The madman of Ogidi

I enjoyed school a great deal and was a hardworking pupil. I remember looking forward excitedly to new lessons and information from our teachers. Occasionally we received instruction from individuals who were not on the staff of St. Philip’s. One particular, humorous event stands out: On a hot and humid day during the wet season our geography teacher decided to move our entire class outside to the cool shade of a large mango tree. After setting up the blackboard he proceeded to give the class a lesson on the geography of Great Britain. The village “madman” came by, and after standing and listening to teacher’s lesson for a short while, walked up to him, snatched the chalk from his hand, wiped the blackboard, and proceeded to give us an extended lesson on Ogidi, my hometown.

“Amazingly, the teacher let all take place without incident. Looking back, it is instructive, in my estimation, that it was a so-called madman whose “clarity of perspective” first identified the incongruity of our situation: that pupils would benefit not only from a colonial education but also by instruction about their own history and civilisation.”(There was a Country; P.15).

The above excerpt is one of the many aspects of Chinua Achebe’s book, There was a Country that I find fascinating. Like I wrote on this page a couple of weeks ago, I will share some of them with you, as the weeks go by. After reading this piece for the first time, I laughed out loud and the people around me could not help but ask what had gone wrong. It is just one of those moments I enjoy whenever I am reading an interesting book. At times, I cannot help but laugh out loud, shout or show anger at the folly or action of a character. That’s the power of a good literature little wonder why Plato said poets deserved to be banned from his republic. That’s an issue for another day.

Now back to Achebe. It takes the action of a madman for the geography teacher at St. Philip school and his students to know the importance of knowing about the geography of their immediate environment before that of Great Britain. This takes us back to the proverb that opens There was a Country:  “A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body.” In other words, it is only when the students of the geography teacher understands perfectly what makes up their village and its environs before they can fully comprehend the geography of the white man.

This also applies to the age long debate about the native language versus colonial language in African literature. Some novelists and literary critic have argued that indigenous language should be medium of instructions in schools as opposed to English language while some others favour the use of colonial language — English, French or Portuguese. It’s been argued that students with proficiency in their mother tongues have higher proficiency and understand better the English language. Hence there was a time in the country when indigenous languages like Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo were languages of instruction in schools. I could remember that as a primary school pupil I was once taught in Yoruba language the only time English was spoken in class was during English classes. That was before the educational system changed.

I am not opposed to the use of the English language don’t get me wrong. But my sympathy lies with Achebe who has always been an advocate of the English Language. Unlike Ngugi wa Thiongo of Kenya who wrote some of his novels in his native Gikuyu language and later translated them to English, Achebe wrote all his novels in English.  Even in There was a Country, Achebe, appreciates the unifying power of the English language as all the students in his college at Umuahia, who were from different ethnic groups, were able to communicate in English. Without the English language, this wouldn’t have been possible he argues.

Therefore, it is not only that pupils should benefit from a colonial education but they must know about their own history and civilisation. Little wonder why Tony Elumelu tweeted on Monday that: “We need to also look at how to better educate ourselves about our own history starting from the elementary school level.”

By: FUNKE OSAE-BROWN