A Clean Slate

Clean Slate

When the imperial powers decide to destroy a nation, a society, a culture; the strong nationalist voices are assassinated first. Only the pacified leaders and their zombie followers are in place to implement the imperial will. All the traditional culture is buried under the rubble of war and then even further buried under the imperial super-structure built atop the rubble.

People asked, “Why are you returning to Africa with all the terrible wars?” And I often said, “We’re returning because we see the possibility of renewal.” During the kinds of wars we’ve seen instigated across Africa, the collective consciousness of the people is subjected to a kind of “scorched earth” treatment. What is left can be seen as “a clean slate” – a big, new, shiny blackboard. We can rewrite, reseed, recover the best of African traditions and build on them.

However, cultural renewal is not usually given prominence in the rebuilding process. As soon as the “clean slate” is visible through the smoke of destruction, action takes place rapidly. First come the destroyers themselves with their weapons; hunting and gathering the choice areas on the “slate” (landscape) and forcibly securing them. Then they bring the lackey government officials hunting and gathering for their masters who assign them positions on the “slate”. Next enter the foreign opportunists hunting and gathering the cheapest, poorest quality goods and services to sell to those already in place and those to come. The local opportunists are then allowed to hunt and gather. They bring scams and schemes to take direct advantage of their fellow country people. The indigenous zombie population is then allowed a spot on the “slate” to be host bodies for all the parasitic hunters already in place.

Is there any room on the “slate” for planters/harvesters? Yes! On the big blackboard that was so clean and shiny for a brief moment in time, it seems the ancestors have preserved a small and beautiful section for us, the planters/harvesters. Some of us have found our spot on a “slate”. And although our areas might be idyllic, finding other planters and harvesters is not easy. We are surrounded by hunters and gatherers – just like anywhere else on this planet. We may see that spark of light in the eye of a farmer in the village – an exciting and rare experience, but we’ve learned that nurturing that spark is critical and time sensitive.

We were separated too long from a beautiful, potentially strong planter/harvester and she became a jaded zombie by the time we returned. What a loss to Afrika! To find planters and harvesters among those educated in the western system is also rare. When we meet them we treasure and work to form a lasting bond with them. We give thanks for the planters and harvesters that form our bridge-builders all over the world, building Kpawo, the bridge. We’re planning rigorously to have a group of you here together in the not too distant future and on a regular basis thereafter.

All over Afrika there are small groups of planters/harvesters preserving our cultural life-force through our music, dance, visual arts, oral arts and our literature. When you travel across the bridge, look for us in our areas on the not-so clean “slates”. We welcome you!

Welcome! - Dan Hospitality Spoon

 

 

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