Christmas: A Celebration of Homelessness

Today is Christmas Day, the day Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus who is called the Christ. It is a happy occasion in part because Christians, like most people around the world, generally tend to celebrate births. However, at the time the birth was happening it was not all happy. I am not only talking about Mary's birth pangs but the fact that she gave birth in a homeless shelter, in fact, in far less than a homeless shelter - in a place where animals live. That is how Luke 2 tells the story. How this child, born in such an ignominious condition, evolved one of the days in which people make billions of dollars around the world even as they still shove aside the homeless, is a strange tale to tell. But that is the reality - that we celebrate a homeless man without a tinge of irony in what we do. Should Christmas not rather make us to be ashamed of how we treat the wretched of the earth?

How the West Trades Death for Money

The 2014 list of biggest sellers of weapons in the West is out and it is topped by companies in the United States and Europe. This is how capitalism trades death for money. Little wonder that there are so many gun deaths in the United States. See graphs in this piece from Jeun Afrique. According to Jeun Afrique, no African company is in the top 100 sellers of arms, yet, many of the deaths from these weapons happen in Africa.

The External Nature of Personal Transformation

It is sometimes thought that authentic, personal transformation can only happen from the inside, from a change of heart, so to say. Languages of conversion are based on this view of personal transformation. Conversion is often seen as a matter of the heart, of turning over possession of one's heart to something or someone else. Personal, external transformation is often seen as only superficial, as can be seen from the very name given such transformation - cosmetic. Rather than the deep transformation that is often thought to transpire in the inner recesses of the heart, external or cosmetic transformation is seen as not quite essential. It is often associated with the superficiality of Hollywood. But what if it is not correct that authentic transformation should come from the inside-out? What if it is the case that authentic transformation also begins from the outside-in?

The Cameroonian musician, Jean-Pierre Essome broaches the idea that transformation begins from the outside-in. For him, external appearance is critical for internal cohesion. It has long been noticed that good-looking people get their way in life more than people who are not good-looking. This shows that external appearance is valuable, at least, culturally. But what if such external appearance is valuable ethically? From ancient to modern times, many scholars have argued that what we are inside is often not very different from where we have been outside. In other words, morality is created by the environment. Change of heart is therefore something that does not just happen. It is created by an environment (the outside). This seems to demonstrate that what is important is not just a change of heart but also the environment in which one lives. There are environments that are not conducive to change of heart. Also, there are external states of affair that may create a darker interior. Jean-Pierre Essome is himself a very good dresser. He seems to think that being well dressed affects the way one feels inside. Perhaps looking good in public may create a person who is good inside and in private also. Perhaps wearing good clothes and living in a good house may improve what goes on inside. Perhaps major transformation does not need to only happen inside but also needs to happen outside.

The African Ethic of Duty and the "Big Bang Theory"

My students have often looked very surprised when I tell them that marriage and other family relationship in the African society I come from are based more on duty than on love. They seem concerned when I tell them that in their over 35 years of marriage, I never heard my parents tell each other that they love each other. My students seem even more concerned when I tell them that my parents never told me that they loved me. They seem to think that my upbringing was seriously skewed because of lack of such sentimental utterances. However, I remind them that the way my parents showed their love for us was not by saying that they love us but by showing that they love us. Such is the case with the relationship we have in the family. We do not tell our relatives that we love them. We show love by what we do for them, by how we treat them. And what we do for them is what we have the duty to do. The Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu has described this way of relating to each other as an ethic of duty, noting that this way of life is common to many African societies. In this context, relationships are held together by the obligations which people have to be there for each other both in times of need and in times of plenty. This ethic of duty is also connected to the name of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant but Kant addresses the question differently and we shall not get into that here.

What I want to get into at the moment is that this ethic of duty manifested in an African society can be seen in a very popular American TV show called the Big Bang Theory. The characters in the show include four male scientists (technically, three male scientists and one engineer) and two female scientists and one actress/waitress. However, the life of the show seems to turn around one of the scientists (Sheldon Cooper from Texas) who is a social misfit. One of the major characteristics of Sheldon is that he can be very annoying and is often seen as a burden to the group. This is because he thinks that he is too advanced a human being to learn a basic, necessary skill, such as driving. Because he cannot drive, it falls on his friends in the relationship to take him to work and other places he would like to go. His relationship with his friends is sometimes fractured by this very thing. Yet their friendship is sustained not so much by profession of love as the understanding of the obligation they have towards him. What would happen to him if they did not help him? One of the things that seem to maintain their relationship with Sheldon is the sense of duty that they have towards him.

Such is the case with African ethics. Just ask Africans abroad who have to send money to relatives back home almost every month. It is annoying and burdensome but such is the case with an ethic of duty. It is sustained by obligation not love.

Stand-up Comedy Has Come to Nigeria . . .

and The New York Times is just noticing it. Nigerians have in fact been laughing for a very, very long time and there have surveys to prove this. Sample the musical stand-up of Klint the Drunk below: