By
Obododimma Oha
When I was a little boy, I took interest in the work songs that adult males sang while processing palm-oil at the palm-oil processing plant. It wasn’t just the way their songs facilitated their work, cheering them up and putting them in the mood to accomplish much. It wasn’t just the synchrony of the end of each stanza with the important task at hand, like the match of the song to the tightening of the presser to bring out the liquid. (It was always the synchrony of work and song and we village children often practised it on the way the stream to make our movement faster). No; their songs particularly revisited the culture of industry as one its themes, humorously elevating their difficult task as an engagement in nobility. One unique work song they sang satirized a young man who went to the farm with a mirror and from time to time looked into the mirror to observe his face to make sure it was neat:
X nwa Y
O jiri enyo jee ọrụ,
Obododimma Oha
When I was a little boy, I took interest in the work songs that adult males sang while processing palm-oil at the palm-oil processing plant. It wasn’t just the way their songs facilitated their work, cheering them up and putting them in the mood to accomplish much. It wasn’t just the synchrony of the end of each stanza with the important task at hand, like the match of the song to the tightening of the presser to bring out the liquid. (It was always the synchrony of work and song and we village children often practised it on the way the stream to make our movement faster). No; their songs particularly revisited the culture of industry as one its themes, humorously elevating their difficult task as an engagement in nobility. One unique work song they sang satirized a young man who went to the farm with a mirror and from time to time looked into the mirror to observe his face to make sure it was neat:
X nwa Y
O jiri enyo jee ọrụ,
Ọ rụkata o nyobe ihu
E hee, e hee !
(X son of Y
He went to the farm with a mirror
He worked and checked his face on the mirror
E hee, e hee!) (X and Y are my own substitute, meant to hide the actual identities)
That satirical song about working and checking one’s face in the mirror provides an interesting paradigm for me in reflecting on the strategic and deceitful deployment of the mirror (and its descendant the screen) in keeping Africans busy with themselves while robbing them of their values and being engaged in activities that narrate the dominance of one race over another. This is a difficult thing for a staunch believer in African ideas to say. If the West or the Orient had said so, one would have viewed it as a racial insult. But it is also important that we engage in self-criticism, telling ourselves the hard and bitter truth and being determined to change for the better. What is pronounced in postcolonial Africa is the rhetoric of blame – blaming the West – and now the technological and mercantilist Orient -- for Africa’s woes. But, are Africans free of blame? Yes, the West has used both military and deceitful weapons to overrun Africa, sometimes making Africans take over and continue Western domination in all spheres.
Now, how does the mirror feature in this business of domination?
Just imagine the possible occurrence of this in the early encounter between European explorers or adventurers and Africans: the probability of Africa’s ancestors having contact with Europeans who knew that it was better to use the form of technology the whiteman brought to mesmerize the host and keep Africans busy with it, while looting economic and other resources found in the African world! They could have brought the mirror to do this magic. Hitherto, Africa’s ancestors only saw reflections of their faces on pools of water, streams, and rivers. It could have been such a marvel for them to have a little piece of tablet showing one’s face. Oyibo bụ agbara! The whiteman is a god, one of them must have exclaimed. How did oyibo place the water reflecting a face on this tablet? When one looks behind the tablet, the reflected object is not found there. One moves one’s lips and it is just the same as on the tablet. The image there also moves its lips!
One should excuse those Africa’s ancestors. Ihe onye na-amaghị tọrọ ya. What one does not know is considered older than oneself. It could have happened in other places, too. Didn’t Africans have types of magic that puzzled the whites? For instance, the case of somebody walking in a heavy rain and not getting wet. Or, somebody not having access to any means of transport but is able to materialize at a place several kilometres away. It was amansi, magical art. Oyibo had his magic; Africans had theirs; many, in fact!
But Africa’s ancestors could not have known that the mirror was not really one of the amansi. They could not have known that it was a simple artefact and product of technology, ọ gbara Igbo ghariị . Well, what was there was that one group constructed its superiority, its awe, through its knowledge and technology. African ancestors must have liked this tablet on which one could see one’s face. And they must have been ready to give out anything to have it: masks, gold ornaments, several artefacts, even slaves, etc. Today, those valuables of culture and history can be found in Western museums, apart from the ones that colonial conquerors forcefully took away, as in Benin Kingdom. Today they are worth millions of dollars and African governments only beg to make copies of them!
Africans must have since realised that the mirror is not amansi but it too late. The mission is already accomplished, the strategy of deceit successful. But that strategy entered another phase; actually morphed. Since the Africans had shown themselves to be attached to spectacle, the other using the mirror as a weapon just needed to transform the mirror in ways they wouldn’t suspect and keep them busy still. So, our hypothetical mirror became the screen, journeying from television to android touch pad thrill.
Like Mr. X who went to the farm with a mirror, from time to time inspecting his face, the spectacle of the television, then the handset, and particularly the global ilo, the Internet with its many satellites – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Imo, etc – all eventually rousing the mirror spirit and engaging the new African with all sorts of distraction. Yes, all sorts of mirror distraction while the rest of the world, especially the West, is busy with economic and other forms of advancement. Just like his ancestor, the young African student would be attached to the mirror thing, carrying the handset on the hand (and not a book) because it is called “hand” set. It has to be carried in the hand always, even when one is asleep. When one is reading (if one must, like before a test), the phone has be switched on and by one’s side. Even when one is praying, it is by one’s side, switched on. Maybe the rapture could occur and God may send one an alert that one is selected through the phone. So, it should be on. In case. In the examination hall too! Oh, don’t mention that. How many times has this wicked man seized phones ringing and disturbing other candidates? Even after several warnings at the commencement of the examination and warning in the instruction column of the question paper?
Like their African ancestors, the young African has been arrested by the mirror, by the screen, while other students elsewhere are producing those phones as part of their projects. Do you blame them? Why wouldn’t they be arrested by the screen when their parents are arrested by the spectacle of the latest SUVs, flatscreen televisions, etc. ? It is the same forest that houses all animals, old and young! In fact, if their ancestors were to be brought back to life, wouldn’t they have seen those handsets as oyibo juju, as amansi, or even creating deities for the devices? How could somebody walking down the street in Abuja be holding a device to the ear and be talking to another person in Lagos, if that person is not a witch, a powerful type?
So, you see why the handset is revered and kept close to the heart? Moreover, we hear this device of oyibo witchcraft now contains or could be used in accessing a lot of information, including one’s money in the bank!
Is it the television? Engaging lovers of spectacle has many departments, many strategies. The soccer in Europe is one and if you visit offices in some African countries, you are wasting your time. Unless there is a TV there. Then, the boss may be around, with other “workers.” I didn’t want to say “African idlers.” You are the one making that substitution.
You see; what really devours the okra is inside okra. People who have for long been distracted and dominated should look twice at mirrors that are given to them. One does not think the stride of the cattle is what would take it to Umuahia that is kilometres away. Africa must be careful in its consumption of cultural devices of spectacle from West or East. They are also part of what keeps Africa backward. Those that share their technology with you do not necessarily do so because they have your interest at heart. Mba; oyibo abụghị agbara! The whiteman is not a deity. The whiteman is only daring and tries to use his technology to dominate others.
E hee, e hee !
(X son of Y
He went to the farm with a mirror
He worked and checked his face on the mirror
E hee, e hee!) (X and Y are my own substitute, meant to hide the actual identities)
That satirical song about working and checking one’s face in the mirror provides an interesting paradigm for me in reflecting on the strategic and deceitful deployment of the mirror (and its descendant the screen) in keeping Africans busy with themselves while robbing them of their values and being engaged in activities that narrate the dominance of one race over another. This is a difficult thing for a staunch believer in African ideas to say. If the West or the Orient had said so, one would have viewed it as a racial insult. But it is also important that we engage in self-criticism, telling ourselves the hard and bitter truth and being determined to change for the better. What is pronounced in postcolonial Africa is the rhetoric of blame – blaming the West – and now the technological and mercantilist Orient -- for Africa’s woes. But, are Africans free of blame? Yes, the West has used both military and deceitful weapons to overrun Africa, sometimes making Africans take over and continue Western domination in all spheres.
Now, how does the mirror feature in this business of domination?
Just imagine the possible occurrence of this in the early encounter between European explorers or adventurers and Africans: the probability of Africa’s ancestors having contact with Europeans who knew that it was better to use the form of technology the whiteman brought to mesmerize the host and keep Africans busy with it, while looting economic and other resources found in the African world! They could have brought the mirror to do this magic. Hitherto, Africa’s ancestors only saw reflections of their faces on pools of water, streams, and rivers. It could have been such a marvel for them to have a little piece of tablet showing one’s face. Oyibo bụ agbara! The whiteman is a god, one of them must have exclaimed. How did oyibo place the water reflecting a face on this tablet? When one looks behind the tablet, the reflected object is not found there. One moves one’s lips and it is just the same as on the tablet. The image there also moves its lips!
One should excuse those Africa’s ancestors. Ihe onye na-amaghị tọrọ ya. What one does not know is considered older than oneself. It could have happened in other places, too. Didn’t Africans have types of magic that puzzled the whites? For instance, the case of somebody walking in a heavy rain and not getting wet. Or, somebody not having access to any means of transport but is able to materialize at a place several kilometres away. It was amansi, magical art. Oyibo had his magic; Africans had theirs; many, in fact!
But Africa’s ancestors could not have known that the mirror was not really one of the amansi. They could not have known that it was a simple artefact and product of technology, ọ gbara Igbo ghariị . Well, what was there was that one group constructed its superiority, its awe, through its knowledge and technology. African ancestors must have liked this tablet on which one could see one’s face. And they must have been ready to give out anything to have it: masks, gold ornaments, several artefacts, even slaves, etc. Today, those valuables of culture and history can be found in Western museums, apart from the ones that colonial conquerors forcefully took away, as in Benin Kingdom. Today they are worth millions of dollars and African governments only beg to make copies of them!
Africans must have since realised that the mirror is not amansi but it too late. The mission is already accomplished, the strategy of deceit successful. But that strategy entered another phase; actually morphed. Since the Africans had shown themselves to be attached to spectacle, the other using the mirror as a weapon just needed to transform the mirror in ways they wouldn’t suspect and keep them busy still. So, our hypothetical mirror became the screen, journeying from television to android touch pad thrill.
Like Mr. X who went to the farm with a mirror, from time to time inspecting his face, the spectacle of the television, then the handset, and particularly the global ilo, the Internet with its many satellites – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Imo, etc – all eventually rousing the mirror spirit and engaging the new African with all sorts of distraction. Yes, all sorts of mirror distraction while the rest of the world, especially the West, is busy with economic and other forms of advancement. Just like his ancestor, the young African student would be attached to the mirror thing, carrying the handset on the hand (and not a book) because it is called “hand” set. It has to be carried in the hand always, even when one is asleep. When one is reading (if one must, like before a test), the phone has be switched on and by one’s side. Even when one is praying, it is by one’s side, switched on. Maybe the rapture could occur and God may send one an alert that one is selected through the phone. So, it should be on. In case. In the examination hall too! Oh, don’t mention that. How many times has this wicked man seized phones ringing and disturbing other candidates? Even after several warnings at the commencement of the examination and warning in the instruction column of the question paper?
Like their African ancestors, the young African has been arrested by the mirror, by the screen, while other students elsewhere are producing those phones as part of their projects. Do you blame them? Why wouldn’t they be arrested by the screen when their parents are arrested by the spectacle of the latest SUVs, flatscreen televisions, etc. ? It is the same forest that houses all animals, old and young! In fact, if their ancestors were to be brought back to life, wouldn’t they have seen those handsets as oyibo juju, as amansi, or even creating deities for the devices? How could somebody walking down the street in Abuja be holding a device to the ear and be talking to another person in Lagos, if that person is not a witch, a powerful type?
So, you see why the handset is revered and kept close to the heart? Moreover, we hear this device of oyibo witchcraft now contains or could be used in accessing a lot of information, including one’s money in the bank!
Is it the television? Engaging lovers of spectacle has many departments, many strategies. The soccer in Europe is one and if you visit offices in some African countries, you are wasting your time. Unless there is a TV there. Then, the boss may be around, with other “workers.” I didn’t want to say “African idlers.” You are the one making that substitution.
You see; what really devours the okra is inside okra. People who have for long been distracted and dominated should look twice at mirrors that are given to them. One does not think the stride of the cattle is what would take it to Umuahia that is kilometres away. Africa must be careful in its consumption of cultural devices of spectacle from West or East. They are also part of what keeps Africa backward. Those that share their technology with you do not necessarily do so because they have your interest at heart. Mba; oyibo abụghị agbara! The whiteman is not a deity. The whiteman is only daring and tries to use his technology to dominate others.
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