CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
A lecture given to the union of teachers in Ibadan in 1947.
I have said all these not in an attempt to discredit literacy; but merely to show that it is not the unalloyed good that it at first appears to be. In honest hands, literacy is the surest and the most effective, means to true education. In dishonest hands, it may be a most dangerous, in fact a suicidal, acquisition. Now, what is education, and in what way can it contribute to the attainment of national freedom? In my own humble opinion, education is that process of physical and mental culture whereby a man’s personality is developed to the fullest.
A man whose personality is fully developed never fears anything; he cringes not, and never feels inferior to anyone; no matter the colour, status, or strength of such a one; he is self-reliant, and will resist any form of enslavement until the last breath in him is exhausted. He may be an employee or a servant, but he is a self-confident and courageous servant who does his work with efficiency and probity, but with no thought of servitude. His breadth of mind enables him to exercise his freedom in such a manner as not to endanger the interests and freedom of others. He is a citizen of the world – free from narrow prejudices. He is what he is because the three main constituents of his entity – his body, brain, and mind – are fully developed.
Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.
It is dangerous to develop only one or two of those three constituents and leave the others or other undeveloped. A couple of illustrations will make this clear. If a man’s physique is fully developed but his brain and mind are left undeveloped or only partially developed, what we have is a being powerful enough to hew stones and draw water for others, and discernment that he is unable to appreciate and assert his human rights. The slave owner, the unconscionable capitalist, and the economic imperialist realize this fact well enough. Consequently, they see to it that their victims are so fed that they can work efficiently for their masters but so unaccustomed to brain and mind culture that they remain for a long while loyal slaves.
If a man’s body and brain are fully developed whilst the mind remains undeveloped or only partially developed, then you have a typical European who misuses the scientific and economic resources which a virile and hard-working nation has provided him. By his want of education, and lack of a sense of spiritual valves, he denies freedom to a class, and by doing so, brings about a situation called revolution or war in which the freedom of all is seriously threatened and in some cases completely submerged by a deluge of war, as is now the case in Germany, Italy, and Japan.
If the mind alone is developed and both the body and brain are neglected, then we have the sorry figure of a religious fanatic who condemns everything, and everybody but himself, and whose only prophecy is one of pessimism, catastrophe and gloom for mankind; he is a slave to imaginary fears, and drags into bondage with him, those who believe in his arrant doctrines. If this tribunal development is indispensable to true education, then only few people in the world can claim to be educated. Even some Europeans are uneducated. Comparatively, these pink-coloured folks excel us in the bodies and brains of most of us. For this simple reason they have more cunning – I use CUNNING not WISDOM – to impose their rule upon us. If they are truly educated, that is if their minds are also well-developed, they would not stoop to the mischief of putting us in economic and political bondage. For then they themselves would be free in the true sense of the word, and know full well that freedom being indivisible must be equally enjoyed by all those with whom they come into contact.
In the case of us Nigerians, only bodies are fairly developed. Our brains and minds largely remain undeveloped, and only partially developed in a few cases. For this reason, we make very contented and docile slaves. Our dominant craving is for food, clothing, and shelter, and we do not seem to care how we get them.
In order to wrest our freedom from our British overlords, we need must develop our bodies and brains to the fullest.
And in order to benefit by that freedom, when won, we must also develop our minds to the fullest.
The surest foundation for the development of these things is, as we have said, literacy. But we also pointed out that this literacy may also be used as a basis for the cultivation of abysmal ignorance. Our British overlords have not failed to exploit the literacy of some of us to our own detriment. It is, therefore, our duty to see to it that as literacy spreads, we sow on its fertile soil seeds which will bear the fruits of correct political awareness leading to sane Nigerian nationalism. We must combat any educational scheme which tends to develop our bodies fairly well, our brains only partially, and tends to becloud our minds. For this is only a device for our permanent enslavement. But when our bodies, brains and minds are properly developed, we shall be free as individuals, and Nigeria herself will attain national freedom.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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