Is daily dose of duplicity doubling?
What you need to know:
- In his article, the good Professor dwelt on the duplicity of our ways – yes: we in the land of the venerated Mwalimu Nyerere – arguing that we seem to sleep soundly despite continuously lying to ourselves!
Prof Karim Hirji wrote an excellent article published in The East African a few weeks ago. Hirji was a Professor of Medical Statistics at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, until he retired in 2012.
In his article, the good Professor dwelt on the duplicity of our ways – yes: we in the land of the venerated Mwalimu Nyerere – arguing that we seem to sleep soundly despite continuously lying to ourselves!
Take the example of our religious beliefs. Over 87 percent of Tanzanians subscribe to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or any of the many African religious beliefs – be they mythological, supernatural or spiritual.
This explains why on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, millions of well-clad Tanzanians troop to mosques and churches across the land for prayers and public worship.
It also underscores why Founder President (1962-85) Nyerere (1922-99; RIP) constantly implored Tanzanians to separate religion from politics.
We, indeed, are a people who are deeply religious. We see the failure of the viral Covid-19 pandemic to take hold in Tanzania as a religious miracle come true.
Yet, the very same religious country has had more than its fair share of brothels, witches and ‘get-rich-quick’ peddlers of sham fortunes from Sumbawanga – the capital of Rukwa Region in southwestern Tanzania whose name literally means ‘throw away (your) witchcraft paraphernalia/thingamajigs!’
Sumbawanga has reportedly become the headquarters of these ‘doctors of fortune’ – and, some argue, they represent us well in the ‘Witchdoctor Community of Nations!’
The thing is: the persons who religiously attend communal prayers in religious establishments, invoking the name of God, are almost invariably the very same people who consult our fake fortune (witch)doctors.
Sometimes, all this ends tragically, with the killing or maiming of albinos, elderly women with red eyes, innocent babes, etc., for their limbs as sacrifices in the search for miraculous fortunes.
It is our duplicity in stark action.
We have year after year continued to commemorate Mwalimu Nyerere’s death anniversary on October 14. However, in our duplicity, we only pick and choose things which are in conformity with what we want people to believe.
President Nyerere was a true believer in African Unity. To him, national boundaries were colonial: a truism he lived. We would not say the same of Tanzania today.
Watching a prominent overseas television channel, I was shocked to see commentators dancing on a just-dug grave of the US. Apparently, this was symbolic of the January 6 storming of a US Congress session on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, this year.
Observers – rightly or wrongly, it can be argued – claimed that the US had lost the moral authority/ground to pontificate to the rest of the word on bona fide democracy and good governance.
Once again, our duplicity was showing. The reality on the ground is that for a majority of Tanzanians and Africans, good governance means that – among other things – governments must pander to the whims of the majority by routinely delivering on opportunities for their citizens.
In their overzealousness, self-styled ‘experts’ forget to say that freely-elected governments have the people’s mandate – and that, whatever they do, no one (especially one with alternative views) has the right to say or do anything that oppresses the people.
Most politicians in power often claim that anyone challenging the status quo is a lackey of the West. We have no eyes to see the incremental damage being done to good governance.
The experts continue to defend the shutting down of Internet and social media access because, ostensibly, even immediate-past US President Donald Trump had his Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts closed by the same technology forces that rule the world.
We are living in interesting times when, for example, Uganda’s President (1971-79) Idi Amin (1925-2003) would force ‘white imperialists’ to publicly kneel before him.
For this, he was trash-talked as a ‘dictator,’ while support was to later be levitated on a leader whose strong-arm tactics have been receiving unequivocal support from the very same imperialist powers… Sheesh!
As Prof Karim Hirji puts it: “we are happy to mouth our criticism of power barons under our breath – and speak openly only behind closed doors… Publicly, we claim (possibly falsely) all credentials not just of a democracy, but of a country with many democratic ideals…”
