2,030 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

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“Through translations of works written directly in African languages, a shared modern heritage will emerge. But apart from aiding conversation among contemporary African languages, translation will benefit the African renaissance. This is the theme of the next chapter, in which I describe South Africa as a microcosm of the black and African experience.

One of the greatest sons of Africa, Kweggyr Aggrey, used to tell the story of a farmer who brought up an eagle among the chickens. The eagle grew up behaving like a chicken and believing he was a chicken. One day a hunter visited the farmer and an argument ensued as to whether the eagle could remember who he was. The farmer was absolutely sure that he had turned the eagle into a chicken.

The hunter asked whether he could try to revive the eagle’s memory. On the first day, he was unable to make him fly beyond the distance that chickens can manage. I told you, says the farmer: I have turned him into a chicken. On the second day, the same disappointment occurred, with the eagle flying a few yards and then diving downward, earthbound. I told you he cannot remember, says the farmer in triumph: He walks like a chicken and thinks like a chicken; he will never fly.

The hunter does not give up. On the third day, he takes the eagle atop a hill and talks to him, pointing his eyes to the sky and reminding him that he is an eagle. And then it happened. Looking at the limitless immensity of the blue skies above, the eagle flapped his wings, raised himself, and then up he soared, flying toward the azure. The African eagle can fly only with his re-membered wings.

Re-membering Africa will bring about the flowering of the African renaissance; and Afro-modernity will play its role in the globe on the reciprocal egalitarian basis of give and take, ultimately realising the Garveysain vision of a common humanity of progress and achievement “that will wipe away the odor of prejudice, and elevate the human race to the height of real godly love and satisfaction.”

(Words from the book titled Something Torn and New – An African Renaissance by Ngugi wa Thiong’o)