Were Botha’s racist views justified? ...A reaction
I read with great enthusiasm Norbert Ambenne’s article on the above subject published in your paper of May 14, 2015, and wish to comment on the various issues raised in the said article.
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I am not a proponent of racism, apartheid, tribalism, human maltreatment of human or man’s condemnation of man. However, from recent happenings on the African continent, I will not hesitate but to agree in total with Botha’s views on the black race.
To quote from Ambenne’s article on racial views purportedly made by Botha: “Whites are superior human beings to blacks. Blacks looking like human beings and acting like human beings did not make them sensible human beings.
If God had wanted whites to be equal to the blacks he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: White, black, yellow; rulers and the ruled. Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. The blackman is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. The blackman lacks foresight. The average blackman does not plan his life beyond a year.”
Intelligence of the black man
All the above comments by Botha hinge on the question of intelligence of the black race. Intelligence, according to Oxford dictionary, is the ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things and the ability to do this well. Intelligence has to do with innovativeness and knowing how to quantify problems and proffering solutions to them.
Being able to read and absorb somebody else’s book and pass examinations alone does not denote intelligence. An intelligent person is one who can adopt himself/herself to suit any condition and use the intellect to solve his/her immediate problems. The above intelligence attributes are lacking within the black race.
I did mention in one of my previous articles that our problems as black race cuddle on illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, malnutrition and disease. These were all captured in Botha’s assertion about blacks as enumerated above. Ambenne’s mention of Dr Thomas O. Mensah alone and to add other achievers such as Dr Ollenu, the robotic scientist, and Prof. J.H.K Nketia, the ethnomusicologist, plus few others around the globe cannot qualify us black race as intelligent species.
In doing research in any field of endeavour, at least a good percentage of those captured must prove positive, or else intelligent otherwise, that research is not credible.
If Ambenne’s assertion must be taken seriously, then the few monkeys that are trained to operate computers and pilot aircraft or dogs that are trained to detect abhorrent situations/behaviours that elude humans must also propel us to generalise that monkeys/dogs too are intelligent given the mini-attention given them regarding formal education, which we blacks are privileged to.
I could remember vividly one Andrew Young, the first black American who ascended to the highest political position in the United States (US) in the 70s. He was the US permanent representative to the United Nation (UN).
He visited Ghana, South Africa and Russia during his tenure in office. During his visit to South Africa, he made certain derogatory remarks that made Botha, the then President of South Africa, to hit back that blacks in South Africa were not slaves, depicting those from the US as slaves.
In Russia, he made another serious pejorative remark that made Khrushchev, the then President, to hit back equally. On his return, Young was fired and asked to count to 10 before speaking.
This agitated a lot of controversy and intellectual argument as to the intelligence of the black man. It was concluded that whites had higher intelligence quotient (I Q) than blacks did and they demonstrated that if you gave black children white and black dolls to play with they would prefer the white doll.
Psychologically true even now as portrayed on our signposts using whites as baits to attract customers in Ghana.
I always have my doubts about the ability of the black race steering its own affairs without reliance on the whites who control us imperially by proxy, making us appurtenance to them. My article, titled: ‘Problems facing Africa and the black race,’ dwelt seriously on the attitude of the black race on excessive spiritualism and religious beliefs that are hypothetically borrowed leading to perennial laziness forgetting the necessary things in life like science and technology, which is the only bearing in solving our problems.
Science and technology
An intelligent race would have made a quick turn by embracing the necessary, science and technology, to better her lot in order to command the needed respect within the global environment but we repetitively continue this insolent religious extremism alienating contemporary reasoning that leads us nowhere.
We remain a religiously colonised race albeit we have political freedom. After all, countries that evolve their own way of worshiping God are developed and buoyant i.e. Japan, India, China. Nevertheless, most of us who practise borrowed religions are underdeveloped and poor.
Filth and noise making
We spend huge sums of money in fighting filth and noise when we could have behaved better with intelligence. We find ourselves mostly living in deprived areas in most parts of the globe we are located.
The world cup tournament held in South Africa saw South African spectators blowing noisily, vuvuzelas that discomforted players from other continents. When they complained, the FIFA President simply told them we are in Africa.
This is an insult indeed. We are lucky Botha did not include filth and noisemaking to his repertoire of negative remarks about the black race.
Power struggle within our leadership in Africa annihilated millions by turning the guns against their own subjects. Religious, political and artificial boundary fighting is rife among us dismembering millions. Thousands die in the Mediterranean running away from hardship and disorder. We are a race of waste and normally spend our resources on pretentiously unnecessary projects rather than important priorities.
It is distasteful to view posters of Jesus, imams, prophets, religious leaders, obituaries and other non-essential advertisements pasted on cars and houses forgetting that we waste huge amounts of foreign exchange importing the accessories that produce them. The advanced world would have pasted them before exporting to us if it were necessary. Importation of expensive wigs from abroad to beautify our women and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) stamping numerous kiosks and houses with ‘stop work’, and ‘produce permit’ without any results are all wastage. We spend more amounts of money importing these irrelevant items than the amount used in importing food for human consumption for which we complain. Our politicians would minimise the number of billboards and posters mounted during election periods if they knew the pressure these imposed on our economy and the plight of the poor and wretched in society.
Writer’s email: [email protected] Tel :0549683307.