I read in the Mmegi for this week about DSTV’s consideration of including a pornography channel to its list of channels.
The decision has left me baffled and dumbfounded. If its eventually added, of what use is it to us as people, and as Africans?
Pornography has already been blamed for a lot of ills in our society, including the high rate of promiscuity and HIV/AIDS in our society, and adding such a channel will only be fuelling the intensity of the aforementioned evils and vices.
If DSTV do not know what channel to add to their station, I seriously suggest they add an African History channel.
Before I am criticized for being too afrocentric, maybe my arguments should be listened to first, and then judge me after that.
Just last week, I was having a discussion on politics with some friends of mine, and I mentioned names like Lumumba, and Thomas Sankara, to which they told me they haven’t heard of. I was shocked!, These were not local school, or village communities schools graduate.
These were kids from the top notch, the so highly praised English medium schools, and yet they know nothing about these African greats.
For fear of not looking foolish, I decided not to ask them about other leaders like Jomo Kenyatta, and Julius Nyererere. These kids can tell you about American and European history, they can tell you about the electoral college in America, discuss the possibility of Alistair Cook handing in his resignation in England, have educated discussions about the effect of the Euro on European nations, but they know nothing about Omar Bongo, or even Joseph Doe. This is as a result of the things which they have been exposed to, on DSTV.
We are exposed to all western culture, politics, and history. I do not say that this is bad, for we live in a global world, where it’s of paramount importance to know about the world out there, but of what use is it to know what is going on in your neighbors kitchen, when you have no idea of what is cooking in yours.
Without a channel to teach our kids African history, I am worried for the next generation of kids; I doubt they will even know where Africa is on the map of the world. In schools too, all we learn is western history.
We learn nothing about African history.
That is why we have African kids today who haven’t read such classics like Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” Camara Laye’s “the African child”, Ayi, Kweh Armah’s “the beautiful ones are not yet born”, but they know of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” a book in which the African continent was described as a barbaric, and savagery place, a book so outrageous, it sparked the inspiration for Achebe’s things fall apart. We have kids who have never heard of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kgosi Sechele, Bathoen, and Khama, Kwame Nkrumah, Mobutu seseseko, but they know of Karl Marx, Marx Weber, and others who are not important to the African continent. Our kids do not know any of Bessie Head’s poem, or those of Nobel laureate wole Soyinka, but they can recite from heart all of Shakespeare poems, I do not argue that Shakespeare’s poems are not important.
Actually I am a great fan of his works, but our kids have no knowledge that Africans even write poems.
I really beg DSTV that instead of adding a porn channel, they should instead, create a channel for African history where the rich, and detailed history of our glorious continent can be taught to them, about our wars, warriors, leaders, slavery, amongst other interesting African topics. If not, we will end up having a generation that can write thesis on people like Monica Lewinsky, Joe the Plumber, and on topics like rock music, world war 2, Adolph Hitler, and all forms of sexual acts and positions(as a result of porn channel), but who know nothing about Chaka Zulu, Timbuktu, and the fact that civilization actually started right here in Africa, where the world’s first university is located, and that modern “great” scientists were all inspired, and copied works of the ancient Egyptians and the library, that was the house of great knowledge on all works and topics of life.
