<p>Responding to Daniel's mostly excellent comments... Not to Darwinist / Evolutionist ideologies which "justified" Colonial Practice.</p>
<p>No need for the kind of foul language used by Colonials to describe "Inferiors".</p>
<p>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"?</p>
<p>Polygamy never opened schools to educate Africans... </p>
<p>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...</p>
<p>This while their Darwinist kinsmen opened Colonial schools Africans were not welcome to attend... </p>
<p>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..."</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 23, 2012 4:31 PM, "Daniel Waweru" <<a href="mailto:daniel.waweru@gmail.com">daniel.waweru@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif">There doesn't appear to be a valid arguments in the piece.</font></font><div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif"><br></font></font></div><div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif">Walter argues as follows:�</font></font></div>
<div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif"><br></font></font></div><div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif">(1) Africans are inferior.</font></font></div><div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif"><br>
</font></font></div><div><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">(The criterion for inferiority is White opinion. If White people�</span><i style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">think</i><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">�you're inferior, then you are. Walter clearly thinks Africans are inferior, and the listener, idiot that he is, accepts the thought.)</span></div>
<div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif"><br></font></font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4">(2) Africans are inferior <i>not</i> 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.</font></div>
<div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4">(3) Africans are inferior because they don't make stuff.�</font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4"><br>
</font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4">(Sub-argument: Africans don't make stuff because their intellectuals are stupid and lazy.)</font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4"><br>
</font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4">(4) Therefore, if Africans start making stuff, they'll stop being inferior.</font></div><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" size="4"><br>
</font></div><div><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">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 <i>in the very same piece</i>, 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 <i>stole</i> the technology for making it. Therefore, they remain inferior.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">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.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">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 <i>either</i> that Africans are not human, <i>or</i> 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 href="http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924074488234" target="_blank">A history of the colonisation of Africa by alien races</a></span><span style="font-family:'times new roman',serif;font-size:large">), 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 <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Kenya_s_warning.html?id=8a0vAAAAIAAJ" target="_blank">Kenya's Warning: The Challenge to White Supremacy in Our Colony</a>) we were told that Africans were inferior, because their <i>cultures</i>�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.</span></div>
<div><div><font size="4"><font face="times new roman,serif"><br clear="all"></font></font>Daniel Waweru<br><a href="http://www.kenyaimagine.com" target="_blank">www.kenyaimagine.com</a><br>Art and analysis; debate and opinion.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 22 January 2012 19:13, Francis Hook <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:francis.hook@gmail.com" target="_blank">francis.hook@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
If we look beyond the effrontery there are very valid arguements<br>
there. Look at India - they manufacture many things - and yes they<br>
still have poverty but they are slowly clawing their way out of an<br>
abyss.<br>
<br>
I hear we have a bullet factory in eldoret - why can we not make<br>
bicycles? We had the nyayo pioneer car and I would like to hear a<br>
valid arguement why that could not have taken off and why we have<br>
become a nation of ex-Japan cars. We used to have a good textile<br>
industry but someone saw fit to allow containers of used clothes into<br>
the country - now we have decently dressed, hungry and jobless people.<br>
<br>
I think the tone is harsh but sometimes we need to take bitter pills.<br>
There is a generation growing up in Kenya who will start asking these<br>
same questions - and we cannot wish away the problem and either have<br>
to find credible answers or bring about some change.<br>
<div><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 22/01/2012, Daniel Waweru <<a href="mailto:daniel.waweru@gmail.com" target="_blank">daniel.waweru@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Astonishingly stupid piece. I wouldn't have been surprised had it turned<br>
> out that Ewart Grogan had written it. This part, in particular, is<br>
> exceptionally stupid:<br>
><br>
> Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter�s level<br>
>> let�s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can<br>
>> succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone<br>
>> crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let�s<br>
>> dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said,<br>
>> forever remain inferior.<br>
><br>
><br>
</div>> since it *fully* accepts the colonial premiss that the human value of<br>
<div><div>> people depends on their level of technological advancement. The author<br>
> proves his point about African intellectuals, if not in quite the way he<br>
> expects.<br>
><br>
><br>
> Daniel Waweru<br>
> <a href="http://www.kenyaimagine.com" target="_blank">www.kenyaimagine.com</a><br>
> Art and analysis; debate and opinion.<br>
><br>
><br>
> On 22 January 2012 17:30, Agosta Liko <<a href="mailto:agostal@gmail.com" target="_blank">agostal@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>><br>
>> <a href="http://mindofmalaka.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/you-lazy-intellectual-african-scum/" target="_blank">http://mindofmalaka.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/you-lazy-intellectual-african-scum/</a><br>
>><br>
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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.<br>
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