‘‘I have gathered a posies of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is my own’’
By Dak Buoth Riek Gaaq,
Opinion.
Thursday 18th December 2014(Nyamilepedia) — I had recently attempted to grants myself an injunction from airing opinions in form of articles due to some personal verdicts best known to myself, and the resultant effects has been that I got ideas suction and shrinkage and felt intellectually malnourished; for writing and reading are two sides of the coin, and the duo are inseparable.
As much as one aspire and inspire to be a leading societal informant, s/he ought to read extensively and exhaustively so as to get wide arrays of ideas that are meant for the hearts rather to the ears.
A reader read to explore and cultivate new ideas and ideals that help critic and ridicule one positively and for the fulfillment or enrichment of the ravenous soul. You must have heard opinions that are often referred to as ‘thoughts provoking’ these are awakening thoughts that challenge individual to rise up to the occasion rather than accusation, urging one to take an errand outside his or her comfort zone, as posted in Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe yesterday 16th December 2015, ‘‘as humanity journey through life, there comes moment when one has to search themselves-not through mirror nor opinions of others but from inside the heart’’
Reading widely is the submission of one’s mind for massage and surgery; in so doing, all the dirt and outdated ideas in your mind get formatted and formulated. Reading is reasoning and rehearsing; and it enable one acquire a new sense of sights and mental emancipation. Reading is not a one man’s show, it is an attentive conversation and rigorous debate between a student (reader) and teacher, (author) and no one owned the monopoly of ideas for it is two ways traffic.
Those who don’t read mislead and misinform; while those who read lead, and the latter is the fundamental prerequisite for progressiveness and dynamism, it wrestle down mental fixation and complacency, thereby discards and retard boredom.
Reading is rediscovering, one instill discipline and reject and eject arrogance and proudness but rather embrace humility and honesty. Writers are strikers; when they write, they strike like thunder, which normally come with bright light in the sky; they tend to awaken and elevate society to the next level, equipping them with necessary information that it require to confront the emerging trends.
Writers are distinctive for their bravery and thirst for the truth. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, which many of us indisputably regarded as probably the most important contemporary, prolific writer in the African continent parallel writers to surgeons, that they have something in common-‘‘passion for the truth’ that writers are surgeon of the heart and souls of a community’’.it is not the mere lust for literature that drive writers’ work, it got to do with passion to revolt and marshaling society for certain course.
In a society where a ruler governed by an ‘‘iron fist, as for our case in East Africa, writers are usually regarded as ‘thorn in the flesh, for they shake and tackle the status quo. Whenever they vomit information, the throne feel dethrone, and all the beneficiaries of misrule get giddy and fidget uncontrollably. Socrate, a writer and a thinker was once accused of corrupting the youth with his writing and he was condemned and convicted to die by dinking hemlock; it is the ideas of people like Socrate, Paulo Fierera and Fanon that Caribbean nations and Europe become greater than Africa today.
At home in Africa, we have and continue to vilified, demonized, outlandish and outcast our profound sons, the like of Chinua Achibe, Ali Mazrui, Taban Liyong and Ngugi et cetera, we condemned them for truth telling, we tell them ‘‘why do you advise us and we are going’ yet we are blindfolded heading for clash. We termed them as traitors for their good work, ‘‘the return to authenticity as was first crafted in Zaire by Mobuto Sseko’ likely, the advance world had picked them and put them as their children’s tutors in their learning institutions.
Writers are the lights through which a society can see, they teach, train and shape the thinking of society to enable it envisions certain things behind the curtain including their fundamental rights.
Writers are true scholars, and their quintessence roles as vividly explained by the retired vice chancellor of the University of Nairobi Prof. Magoah in the forward of the ‘‘Searching Soul’ authored by Prof. Lumumba, that ‘‘the scholar is the latter-day explorer; he walks not just the trodden path, but seeks to explore new vistas in the wide jungle of knowledge; that s/he walks the common path only to the extent that the journey must begin somewhere and invariably in the known terrain; and that true scholarship is the daring to explore new horizons of thought and knowledge, and it is on this account that the university as the highest seat of knowledge has traditionally been jealous in guarding and protecting the academic freedom,
That academic freedom is encapsulated in the right to be adventurous in the pursuit of knowledge, and to know that you can hunt in this jungle without fear of predatory external retribution; that when you find knowledge and intellectual prey, you can share your spoils with society without fear of encumbrance; for ideas are hatched and floated. They are debated and often taken back to the melting pot for refinement and therefore retaken and given back to society for application and usage; it is in this regard that the scholar must reach out to society for purposes of testing, sharpening, and sharing their thoughts, reflections, findings and discoveries’’
An old adage, ‘‘if you want to hide something from an African, put it in writing, he won’t see it forever, because reading is not his culture’’ this culture to unlearn has been our stumbling block rather than the stepping stone. Our generation should adopt and embrace reading culture, because it make one’s mind flourish, fresher and flexible as ever before.
Even the old get rejuvenated through reading, and by that, they become younger; for age is just but a biological factor as invoke by Prof. Ny’ong’o that ‘‘age, with knowledge, conviction, competence, courage, honesty, sacrifice and vision, is a potent weapon which a person can serve in the position of leadership, and leadership as he soundly explained in his article titled ‘‘to aspiring leaders: Leadership is more than just ambition, It’s God-given’ that a person must realized he will be like donkey drawing a cart behind him in which all sundry will put their luggage and rubbish for him to carry along, he must not tire of being the beast of burden of the people he lead’’
.It is for the lust and curiosity for literature, quest to learn, search for knowledge, to be criticize and the desire to teach and or share my thoughts and reflection with the society that I always want to write piece including this one; for I still believe in the saying, ‘‘ the most valuable gift is the gift of oneself rather than material gift’’ Chinese said it better, ‘teach a man how to fish, do not fish for him’ so that s/he can be able to sustain himself in event you’re not there, and for that, I vowed to continue treading on this path and to be among the new African generation of writers.
The ideas that I have always produced encompasses those said by other personalities which have insignificantly contributed to making me who I am. The energy that I inserted and exerted in reassembling these thoughts is solely my own. The language in which I used to produce them may be distasteful for some readers, but am certain, as I soldier along, improvement will certainly appear.
However, when I write, I never wish to praise anyone other than myself, I do not intend to please nor to hurt anyone but rather a manifest of freedom of expression; should any reader find a phrase or line that pleases or hurt them; it would simply be for reason that whenever someone uttered an opinion either verbally, print and or publicly, the recipients will always react either ways, and they will cheers and curse in equal measure.
The writer is student; he can be reach for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com.
