Introduction, welcome and appreciation in the KISWAHILI language by Prof. PLO Lumumba ……………
It is wise to recognise that we have in our midst men and women who have come from different parts of the world, and who may not be very comfortable with the Kiswahili language, and for that reason, I will communicate in the English language.
The great Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, writing in 1968 said that the English succeeded in stealing everything from us without stealing the English language, and to that, still the people deployed to communicate amongst ourselves. That is something we ought to appreciate. So we should never apologize, in fact as we celebrate culture and arts. I know many of you will know James, who used to be known as James Ngugi wa Thiong’o, but of course, he dropped the name James in his book, Decolonizing the mind. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o tells us the value of using African languages, and what I would encourage, is for us to give pridal praise, not only to Kiswahili, but other African languages.
If you can speak Yoruba, speak it well. If you can speak Igbo, speak it well. If you can speak Kiswahili, speak it well. But we have made a conscious decision that we need a lingua franca in the continent of Africa and that lingua franca which is in Swahili, and it gladdens my heart, that Kiswahili is now a language that can compete with any language in the area of technology, science; and wisdom demand that we give it.
The history of FESTAC is known, but on an occasion such as this, it is important to remind ourselves what motivated those who were in the early days, in the forefront of celebrating African Art and Culture.
It is important to recognise individuals such as Senator Leopord Sedar Senghor, because it is Leopord Sedar Senghor and others, who derived their motivations from greats such as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B du Bois; who said that we as Africans must now celebrate our culture and our art in order to give meaning to ourselves; and this was informed by what had happened several years before because it is necessary to repeat.
It is necessary to repeat that slavery was designed to humiliate Africans in a manner that was designed to dehumanize, and if you have had the occasion to watch the dramatization of the life of Kunta Kinte, as written and narrated by Alex Hailey, you will remember so very distinct, one of the things that they did to Kunta Kinte when they had taken him outside of Jufureh village in the Gambia, and, were to take away his name and you will remember in the dramatization, they beat him so very badly, asking him after every period or session of cane; “What is your name?” and he kept on saying Kunta Kinte, and he kept on saying Kunta Kinte, and after several hours, he said “I am Toby.”
It was an awful surrender to the slave Masters, but he did not stop there. When he got married, he went and carried his first child, facing the sun and said, “Never ever forget that you are Kunta Kinte.”
When Leopold Sedar Senghor sat and said that we must have FESTAC, it was to remind us that the attempt at humiliation and dehumanization did not succeed. And it did not start with Leopold Sedar Senghor, it had started earlier with individuals such as Marcus Garvey in Jamaica with the Black Stars, and it is carried on by Sylvester Williams of Trinidad and Tobago and the main Pan-African movements that took place in the 19th century, and it is not only in the African diaspora that we were talking about African culture.
As early as 1906, a Great South African whom we do not remember as often as we should Pixley ka Isaka Seme, delivered an iconic speech at the University of Columbia in the United States of America. The speech titled “The regeneration of Africa”, and in that speech Pixley ka Isaka Seme reminded his audience, that we come here to remind ourselves that our continent needs to be regenerated, because he remembered that the continent had been abused, she had been abused and divided when the European powers in their diabolical skills sat down in Berlin in Germany 1884 and 1885 and divided the continent.
To the Germans they gained Tanganyika, they gained what is now Namibia, they gained the Cameroon, they gained Togo as their hunting grounds. To the Portuguese they gave another hunting ground they gave Cape Verde, they gave Angola, they gave Mozambique they gave Gunea Bissau. To the Spaniards they gave Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome. To the Italians they gave Libya and they gave part of Somalia.
To the Belgians they gave what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. To the British they gave Sierra Leone, they gave Ghana, they gave Nigeria, they gave Kenya, they gave Uganda, they gave Zambia, they gave Malawi, they gave Rhodesia and they went on and on. With the French, you know what they gave, the Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mauritania, Benin, Togo, Dahomey, Gabon, Central African Republic. And they did not stop there, they went on and gained to the Southern Africa group they gave South Africa and they gave Namibia little aid.
That scheme was a scheme of dehumanization and humiliation. They told us that our languages were primitive and we were not allowed to speak them. They divided our continent into Francophone and into Lusophone, into Anglophone, they divided us. You could not speak your mother tongue you, could not dance the way you danced because those were primitive. They said that our gods are not gods, they said that our marriages were not marriages. What did they not do to dehumanize us? But the African is resilient, she withstood slavery, whether in the continent or in the diaspora.
Whether they were in Jamaica, or in Saint Kits and Nevis, or in Trinidad and Tobago, and Antigua, or in Bermuda, or in Costa Rica, or the United States of America, or in the different parts of the world they remained alive . And the culture never died, even in Columbia, even in Brazil, even in Argentina where they almost killed all the Blacks, so when we started regaining our political independence, culminating in the independence of Ghana in March of 1957, we never forgot to remind ourselves that there was work to be done.
This is how I understand those immortal words of Kwame Nkrumah. “Seek ye the political kingdom and the rest shall come”. This is how I understood Kwame Nkrumah when he reminded us that you must neither look left nor East or West, you must always look forward.
This is how I understand great leaders such as Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who reminded us that education was only of value if it made us to realise ourselves.
This is how I understand greats such as Modibo Keïta of Mali, or Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau, or Kenneth David Kaunda, or Samora Moises Machel, or Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, or Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, reminding us that culture is the very foundation of our being, giving meaning to the Kiswahili saying, ‘Muacha Mila ni Mtumwa.’ (He who abandons their culture is a slave)
FESTAC is designed to remind us that we are, and that Africa is the cradle of humanity. And that all human beings, wherever they are, came out of this mother continent. And that what defines us is our culture, it is our music, it is our dances, it is our artefacts, it is our philosophy and that indeed culture and art is in the foundation stone upon which science thrives.
History has demonstrated, not once, not twice, that science never grew other than out of the soil of arts and culture and philosophy.
When Senghor came up with the negritude movement, it was beyond sentimentalism, it had depth. When the early writers started talking about culture, when Achebe was writing in 1958, ‘Things Fall Apart’, and giving pride of place to culture.
When Wole Soyinka was writing Idanre, when Shaaban Bin Robert was wring Kusadikika and Utu Bora Mkulima, when Flora Nwapa was writing Efuru, they were giving meaning to African Culture. And that was what was being celebrated in Dakar, Senegal in 1966.
The idea was that FESTAC would become a permanent feature of African life and lives. We know that it did not happen as it ought to have happened. We know what happened, that in 1967 it did not take place in Lagos, Nigeria, as it ought to have taken place.
We know it ought to have taken place again in 1975 and it did not. But in 1977 over 56 nations, which host the Africans were represented at Surulere Stadium in Lagos, Nigeria and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Square.
I can remember, even as a form 3 student, the beautiful music that came out with Osibisa, with Duabo Luwanso Makiai, with Tabule Rochello and I particularly liked Rochello’s collection, featuring Adeyto.
Africa was assembled in Lagos, Nigeria. Today, when we are gathered here in Arusha, in the United Republic of Tanzania. We are in a mantle speaking and receiving the baton from Zanzibar, which injected some necessary steroids if you may to ensure that FESTAC remains alive.
Today we are here in Arusha to rededicate ourselves, to rededicate ourselves to the realisation that our well-being as a people, not only requires but demands that we must celebrate our culture. That our well-being as a people requires that we give meaning to our culture for this generation and generations yet to be born. That our well-being demands of that we must not look at culture as something that is falsified in history, but something that is alive. Alive to be celebrated in different ways.
I hope that today, when we are gathered here to celebrate FESTAC, we are reminding ourselves that going forward, FESTAC shall have connection with our men and women in the arts. That the great film industry that has the mind in Nigeria known as Nollywood will see wisdom in collaborating with FESTAC. That it’s not only Nollywood that will do so, but Bongowood here in Tanzania will do so. That it’s not only Bongowood but Riverwood in Nairobi, Kenya. And the vision also has South Africans also participating.
Today you may or may not know, but Nollywood produces more movies in a year than Hollywood and Bollywood. It is one of the leading industries giving meaning and pride or praise to our culture.
I look forward to the day that our diverse culture with over 6000 languages spoken in the continent of Africa, with the beautiful clothes and items which adorn our men and women, that those clothes will be given pride or praise under FESTAC. And that those clothes will no longer be made in the Netherlands and in Belgium, they will be made here and they ought to be made here. I look forward to that day.
I look forward to the day when our bags, which are used by our women, will no longer be made by Louis Vuitton in France but they will be made in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I look forward to the day when our perfumes will no longer be made in Paris and Switzerland but they shall come out of Tanzania. I look forward to the day when our women will no longer wear wigs of white women and white ladies out there, but they shall adorn their hair with pride in celebration of our culture. I look forward to that day.
I believe that can happen in Africa under the ethos of FESTAC. FESTAC is here. It may have been that for a long period it was not moving at full throttle, but when you are here in Tanzania a country that I love to no end, the home of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere. That great man. That selfless man. This is the right place. FESTAC revolve, but let Arusha be our home. Let Arusha be the true north of FESTAC.
And you know Tanzania has done many things that we must celebrate on a day such as this as we celebrate FESTAC. Tanzania has given meaning to odd. They have demonstrated that you can have democracy of your own. Which produces Nyerere, who, like a good dancer, knows when to leave and invites Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who, like a good dancer, knows how to leave and invites, Benjamin William Mkapa, who knows when to leave, and invites Jakaya Murisho Kikwete, who knows when to leave, and invites John Joseph Pombe Magufuli, whom God takes but allows Samia Suluhu Hassan, who as you say in Tanzania “Anaupiga Mwenge”.
We are here today to celebrate culture. But I’m reminding us that culture must be seen beyond mere celebration, we must look at the commercial angle of culture. How many trillions of dollars? I look forward to the day when I talk about money and I no longer talk about dollars, I talk about how many trillions of Afrins.
I look forward to the day when we shall have our own currency and I shall be talking about trillions of Afrins that can be generated because of culture. I look forward to that day. I look forward to the day when culture shall be commercialised.
You know, those of you who travel, you are told that the Bazaar market in Istanbul, in Turkiye receives 90 million visitors in a year. To see what? Nothing. But nothing has been made to look like something. Those of you who travel north, knows that there is big piece of metal that rises above the sky called the Eiffel Tower. Tens of millions go there to visit it? To see what? Nothing which has been made into something. Yet we have things which we can actually make to attract people here. Yet we don’t do what we ought to do. We are co-authors of our own misfortune.
The time is now for us to give meaning to those things so that museums such as this can be the Mecca of those who want to understand Africa’s history and culture. It can be done and it must be done And therefore, it gladdens my heart to be present in this assembly knowing as I do that we have men and women who have travelled from different parts of the world, men and women of African extractions all the way from Costa Rica. To come and be here with us. May God Bless You. I know there are those of you who have travelled from the United States May God Bless You.
Those of you who are not present here with us whether from Australia, you are in Brazil, you are in Berlin, you are Grenada, you are in Saints Kits and Nevis, you are in Trinidad and Tobago, you are in Fiji, you are in Jamaica. You are in all those distant lands where the African diaspora is. Wherever you are, we know you are here with us in Spirit. And, when the spirit unites it gives birth to pride and when pride is not affected by arrogance it is a good thing.
Those of you who are not of African extraction by the tint of your colour. Also remember that Kwame Nkrumah said “You are not African because you were born in Africa, but you are an African because Africa is Born in you” and therefore you friends of the goodwill from the Federal Republic of Germany you are also welcome to the extent that you have come here to support our African.
Fellow Africans, let it be that from today, leaving this place, let the message go out, let the message go out to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia where the heads of states and government will be gathering in Kwame Nkrumah Hall this week, from tomorrow, the 23rd day of May. And when on the 25th day of May as they celebrate 60 years since the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union let them pause, and let it be that the speeches that will be delivered will not be proforma speeches written by speech writers.
Let it be that they are speeches that come from the depths of their hearts. From the inner sapiens of their minds and let some of those speeches be delivered in Kiswahili. Mama Suluhu Hassan, I know others may let me down but don’t let us down. Let your speech be delivered in Kiswahili. That it may be known to them that we have a language which going forward is going to be the lingua-franca of communication to the rest of the world.
I Look forward to the 25th day and I look forward to FESTAC borrowing from that stage.
Wisdom now dictates that I stop, because wisdom requires that one to knows when to stop.
Thank you.
