospitals after President Chilufya Sata by Mrs Mary Nkhoma Chibesa a PF member of Chingola. There were 30 comments.
3. PF under under pressure by UPND Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Kuchunga Simusamba. There were 33 comments.
4. Honourable Guy Scott —- expected to arrive in Scotland to witness the official kick-off of the 2014 Commonwealth games. There were 21 comments.
5. Ministry of Education begins piloting the use of e-learning facilities in five primary schools in Lusaka. The Parliamentary committee on education conducted a tour of some of the schools that use the facilities. There was only one (1) comment.
6. The low academic performance in Luapula Province attributed to poor reading culture. There were 6 comments.
7. President Sata visits his son Kazimu in a South African hospital. There were 30 comments.
8. From the Watchdog: Ghana and Zambia irresponsible governments wasted benefits of Jubilee 2000, after which they were cleared of foreign debts worth about US$ 14 billion. And these two countries are heavily borrowing again. There were only 2 comments.

You can easily note that most of the comments are on subjects of political nature and this is because politics cannot be pursued in academic rational terms because in politics there can be no objective standards of judgement. In other words, politics is a matter incapable of exact definition. Right or wrong are what individuals make them to be and the opinion of each is true for him. Political decisions do not depend upon straightforward logic and this opens up comments from everybody and in the above cited cases, most of the comments were totally unintelligible.

On the other hand, the sad reality is the fact that the entire nation is on the same intellectual and political wave-bands. And this was easily identified by the South African Communist Party Secretary-General, Dr. Blade Nzimande, when he visited this country and met the leaders of different political parties and the civil society groups in separate meetings:

‘’What is disappointing in Zambia is the extent to which virtually all the major political parties that will be contesting elections this year (i.e., 2006) are effectively committed to a path broadly similar to that of Chiluba.’’ (Sunday Post 9th April 2006).

What about the intelligentsia that is supposed to be “the conscience of our society?”

Brains that have become a curse to the Nation

It is very unfortunate that ‘’knowledge’’ and ‘’intellect’’ are often mistaken for ‘’understanding’’ and ‘’wisdom.’’ The process of thinking or the use of the mind or brain is a wave extension from the centre of knowledge, which divides that knowledge into ideas and sets them into motion. The quality of a person’s products depends upon the degree of awareness of his knowledge and not upon the quantity or intensity of his thinking. Inspiration is that deep awareness of consciousness which differentiates the genius from a being of average intelligence.

[pullquote]The quality of a person’s products depends upon the degree of awareness of his knowledge and not upon the quantity or intensity of his thinking.[/pullquote]

‘’Knowledge’’ is accumulated information (for example: ‘’what is the capital city of Zambia?’’ Lusaka). But even though the voice of a book is one, however, it does not teach all persons alike. ‘’Intellect’’ is mind plus an emotional tug strong enough to determine independent courses of actions. Dr. D.D. Thurstone wrote:
‘

’To be extremely intelligent is not the same as to be gifted in creative work. Students with high intelligence are not necessarily the ones who produce the most original ideas. The Quiz kids are often referred to as geniuses, but it is doubtful whether they are fluent in producing original ideas.’’ (Applied Imagination by Alex Osborn p. 26).
‘’Understanding’’ or ‘’insight’’ is the ability to see connections between one fact and another and between facts and real life. And that was why King Solomon admonished: ‘’Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.’’ (Proverbs 2:3,4).

‘’Wisdom’’ is the right use of knowledge or the ability to apply knowledge to everyday life and that is why ‘’wisdom’’ is regarded as ‘’skill for right living.’’ And according to Silvano Borruso,

‘’wisdom is primarily the ordering of units of knowledge and understanding according to their correspondence with reality.’’ (The Art of Thinking: Chats on Logic p. 93).

What must be noted here is that it is not the acquisition of knowledge, but the application of knowledge that counts. It is in this respect that Trywell Kaluposa wrote:

‘’I believe that political and economic brains that do not liberate their own people from oozing poverty when they have the instruments to do so are worthless. Brains that recite a pseudo capitalist agenda and self-aggrandisement are a curse to the nation. Brains that cannot break an exploitative system for the good of the Zambian people are dead brains. They are not worth of the brains! They are sterile! These are the sort of brains that believe that absolute drive towards foreign investment is a panacea to national development.’’ (Sunday Post 19th August 2007).

On the other hand, the Bible teaches us that King Solomon was blessed with surpassing wisdom by God, but he knew that he could not simply sit down in his palace with an empty mental slate and a pen in hand, waiting to derive wisdom from heaven. He had to gain insight through experience as cited in Proverbs 24:30-34:

‘’I walked through the fields and vineyards of a lazy, stupid man. They were full of thorn bushes and overgrown with weeds. The stone wall round them had fallen down. I looked at this, thought about it and learned a lesson from it: Have a nap and sleep if you want to. Fold your hands and rest awhile, but while you are asleep, poverty will attack you like an armed robber.’’

Please note that no amount of thinking and meditation could have taught King Solomon about the disastrous consequences of irresponsible laziness had he not walked in the fields. And the more you read the works of this wise king, you will realize that he learned great lessons of life which he has bequeathed to us through the pains, problems, dangers and tests of life. We must therefore not flee from the wildfire of experience to the deep freeze of textualism.

What happened to Zambia in 1991

In 1991, Zambians saw the emergence of the supposed young intellectuals into the corridors of power and this was viewed with considerable optimism. The political change that took place was generally considered positive and promising and, of course, the national challenges were felt to be very serious but solvable. The assumption was unquestionable because the MMD was over-flooded with geniuses of various disciplines, and it consequently therefore had the capacity to cushion certain economic problems. However, it was not long that the situation began to reveal frightening depths and complexities of enlightened egocentric interests among our supposed best brains.

However, when the technocrats who had boasted of their unquestionable political qualifications to effectively manage the affairs of this nation than the nationalists began to run the government in academic terms, as they had been taught in lecture halls, it wasn’t long before they themselves realized that their theories did not work out tidily on the ground, when they hit all kinds of snags involved in finding answers about the unpredictable human material which is the object of all governments.

And it was not long that the situation began to reveal frightening depths and complexities of a total corrupt political system. It’s unfortunate that Dr. Chiluba and his gang of educated but totally visionless opportunists entered the corridors of power under the strict tutelage of the capitalist-exploiter who had engineered their way into the government.

[pullquote]A characteristic feature of Zambia’s poverty is that the government and the international institutions bred it.[/pullquote]

In fact we were done for, when Chiluba and his visionless and corrupt technocrats surrendered Zambia’s sovereignty to the capitalist-exploiters. The University of Zambia Development Studies lecturer, Mr. Frederick Mutesa wrote:

‘’The cold war African leaders that succeeded the founding fathers surrendered sovereignty in national policy-making to the Bretton Woods Institutions…..whereas the Nyereres, Kaundas and the Machels resisted the encroachment of foreign forces on the nations’ sovereignty, the Chilubas that replaced them chose to kiss neo-liberal policies in the morning, afternoon and at night.’’ (The Post 24th April 2004).

An international organization, the National Citizens’ Coalition reported in Social Watch Report 2002:

“When former President Chiluba took office from President Kaunda in 1991, the poverty rate was 56 per cent. When he left the government after ten years, poverty had risen to upward of 80 per cent. Large-scale corruption had diverted resources meant for the people of Zambia, while they watched in sorrow and desperation as their country headed towards becoming the poorest in the world. A characteristic feature of Zambia’s poverty is that the government and the international institutions bred it. Zambia’s poverty did not just happen; it was caused…..Former Chiluba’s government was the most corrupt in the history of this country. Resources that should have been used to improve the people’s quality of life were misappropriated in grand corruption episodes..” (ibid. p. 176)

Dr. Blade Nzimande who visited this country at the invitation of The Post management observed:

‘’The one striking feature of the Zambian society is the extent to which the structural adjustment policies pursued by the Chiluba presidency have rolled back many of the gains made during the first two decades of Zambian independence after 1964. We found, amongst many of those we met a re-emerging nostalgia for the Kaunda presidency and the advances made then in the fields of education, health and provision of other basic services. The Chiluba presidency privatized virtually all the state-owned enterprises, leading to massive job losses and the rolling back in the provision of education and health services in particular.’’ (Sunday Post 9th April 2006)

A vision stands for

• Intelligent ability to foresee the future;
• An insight to imagine the future
• Doorway to the future
• Determines destiny
• Marks and distinguishes intellectual capacities of different people.

And this was why King Solomon declared: ‘’Where there is no vision, people perish.’’

Why Zambia is not independent

The conscience of a nation pertains to power, though power is a fluid concept with many tangibles. Empowerment means that people get equipped to deal with their own situations in practical and viable ways. Power is neutral until it is acquired and used, but completely without it, we just are lethargic because power enables people and enhances life.

The French sociologist, Mr. Raymond Aron defined power in terms of

1. Capacities: population, military and economic power, industrial base, territory
2. Policies: the exercise of power by deliberate courses of action to affect the will of rivals and competitors
3. Motivation: the propensity to act in a certain way in international politics.

What I mean in this case is that we in Zambia lack the ability to translate human and material resources into tangible power. Hence we are incapable of transforming our own preponderances in the nation, population, financial and geo-strategic assets into economic power, capable of achieving social and political goals. And we cannot, therefore, stand up and say with pride, ‘’we are independent.’’ We are not, and let no one fool you. If I feed you; decide what you are going to eat and when you are going to eat. So how free are you? I just cannot see how we Zambians are going to develop this country through begging.

The capitalist has an instinct or genius for colonizing. His unequalled energy, his indomitable perseverance and his personal independence makes him a pioneer. The capitalist-exploiter is a great strategist and he is as well blessed with the gift of wit and he leads with truth but never to truth.

The mis-education of colonized Africans

Irvin Babitt in his book Democracy and Leadership wrote: “…..the man who stands for nothing higher than the law of cunning and the law of force, and so is, in the sense I have sought to define imperialistic.”

[pullquote]Our so-called ‘’intellectuals’’ are parrots, not eagles and rather than explore the illimitable ranges of the limitless sky, they are content to sit safe on their familiar perches and continually nodding their heads like tree-frogs[/pullquote]
If one takes into account “the law of cunning” that is involved in imperialism, so then what type of education was or is being offered to Africans? A report prepared by Mr. Miller, the first inspector of schools in Sierra Leone reads in part:
“

……the knowledge later produces doubt and fogginess in adult life…..want of liberal attainments induces imitation of the worst in Europeans.” (Adult Education and Development: Germany Education Association No.30 of March 1988).

Education is power and the purpose of education is to extract a human being from the limited circle of their lower self in order to project them into the limitless circle of cosmic consciousness. However, the education of the colonized Africans was hemmed in within the confines of the colonial system.

There is always some subtle catch somewhere in the colonial education system because no one can dominate the continent without first demoralizing its inhabitants. Dr. Kaunda in A Humanist in Africa wrote:

‘’In fact colonialism, for all its benefits, devalued Man. And even more serious, the colonialists set out to destroy an African’s self-confidence. They dinned into his mind the idea that we were primitive, backward and degraded, and but for their presence amongst us, we would be living like animals. The result is that even today in an independent African state, you will find a certain sector of the population suffering from a Bwana complex. They cannot stand on their own feet as free men but must look over their shoulder all the time for the approval of the white man.’’

The mis-education starts from the first day we enter school, where the African child is confronted with the first nemesis of cultural annihilation. We are taught to hate everything African or black. We are taught to value the western culture over our own culture. We are taught to value western history over our own. Mr. Martin Luther King said the greatest damage the white man has done to the black man’s mind is to teach him to hate himself.

Chika Onyeani, a Nigerian and resident in USA wrote:

“It is this mis-education of the African that continues to make him dependent on the West for everything he does. We have a high cadre of Africans who have degrees, but whether they are highly educated is another matter. If we were to look at some of the categories in the lives of Africans, we can immediately see the hollowness of their education. We can see how we have allowed ourselves to be mis-educated with cheerfulness, because getting the degree was more important than getting the substance of learning attached to a particular discipline…… You cannot blame the Europeans for our inability to produce anything tangible for ourselves. What is the essence of education if you cannot practice what you have learned? To us getting our education is the end, rather than a means to an end. We cannot apply whatever we have learned to our everyday life.” (Capitalist Nigger: The Road to Success)

Education minister, Honourable John Phiri said that the Zambian university system has failed the nation and said that it was clear that the Zambian university curriculum needed to be reviewed so that it supported sustainable development,

‘’We need to review the curriculum at all levels so that learners are better prepared for the challenges Zambia faces. There is need to align universities so that they meet the demands or needs of our people and that they stay with the people if sustainable development is to be realized……our universities only answer the demands of the capitalist world rather than the people who are looking for solutions for poverty, hunger, underdevelopment etc., our universities have failed the people.’’ (The Post 20th February 2012)

The target of our “Bantu” colonial type of education is that it teaches ‘’what to think’’ and not ‘’how to think.’’ And the majority of our African intellectuals are victims of this strait-jacketing. It was only later when I was introduced to Marx, Hegel, Plato, Aristotle, Kant and other immortals that I developed my philosophical conscience on ‘’how to think.’’ And I have stubbornly refused to be told ‘’what to think.’’

I believe that political intellectuals lacking the revolutionary Marxist concepts are vulnerable to the capitalist-exploiter. Marxism is not a dogma, but a guide to action. And Herbert Aptheker writing on Max and American Scholarship said:

‘’Indeed, the greatest American intellectual figures — and this is part of their greatness — not only to uphold the right to study Marx, but insisted upon the necessity to study him if one was to have some grasp of reality. They acknowledged in Marx as one of the outstanding geniuses in world history and therefore knew that any ‘university’ which barred Marx could only be a place of mis-education; that any ‘teacher’ who ignored or caricatured his ideas could only be a fraud and any student who was kept from those ideas was being cheated in his efforts to get at the truth. And they held to this notwithstanding vituperation and persecution. All the great scholars repeatedly referred in their lectures and writings to the ideas of Karl Marx….. they were not themselves Marxists, but they dealt with Marx respectfully and with a sense of responsibility. They did not use Marxism as an epithet, rather they treated it as one of the great seminal systems of world thought.’’ (The Era of McCarthyism pp. 216/217).

Automated intellectualism

The image of the human mind is infinitely malleable, capable of being reformed, transformed and rectified without limit. And this is the area where ‘’Bantu’’ education system actively plays its role since character and thought patterns can be directed to desired ends and whoever controls the mind, controls the man. And so the type of education you receive will direct the way you approach the whole spectrum of life. King Solomon wrote:

‘’Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.’’

Thoughts are forces, subtle, vital, creative and continually building and shaping our lives according to their nature.

And so whoever controls the mind controls the man.The ear is the gateway to the senses and that is why in what is called ‘’the power of the air,’’ all governments in the world control the radio because whoever controls what is transmitted controls you.

I am not trying to criminalize the colonial education system and a good number of automated and playboy intellectuals it produces, but I cannot, however, hesitate to point out its deliberate failure to lay concrete foundations of self-discovery; self-assertion and the quenching of the pioneer spirit.

The imperial educational system that was offered to Africans during the colonial era was meant to produce efficient manpower to run the affairs of Her Majesty’s government. But knowing that whoever controls the mind controls the man, the curriculum was ‘’dribbled’’ after we attained independence and the current educational system has tended to paralyze the critical faculties and discourage vigorous thinking and thus it is there to persuade the intellect, but never to get the conscious in trouble and so one remains an apologist and never a reformer.

Our so-called ‘’intellectuals’’ are parrots, not eagles and rather than explore the illimitable ranges of the limitless sky, they are content to sit safe on their familiar perches and continually nodding their heads like tree-frogs (popularly known as blue-heads) to foreign ideas, the underlining implications of which they scarcely understand.

And as a result we have a mentality characterized by timidity that lacks moral courage which has given us a flabby society, intellectually impoverished, dull, repetitious and to a great extent, many persons, just plain bore-some.

In fact one of the so-called ‘’blogger’s’’ complaint is that usually my articles are too long and does not seem to understand that there are of academic nature which appear in even foreign publications and cannot therefore be para-phrased. It is just better to ignore them. However, as a result of colonial education and experience, we have developed inhibitions which ridigise our thinking. And these inhibitions militate against our attacking national issues with clear and independent imaginative approach. We are simply not adventurous with our knowledge and hence we are unable to turn on that innate automatic power called ‘’association of ideas.’’ We have therefore consigned ourselves to ‘’automated intellectualism,’’ which only strives to stumble upon easy and simple answers when human life is complicated.

Generally speaking in nine out of ten, intellectualism comes out in the middle of immense enterprise, when one is trying to make sense of what seems to be a meaningless slaughterhouse. It is in this intensity though unknown even to himself that a person takes part in the life of the universe and releases the hidden potential within himself, because talent comes out of decay.

The genius’ mind is strengthened, increased and enriched by those very ideas that escape the senses; the less there is to see, the more there is for the indomitable spirit of reason to pursue. For any idea cannot be said to be real, living, until it is tried and has triumphed over everything that would destroy it. It’s this war with the senses, which enables the genius to win a more glorious victory. The genius develops a specific type of alteration of thinking, feeling and relation to the external world___ a gulf that defies description. And therefore the mystery of the genius’ mind lies in three acts: genius, madness and reawakening.

A genuine intellectual is a visionary, innovator and a pioneer who matches to a different beat to that of the clever or the brilliant and is catapulted into activity by what is called the ‘’persistent principle’’ propelled by diligence, which is an inward attitude for success and this means telling the mountain to move out of the way. However, if any intellectual lacks the persistent principle, diligence and anticipatory vision, then the hope of ever achieving something worthwhile in his or her life is simply an illusion. Potential without passion lacks success and remember that children are born out of intense passion.

On the other hand, the only wide-open alternative for all those who lack the above qualities is to join the long and endless queue of automated or parrot quack ‘’intellectuals’’ that are found all over the show and who only become very, very clever after events.

The Post observed in the editorial:

‘’Our society has very few thinkers…..when our future generations ask themselves who the greatest thinkers were at this stage of our history, what will they find? We are afraid they may come up with none. If they should see an amorphous mass of mediocrity ruled by fear of being thought different and in so being subversive. It should not surprise us. It is because we only have time to chase after the little material gleam that is left from the plunderers’ table and nothing more.’’ (ibid. 29th June 2005).

Mental corruption

This again brings me to another national epidemic, known as ‘’national cancer of mental corruption,’’ which has greatly eroded Zambia’s intellectual output. There are certain families which strive on the vicious cycle of examination leakages and other dubious means of managing to secure places for their foolish and totally dull children into institutions of higher learning without the minimum entry qualifications.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) recently arrested the assistant registrar at the University of Zambia for allegedly modifying Grade 12 results to enable six individuals meet entry requirements at the university as first year students, contrary to Section 6 of the Computer Misuse and Crime Act, No. 13 of the Laws of Zambia.

What about those children whose parents cannot afford to buy examination papers? It was reported on ZNBC that Grade 12 students had rioted and damaged school properties at various Kitwe secondary schools because the mathematics examination paper was too difficult. They were demanding that the Examination Council of Zambia should prepare another easy one, so that they could pass with ‘’flying colours.’’

Attorney-general, Mumba Malila has said that the legal profession was in considerable disrepute. ‘’…some learned legal practitioners at ZIALE expecting to enter what is known as the noble profession have deemed it convenient to shamefully cheat their way into the profession by helping themselves to leaked examination papers..’’ (Sunday Post 28th April 2007)

On the other hand, in the science of African politics where what is surely more in evidence is the concept of ‘’political religion’’ and of course, rhetoric takes precedence over reality and therefore ‘’loyalty’’ is redefined into unquestioning obedience and sycophancy; the use of the police and political thugs to bulldoze innocent citizens into passivity.

For example, it was reported in The Post of 23rd July 2014 that a senior politician had directed the University of Zambia management to accept research papers of three students who failed to meet supervisory requirements. The students appealed against the decision of their supervisors and the vice-chancellor’s office rejected the appeal.

‘’Be advised that your appeal to set aside your de-registration in the course is declined. There is sufficient information from your course coordinator pointing to your failure to adhere to set deadline as course regulation. As future legal practitioners, the experience is important in so far as the importance placed on compliance to set rules…’’

The senior politician in the Ministry of Education was asked to intervene and he phoned the vice-chancellor who in turn directed the dean of the School of Law to accept the research papers. ‘’Since then these students have been going round boasting that they have got good connections.’’

Indeed, it is very unfortunate that there exists in this country, a deep sense of intellectual intimidation which means that the majority of ‘’genuine’’ intellectuals are in the habit of ‘’thinking with breaks on.’’ This is where one realizes the excruciating dilemma in which bona-fide intellectuals find themselves because they have to trim their minds continually in order to stay ‘’on course’’, that is, in line with quack ‘’intellectuals’’ who have dominated the intellectual scene.

I strongly believe that Zambia is an intellectual colony, but she badly needs intellectuals with swollen heads i.e., courageous, revolutionized and radicalized in order to become the kind of forum for freewheeling thinking needed to cultivate a creative and dynamic society. The most distinctive feature in the western societies is tolerance of the human being’s potential to think and create and this respect for the individual’s mind is the key to creativity.

But this can only come by the most daring flight of uncontrolled imagination by the intellectuals. This desire to be intellectually free to pursue one’s personal dreams and to maximize one’s potential is the foundation of the democratic ideal and is embraced as the ultimate standard of a free society.

This simply means that there is no hope for the development of a worthwhile intelligentsia in this country. And unfortunately because of ‘’good corrupt connections,’’ these bunches of half-baked quack ‘’intellectuals’’ who are the products of examination leakages and fraud are the ones holding key positions in this country.
No wonder John Phiri sarcastically asked:

“…which universities did these educated fools go to where they were given degrees, masters and PhDs on how to plunder the nation’s funds.” (Education Post 10th July 2005)