By
Obododimma Oha
Throughout my educational life - from primary school to university and conferencing as a university lecturer, I have been fed with this junk food that theories are only made in Europe and America, or have to have endorsements from there, if they are to be called “theories.” And so, apart First Division soccer clubsides that play league matches and we are globally excited to become their fans, we have these theory clubsides. In language studies, for instance, we either queue up behind Noam Chomsky of transformational grammar fame or behind Michael Halliday of systemic linguistics fame. They are great “oyibo thinkers.” They and their ancestors, right down to Aristotle and beyond. There are no quotable thinkers in Africa. How can I quote your grandfather and your grandmother or that "stupid" man from your village? How can they line up as "thinkers"? With their rough dentitions!
This idea of beginning to quote a villager's grand-parents seems strange, funny, and out of the question. People who didn't go to any school! People who wore rags and played masquerades. Could there be a theory for wearing rags? Except the "theorist" is just trying to glorify madness. Is there a theory for masquerading and masking to show one's backwardness?
Theories are too rugged to be local. Theory has to be fearless and can penetrate any context, whether invited or not. It just has to remember that it is not local, though locally praised, and must go home once in a while for a new birthday dress from its parent.
A respect for that theory is clear humility. It has to be registered that followership is clearly not leadership. That should be clear. If you make followership a kind of leadership, that is your own business. You will perish in isolation.
That means that a theory must also be popular, very. The global the better. One local idea somewhere in a nonWestern world cannot be a theory. Can it rule the world?
This reminds me: theory is about admiration and about the mind. Whoever gets that mind is actually the ruler. You don't need military hardware, drones and all that to dominate. Just try to rule the mind. Rule the mind and rule a long time, dominate a long time.
When tired of a theory that is a theory, just export it. Second-hand theories, tokunbo theories, rule ex-colonies very well. They have many blind supporters who are ready to kill!
You need to see the experts lift the beacon in the name of second-hand ideas. Followers go mad, each person claiming to be original.
In fact, a theory needs to be a theory and has to be scientific, not just a jungle saying and an untested wild idiot's supposition.
These could be said to form part of the theory about theories. Yes, theories about theories and fans only care about theories going home once in a while to put on new dresses. No courage to critique or localize a theory. That would be a crime, a big one!
And so if I follow M. A. K. Halliday correctly or paraphrase him, I become a local champion and can make noise about my arrival. Through me a foreign thinker has also arrived. It is incumbent on me to defend this academic colonization and bring up other fans. That is, fans of fans.
It is not only used vehicles that have to arrive in containers, that can be called "tokunbo". Used ideas, too. Used ideas looking for "useable" people! Modern form of mental colonization. And in the so-called "higher institutions" in nonWestern countries, these worn-out theories would be brought in to make thinkers.
This is not just one of those sad critiques of Western life looking for interaction with the exotic nonWestern. It is just a second look at theories and theorization. One is saying that everyone and anybody can originate a theory, whether the person uses proverbs or longer texts, whether the person sleeps in a lab or takes a bath in palm-wine.
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