Kukataa

 

Kataa - 1 refuse, decline, disagree, disavow, reject. 2 deny, renounce:
kataa katakata - refuse completely.

Msemo (saying)

Ajabu ya shingo kukataa kulala kitandani. 

Translation: How amazing, the neck refusing to lie down in bed.

It is shocking and disconcerting to others to see someone refuse a likely more comfortable position despite all the rigors of everyday life.

Said of somebody who refuses something while longing for it. In such a case, it is deemed that there is a problem that isn’t apparent at first glance, and that requires diagnosis. It therefore calls on all concerned to diagnose the problem and solve it.

Rejection of ideas

Whenever an idea is based on inappropriate, inadequate or ambiguous premises, every rational product deduced from it will inherently be burdened by obstacles and an unworkable structure. An example is the ideas of scientism vs subjectivity (termed “art”) as applied to politics.

There has long been the dichotomous contention of whether politics is a science or an art.

The most famous proponent of the idea of politics as art was Otto von Bismarck. His popular quote “politics is an art rather than a science” has also been supported by others like Hans J. Morgenthau who expanded it as “Politics is an art and not a science, and what is required for its mastery is not the rationality of the engineer but the wisdom and the moral strength of the statesman.”

On the opposing side, the most famous proponent of the idea of politics as science was probably Donald Rothchild. Professor Rothchild first developed his passion for world peace as a young teen observing World War II and the Holocaust unfold. Later, as he witnessed racial inequality as a world phenomenon, Rothchild decided to focus on Africa.

The most apparent consequence of the two opposing views is the tyranny of an autocrat for the art view, and the tyranny of a system for the science view.

Healthy and sustainable politics definitely has to be scientifically based on a set of values that serve as guiding principles towards rational actions, but that also runs the risk of lack of accountability to subjective impulses and decisions which drive human beings. It is also difficult not to imagine that the impulse of the long prejudiced practice of using Africans as anthropological subjects convinced Donald Rothchild of the appropriateness of applying political science study to Africa.

The most prevalent studies of professor Rothchild towards application of political science to Africa involved the concept of federalism. His definition of federalism was based on past experiences of majority European-controlled countries such as Australia, Switzerland, Canada and United States. These countries had prior established common heritage, especially based on common English law which, for example, was used to draft the American federal constitution, especially as regards the bill of rights. The fault in this imposition to Africa didn’t lie so much in contradictory values, but in historical and circumstantial power relations that inherently drove a wedge between power and morals. For example, the right to bear arms for the population is enshrined in the English bill of rights, and also unencumbered in the American constitution. Imposing this scientifically on Africa ignores the historical fact that England, as the largest slave trading nation in history, has historically supplied weapons to their Islamic slave-raiding partners in Africa, which has continued even after the abolishing of slave trading. This therefore automatically perpetuates a dichotomy between the wielding of power and the practice of morality.

In his book published in 1960 “Towards African Unity”, Donald Rothchild suggested that only two paths existed through which states can exist in post-colonial Africa, that is:

1.    Establishment along present boundary lines of the European colonies. He deemed this as the simplest solution in the short run but suggested that in the long run it would retard tropical Africa’s development. The most famous African proponent of this direction was Julius Nyerere, president of Tanzania, who is well known for running in counter-position to Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah’s spirited campaign of “United states of Africa” by suggesting that continental integration, if possible, had to be done gradually.

2.    Unions of geographically contiguous territories along federal lines. This was his most favored position and was famously advanced by Nnamdi Azikiwe who campaigned for a federal Nigeria despite protestations from diverse nationalities within that territory, especially Islamic northern Nigeria.

He noted that federalism inherently suggests compromise. He acknowledged that federalism in countries such as United States had an easier task of harmonizing differences of language, culture, politics and slight variations in Christian religion because the nationalities within it had common values rooted in their history from the Roman empire. He therefore suggested that federalism applied to underdeveloped areas of Africa must compromise even more extreme variations for the sake of the federal idea. The anthropological viewpoint relegates application of federalism in Africa as a kind of “tribal consolidation”. This cold scientific application to human beings postures itself in opposition to the “emotionalism” of racial conflict. The consequence of this is the present state of Nigeria which is burdened by the racial incompatibility of Arab-Islamic values of the north to the Indigenous-African values of the south in that territory.

The failed attempt at federalism in East Africa

Professor Rothchild also notes the consequent failed attempt at federalizing East Africa just like had been done for Nigeria towards World War 1. Several political factors destroyed this plan.

Leopold Amery as colonial secretary for Britain formed the Hilton young commission which operated between 1929 and 1930 to look into the creation of a super-dominion composed of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. The commission was a method of formalizing participation and consent for the plan, but it inadvertently opened the floodgates of discourse, dissent and eventual defeat of his federation policy. African opposition rising out of land grievances was strongly against this plan especially as submissions to the Kenya land commission in 1930 were happening simultaneously. Particular strong opposition to the Hilton young report came from the German government within the league of nations’ permanent mandate commission. Germany viewed this scheme as an attempt by Britain to annex its former colony of Tanganyika and make it a province within a British federation thereby truncating Tanganyika’s character as a mandated territory. This would have led to loss of the remaining privileges guaranteed to Germany under the mandate after World War 1 defeat. The federalist designs were therefore seen as subterfuge and resisted.

Nevertheless, Britain didn’t shelve this federalist idea that was defeated in 1930. After World War 2, which resulted in a second defeat for Germany, British colonial settlers in Kenya formed a political unit known as the ‘Elector’s Union’ in 1955. They called for the amalgamation of Kenya colony with the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. They called it the ‘Central African Federation’, and they drew it on racial lines, including one Arab, and at least one or more European provinces. Particular spirited opposition to this scheme was made by the Kenya African Union (KAU) party, with the main proponent being Bildad Kaggia. The aim of the settlers was institutionalizing an apartheid system towards the attainment of self-rule in Kenya modelled on that done in South Africa from 1910 and consequently applied to Rhodesia from 1965. The federalist scheme was eventually defeated.

Federalism idea:

Federalism is an artificial structure which depends for its existence upon rationally and freely given assent. This means it has to be based on clear common values that serve as premises from which rational decisions and actions can be made and be reasonably agreeable to all. It can only be the product of men cooperating to achieve a common goal because it inherently contains compromises.

The aims of federation must be identical or at least compatible. Federation is not an instrument for bridging social chasms, especially not those that are further widened by the identification with national antagonisms.

References & further reading

Donald Rothchild (1960). Toward Unity in Africa: A Study of Federalism in British Africa

TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.