| FUNCTIONALLY ILLITERATE ELITES
An FAF Publication
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Of all the obstacles that thwart Africa's development efforts, "functional illiteracy" is perhaps the most daunting. The functionally illiterate is "educated," possessing a degree, diploma, or some military title, but does not understand its import or the meaning of things. He is imbued with symbolism and characterized by rote behavior. He mimicks his teacher and regurgitates what was taught in class because he is incapable of independent thought or rational reasoning and lacks initiative. If the teacher had a blue refrigerator, he would also buy one of the same color.
In the classroom, the functionally illiterate was taught that LAND + TRACTORS = BOUNTIFUL AGRICULTURAL HARVEST. Upon graduation, he finds that the "food equation" in traditional Africa is: PEASANT FARMER + LAND + SHIFTING CULTIVATION + MANURE + INCENTIVES = LIMITED AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT. Where are the tractors or fertilizer? "Tractors there must be! Even if they must be imported from Jupiter!" Else, there could be no agricultural revolution. Accordingly, tons of sophisticated agricultural machinery were imported into Africa, costing huge amounts of scarce foreign exchange or credit. In the 1970s Tanzania was using combine harvesters to grow wheat. Much of this agricultural machinery operated for a few months, then broke down and was abandoned in the fields.
Fishing is another example. To the functionally illiterate elites, the only way to catch fish is by a trawler and the catch is preserved through refrigeration. Never mind that Africa's native fishermen have been fishing in dug-out canoes and preserving fish by smoking and salting it -- techniques which require no foreign exchange expenditure. But to the elites, the traditional methods are not good enough. Only cold storage would do. And what happened when the cold stores broke down and there was no foreign exchange to import ammonia freon 22 used as refrigerant for cold storage facilities? The Daily Graphic supplied the answer: "The result is that the cold stores of the State Fishing Corporation which have been incapacitated by lack of refrigerant cannot take in any more of the bountiful catch being made by local fisherman. Fishing vessels of the corporation which would also be on the seas at this time of the year (bumper season) to haul in fish cannot move for the same reason" (Daily Graphic, 10 August 1981, 1).
Consequently, when the fishing season rolled around, Ghana could not increase its fish catch and distribution. Said the Daily Graphic in another editorial:
"Since time immemorial, July/August have always been bumper peaks for herring, and one would expect that our policy makers should make the surplus catch not only for a dry day but for distribution to other parts of the country since the whole country has been in a terribly lean period the past one year. The authorities are aware of fish that are fast rotting along the country's coasts. It started in the Western and Central Regions and we should have planned for and expected it along the eastern coast too.
We are reliably informed that the State Fishing Corporation (SFC) is unable to store the abundant fish for technical reasons. The SFC could redeploy its workers to smoke, by traditional methods, all the fish brought ashore" (Daily Graphic, 4 August 1981, 2).
Health care is yet another example. "About 70 percent of the Ghanaian population relies on the traditional healers for treatment of their ills. Only 30 percent benefit from modern medical service provided in the hospitals. Professor C. O. Easmon, who gave these figures, predicted that for the foreseeable future, the bulk of the population would still be dependent on traditional healers" (Ghanaian Times, July 20, 1981, 1). "About 1,628 patients have been cured of various diseases at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Herbal Clinic at Takoradi since its inception 7 years ago. The ailments include hypertension, stroke, hernia, tuberculosis, lits, male impotency and barrenness in women. Dr. Joseph Nyamikeh, who is in charge of the clinic, said it was now generally accepted that herbal treatment was the answer to some diseases which medical science had been unable to cure" (Daily Graphic, 13 October 1982, 5).
Yet for years, traditional medicine was never taught in Ghana's medical schools. Nor did the government of Ghana assist or recognize traditional healers. The elites, afflicted with the religion of development, frowned on the traditional. Kwame Nyanteh, a Somanya-based industrialist described Ghana's educational system as "bogus." "He pointed out that over the last two and half decades, the country's educational policies and performance had been one of confusion and purposelessness, adding that `the time has come for a re-appraisal'. Mr. Kwame Nyanteh said the present educational system was completely out of tune and was even responsible for the creation of social problems. He therefore called on the government to bring the system in line with the developmental needs of the country." (Ghanaian Times, July 20, 1981, 1).
Similarly across Africa, the educational system produces graduates who spend more time arguing over the causes of Africa's problems than about how to fix them. The enormous expenditures on education hardly made any difference in increasing agricultural production or solving Africa's problems. Pini Jason, a Nigerian journalist, described a typical "elite": "There is a Nigerian called Alhaji Maitama Sule. He is from Kano state. Among other important government posts he has held, he was also once Nigeria's permanent representative in the United Nation. Outside government posts, which could come his way without any effort, he is hardly remembered for any other personal achievement, except that at public fora, he speaks about little things with such profundity and says little about profound things (New African, April 1994, 8).
Nigeria, by its sheer size, has more graduates than any other African country. Bragged Chieke Evans Ihejirika of Temple University in Philadelphia: "One thing nobody can say that Nigeria lacks is a class of some of the best scholars the world has ever known" (African News Weekly, March 3, 1995, 17). And how have they tackled their country's problems with all that intellectual prowess?
In April 1994 Nigerian intellectuals held a conference to honor Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. After presentations by featured speakers such as Professor Ali Mazrui, Chinua Achebe, Edward Blyden III, and Martin Kilson, the floor was opened up for general discussion on the future of "Zikist World View." According to African News Weekly, 27 May 1994:
As usual, many people started talking about the problems of Nigeria. Then a man who claimed to be a medical doctor took the podium and stunned the audience with what he learnt from his recent trip to Nigeria after a 20-year absence. He said that Nigeria's problems are polygamy (allowing men to marry more than one wife) and the fact that women are denied their rights. Many people, who before then had been talking about the annulment of the 1993 presidential election and Nigeria's lack of democratic rule, stared in amazement, wondering how polygamy could be Nigeria's biggest problem at the moment. Of course, others quickly jumped on the man [verbally] shouting him down. (2)
On 21 May 1994 Nigerian intellectuals held another conference at Howard University Inn, Washington. The purpose was to "form a national union to purge Nigeria of and save it from military tyranny." How did the conference go? According to U.S.-Nigerian Voice, June 1994:
It was almost foiled by six big fools, who acted like thugs. They wanted to deny free speech to those they despised. They asked asinine questions but would not even wait for an answer. When they waited for an answer, it had better be the answer they are looking for, or, they would go rabid again. They wanted to supplant the raison d'etre of the conference with their own selfish, political agenda. They shouted like maniacs what everybody in the room already knew: that [military dictator] Abacha was a brutish opportunist; that our leaders are corrupt; that Chief Abiola, who won the [1993] presidential election was robbed; that our folks back home were suffering, and so on. (8)
A Nigerian journalist in Oakland, California, Bayo Awokoya, wrote a scathing indictment entitled, "Nigerians: The Unintelligent Intellectuals." He wrote:
Nigerian intellectuals lack the critical thinking ability to incorporate their book knowledge to real life, such as in the case of Nigeria's political, economic and social woes. One of the major problems confronting many Nigerian intellectuals today lies with our inability to translate knowledge into problem-solving. One would expect that during our years in college, we would have learned the meaning and application of the following words: leadership, organization, coordination, implementation and opportunity. For example, let us examine opportunity. Our inability to recognize an opportunity demonstrates the ineffectiveness of our intellectual capability and ranks next in order to our social problems. While we are preoccupied by the frustration and hopeless circumstances that we find ourselves in, we have overlooked the opportunity to unite and combine our "intellectual," political and financial resources to change the present political model in Nigeria. (African News Weekly, 26 August - 1 September 1996, 23).
To be fair, not all Nigerian intellectuals lack the ability to seize opportunity but there are some whose doctorates should be repossessed.
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George Ayittey,
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