Traditions, as good and amusing and fascinating as they can be, also carry the risk of providing resistance, sometimes illogical, in the face of much needed change. I actually love the way traditions define one group of people from the next, and can in non-bigoted ways promote inclusiveness while at the same time allowing exclusivity. They often define people by what they ask of them in terms of values, behaviour and beliefs. They generate curiosity and amusement from without and even from within. The strength and endurance of traditions is usually found in the commitment to them. So what happens when traditions lead to behaviours and attitudes with undesirable consequences? What happens when they effectively become part of the problems or the contributors to the difficulties of societies?

Indeed!!!

Growing up in different parts of the world and working in various environments has left me invariably amused and attracted as well as utterly frustrated by traditions. I get it when people from certain parts take offence at greetings or gifts from the left hand and even understand the logic behind insistence in other places that mouths are rinsed out before that first greeting of the day. If I woke up to find myself in Japan I promise I will leave enough bowing room for exchanges of pleasantries, and would not offer to shake hands with females if in strict Islamic societies. Yes, traditions are interesting, can be quaint, do amuse and almost always define.  So, back to the question: what happens when they start to be part of or responsible for a people’s problems?

What happens when traditions effectively override or relegate the most basic instinct of living organisms? What happens when traditions compromise or work against the overriding need and want to live? What about when the urge to observe tradition gets in the way of undeniable needs for change? How do a people accept that it could get to the point of being a tossup between them and their traditions? How do we get acceptance of the rationale that when customs and practices compromise survival of the community, then the tradition they so try to protect could end up at best as not much more than an entry in the history books?

This rant about traditions comes out of my frustration with the lack of progress I have seen with many discussions especially with matters relating to my mother continent. When proposals for change in the workplace are met with the “but we have always done it this way” resistance, I find myself irritated by the inadvertent sustenance given to inefficiency. However, such situations do come with the “live to fight another day” opportunity and, more often than not, all is not lost. Unfortunately, when there is absolute determination to do it the way our grandfathers and their grandfathers before them did it, and to hold on to that irrespective of risk or damage to individuals or communities; when it sometimes becomes a matter of life or death, then voices need to be raised and must be done so loudly and courageously.

Say it or not, like it or not; people are dying or having their lives seriously blighted in the name of tradition and the adherence to sometimes romantic, often illogical, and usually shameful justifications for them. Try having a conversation about practices with dubious benefits and you get that “you are not proud of who you are” accusation thrown at you. The question then must be “who am I?” Am I a man ready to risk all for a practice started in another time probably because of circumstances that no longer prevail? Could it be that I am just a man who, sometimes at risk to self, seeks explanations for customs and practices that I am asked to subscribe to?

Well, within the context of Africa’s issues, I would like to reference the thinking of Einstein: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Get into a discussion on Africa’s problems and you will get the issues of poverty, low life expectancy, poor health, bad leadership, corruption, etc., etc. come up. Blame is often dished out but hardly ever is there focus on how things are habitually done in and by those communities. Tradition is the subject few want to touch or are brave enough to question. The things we must do and those we cannot even consider are shielded behind a concept that we are made to believe should not be questioned. Unquestioning adherence collaborates with the twin threats of punitive actions and belief in dreadful consequences to secure so many of the things we do irrespective of their harm.

The current Ebola Virus Disease in the Mano River Union countries has served to highlight the problem with resistance to change. It is reported the government of the Guinea couldn’t convince people not to eat animals suspected to be carriers of the virus because the people argued that they had always eaten “bush meat”.  Add to this, the evidence from the other affected countries where warnings that Ebola is most virulent just after death has failed to stop relatives wishing to carry out the traditional funeral rites that involve washing the remains of the deceased.

I am happy to be corrected on what for me is not a judgement I make lightly as I really do believe in the concept and love the idea of tradition. However, the African continent has too many examples of tradition getting in the way of progress and even promoting, enhancing or sustaining non-development. Some of this gets controversial but they are opinions devoid of agenda and not intended to disrespect my people. I do fear that if we don’t start saying what must be said we will remain stuck in the very unhappy and unfulfilling place we currently find ourselves.

From another angle, I really wish I could convince myself that Africa’s silence on the shenanigans of Zimbabwe’s Mugabe has no connection to his being older than most of his counterparts on the continent. After all, we are the people who do not question elders or powerful people from our communities.  As the continent’s most powerful living geriatric, is Comrade Robert effectively on a double whammy free pass to respectability? What about Sudan’s Al-Bashir and his undeniable involvement in all that wickedness in Darfur and South Sudan? Has he found protection behind the decree of our traditions that family members stick by each other? Is tradition stopping protest and even encouraging the perception of acceptance of the unacceptable? Are our leaders basking in praise unearned because praising our elders and leaders is what our traditions decree that we do?

Look at the suffering of our peoples and the lives of those who control their affairs and we get into “no brainer” land when trying to figure out how and why we are here. Yet, go to our community events or take a trip through social media and you will find no shortage of praise for those whose actions place so many in existences not worthy of this or even the previous century. We call them fancy titles they have not earned and even thank them for simply choosing to wake up in the morning. They have power to do so much good but their greatest struggle seems to be working out who has praised them the least.

My least favourite of Africa’s practices is praise singing.  So many of the continents problems meet nothing but utter ineptitude and abdications of responsibility yet we have people fully employed to massage the egos of failing leaders. My thinking is that a good enough leader or elder will get spontaneous and honest praise and will not need the sometimes paid for many minutes of praise you will find at gatherings ranging from family occasions to state events. We shower them with so much praise and then go around wondering why don’t see our dissatisfaction or even feel our pain.

In this traditional view of the world, we look at things from angles that bring no value. We glorify ownership of the land even if it brings us no gain. Somehow, the idea that land is only really useful when it provides a basis for shelter or is a source of income or sustenance gets lost behind the traditional need to have land for no other reason but to claim you “belong”. Our choices of leaders are ethnically based rather than value influenced because supporting our own is what we must do. We criticise the actions of others but go totally mute when “one of our own” does exactly the same thing or worse.

Change needs to come and needs to do so pretty damn quickly. We are pushing ourselves away from the lives we want simply because we want to be the people we believe we are. I suspect what I say here is recognised by many who have the influence and power to at least start nudging our thinking in the right direction. Unfortunately, I believe, they hide behind the traditional tendency to not challenge tradition though I suspect it is often because they find themselves on the favourable end of our practices. After all, the educated and influential people in our communities are the ones least likely to be challenged and most likely to be praised. They are the ones clever enough to use their status in society to get what they want and get away with whatever they do. When this is not the case, they just lack the courage to say it as it is – and that is usually the start of their journeys of bad leadership.

The continent’s leaders need to get a grip of the threats posed by our traditions. Changing our ways in order to improve our lives cannot be wrong. Let us not serve our ancestors to the point of disadvantaging the future generations. This is leadership stuff as well as common sense, and I will throw at those leaders reluctant to rock the boat a bit of dialogue from Eddie Murphy’s ‘Coming to America’ when King  Jaffe Joffer uses tradition to reject his son’s love choice by saying “it is our tradition, who am I to change it?”. Queen Aeoleon simply replies: “I thought you were the King”.