Michael Ba Banutu-Gomez
Assistant Professor
College of Business
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ 08028


     HISTORY as a MODE of INQUIRY in AFRICAN GOVERNMENTAL LIFE

"African Governmental life is a socially created reality" but what people
create soon begins to constrain and direct them.  Is this good or bad?
Perhaps we create them to do this because that is what we want or need.
African Governmental, once established, are taken over and utilized by
individuals and groups in order to further their aims and goals.  "Social
arrangements are choices and habits that evolve from previous choices."  But,
our choices are selected from ones predetermined by our cultural values.  "
African Governments are open systems that seek to offset threat and
uncertainty." We all feel threatened by chaos and want to be able to predict
the future.  " African Governmental structures are more differentiated or
integrated, depending on how stable environmental demands are." We all want a
stable environment.

Those who believe in the myth of science attempt to "identify recurring,
systematic patterns, predict and control destiny, and explain permanence
among flux.  We delude ourselves when we think that African governments are
made of enduring structures that purposively further a larger order.

We succumb to the temptation to search for enduring patterns which invites
passivity and inactivity." But, perhaps this type of research is done in
order to give us an excuse to be passive and inactive - it's a lot more
comfortable!  "Social arrangements become institutionalized over time.
Social reality takes on the character of a given, pre-determined, and
unalterable structure." People begin to believe in the myths that form the
foundation of (support and maintain) African Governments.  This makes people
feel more secure because it tells them how to act and who they are.

The child encounters a world of pre-established meanings and interprets this
as objective reality to which he or she must adapt.  The successful
achievement of maturity is accomplished when an individual discovers that the
social world is a manifestation of human intention and expression and becomes
aware of his or her responsibility to positively contribute to it. In
cultures where individuality is nurtured people can choose to neglect this
responsibility.

In modern African cultures, those who benefit from the opportunity to control
the social world in modern African societies promote individuality.  By
generating false choices, they succeed in distracting people from this
responsibility.  Our reality grows out of myths, which are already
established.  This is how we grow - just like a child who clings to its
mother.  Those who seek to exploit us would distract us forever so we never
grow up, but rather remain dependent on them.
In modern Africa we are distracted by their incessant entertainment and
constant stimulation of our greed, everywhere we look.  We grow lazy like
grubs on their numbing, meaningless chatter.  While we neglect our
responsibility, someone else has taken control.  We have been dis-empowered.
"In a spatial and temporal world that society has standardized for us, we
suspend our doubt and allow it to orient us to everyday life." We begin to
believe in myths that echo all around us.  We believe what they say about who
we are and what our purpose in life should be.  As we act out the roles in
them, we do not encounter each other face-to face because we are all playing
a part, which we wear like a mask.  This makes us see each other as
stereotypes.

Our predecessors who originated the social interaction that became an
institution/government, faced dilemmas, made choices and lived in a world of
contingency.  Young people revolt against and question our
institutions/governments because they also need to face dilemmas, make
choices and live in a world of contingency.  For that reason, initiation,
which is challenging is needed and proactive strategy to implement is
demanded.  "When a person's gesture is isolated and given a meaning separate
from its source, no longer is the gesture an expression of the person.

Others define the person as the embodiment of an abstract quality of which
the gesture is a symbol.  Roles are seen as the embodiments of abstractions
and theories are built to further harden the abstractions and to explain and
legitimize." In this way, myths become more valued than humans, themselves.
"Every individual is defined not only by his or her past, but also by the
past that persists in the ideas and institutions/governments that shape his
or her thoughts and actions.

All understanding is historical and prejudicial."   How can one escape the
tremendous power of these influences?  "Do not reduce complexities by using a
single interpretive point of view; stay close to the particularities and
retain alternative hypotheses for a long time; entertain conjectures and do
not push too quickly for resolution.  Remember, there are an infinite number
of ways to tell a story, to accent certain events or features and
de-emphasize others.  All knowledge involves prejudice and bias" because all
knowledge is cultural.

"Exploring governmental history in Africa as a human creation is threatening"
because we will have to face our responsibility to shape our
institutions/governments.  "We depend on the existing power structure to
provide us with direction and orientation." If we take up our responsibility,
those who are now performing it, on our behalf, would no longer be able to
control or manipulate us for their gain.  For that reason, they encourage us
to believe it is smart to sit back and complain.  Let others look foolish
while they expose their fallibility.  In modern African culture, it is taboo
to take up one's responsibility to create and change
institutions/governments.  That is why we are afraid to.  This taboo is at
the center of the myth of individual freedom, placed there by those who
continue to benefit from the power we give up.  Which Way Daughters and Sons
of Africa?

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