Madiba: Lessons from a life richly lived

Nelson Mandela is going home. He has departed this world of mortals but it is very clear that were it to be the subject of a Big Brother-like vote, the global aplomb would almost surely have been for him to continue to remain in the house. This is how well he touched us. But we are not God.

And the Methodist-raised Mandela was always conscious of that. And he did not even allow his characteristic sense of solidarity with his comrades in the African National Congress, Umkhoto wa Sizwe and the South African Communist Party to touch him in this regard. When for example he saw that his comrades were elevating ‘winning the struggle’ over and above the imperatives of peace and development and electing to continue to prosecute the very debilitating ‘black on black violence’ against the Inkatha freedom Party (IFP), Mandela broke with the party line and made his way down to Kwazulu Natal for a one-on-one with Gatsha Buthelezi. It paid off. The war ended.

A second example came also whilst he served as President and had to do with the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Programme that he had put in place to help long-locked out Africans from the commanding heights of the South African economy. Because the majority of the beneficiaries were ex-combatants who were not adept with the mechanics of commercial business and enterprise, the firms that they had now secured proprietorship over soon began to flounder. Again, much against the party grain, Mandela reached out far and wide to get accomplished business players from across the world, whites included, to come and teach his black boys how to do it properly!

A third reference has to do with the penchant for sit-tight leadership in the continent where pioneer-leaders like Mandela encourage themselves or secure encouragement anyways to continue to remain in office indefinitely. When Mandela sensed that some of his associates had begun making underground moves to return him to the ballot for a second time in office, he again broke with the caucus and publicly declared that he was not a candidate! This is the stuff of which great leadership is made.

Watching the bevy of world leaders and common people to wit, rising to pay tribute to him on worldwide television yesterday and the effusive display of love and respect being showered on a man who gave up literally all of his comfort so his people can get theirs, almost brought a tear from my eyes. And a question also: are these leaders seeing what some of us are seeing? Are they getting inspiration, motivation and vision with which they would return home to their respective states, make restitution, repent of their old prodigal ways and commit now to joining other men and women of goodwill and honour to drive the world to the heights of glory possible only with self-effacing leadership lifestyles like that which Madiba has so eloquently demonstrated.

Practically then, what is the quintessential legacy of Nelson Mandela?

A lot of this can be found in the story of his life and struggles. He was born a privileged Xhosa prince from the Thembu ruling house but he elected for the struggle to elevate all of humanity to the pedestal of honour, love and justice where the Almighty God had established them to be in the first place. When things got heated and the system whipped at him very mercilessly, he could have taken the easy way out, cut a private deal and chickened out of ‘his foolishness,’ but like the Biblical Issachar, he chose to bow his shoulders further to bear some more burden and become a servant unto tribute.’ Mandela was truly a man who lived more than a man’s basic share of life. He was legendary. He was a phenomenon. And because he lived so gloriously, he would almost literally be remembered eternally.

Three points come out for this writer as the core essentials of the Mandela brand that will win any day. The first is that planning over the long haul and living your life with a firm recognition that tomorrow would surely come is a critical success factor that cannot be glossed over.

Second, that man or woman that would amount to much in a respectable way must find out what his calling in life is and live for it. As the philosophers would say, if you live for everything, you will fall for anything. The challenge then is to identify the critical something that resonates with you and commit to living for it no matter how many obstacles are placed on your path.

And third, the winning person must be a person of courage, a will-do and can-do type. This flows from an essential recognition that life does not hand over laurels for wishful thinking, but on the contrary to people with a ‘solid weight of personal achievement,‘ as that other equally recently departed achiever, the venerable Chinua Achebe would put it.

And then we close on this point. As many commentators have very well asserted already, the Mandela type is a rarity in our world today for several reasons. While the purpose of this piece is not to go into elaborate detail about ‘why we are indeed so blest,’ it may be important to state that this state of degradation is clearly not unconnected with the decline and loss that we have suffered on the prism of values. For if the truth is to be told, the world in which we live in today is caught in a very frightening tailspin where the pristine values that forged and kept communities in the past have slowly but gradually been denuded with very little being done to replace them.

But for the moment, let us savour the privilege of the moment and bask in the glory of the fact that Mandela came, saw, lived and conquered even in these besmirched times. And if we would be willing to sit where he sat, then we can still have a few more Mandelas in the years that follow that will continue to point us on towards the path of rectitude, honour and good sense. Here indeed was a great man. When comes another? We wait.

 This piece was first published in Hallmark Newspaper of Wednesday, December 11, 2013.

Why you should join the Neighbourhood Book Club (NBC)

·     1. It would help you to become smarter and wiser

·     2. It would show you how to read productively despite the challenges of your 'busy' environment

·     3. It is a platform for exploring your reading interest in a relaxed, social environment

·     4.Access to a wider pool of books from other members and club’s library network

·      5.    Buying books at discount

·      8.  It would help build your presentation and public speaking skills

·      7.  The opportunity to participate in community development activities.

Saving the Nigerian Book One Reader at a Time

Clearly the Nigerian book is in distress today.

Months ago, Debonair, one of the avant-garde book selling outfits in the city of Lagos was forced to shut down its upscale Sabo, Yaba offices.

Silverbird Bookstores Port Harcourt has also followed suit.

Onibonoje Publishers, Odusote Bookshops, CSS Bookshop are either out in the cold or are mainly a shadow of their former selves.

Across, Nigeria, libraries are shutting down or suffering a new titles-kwashiokor

The book is in retreat and needs to be salvaged.

Many reasons account for these developments and we have a few thoughts in this regard. But the critical point today is what is to be done to reverse the rot.

And for us it is not too complex: we think the answer lies in reaching and cultivating readers, one after the other.

To do this we have set up the Neighbourhood Book Clubs.

And this is how it works. Through organising 5 to 50 readers in a neighbourhood unit, we intend to use the principles of consensus building, shared passions and team work to stimulate even greater reading passion amongst the members, and then their own extended community.

The second plank of the work has to do with setting up book clubs in schools countrywide.


To be continued

The Sunbird Book Clubs: Statement of Objective

This week we make history with the first of the Sunbird Book Clubs, the Arepo Book Club being inaugurated on Saturday at Utol Schools, 7 Jemima Laalu Street, off Journalists Estate Road, Arepo, Ogun State,  from 3-5pm.

The reading clubs are being put together because we definitely need them. The reality of life in the contemporary world today is that nations and peoples that aspire to success and greatness must continue to invest in life-long learning systems. Gone are the days when we went to 'and finished school!' That will not work anymore.

On the issue of targets, we are looking at setting up 10000 such clubs within a decade. With fifty members per club, this would come to an active reading population of 500,000 members.

Of strategic import is our decision to let the clubs be established and function and thrive at the neighbourhood level. Each club unit will after the initial tutelage period, be deregulated to continue to take decisions on its specific programmes, finances and events/projects as long as these do not conflict with the larger goal of reading culture promotions among our people.

As for membership, it is open to readers that can read and are willing to continue to read and collaborate with other readers in a peer-support social environment designed to sustain and grow their reading passion and help other members of the society equally become readers and better readers.

Thanks

Awakening the Reader within You

Text of a paper presented by Richard Mammah, MD/Editor-in-Chief, Sunbird Africa Media, publishers of the pan-African weekly, The Difference at the Edgewise Reading Promotions event held at Government College, Ikorodu on May 22, 2013.

The Convener, Principals, all other guests, students, Ladies and gentlemen

This week in which we have gathered is a most important one. Even as we are here trying to better understand the importance of reading to us, the whole world is at the moment paying tribute to one of the most important contributors to the reading enterprise that we have known till date, across Nigeria and Africa. I am referring to that most illustrious writer and son of Africa, Professor Chinua Achebe. I now invite us all to stand up and pay our respects to him. May we rise up now and observe a one-minute silence in honour of the writer of great books like Things Fall Apart, Chike and the River, No Longer at Ease, There was a Country, How the Leopard Lost its Claws, Arrow of God, Beware Soul Brother, Girls at War and Morning Yet on Creation Day.

(May His soul rest in peace. Amen)

In paying tribute to Achebe and indeed the writers in the nation, we are acknowledging the basic fact that without writers there would not be books. And without books there would be nothing to read.

 Now this would be scary! A world without books? That would be a tough one as it would mean there would be no schools, no teachers, no principals, no students, no professionals and no progress as we know it today.

Look around you for a minute and make the connections. The hall in which you are sitting was designed by an architect. He read books. The teacher that stands in front of you went to school. And read books. The parents that sent you to school went to school also -where they read books. The television you watch, the mobile phones you use, the sandals on your feet, the clothes on your body, the water you drink, the food you eat, the bed on which you sleep and the language that you speak have all benefited and continue to benefit from this great world of books.

For everything in the universe to benefit from books means that there must be a very deep connection that we all have to books. Yes there is. And I would explain it.

Before humans came to the world, there were already other species on the earth. Whether you are basing your story on the Bible account or on the research of archaeologists, there is evidence that other creatures were on the earth before man came.

But man’s coming changed the entire picture. Man was Homo Sapiens - thinking man – and this was the critical difference. For the first time in the history of the universe, there was now a created being that could think!

Thinking indeed is very powerful. Hear what the Christian Bible has to say about this activity: ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he!’ Yes, thinking truly is everything.

We are in school now and we have thoughts. Someone in this hall has thoughts to be a doctor. If you follow it through and it aligns with God’s original will for you, you will truly become the doctor you are presently thinking to be.

As a growing child, former American President Bill Clinton, thought he could be President. One thing led to another and he became his thoughts. You too can become your thoughts.

Because thoughts are so powerful, there is therefore a responsibility imposed upon us to ‘guard our hearts with all diligence.’ And this is where reading comes in.

Reading is a critical feeder for our thought process. Through reading, we come in contact with information that is stored in the brain against the day it will be required to be used. For example from the first day of this school term till date, our teachers have been instructing us in line with the already defined scheme of work. At the end of the term, examinations would be conducted with questions that are taken from this scheme. It is how much and how well we have imbibed what we have been taught that helps guarantee how well we do in the examinations.

But then how exactly does this work? Two words are very important to help us understand the reading process so we can fully understand and appreciate how to awaken the reader within.

The first is recognition and the second interpretation.

To read requires that we recognize the text characters in which we are reading. For example to read in English would require a sound knowledge of the 26-alphabet English Language. But this knowledge would not automatically confer you with the ability to read in say Arabic or Chinese which have totally different alphabetical scripts.

Also, beyond alphabet recognition there is the point about the words that are available in a language and their normal or regular patterns of coordination and arrangement. For example, when the English reader meets the word Professor in a text, his idea is of a senior lecturer in a University. For the French reader, even when the ‘Professor’ is also an academic, the reference does not really confer an element of class or rank!

And on the arrangement of words, we should note that languages have different forms of ordering. While the average English sentence uses the SVO structure, several other languages use different syntactic systems in the main.

The second critical word that we need to understand is Interpretation. After recognizing words, we need to interpret them.

To interpret involves conferring meaning. And this can only be done from an already pre-assigned system of meaning values. For example, in nursery school, children are taught to recognize shapes. While the adult reader finds this funny and simplistic, the truth is that the children are at this early stage being handed critical meaning markers that would shape their lives continually. It is from these meaning markers that we all have been given that interpretation comes.

So when we talk of interpretation we are really referring to taking the words and passages that we are being asked to assign meaning to, and matching them with our pre-existent meaning markers that we had built up over time.

What reading does for us then is to help us develop a stronger interpretation base. As we continue to read, we increase the number of words that we are familiar with as well as the permissible forms in which they can be used. This is what comes in handy when we have to write new compositions and speak extemporaneously to audiences.

You cannot give what you do not have. If you do not continue to read, you are starving your data base. On the day you will be required to write that essay or make that speech you will find yourself, as we say in these parts, ‘eating your mouth’ and not bringing out the words that should be flowing. In that day, it would not be anybody else’s fault. You made your bed yourself and can now enjoy your embarrassment!

But this would not be your portion. So pick up that book now and read. And when you are done, pick up another one and read. And when you are also done, pick up yet another one and read! This is the only way to go.

Thank you for listening. And God bless you.

Richard Mammah

My Nigerian Story 1

I have a new work-in-progress ‘Nigeria: A Country, Its Origins, Inconvenient Truths and Prosperous Future.’ It is the story of Nigeria and I will be serving bits of it as I work through my blog richardmammah.blogspot.com as well as on my facebook page.

Bellow is a sample:

‘Where did Boko Haram and its later-day co-traveller, the Jama’atu Ansaril Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan (Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa, or simply “Ansaru”) spring from?

The jihad of Shehu Uthman dan Fodio is said to have largely side-stepped the Borno-Yobe areas that have since been confirmed to be the operational and logistical hotbed of Boko Haram. Is this then a catch-up moment for Islamists from the old Borno Emirate?

With the benefit of hindsight also, would things have been somewhat different today had the Nigerian political and security elite done much more to totally extinguish the fires of earlier conflicts like the Maitatsine uprising and the Gideon Akaluka saga?

Beyond his own words, what exactly was former Governor Sheriff Ahmed Sheriff’s association and involvement with Boko Haram?  Has that involvement now been confirmed to have fully ended?

The journey continues...'

The Joy of Reading

(Address delivered to the students, staff and guests at the Edgewise Reading Network’s Readership Promotion event held at Comprehensive High School, Isawo, Ikorodu on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, by Mr. Richard Mammah, MD, Sunbird African Media Ltd.)

Good Afternoon, Mr. Chairman, the Principal, guests, staff, students, ladies and gentlemen

Permit me to start this address by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to PreyeTambou and his team at Edgewise Reading Network for fighting so ebulliently to get this programme going. As a long-time devotee of the cause of reading promotions in Nigeria, I very well know what a yeoman’s task this has, and continues to be. I salute you.

Now, is there really joy in reading? And what kind of joy exactly would that be?

I will call to the witness box the child, aged four who has just been told his favourite bed-time story and is vigorously pleading for one more take. Is there joy in reading? Ask him!

My second witness would be that candidate in the university semester examinations who finds out in the course of answering a question that not only is he able to largely recall a lot of what he had read up from his course notes and texts, but that several other bits of information from other books and materials he had encountered at different times and seasons are easily returning to his mind at this moment to guarantee that he would no doubt get a very good grade in the course under reference. Is there joy in reading? Again, we request that you direct the question to him!

My final witness for now would be that Professor who has just finished delivering his inaugural lecture to find himself looking down - from his perch up there on the podium - at a packed hall full of applauding listeners much impressed with the depth of scholarship that he had so effortlessly handed down.

Interestingly, as I speak, my friend and fellow champion in the course of the book in Nigeria, Professor Remi Raji is at the moment putting finishing touches to a paper in that mould that he would be delivering at the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan. Is there joy in reading? You can ask the good Professor, who is also the current President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), after he has finished his lecture tomorrow.

I have called up these witnesses to make the first basic point that contrary to what many of us have been made to believe reading indeed is and should be fun.

So from where do we get the idea that reading equates drudgery and what should be done to help that student who finds reading as a boring chore to get over his erroneous feeling and begin to better appreciate the great bliss that is inherently contained in the reading enterprise?

Let us begin from trying to understand what reading is in the first place?

 The Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines reading to involve a process of understanding ‘the meaning of written or printed words or symbols.’ Whether it is in decoding bus-stop directions, instructions on a drugs’ pack or sifting through several volumes of texts to prepare a research paper that would help you get that certificate or degree, the reading enterprise always involves making meaning out of the processing of characters and alphabets that the reader can recognise.

Broken down therefore, reading would simply be an interface of words, recognition and meaning. You confront a text; you recognize the words, read them together and make meaning out of them.

From sentence to paragraph, chapter to section the process does not change. It is: Words-Recognition-Meaning.

Would you sometimes meet strange words? Yes. Would some passages sometimes not read like ‘Greek?’ Yes. Would some authors not sometimes be talking above your head? Again, my answer is yes. But the solution dear student is not to run away. And to help explain this point, I will take a slight detour into the world of driving.

If you ask the average driver on our roads, he would tell you that there was a time when he really did not think he would today be driving through the streets and highways of Lagos. But having come to grips with the fact that this was one vocation that he was almost compelled to master, he had no choice but to pick up the proverbial gauntlet and get on with it. Today, the rest is history.

Happily, the reading enterprise is not that ‘oppressive.’ Looking around you, you will find that there are indeed things that you naturally like reading. You may not be the greatest fan of bed time stories but your favourite could be poetry. You may just tolerate biographies but comics would make your day anytime!   And this indeed would be our first point in joy-reading: read a lot of what naturally excites and interests you! Indeed, in some situations, it would be from reading and continuing to read more and more of the stuff that interests you that you would find readily recognizable cross-reference material with which you would better explain yourself when you get up higher on the educational and career planes where the focus is on depth and breadth.

Let me illustrate this point some more with three references. One, as a journalist, who had to write an opinion essay on the level of corruption in the ruling People’s Democratic Party a few years ago when Ahmadu Ali was Chairman of the arty and Baba Olusegun Obasanjo was President, I drew upon my fictional knowledge of the story of ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ to caption my essay; ‘Ali, Baba and the Forty Thieves.’

Second, as a copy-writer for an advertising agency several years back, I chanced upon a spectacular piece of word-play in an advert about the satellite product, Capsat that took its bearing from the historical saga of the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. It read: ‘If Napoleon had a Capsat, he would not have lost the Battle of Waterloo!’  I was impressed.

Days later, I was commissioned to write a copy for the public relations firm, Imprint Communications, and with the Capsat copy still reeling around my head for inspiration, I penned these lines: ‘Many years ago, dinosaurs roamed the face of the earth. We know about this today because they left their Imprint! Needless to say, my own word-play involved matching the name of the company with the saga of dinosaurs that had since gone extinct but whose tales I had read in some of my voracious life-long searches for story after story to devour!  So do not let anyone discourage you that you are reading too much of the stuff you like to read! Rather, politely tell them that ‘it would come handy someday!’

 That settled, our final point would have to do with what you have to read but do not like. Being in school as we currently are, I am sure that you will find situations like that. To address this, you could adopt one of two possible responses.  The first would be to appreciate the truth that there is indeed no hurdle under the sun that cannot be confronted and scaled. For example, people say that it is almost impossible learning new languages after childhood. Well, this speaker did learn to speak and write Deutsch at age 36! And he does not have the gift for languages per se as is apparent with his continuing battles with French and Yoruba. Beni!

The answer really to coping with tough and difficult reading encounters would be in finding an appropriate method with which to prevail.

In this, one first point that must be made is for the reader to recognize that escape would not be the answer. While the temptation would be strong to damn the subject because you do not enjoy it presently, the truth really is that it could be all-too-critical for your future that you must secure a credit pass in or you could find out in the course of time that ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’

This in a sense is the story of my relationship with Geography. After having dropped the subject because I had considered it ‘uninteresting,’ events and circumstances made me to do a u-turn in my final year in secondary school and I signed-in Geography as one of my Certificate Examinations subjects. I then proceeded to break it down to subjects and sections as contained in the syllabus, gave the subject more time in my private study time-table and thankfully also, the subject teacher, Mr. Kwame Ayekpa, kindly availed me all of his time and resources (including meals at his home in the staff quarters!). The result was stunning!        

So it comes down finally to the environment within which you read. Again, I repeat? Would there be difficult moments? You bet. Would reading be boring sometimes? Correct. Is it okay to shut the book and take a walk? Absolutely!

But even as you have your way and take that break when you must, you must also equally pay attention to that soft, nudging call from your books as they gently implore you long after you have rested: ‘can we please return to our world of study ...and fun! Respond to the prompting and you will ultimately find out like many others before you that truly, ‘reading maketh a man.’

I thank you for your patience and attention.