Wisdom Wednesday Tidbits

Three Adungu harps by Rwhaun.

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What do we know about child upbringing in the African culture?

Today, African culture is largely something many folks do not wish to pay attention to. The reality hits hard. While it is easy to blame what many academics have called 'epistemicide' as a stage of colonialism or 'ideological colonialism,' the truth is multilayered.

Over time, many politicians have noticed the erosion of African ways of life held to be traditional, customary and normative. Generations have handed down wisdom from ancestry to progeny in form of folk stories, songs, and so on.

Among the Luo of Uganda and Kenya, stories were told by the fireplace. IN FACT, traditions were handed down by common gatherings at night, when young people from multiple families were brought to a selected place of meeting, under a tree, beneath a boulder, and so on. The setting was in a natural environment, with birds chirping on the trees, swan songs, cranes 'groaning' and so on. A fire was lit. Quite often, game meat was roasted. Many former hunting grounds have been converted into game parks and wild life reserves throughout Africa. The communitarian principle was vital to African society, since people lived as communities in every nook and cranny.

This communitarian principle has to be distinguished from Marxist or Socialist ideology which is at the heart of communism. Communing together was common whether under the auspices of a village chief to decide important matters or a family head to bring together his children for what today is often called 'skills training' or something related. Children saw their parents conducting affairs in a certain way and learnt from them. There was immersion into traditions, beliefs and customs. Eating together was normative and in African tradition, a meal contains more than just food. In essence, sharing a meal is sharing kinship, strengthening friendship and growing together. Meals were never just about satisfying hunger. It did not have to be taught through utterances: this is the culture in which young people were immersed.

Sage philosophy and child upbringing

A child had to know who his or her main relations were. It was the task and responsibility of an elder to show 'the ways' of being a human person and participating in society to the young generation. This was done through story telling, counselling and at times varied methods of enforcing discipline to the wayward.

The word 'Ubuntu' has been over-rationalized like some Aristotlean system. However, any child who has had a traditional upbringing knows how it works. A lady politician recently equated it with 'obuntu-bulamu' which is a Luganda term meaning 'lived personhood,' the 'philosophy of being human,' and so on. This system combines an ethical body of knowledge transmitted by sayings, proverbs and various assortments of oral traditions.

As far as the author recalls, sayings were employed as a means of displacement; meaning that when a child, a young person or a junior member of society was perceived by the parent, mentor or senior to be diverging from the right path, or taking a different way from what was expected morally, a saying would be uttered to 'bring back' this lost child, mentee, young person etc. These sayings were freighted with meaning because uttered by a senior, sometimes an elderly adult and often by a parent. It is true that parents could be so strict and disciplinarian but this was for cases when a severe transgression was detected.

Often, through such sayings which 'displaced' mental ideations of and inclinations to the wrong behavior, a child could be corrected without corporal punishment. Usually, as far as the author recalls having observed in the community, a saying had to first accomplish the 'displacement' before long explanations followed which were like a story on the saying that helped the child to reflect on his or her actions.

This is how children were gradually brought up to be humans participating in the life of society and capable of reflecting upon the consequences of their actions.

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