Insight
Remembering Reinhard Bonnke
Published
4 years agoon
By
The PostEpiphany-that moment when what was previously vague assumes a level of clarity that renders it a close or common aspect of life from that point of true revelation. Some of us find (experience) epiphany walking down the street, others still take entire lifetimes before they see the truth behind some aspect of life that had eluded them, and the lucky few have the world and its inner ramifications revealed when they are still pretty young.
I got my epiphany within the walls of a Christian-faith-based rehabilitation centre, and from the people that I met whilst there I learned of the true meanings of salvation and redemption, sinning and perdition.
The teachers and mentors there were many, drawn from within the ranks of the addicts that had fallen off the bus enough times to know that they should teach others not to give in to the temptation that would lead to relapse. There were many preachers too that taught one of the value God and Jesus added onto one’s life, and amongst the teachings of Alan Mc Cauley, Ray Mc Cauley, Benny Hinn, Myles Munroe, Brian Houston, and others, there was the name of Reinhard Bonnke, the evangelist whose missions in Africa came to define the meaning of true charity.
To my fellow addicts and I, and to others gathered or resident at the recovery centre also, it became obvious from the onset that we must record the understanding we have of the things of the Spirit and show our conclusions arrived at through the Word. This necessitated the keeping of a diary or journal of some sort to cover the day to day events and to mark the path of progress as illuminated by what we have seen in the course of the day.
One reason we chose what to read in the centre is that there are many books today presenting many alternative views on common topics, meaning that one could easily fall off the recovery bandwagon and relapse. There are too many variations to the understanding of God that exist and unless a standard authority is accepted and agreed by which to judge all such teachings, many of those whose understanding of the Word of God are bound to get lost even before understanding the full benefits it offers.
Our individual experiences vary, but the Scriptures do not change and there is a natural public appetite to hear the things that God has done, but few actually follow the meanings to their core. There is a strong tendency that has been exhibited over the years to draw spiritual teachings primarily from alternative sources, and this lead to the Word (the Bible) being regarded only as a secondary backup, if at all. We live in an age where what is called “anecdote theology” is rife and many of the scholars or followers of this type of theology choose only those sections of the Bible that support their view.
This is not new as there have been many theories of Christian revival.
This leaves the learner anxious oftentimes, worried about whether their perspective on the supernaturalness of God is right. It is because this new approach viewed from the common man’s viewpoint leads to the questioning of the tremendous burst of divine revival phenomena today seen with the mushrooming of new denominations and congregations. One has to consciously decide that for themselves, the grounds for their faith must be the Word of God, which is where I believe we should stand as believers.
Reinhard Bonnke always taught that Divine Power is the essence of the Christian witness.
He always made sure to note that this aspect of Christian faith is not a Gospel accessory, and unlike the bell on a bicycle, is actually what keeps the whole machine of religious faith moving. In all his congregations, one was left with the reality that there is never the slightest hint that some disciples would be powerless if they held on to their faith. The fact of the matter is that Christianity is either supernatural or nothing at all.
In his own words he said, “We have a supernatural Jesus, with a supernatural ministry, creating a supernatural Church, with a supernatural Gospel and a supernatural Bible. Take the miraculous away and you have taken Christianity’s life away.”
The Church has with the passage of the years become an ethical society or a social club when it is in essence intended to be the grid system for transmitting the power of God into this powerless world where evil seems to be the main preoccupation of the fallen, in fact, it on several occasions seems to be the victor. It therefore needed the ministry of figures such as Reinhard Bonnke to realise the fact that you and I are conductors of God’s power to the world, and that it is a role we should never forget but must assume with all the zeal we can muster.
It was here, in the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho in 1967 that God placed upon his heart the vision of ‘the entire continent of Africa, being transformed by the precious blood of Jesus’. Evangelist Bonnke began holding meetings in a tent that accommodated just 800 people, but, as attendance steadily increased, larger and larger tents had to be purchased, until finally, in 1984, he commissioned the construction of the world’s largest mobile structure, a tent capable of seating 34,000 people.
Attendance at his meetings even exceeded the capacity of this huge structure, and he began open-air Gospel Campaigns with an initial gathering of over 150,000 people per service. From that point on he conducted city-wide meetings across the continent with as many as 1.6 million people attending a single meeting using towering sound systems that can be heard for miles.
It has now been more than 40 years since Reinhard Bonnke founded the international ministry of Christ for all Nations (CfaN), which currently has offices in the United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Brazil and Australia. Since the start of the new millennium, through a host of major events in Africa and other parts of the world, the ministry has recorded more than 66 million documented decisions for Jesus Christ.
Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke was principally known for his Great Gospel Campaigns throughout the Continent of Africa. The son of a pastor, Reinhard gave his life to the Lord at age nine, and heard the call to the African mission field before he was even a teenager. After attending Bible College in Wales, he pastored a church and then went on to start missionary work in Africa. This he says was inspired by his reading of the book of Acts in the Bible. He states:
“The book of Acts reads better than any modern novel. It has clearly defined characters–some in leading roles and others as supporting cast. It has action, adventure, triumph and tragedy. The scenes change from Jerusalem to Damascus to Antioch to Rome, from prison cells to shipwrecks. We encounter the wind of the Holy Spirit and the emboldened peasant apostles who moved in phenomenal miracles and baffled government leaders of their day. However, these great apostles were not always distinguished nor did they always act nobly.”
He further goes to show that he was startled when he read in Mark 16:8 that the disciples, before Jesus ascended to heaven, did not believe. The same unbelief is found in Mark 16:11. Then, two verses later in verse 13, the same four words–they did not believe. Again, in verse 14, the same four words–they did not believe. The initial group of disciples were a bunch of unbelievers. He was however left amazed by the fact that in the next verse, verse 15, Jesus said to these unbelieving and fearful believers, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
He admits to have had a contrary view in that he would have approached Jesus from behind and whispered into His ear, “Master, Lord, don’t You know that the disciples You just gave the Supreme Commission to are a bunch of unbelievers? They will never be able to do it!” such was the initial challenge he held in the early years of his ministry, the periods of doubt as to whether he was fit enough to hold ministry in different countries on the continent. What ended up as the largest ministry was a challenge to his apostolic mission in the early years, but he held on to the glorious end.
Reinhard Bonnke understood the secret Jesus held by sending green disciples to teach the message to the masses of unbelievers. The supernatural power of God would take over where doubt lurked, and it would strengthen the apostle in the delivery of the message to the masses that lacked the knowledge of God. He says:
Something happened between verse 14 and verse 20. In verse 20, we read, “They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word through the accompanying signs, Amen.” What happened between verse 14 and verse 20? Chronologically, Acts Chapter 2 happened. The disciples walked out of weakness and arrived at the power to do what Jesus had commissioned them to execute after He ascended to heaven: “But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In the same way, we all can leave weakness and step into unending power.
It is said by a Nigerian minister (Rev T. A. Babawale) of the church that before Reinhard Bonnke came to Nigeria the preaching of the word was too doctrinal in teaching, and the result was a lot of disunity in Christendom. The now common notion is that once your own doctrine is different from my own, I believe that you are not holy. You are not righteous. You are not of God. What Evangelist Bonnke brought was something: simple gospel, simplicity of gospel and the true acceptance of Jesus Christ as the saviour.
There was never a moment that Bonnke attacked anyone on the basis of their religious affiliation. He was fair to all, and thus brought a new dimension to the preaching of the gospel. He could teach fellow Christian ministers about the value of fairness, and even went on to preach to the fundamentalists in other religions. It is for this reason that he was embraced, that he was loved. Without attacking anyone he just went on and preached Christ’s message of peace, progress, salvation, healing, and deliverance. That is all there was to the man of God, nothing more, and nothing less of everything as were demonstrated by Reverend Bonnke.
It seems that for the man who was born on the 19th of April, 1940 and who passed on the 7th of December, 2019 the focus was on the effect that sin had on the life of an individual. He saw sin as the one thing that causes problems for the larger part of the human race. He saw sin as the bringer of poverty, backwardness, destruction, and all of the other vices that foment human regress. He would say, “But once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour; your sin will be forgiven. And once your sin will be forgiven, you will be at liberty. You’ll be free from the devil, the devil – the evil in conscience.”
The experiences of the early 2000’s on volunteer missions across the various locations and squatter camps revealed a side to Reinhard Bonnke and his Christ for all Nations (CfaN) organisation. There were blankets for poor families; there were food and cosmetics packages for those in need, and the constant call to care for the less fortunate.
For us as a bunch of recovering addicts, the words of Reinhard Bonnke became deeds, because the delivery of the packages went hand in hand with the ministering of the word to the destitute, the poor and the needy living on the fringes of society. Some of us came out of rehab better people because of the practical lessons the rescue missions to various shantytowns and informal settlements taught us. It was not about us; it was for the greater good of humanity as a whole: it is the credo he seems to have lived by until his passing.
We have a bad world when the conscience that drives our deeds is of an evil nature. We gain a better world when we empathise with others, when we go out of our way and follow the teachings offered in the Bible as we should. Forget the new type of evangelist focused more on owning private jets and palatial estates, the man that walks the dust with the forgotten of the world and who actually seeks the means to assuage the anguish of their squalor and lack of knowledge is actually the figure one should set out to emulate. Reinhard Bonnke was such a figure to the end. All one can say is, auf wiedersehen Man of God.
Ts’episo Mothibi
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Your Excellency,
I am certain that you are wondering where and/or how I have the temerity to write to you directly, but a recent post you put on WhatsApp piqued my interest; your meeting with His Excellency the Prime Minister of Lesotho, and his delegation. The delegation came to introduce to you and your good office the candidate of the Government of Lesotho, for the post of Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Joshua Setipa.
Let me set off by stating that I have a friendship with Setipa, for over 50 years, so I may not be the best person to give an objective appraisal or opinion of him; this I will leave to the government.
Further to that, as a citizen of Lesotho, I may embellish the information that I would provide on Lesotho, thus I will as far as possible keep to information that is contained in books. This is not a research report, but more a simplified literature review of what I have read. I shall not quote them, or reference them, thus allowing others the space to research this matter further.
First, let me state my surprise at the alignment of time that I see; Commonwealth Day in 2024 is on the 11th March, the day we celebrate a life well lived, that of Morena Moshoeshoe.
Further to that, this year also starts the 200th anniversary of the move by Morena Moshoeshoe and his followers from Menkhoaneng to Thaba Bosiu. They arrived at Thaba Bosiu in winter, circa 1824.
Next year, 2025 will also be the 100th anniversary of the ‘plenary’ that saw the birth of this Commonwealth of Nations. A handover from the bi-centenary, to the centenary celebrations.
We are all aware that the Commonwealth was started at the Imperial Conference of 1926, but it had what I call a plenary in 1925; this happened in Maseru, Basutoland. It was held at the ‘secretariat’ building on Kingsway. The building was used as the Prime Ministers’ office after independence, more recently, and to date as the Ministry of Defence.
When King George came to visit Lesotho in 1948, to thank the country and her citizens for their participation in the Second World War, High street as it was then known, had its name changed to Kingsway.
At this plenary Britain called the ANZaC states, Australia, New Zeeland and Canada, together with South Africa. It had been only 13 years (1912) since the Basotho monarch had been asked to attend the formation of the South African National Native Conference (SANNC), whose aim was to preserve African land. The SANNC was the forerunner to the African National Congress (ANC).
With the formation of the Union of South Africa, the union wanted to engulf Bechuanaland (Botswana) Swaziland (eSwatini) and Basutoland (Lesotho). This had been unsuccessful.
Next they came up with the Native Land Act of 1913, to remove African land rights. So, the conference that brought about the birth of the SANNC was a pre-emptive response to this act; an attempt to keep African land rights and traditions intact.
I would like to point out that the founding document of the Imperial Conference that brought about the Commonwealth states that all member states are autonomous and not subordinate to another.
At the time of the plenary, Basutoland was subordinate to Britain. But in a masterstoke became what I believe to be one of the founders of the Commonwealth.
Despite her subordination, Basutoland had placed so strong an objection to the presence of a representative South Africa in Basutoland, that South Africa’s invitation had to be withdrawn, and South Africa did not attend. This was the first ‘anti-apartheid’ shot, made in the world; what is more important is that it was made by an African country.
No matter how one looks at it, she may not have been a ‘founding member state’, but Basutoland was part of the founding fabric of the Commonwealth.
One just has to imagine the anger of the South Africans and their government: Dr. D. F. Malan, the first Nationalist Prime Minister of South Africa, was a minister responsible for housing at that time.
Had Basutoland’s lead been followed, spatial apartheid might never have happened. The Commonwealth would take till the 1960’s, and the formal legalisation/legislation of apartheid to remove South Africa from within her fold. A matter that Basutoland saw as far back as the 1920’s.
As shown, at the conceptualisation of the Commonwealth Lesotho was not just there, but an active and formidable participant; though one has to look further to see her relationship with Great Britain/the United Kingdom.
Basutoland/Lesotho’s history is strange, to say the least. The first Europeans to arrive here in 1833, were French Missionaries. At this time Europe was embroiled in wars, which inevitably included the French and English.
But it is these same priests, most notably Casalis, who helped steer the country to Britain, and British protection. Casalis acted almost as a foreign secretary/minister of foreign affairs at that time.
The first treaty between Basutoland and England was the Napier Treaty of 1843, though it took till 1866 to solidify this treaty into a protected land.
The history of the cavalry in Lesotho, the only African cavalry south of the Sahara, is quite long. It starts in about 1825, when F. D. Ellenberger in his book ‘History of the Basutho’, states that Morena Moletsane had come across gun powder quite by mistake.
They had been raiding a missionary’s home and came across a strange powder, which they found useless, so they threw it into a fire, which ‘exploded’. Thus, to his people called European style housing, ‘Ntlo-ea-thunya’, a house that shoots. But after having his people ravaged/savaged by Mzilikazi, he sent his best warriors to work on Boer farms, and with their remuneration purchase arms and horses.
We are often told of a ‘battle of/at Berea’. My answer is that it was not a battle but a cattle raid. Its importance is not just in the battle, but in democracy. The British called Morena Moshoeshoe ‘paramount chief’, a first amongst the others. The time before Berea shows something slightly different.
As Casalis writes in ‘My life in Basutoland’, the British had demanded 10,000 head of cattle, for stock theft. A great ‘pitso’ was called and all eligible men, those who owned land, were called.
At the end of the pitso, after many votes, the citizens refused to give their cattle to pay the demand of the British. The significance herein is that there was a plebiscite, a vote. Morena Moshoeshoe lost the backing of the people and thus the vote; the British then attacked to ‘collect’ the cattle themselves.
Both Morena Moshoeshoe and Morena Moletsane were heavily involved in the ‘battle’ which was won by the strength of the Basutho cavalry. Looking forward to the gun wars, it was most fortuitous that Morena Moshoeshoe’s ally, Morena Moletsane would outlive him, till the end of the gun wars.
After annexation in 1866, in the mid 1870’s the British, citing distance and as such expense, ceded Basutoland to the Cape, which was what the Basotho had been fighting against for a long time; they wanted direct British rule. They wanted to be ruled by Mofumahali Queen Victoria.
The first, and most critical mistake that the Cape made was, not so much in attacking Morena Moorosi, accusing his son of cattle theft, but in beheading him.
So, when some years later they wanted to disarm the Basutho, and they found those of the south of Basutoland who knew of the beheading, reluctant to go with the plan. The Cape decided to go ahead with disarmament forcefully and met equal if not greater force.
The Basutho were better armed, more knowledgeable on the terrain and better supplied. Helped by his father’s long-standing ally, Morena Moletsane, Morena Lerotholi was able to field a well-armed strong cavalry, which inflict great pain to the Cape.
This led to the Cape defeat. Together with the number of other wars that the Cape was fighting, there was fight fatigue among her people.
So bad was it, that they did not come and collect their fallen troops; in Mafeteng there is a cemetery called ‘mabitla-a-makhooa’, or graves of the white men. The SA Military History Society has a ‘roll of honour’ for some of the dead, as not all were buried in Basutoland.
There are two significant outcomes of the war. In his book ‘The Mabille’s of Basutoland’, Edwin W. Smith states that there was a fact-finding mission to Basutoland by members of the Cape parliament, including Rhodes. Their conclusion was that the Basutho should be handed back to Britain for direct rule; which was the original wish of the Basutho.
As Whitehall was reluctant to take this role back, Basutoland spent a period of close to two years of self-rule. Thus it became the first African country (only?) to unshackle itself of colonial rule. And became the first African country to get the colonial rule it wanted; and re-shackled itself to Britain.
The second is how Britain agreed to go back and rule Basutoland. In his book, Rhodes Goes North, J. E. S. Green shows how the Prime Minister of the Cape went to Britain to sue for peace, and eventually agreed to give Britain 20 000 pounds per annum, of her import tax revenues to govern Basutoland.
Whilst not a founding member of the Commonwealth, Basutoland has carried her fair weight in the battle to save both the Commonwealth, and together the rest of the Commonwealth, the world at large.
Whilst SA will hype the losses during the maritime accident of the SS Mendi in the English Channel, Lesotho is less inclined to speak of the losses on the SS Erinpura. The Erinpura was sunk by German war planes in the Mediterranean Sea. Though I should say that, the prayer of the men on the Mendi would resound so well with those who lost their lives on the Erinpura.
When British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill said; never was so much owed by so many to so few, I am certain he was speaking not just of the people of the British Isles, but the broader community within the Commonwealth, that stood together at this time of international need.
But having heard Sir Winston, there is a special bond of Basutoland within, and with the Commonwealth, that I would like to highlight. Apart from the ANZaC countries and South Africa, there were no air squadrons from other Commonwealth countries that I am aware of; except for Basutoland that is.
They paid for 12 or so Spitfire aircraft that would form the 72nd Basutoland, which flew in the Battle of Britain. No moSotho actually flew (in?) them, but they had been financed by the Basotho.
For all the prowess of a moSotho man with arms, in his book ‘Basotho Soldiers in Hitler’s War’, Brian Gary not only writes about the gift of aircraft that fought in the Battle of Britain, he also shows that Basotho soldiers, who were hauling various ordinances through the Italian Alps, were allowed to carry arms.
Aircraft and carrying arms for an African in World War II; Lesotho is not just a pioneer member of the Commonwealth, but a beacon.
As Lesotho many of these pioneering attributes continued. Whist South Africa was banned from sports and entertainment, Lesotho filled the gap for her. Exiles like Hugh Masekela and Mirriam Makeba were hosted for sell out concerts in Lesotho. South African interracial sports, with matches between the likes of Orlando Pirate, Wits University, Kaiser Chiefs, to name those I remember, started in Maseru.
I have touched on politics and war, sport and entertainment; let me go to superstition. It would go against what is expected of me not to go without anything superstitious.
Britain has given the world three major sporting codes. Rugby, which is dominated by the big three of New Zeeland and South Africa. Cricket, which expands from the rugby three to include India, Pakistan, most of the Caribbean states and a few African counties.
These sports are obviously ‘Commonwealth Sports’, as they are dominated, or played predominantly by Commonwealth countries. They have also given us football. This is a truly global sport, the largest sport played across the world, on all types of surfaces, with all types of round looking objects. We can’t call all of these footballs.
The last time a Commonwealth country won the World Cup it was England in 1966; the year Lesotho gained her independence.
The next World Cup is in 2026, the millennium celebrations of the Commonwealth; who will head the Commonwealth then? Will a Commonwealth team have the necessary ‘juju’ to make it?
Your Excellency, this is but a brief note on Lesotho, and it is my way of using the words attributed to Morena Moshoeshoe, when asking for protection from Queen Victoria that say; take me, and all the lice (those that are symbiotic to me) in my blanket. I do hope that these words will be of use to you as seek consensus on Lesotho and her candidate for the post of Secretary General of the Commonwealth.
Yours truly
Khasane Ramolefe
A few weeks ago these pages carried a substantial piece by Mokhosi Mohapi titled “A reversal of our traditions and culture”, written in the form of an open letter to the government of Lesotho. The first sentence of Mohapi’s article took me by surprise, as he stated: MPs and Senators’ primary role is to protect and preserve the traditions and culture of the Basotho people. I would have thought the primary role of MPs and Senators would be to ensure that Basotho are secure (being protected, for example, from criminals), that they have adequate access to social services such as education and healthcare, that the economy is sufficiently stable to offer citizens some chance of employment, and so on. Fat chance, you might scoff.
But then I realised that Mohapi had a more specific contention in mind, as he stated: The Laws of Lerotholi were set to protect social order, traditions and culture of Basotho. Mohapi’s immediate concern is with the 2024 Estates and Inheritance Bill, which proposes radical changes to the existing order of things. (See the article in last week’s thepost, “MPs bulldoze through Inheritance Bill”, which gives a good idea of the background).
I’m aware that this Bill has provoked considerable controversy, and that is not my topic in this article. Nor do I wish to contest what Mohapi was saying in his piece — this is by no means a case of Dunton v Mohapi. But I did take note of the way the phrase “traditions and culture” kept resounding in Mohapi’s article, rather like a cracked bell, and what I want to do is open up those terms for examination.
Please bear with me as I slip aside for a moment with a little academic stuff. Back in 2006 I published an article titled “Problematizing Keywords: Culture, tradition and modernity.” For those of my readers with a scholarly bent and who might want to hunt it down, this was published in a journal called Boleswa Occasional Papers in Theology and Religion 2:3 (2006), pages 5-11. There I made a number of points I want to bring up in what follows.
The first fallacy I tackled in that article was the tradition/modernity binary — the notion that in Africa there was tradition and then, wham!, the white man arrived and there was modernity. Are we seriously to believe there were no great cities in Africa before the white man landed, that the peoples of a whole continent lived entirely in villages? Nigeria tells a different story.
Are we to believe there were no great libraries? Mali and Ethiopia tell a different tale. No writing systems? No medicine? I’m not saying that if I’m in pain I don’t prefer a dose of oramorph to an infusion made from some leaves picked off the slopes of Thaba Bosiu, but the point remains: the tradition/modernity binary is crude and crass and it’s demeaning about Africa.
We cannot get very far with simplistic ideas about where we are coming from and where we are at. And yet of course we do come from a past. I’ll quote — or, rather, paraphrase from memory, as I don’t have the work to hand — an observation made by T.S Eliot in his essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent”: We know so much more than those who came before us. But they are a large part of what we know.
But of those who came before who is it, exactly, that we know? When Mohapi repeatedly uses the phrase “the traditions and culture of the Basotho people” I take it he is thinking of the Basotho as constituted under Moshoeshoe I and the descendants of those generations.
For how much do we know about the “traditions and culture” of the various Sotho-speaking groups let’s say two hundred years before Moshoeshoe gathered them together to form the modern Lesotho state? Isn’t it likely there were significant differences between the “traditions and culture” of these groups, differences that were later rationalised or homogenised?
Two points here. First, we mustn’t forget what an extraordinary innovator Moshoeshoe was —and I guess that might be said also of Lerotholi, whose laws are the chief focus of Mohapi’s article. Second, culture is not static, it is not immutable. It evolves all the time.
For example, for how long has it been the case that adherence to the Christian faith could be said to be part of the culture of Basotho? (Or, for how long has football been part of the culture of the English? We are credited with the invention of football, but that doesn’t mean it’s been part of who we are since time immemorial).
That brings me to my next point, or a string of points, moving from England back to Lesotho. When I was a schoolboy I bought myself a copy of the book Components of the National Culture (1968) by the great British Marxist Perry Anderson. One of my schoolmasters — one of the few who didn’t like me — caught me with it and said “just the sort of book I’d expect a troublemaker like you to be reading. Just don’t show it to anyone else!”
The significant term in Anderson’s title is “components.” Culture is put together — it is an assemblage — and its components may have different sources.
That leads me on to the invention of tradition, and an example for Basotho.
I guess all my readers know Qiloane, the sandstone pillar at Thaba Bosiu the distinctive peak of which is said to be the inspiration for the shape of the traditional Basotho straw hat. Well, that notion is dubious to say the least; there were hats of the same shape from elsewhere in the region long before the Basotho got hold of the design.
Does this really matter? Well, no, because even if a tradition is invented, it still has the persuasiveness of a tradition. It’s just that knowing this might dissuade us from making big claims about the unchangeable nature and sanctity of tradition.
And the same goes for culture. I leave you with a quotation from the Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (it’s from his terrific book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers): We do not need, have never needed, a homogenous system of values, in order to have a home. Cultural purity is an oxymoron.
Chris Dunton is a former Professor of English and Dean of Humanities at the National University of Lesotho.
Last week I was talking about how jokes, or humour generally, can help get one through the most desperate situations (although it’s like taking a paracetamol for a headache; a much, much stronger resort is faith). I used the example of how Polish Jews, trapped and dying in the Warsaw ghetto, used humour to get them through day by day.
A similar, though less nightmarish, situation obtains in today’s Nigeria. Conditions there are less hellish than those of the Warsaw ghetto, but still pretty awful. There are massive redundancies, so millions of people are jobless. Inflation is at about 30% and the cost of living is sky-rocketing, with the most basic foodstuffs often unavailable. There is the breakdown of basic social services.
And endemic violence, with widespread armed robbery (to travel by road from one city to another you take your life in your hands) and the frequent kidnapping for ransom of schoolchildren and teachers. In a recent issue of the Punch newspaper (Lagos) Taiwo Obindo, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Jos, writes of the effects of economic hardship and insecurity on his people’s mental health.
He concludes: “We should see the funny side of things. We can use humour to handle some things. Don’t take things to heart; laugh it off.”
Professor Obindo doesn’t, regrettably, give examples of the humour he prescribes, but I remember two from a period when things were less grim. Power-cuts happened all the time — a big problem if you’re trying to work at night and can’t afford a generator.
And so the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was universally referred to as Never Expect Power Always. And second, for inter-city travel there was a company called Luxurious Buses. Believe me, the average Lesotho kombi is a great deal more luxurious (I can’t remember ever having to sit on the floor of one of those).
And because of the dreadful state of Nigerian roads and the frequent fatal crashes, Luxurious Buses were referred to as Luxurious Hearses.
Lesotho’s newspaper thepost, for which I slave away tirelessly, doesn’t use humour very much. But there is Muckraker. I’ve always wondered whether Muckraker is the pen-name of a single person or a group who alternate writing the column.
Whatever, I’d love to have a drink with him / her/ them and chew things over. I like the ironic pen-name of the author(s). Traditionally speaking, a muckraker is a gossip, someone who scrabbles around for titbits (usually sexual) on the personal life of a celebrity — not exactly a noble thing to do.
But thepost’s Muckraker exposes big problems, deep demerits, conducted by those who should know and do better — problems that the powerful would like to be swept under the carpet, and the intention of Muckraker’s exposure is corrective.
And I always join in the closing exasperated “Ichuuuu!” (as I do this rather loudly, my housemates probably think I’m going bonkers).
Finally I want to mention television satire. The Brits are renowned for this, an achievement dating back to the early 1960s and the weekly satirical programme “TW3” (That Was The Week That Was). More recently we have had “Mock the Week”, though, despite its popularity, the BBC has cancelled this.
The cancellation wasn’t for political reasons. For decades the UK has been encumbered with a foul Conservative government, though this year’s election may be won by Labour (not such very good news, as the Labour leadership is only pseudo-socialist). “Mock the Week” was pretty even-handed in deriding politicians; the BBC’s problem was, I imagine, with the programme’s frequent obscenity.
As an example of their political jokes, I quote a discussion on the less than inspiring leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer. One member of the panel said: “Labour may well have a huge lead in the polls at present, but the day before election day Starmer will destroy it by doing something like accidentally infecting David Attenborough with chicken-pox.”
And a favourite, basically non-political interchange on “Mock the Week” had to do with our former monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Whatever one thinks about the British monarchy as an institution, the Queen was much loved, but the following interchange between two panellists (A and B) was fun:
A: Is the Queen’s nickname really Lilibet?
B: Yes, it is.
A: I thought her nickname was Her Majesty.
B: That’s her gang name.
OK, dear readers, that’s enough humour from me for a while. Next week I’m turning dead serious — and more than a little controversial — responding to a recent Insight piece by Mokhosi Mohapi titled “A reversal of our traditions and culture.” To be forewarned is to be prepared.
Chris Dunton
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