[kictanet] Interesting Piece ...

Wed Jan 25 12:54:03 EAT 2012

Hey all,

Not sure if anyone has already posted the follow up to this piece? Well
worth a read. You know, over Kenyan coffee, when you're not doing ICT stuff
:)

http://mindofmalaka.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/now-that-we-are-all-at-attention/

Have a lovely Wednesday,
Andrea

On 23 January 2012 17:09, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com> wrote:

> Responding to Daniel's mostly excellent comments... Not to Darwinist /
> Evolutionist ideologies which "justified" Colonial Practice.
>
> No need for the kind of foul language used by Colonials to describe
> "Inferiors".
>
> What matters most is how we Africans treat each other. Do we believe in
> "Do to others as we would have them do to us"?
>
> Polygamy never opened schools to educate Africans...
>
> The Principle / Conviction... "Do to others as you would have them do to
> you" .... drove a few decent Euros to found schools / colleges such as
> Alliance High, Precious Blood, Strathmore, Kianda, etc...
>
> This while their Darwinist kinsmen opened Colonial schools Africans were
> not welcome to attend...
>
> Most of us love sports / games not formed in Africa but we reject as
> "Foreign" more Universal / Civilizing principles such ... "Do to others as
> you would have them do to you..."
> On Jan 23, 2012 4:31 PM, "Daniel Waweru" <daniel.waweru at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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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>>> >>
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>>> >>
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>>> >>
>>> >> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder
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>>> >> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
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>>> >>
>>> >> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
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>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Francis Hook
>>> +254 733 504561
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>

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