[kictanet] Interesting Piece ...

[Daniel Waweru]

There doesn't appear to be a valid arguments in the piece.

Walter argues as follows:

(1) Africans are inferior.

(The criterion for inferiority is White opinion. If White people *think* you're
inferior, then you are. Walter clearly thinks Africans are inferior, and
the listener, idiot that he is, accepts the thought.)

(2) Africans are inferior *not* because they live in a world whose rules
are set by people hostile to their interests, and have inherited a legacy
of colonialism, slavery, apartheid and the like.

(3) Africans are inferior because they don't make stuff.

(Sub-argument: Africans don't make stuff because their intellectuals are
stupid and lazy.)

(4) Therefore, if Africans start making stuff, they'll stop being inferior.

The argument neatly destroys itself. Walter tells us that if Africans made
stuff, they would no longer be inferior. Now, the test of inferiority is
White opinion, as both Walter and his listener make clear. So, all we have
to do to test the argument is to look for examples of what White people
think of non-White people who make things. The evidence is not far to seek,
since *in the very same piece*, Walter claims that White people have
contempt for Asians (I assume he means Indians and Chinese). Asians make
things, yes, but, in the White view, according to Walter, they *stole* the
technology for making it. Therefore, they remain inferior.

Similar arguments can be found in the comments of any right-wing newspaper
in English. Even where the industrial achievements of China or India are
commended, White commentators will argue that Chinese, Indians or other
East Asians are incapable of original thought. Their achievements are
simply a copy of White achievement. There is no reason to think that making
things will cause Africans to stop being regarded as inferior.

The basic move here is the basic move in lots of colonial arguments. In
virtue of being human, Africans are the equal of anyone else. The
colonialist wants inequality. He has then to find a way to convince himself
and others *either* that Africans are not human, *or* that equality rests
on something other than humanity. Walter tells us that equality rests on
the ability to make things. In the distant past, (see the concluding
chapter of Johnston's A history of the colonisation of Africa by alien
races<http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924074488234>),
we were told that Africans were inferior because they had been unable to
find a form of racial unity. Since they were unable to find a form of
racial unity, they were doomed to be the servants of superior races from
Africa and Asia. In the slightly less distant past (see Christopher
Wilson's Kenya's Warning: The Challenge to White Supremacy in Our
Colony<http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Kenya_s_warning.html?id=8a0vAAAAIAAJ>)
we were told that Africans were inferior, because their *cultures* were
inferior, they circumcised their women and they were polygamous, therefore
they had not earned the right to rule themselves. Examples could be
multiplied. It's bad enough to have to read this shit from defenders of
colonialism in the past and present, but I was not expecting to have to put
up with it from Africans themselves.

Daniel Waweru
www.kenyaimagine.com
Art and analysis; debate and opinion.


On 22 January 2012 19:13, Francis Hook <francis.hook at gmail.com> wrote:

> If we look beyond the effrontery there are very valid arguements
> there. Look at India - they manufacture many things - and yes they
> still have poverty but they are slowly clawing their way out of an
> abyss.
>
> I hear we have a bullet factory in eldoret - why can we not make
> bicycles? We had the nyayo pioneer car and I would like to hear a
> valid arguement why that could not have taken off and why we have
> become a nation of ex-Japan cars. We used to have a good textile
> industry but someone saw fit to allow containers of used clothes into
> the country - now we have decently dressed, hungry and jobless people.
>
> I think the tone is harsh but sometimes we need to take bitter pills.
> There is a generation growing up in Kenya who will start asking these
> same questions - and we cannot wish away the problem and either have
> to find credible answers or bring about some change.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 22/01/2012, Daniel Waweru <daniel.waweru at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Astonishingly stupid piece. I wouldn't have been surprised had it turned
> > out that Ewart Grogan had written it. This part, in particular, is
> > exceptionally stupid:
> >
> > Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level
> >> let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can
> >> succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone
> >> crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters.
> Let’s
> >> dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said,
> >> forever remain inferior.
> >
> >
> > since it *fully* accepts the colonial premiss that the human value of
> > people depends on their level of technological advancement. The author
> > proves his point about African intellectuals, if not in quite the way he
> > expects.
> >
> >
> > Daniel Waweru
> > www.kenyaimagine.com
> > Art and analysis; debate and opinion.
> >
> >
> > On 22 January 2012 17:30, Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> http://mindofmalaka.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/you-lazy-intellectual-african-scum/
> >>
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> --
> Francis Hook
> +254 733 504561
>
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