African responsibilities to each other

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This essay is a response to a prompt that encouraged students to connect ideas from the book Justice by Michael Sandel with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and an interdisciplinary unit on the colonial period in Africa. Students were asked to develop a definition of citizenship and support it with information from the two books and a variety of historical sources.

Anonymous 

What is responsibility? And to whom are we responsible to?  Many philosophers have spent much time in trying to come up with clear answers to these questions, but unanimity has not been reached. The two most compelling, rival philosophical theories are: libertarianism and communitarianism. The libertarian theory focuses on individual rights, and suggests that one should only be held responsible for what they consent as Sandel says, “From the stand point of individualism, I’m what myself chooses to be. I may be my father’s biological son but I cannot be held responsible for what he did unless I choose to assume such responsibility.” This clearly leaves no room for the wrongs that one’s ancestors perpetrated in the past. On the other hand, communitarians disagree with libertarianism, and present the idea that we, humans, are storytelling beings and we received our identity from our historical ancestors as Alasdair Macintyre writes, “I inherit from the past of my family, my city, my tribe, my nation a variety of doubts, inheritances, expectations and obligations. These constitute the given of my life. This is, in part, what gives my life its moral particularity.” Communitarians also argue that it is nearly impossible to separate ourselves from our history as Alasdair Macintyre says, “The contrast with the narrative view of the self is clear, for the story of my life is always embedded in the story of those communities from which I derive my identity. I’m born with a past, and to try to cut myself off that past is to deform my present relationships.” Therefore, they strongly claim that this received identity creates not only moral responsibilities and obligations but also priority for some responsibilities over others, meaning that we are first responsible to the people who are closer to us. For instance, we are first responsible to ourselves, families, neighbors, local community, country, and all the way to regarding the people in the world as one community that lives on Earth.

Now this communitarian approach seems more compelling than the libertarian one since we cannot set ourselves apart from the long chain of our history, however, how we can determine which people are closer to us than others is still unclear. For example, people who define citizenship as the place where one is born into argue that we are more responsible to the people in our own country before we bear any responsibility to the people in other countries, just because we were born into that country. But this is not convincing, because being born into a country is just morally arbitrary, and we could be born into a country where we don’t have any ties with the dwellers.  For instance, many Somalis who are born into the Somali region of Ethiopia have their clansmen in Somalia, so why would these people have a responsibility to Ethiopia and its citizens before Somalia, where their people live in. With regard to this, we should be citizens to where the people we share with the same experiences, culture, interest and ideas live and belong, and thus have responsibility to those people. Our responsibility is to stand with them and defend their rights, without violating other’s fundamental rights, regardless of the cost even if we have to sacrifice ourselves, because if they are threatened, we will be threatened in the long run. With regard to this, Africans should first have responsibility to one another and their continent, because they have the same experiences from colonization; many people in the world look down on them because of their color, and their internal affairs are interfered by outside powers.

Firstly, the African people suffered together from the vices of colonization and the inhumane atrocities committed against them by the European colonizers. Many people argue that Europeans came to Africa with the evangelical purpose of disseminating Christianity or having mutual trade interests with the local Africans, but it turned out that many wanted to colonize Africa and its people and loot its resources. They brought their own governments in Africa and implemented their own systems as Achebe depicts in Things Fall Apart, “But apart from the church, the white men had also brought a government. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance. He had court messengers who brought men to him for trial.” (1742) This quote invalidates that Europeans came to Africa only for promulgating Christianity or trade interest, because they began distributing the local land to anyone that pleased them as Obeirike said, “The white man’s court has decided that it [a piece of land] should belong to Nnama’s family, who had given much money to the white man’s messengers and interpreter.” In fact, the Europeans dehumanized Africans and treated them with no dignity at all. They imprisoned anyone who questioned about their laws and whipped them incessantly. Achebe writes the following quote to show how the white men who came to Nigeria treated with the local people that did not abide by their ways of behaving, “They [prisoners] were beaten in the prison by the kotma [white men’s soldiers] and made to work every morning clearing the government compound and fetching wood for the white Commissioner and the court messengers.”

The above examples from Things Fall Apart are specifically pertinent to the colonization of Igbo people in Nigeria by the Britain, but it could be argued that most of the Europeans had the same beliefs and intentions about Africans. They all wanted to enslave Africans or extract their resources. To further elucidate this point, let us consider the primary source about the Kikuyu in Kenya, because it perfectly demonstrates that Kikuyu were treated just like the Igbo in Nigeria.  The Kikuyu were told that their land from now on would belong to the British king, as the source says, “This great king is now your king and this land is all his land, though he has said you may live on it as you are his people and he is as your father and you are all his sons” (75). The people did not have any king and all the land was passed to them by their ancestors, however, Britain did not treat them with respect, but rather wanted to extort their land. In addition, Britain set up its own governmental policy in Nairobi and imposed rules and taxes upon the local people, and also banned the traditional meetings of these people, and changed their ways of living as the source says, “The Council [the local elders] met again under the Mugomo tree. There were few, for the new rules of the Pink Cheeks had forbidden big meetings. I looked around at my friends and was sad. Their faces were anxious and their skin was loose on their bones” (100). Just like the Igbo, Britain built schools in the local districts and taught the Bible and limited education, and anyone who turned down its policy would be punished. Now we can see that colonization affected throughout Africa and all Africans suffered from the vices of the white men. Therefore, Africans should have a full responsibility to one another and defend their rights together because they underwent the same horrible situations. If Africans don’t work together and stand together today, colonization could come back just as it came in the 1880’s. And if this happens, they could undergo another worse form of colonization. Yet the only way that Africa could prevent a future colonization is to be unified and act as a single, inseparable community, where everyone is a citizen to the continent and ready to sacrifice themselves for the well-being and the defense of their continent.

Secondly, another very strong experience that should bind all Africans around the world together, despite of where and how they dwell, is the fact that they are looked down by the people in the world. The segregation and discrimination in the United States are ideal examples of how Africans were put down. The black community was regarded as lower class citizens and was not permitted reacting with the white community just because of the arbitrary color of their skin. The better schools, hospitals, restaurants, etc. were only for the whites. How one could be segregated based on their naturally obtained color? What a ridiculous system! Did the whites work for their white color?  More other compelling pieces of evidence that show that Africans were looked down are provided in Things Fall Apart. When European missionaries settled in Africa, Nigeria specifically, they began considering African people as cultureless savages. They ignored the local people’s traditions and beliefs and presented theirs with coercion as Achebe says, “He [the white man] told that they [the Igbo] worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone” (1483). All these examples show how Africans were denigrated and humiliated. So these shared experiences should bind all Africans together if Africa wants to be safe in the long run. Their similarities are greater than their differences; therefore, all Africans should cooperate and be the backs of one another to be able to defend their traditions and rights.

Thirdly, the African continent as a whole faces common problems since it is one of the few continents in the world with tremendous resources that have not yet been extracted. Unlike Europeans and Americans, Africans are not fully capable of extracting their resources because they do not have the technology and the skills necessary to do so. Therefore, many countries, including Europeans, Asians and Americans, are casting covetous eyes on the continent. Each one of these foreign countries has its own political systems and philosophy and wants to befriend with some African countries so that it could get cheap materials from Africa and send its products back to Africa, where it could find markets. Africa is one of the very few continents that spend excessive money on imports from other continents and do not export many lucrative items because there is not a good trading relation between the African countries. African countries need to set up their own trading system so that they are less dependent on foreign and imports and aid because we do not know what the future may throw to it down the road. Another problem that most of the Africans are disappointed is that their internal affairs are interfered by other powers, Western powers in particular, which pull their continent’s progress down. In Libya for example, after their president was taken down chaos and instability raged the country and many people died. And the hypocrisy in the Libyan situation is that the powers who were promising that they will end dictatorship and bring freedom and equality into Libya brought slaughtering and killing and then walked away. So the African countries should work together relentlessly to provide security to their people and protect from the hypocrisy of the outside powers.

However, some people around the world including even some Africans may not agree that we have to first bear responsibility to Africa, because they believe national responsibility takes over any other kinds of responsibilities. There is not a clear, unanimous definition for global citizenship because people look at the world differently, however, there is still common-ground.  According to an article written by Ron Israel, co-founder of The Global Citizens’ Initiative–an organization that fosters global citizenship—he says, “A global citizen is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community’s values and practices.” Bearing Ron’s definition in mind, the world community could be regarded as a single community because today’s modern technology made it possible for people to communicate with different people in distant places very quickly. In this way, we may feel that we are part of the world community; tackling common problems together like global warming, extinction of wild species and fresh water depletion can be ideal examples in which people could cooperate in solving them. However, the problem arises from the second part of Ron’s definition “……whose actions contribute to building this community’s values and practices.” It’s very apparent that the world is dominated by Western influences and thus most of its values are built on Western cultures and ideas driven by secularism, therefore, it is here where global allegiance is difficult. Democracy for example, is regarded as one of the very essence of global values but when it is scrutinized very closely; its roots are deeply planted in Western cultures of secularism. To emphasize, the UN is considered as a neutral organization, but there is no doubt that it a Western organization where Western leaders dictate to weaker nations. To make the world a better planet where everybody is abiding by its rules and contributing its values, the rules and values themselves must be established together mutually by all the nations and ethnicities that dwell in the world, otherwise, how could certain people succeed in coercing others to follow their ways of living and looking at the world?

Finally, one has different responsibilities to different people based on how many interactions, interests and ideas they share with these people. Having responsibility to some people would mean doing whatever possibly one could to protect the rights and dignity of those people. Africans are people who suffered from colonization together, regarded as inferior, and encounter similar problems in their routines. Therefore, they should have the first responsibility to one another and their continent to ease any problems that life throws to them down the road. But we also need to bear in mind that all the people around the world need to sit together and discuss on how they should manage their planet with the exclusion of none.

Going back to eleventh grade

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Hamse F

Before I came to Abaarso, I had never interacted with non-Somali speaking people. Attending a good school run by English speaking teacher must have been difficult for me. I never went outside of my conservative community before, and coming to a place with diverse cultures and customs was something I had never dreamed of. It was so difficult for me to adjust to an English immersion environment academically, because I was from a public school in Hargeisa where all classes were taught in Somali. It was extremely hard for me to understand the vague explanations that my teachers made in class. They would call on me to answer questions, and I had no clue what they were asking about. At school I was taciturn; my responses to the teachers were simple yes or no answers. This caused me to fall behind in class due to my incapability of understanding English.

When I came to Abaarso, I didn’t know the English alphabet by heart or words and this caused my grades to suffer. This provoked hardships to come in the future. I was overwhelmed and disappointed about my overall performance at the school. At first I thought that there was no hope for me at the school. I was about to give up, until one of my teachers gave me advice to become persistent and hard working to achieve greatness. Although I took my teacher’s advice to stay, I was still not putting tremendous effort on my studies. My habit of being gregarious inclined me to seek the company of the others rather than focusing on my education. However, one day I saw a couple of eleven graders celebrating because they got accepted to continue their education abroad. This incident incited me to work diligently in order to have opportunity to go somewhere else in the world to acquire knowledge.

In my sophomore year I worked so hard to put myself in a position to apply to American boarding schools the next year. From dawn till dusk, I was always studying my subjects. For the first time ever I felt proud of my progress that I made that year. One year later, I was finally a junior student which meant I could potentially apply to American schools. Suddenly, my dreams were crushed by Jonathan when he decided that I was going to stay rather than go abroad. He told me that I was a good student, but I could improve my grades. This firm decision had a huge impact on me as it handicapped my academic performance throughout that year. I stopped working hard and my appetite for education dropped. I was left hopeless which made me have an indifferent view of my future. All these bad thoughts troubled my mind and made me not perform well in my classes. I didn’t think that I was undermining my chances to get accepted to boarding school next year, but I realized my weaknesses when I got rejected from Church Farm School last year because I was not a competitive student with an excellent grades.

Staying three years at Abaarso has made me become more wise and patient than the person I was before. Reflecting over my past mistakes motivated me to become more devoted in my education. I immersed myself into the goodness of self-study and time management, and I developed a deep conviction of believing in myself. My senior year was the best so far in my high school journey. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve all my dreams and fulfill my expectations. I closely evaluated my achievements at Abaarso School, and as result I recognized that I needed more time in high school. Going back to the eleventh grade was in my mind before Alex and James held a meeting for seniors, and told us that it was possible for some of us to go back to the eleventh grade to create opportunities for ourselves. It was so difficult for me to make a decision because I had to consult with a lot of people. I wanted to go back to the eleventh grade because I believed it would be a golden opportunity for me to improve my grades and recover from my high school lost. I wanted to be prepared for college after two more years because I knew that I needed more time to work on acquiring more knowledge.

Most nights I could not go sleep easily without thinking about how tough it was going to be if I went back to the eleventh grade. My classmates’ wonderful memories and my upcoming graduation bothered my mind not to easily decide my future. I conferred with some of my friends about my plans, and they had different judgments about my future. Unluckily, they didn’t help my situation, but few of my friends urged me to go back to the eleventh grade. After thinking about it a lot, I decided to go back and it was totally my personal decision. It was about 9pm when I went to meet with Noah about being a junior again next year. He was in the teachers’ office and called him. We went outside of the school building and stood near the soccer field. It was so painful for me to share with him my final decision, but later it was a relief. Noah was quite interested in my decision and he told me that I would do fine next year. When our conversation ended, I went back to the dorms and told my friends that I consulted with Noah about my ultimate decision. Some of my friends replied that I was being hasty and strongly suggested that I could wait at least to graduate with them and then I could later decide what I wanted to do with my life. As time passed, the graduation ceremony was coming and eagerly I wanted to see myself graduating.

Unfortunately, a few hours before my class commencement my teacher Will told me that I was not graduating with them. I thought I was graduating with my classmates and had bought new clothes from Hargeisa. I didn’t know what do because I have been waiting for this moment to come for four years and most importantly he hadn’t told me this ahead of time.  I could not sleep because I was worried about how difficult it was going to be tomorrow for me to watch my classmates graduating. I woke up with reddish eyes and tiredness because I over-slept. Everyone at the school was happy and celebrated with the graduating class, but I was not celebrating with them because I didn’t have enough time to let these thoughts fade away in my mind. I was hearing speeches followed by applauses and flashes of the cameras, but I was absent minded. I was crying whenever I looked at my classmates. I brought glasses to hide my tears because I knew that I would cry during the ceremony. The last day of the school year was my saddest day so far in my life. I thought my pain was over, but actually it was not. I was not pleased to go home because I knew my parents would not be happy about my decision.

My parents were committed to helping me get an education because they had a deep conviction in learning. They were a great source of inspiration for me and encouraged me to value education above all else. I could not able to tell them my decision because their continuous encouragement should help me seize all the opportunities that came along the way, and I promised to make my parents proud, but I didn’t. My decision ended up making my parents disappointed. I spent all my summer vocation elucidating my decision to my parents, but they were not willing to accept it because my parents yearned to see me going to college, and they wanted me to be an excellent model to my younger siblings.

I came back to Abaarso to help the teachers with the orientation week for the new seventh grade students. The year was about to start within a week, and hopelessly I didn’t know if I was going to stay at the school. I was scared to talk to James and Alex about my situation which was that my parents and I disagreed about my future, and they told me that they would figure something for me. My hope of continuing my education here came alive again.

You’re still the one

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Abdalle H

Feeling dejected and with great despair, I recalled the last words she said to me, words that have shaped my entire life. “You liar, get out of my face. I don’t want to see you ever again.” I tried to apologize for the mistakes I made, but it was too late. Long before I even noticed, I had lost the only girl I had ever fallen in love with.

It all started at the summer of the year 2011. I first met her on a beautiful Friday night. The moon was full and the stars were shinning like beams of light. As most teenagers in Somaliland, I made my way to the mall with couple of my friends, where we usually hang out. I was drinking soda when I first laid my eyes on her, and suddenly it was as if time was frozen. I noticed from the way she was sitting, how comfortable she was on her chair, drinking lemon juice with her friends. She was so beautiful that I couldn’t even stop staring at her. I even spilled soda all over my shirt while staring at her without even noticing. Not to mention her luminous smile, that nearly took away my breath. To my surprise, one of my friends grabbed my shirt, and I turned away from her for a moment. By the time I looked back at her, she was already gone. I didn’t even get her name.

Days passed, and I still couldn’t stop thinking about at her. Every time I closed my eyes I would see her beautiful face in front of me. I even went back to the mall every night for an entire week, hoping that I would come across her again, but she never showed up. I relentlessly searched for her everywhere but unfortunately, had no luck. I thought that I would never see her again.

I told my friends about her and asked them to help me search for her. They all laughed at me for a while, but eventually agreed to help me search for her. And yet, another tormenting week had passed, and I still hadn’t seen her again. I made a lot of Duco (prayers) to Allah to help me find her even if it was just for a moment.

I was going crazy for her. I would see her face everywhere, in the mirror, in my home works, and even in the shower. I would run after every girl I see in the street, thinking that it is her. The thought of not spending another minute with her was suffocating me. Luckily, one of my friends invited me to his birthday party and insisted that I must show up. Even though I was feeling down and not in the mood to go to a birthday party, I still did to celebrate with my friend on his special day. At first, it was boring, for there were so many few people whom I knew, mostly acquaintances, so I just sat on a couch, eating chips when something completely unexpected happened. A stunning girl walked right through the front door, wearing a red dress. It was her, the girl that I was ruthlessly searching for. She had finally arrived out of the thin air and was standing 10 feet away from me. I closed my eyes saying that it was all just a dream, but it wasn’t. I opened my eyes again and there she was standing right across me, more gorgeous than ever. My heart beat increased instantaneously. I wanted so badly to talk to her, but I was very nervous. She looked at me with her marvelous eyes, and suddenly it felt like we were bonded.  When she noticed how I was starring at her, she smiled, and started walking towards my direction.

She said, “Hi” with a saccharine voice. I was so tense that my whole body started shaking. I ran out of words. All my efforts to express what I had in mind was like a drop of water in the Indian Ocean, so I just kept starring at her eyes. I couldn’t even answer her back. After two long minutes of awkwardness, I finally said “Qurux badanida” which in English means you are so beautiful. She blushed and then thanked me. We then briefly stared at each other again with neither of us saying anything, not even a single word, but somehow it felt like our minds were connected, and that we could read each other mind. I had never felt something like that with anyone before. Unfortunately, she had to leave early. I realized that if I let her go then I might never see her again. So before she could walk away out of the door, I asked her if she could meet me tomorrow night at Deero Mall, where I first laid my eyes on her. She made a weird look on her face that insinuated she wasn’t interested. Then I desperately said, “Can I at least walk you home? After all, this is a very dangerous neighborhood.” She stepped back for a moment, thinking, and said, “Yeah why not? What is the worst thing that can happen?”

I was a bit nervous about what she would think of me, for I never had a real conversation with a girl. I wanted to make a good impression, so I introduced myself and then asked her what her name was with a soft tone. She looked at me, smiled, and then whispered her name in my left ear. We got to know a little bit about each other that night. I mostly didn’t want to bore her with my tedious life, so I just kept telling her jokes. I even remember her laugh, walk, and most importantly her words from that night. She told me that she had never met someone so funny, honest, and simple like me. For the first time in my life, I felt appreciated. I wanted that night to never end. We finally arrived at her house, which by the way was very elegant. It was six flats tall and five times wider than where I lived. I knew that she was way out of my league, but I didn’t let that stop me. She thanked me for walking her home and wished me a good night. I wanted to ask her what her phone number was, but I didn’t own a phone at the time.

I went back home gamboling, and I was never more animated than I was at that night. I was jumping and laughing out of excitement. Nevertheless, there were so many questions in my mind like when will I get to see her again or what I would say if saw her again. Will she even remember me? I didn’t know what to do anymore except that I needed to see her soon.

Two days after that night, I was walking in front of Mansoor Hotel, heading to my uncle’s house, when I heard someone calling my name. I looked around but saw no one, so I kept walking. Twenty seconds after that, a fancy car pulled right in front of me. I wondered about who this crazy driver that almost hit me is. Surprisingly, a girl walked out of the car and yelled my name. I was curious about how she knew my name, and that is when I realized that it was her, the same girl that was always in my mind. She asked me if I wanted a ride, and I couldn’t say no. In fact, I wanted that rife more than anything, because I wanted to spend more time with her. She asked me where I lived and that is when it all began, all the lying. While trying to impress her, I made the biggest mistake in my life and told her a lie, saying that I lived in a big mansion near the parliament, when I actually lived in a small, wretched house that was in a bad neighborhood. Every time I tried to tell her the truth, I thought that she would no longer be interested in me.

As time passed, we were more than just friends. We even spent most of our time together, having lots of fun, mostly at her house. The more I got to know her, the more I found out how irrepressible she was. She had an extreme passion inside her and nothing could ever stop her from taking what she wanted, and that is what I liked the most about her. Knowing this, you might think she was just a rich spoiled girl, but she wasn’t. She was always helping poor people and putting others needs before hers. She used to say that one day; she would open a hospital for poor people and provide them with high quality medicine without even charging them for anything. In addition to that, she was very grateful for everything she had and never complained about anything in any kind of way. She taught me to value everything no matter how insignificant it might seem. I was nothing compared to her, and that is why I mostly kept lying to her. I told her unrealistic stories about me, hoping that she would somehow fall in love with me. But, what I didn’t realize at the time was the fact that every single lie I told her was getting me one step closer of losing her. If only if I knew that all my lies would soon catch up to me and explode in my face

One day, I had a fight with one of my cousins, and I was really frustrated. Growling back with anger, I left home saying that I am never coming back. Suddenly, my phoned rang. It was her number calling. I ignored it first. She called me again, and I didn’t pick up. As a matter fact, I turned off my phone and went to my uncle’s house. The next morning, after I got out of school, I went to her house to see her. I knocked at the door but nobody answered. I called her number couple times, but she didn’t pick up. Just when I was about to leave, her little sister opened the door, and told me that her sister didn’t want to see me. When I asked her little sister why, she told me that her sister was worried about me yesterday when I didn’t answer her calls, so she went to “your house” or should I say the fake address I gave her, and that is when I realized that all my lies had finally caught up with me. She said that the owner had told her that there is no one by the name Abdalle, who lives in his house. When I entered her house, I saw her sitting in the living room, crying. She was really pissed at me for lying to her. She asked me about what else, I had lied about. I didn’t know what to say. I had no other option but to tell her the truth once and for all. It wasn’t that long after she had heard what I had said and then ran away with tears dropping from her eyes and locked herself in her room. I longingly waited at the front of her room, hoping that she would come out and talk to me so that things would go back to normal. It turns out that wasn’t the case. She finally came out of her room, after five long hours and then said, “You liar, get out of my face. I don’t want to see you ever again.” I was so shocked that I hurryingly left her house without looking back at her.

Three days passed, and I was never lonelier without her. I wanted her to forgive me for my mistakes. I knew that she wouldn’t easily forgive me, so I decided to give her some space, and off course some time to think about us. Regrettably, time seemed to not be moving at all. “I can’t wait any longer,” I said to myself. I went to her house, holding flowers in my hand to apologize, but it was too late. I knocked on the door of her house, but nobody answered. An old woman walking in front of the house told me that nobody lived there anymore. I laughed at her and said with certainty that there is a family that lives here. She said that they had moved out two days ago. I was so shocked and I dropped the flowers on the road. I ran towards the old woman, grabbed her shoulders, and asked her if she knew where they had moved to, but she said that she doesn’t know. Moaning and crying, I went back to my home. I was devastated and heart-broken. It is true when people say that you truly realize how something or someone is valuable to you when you lose them. I had lost my one and only love forever, simply because of lies. It is strange how something small can ruin something big and beautiful. Now that I had found out that lying is never an option, I had sworn to an oath to never lie to someone who is dear to me, for you never how much damage it can do.