First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
In Sunny Field Primary School Adelabu, I learnt a fair amount of history and current affairs. Some affairs were so hot off the press that third degree burns were inflicted on our minds. Just like on that rainy day when my dad speed through a puddle of water and ‘sprayed’ the teacher who was walking to school in the rain. I got an ear full of mostly politically incorrect castigations that taught a valuable lesson; the sins of the fathers will be borne by the sons.
One of my teachers taught us about Mungo Park complete with a song I remember to date. I must confess that my primary school education was pseudo-elitist and full of post-colonial brainwashing.
The children in class hated the ‘natives’ who killed the Scottish Doctor. How were we to know that he was armed and travelled into various communities along the river without a letter of invitation or Visitor’s Visa (Nigerian High Commission had not been invented). We know what happens when unidentified aircraft approaches a country’s airspace. You get shot down. Mungo Park battled his way along the Niger killing those who advanced in canoes to protect their territories till he succumbed to an attack from locals in present day Nigeria.
Mungo Park was however credited with discovering that the River Niger flowed from West to East. The nature of the discovery astounds. He arrived in Africa and hires locals to take him to a river he does not know and he is the discoverer of the body of water that has sustained the fishing communities who lived on the river banks for many years. Now that would be like me jumping into my car, drive from Birmingham where I live to London and ‘discover’ the River Thames. How does one discover a river that the locals have been using for centuries?
I have always thought this absurd till an idea struck me. Nigeria’s most celebrated writers were somewhat discovered by ‘Mungo Park’. Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. These three writers must have grown up in homes and attended schools where their gifts got noticed on a daily basis just as the River Niger was used daily by the ancestors in West Africa. However, a foreign publisher can do wonders for an African writer the same why a foreign football club can transform an African footballer.
Mungo Park was not the first man on the River Niger but he was the first one who represented powerful people. The locals who lived on its banks could not set sail to Europe but the Europeans could come over with guns and bullets which are potent ways to make a point in any argument. The powerful ones are the only ones who truly discover anything for they have access to the history books. In today’s world we see this in advertising. You always hear them say “discover a whole new world”… and they zoom in on a big star holding the product that you have known for years. Suddenly you feel like buying 10 dozens for a re- discovery has been made.
Reading the long list of people who discovered Africa can be slightly irritating. John Hanning Speke discovered the source of the River Nile in 1858. David Livingston, a Scottish doctor just like Mungo Park, discovered Victoria Falls in 1855. But not before a silly loin ‘discovered’ his left arm in 1843. Africa bites back no ni. The loss of function in the left arm did not deter the great man however.
The first people to summit Mount Kilimanjaro were Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtschiller in 1889. They went with a local called Lauwo.
In the days predating satellites, the big trading companies sponsored adventurous souls to go out to Africa to find trade routes and waterways.
They came back with the information for their pay masters but it did not stop there. The public loved to hear about distant lands and savage beasts and there was no discovery channel to assuage the appetite for exotic stories. Adventurers could cash in by giving town hall talks thus becoming instant celebrities. One could see why people risked their lives on small boats on African rivers attempting to make history, completely surrounded by the militant mosquitoes that brought death via malaria. Men just love to be famous.
I have stopped complaining about Europeans discovering African landmarks. I also avoid reading ‘Black Power’ literature that blames the White man for everything bad in Africa. If they want to discover Crude oil, diamonds, copper and talented footballers in Africa no problem. (Rest in peace Eusébio da Silva Ferreira of Maputo) The crude talents were not doing us much good before the date of discovery anyway.
There are some footballers in Lagos who are very talented but they would not be even watched by their neighbours. That is until they fly out to Europe having been discovered and the same neighbour would take great pride in watching them via satellite.
The Mungo Park phenomenon transcends into our homes. A few months ago I told one of my sons to watch a TED video with me and he was frowning. A few weeks later he was boasting about how the teacher asked about TED lectures and he was the only one in class who knew what they were. ‘Mungo Park’ had spoken. Shebi a prophet is not without honour except in his own home.
