By Wale Ajao
For the purpose of this article geographical description is the idea of describing people by their geographical location. It is an idea that stems from racism. It is a major feature of nineteenth century imperialism which is about how Europe colonized and plundered the resources of the rest of the world Guyanese scholar late Dr. Walter Rodney described how Africa was dominated for centuries in his book titled How Europe underdeveloped Africa.
Essentially the long roots of geographical description are in a discipline once known as Anthropology. It is the oldest subject since social science emerged from the humanities in the nineteenth century. In others one can say that anthropology is the earliest precursor of social science as we know it today. And Anthropology is nothing but a study of races in terms of their biological and physical features and geographical location. That is why what you get from anthropology is terms like pigmies of the Congo This shows that all that anthropology can see about the Congo is the physical features of the pigmies and a whole people had to be described by the physical features of just one section of the Congo All other peoples of Congo did not come into the reckoning of the Anthropologists. So right from the contact of the Europeans with the rest of the world geography has been used as a major form of description of the rest of the world Another common form of description is the use of mineral resources to describe a people. For example, the Gold cost was used to describe what is now known as Ghana and so we have names like Ivory Coast etc. So from the very beginning the European slave traders and legitimate traders and later colonizers all of them showed no interest in understanding the history culture and traditions of the African people because as far the Europeans were concerned Africans had no consequence Africans were seen only in terms of the raw materials needed by the Europeans.
This is why geographical description became the most dominant way of looking at Africa and other parts of the colonized world. As painful as that is, a critical observer will see that the African elite unfortunately continue to use geographical description as they relate with one another. Some will say this is a result of colonial mentality sadly imbibed by the elite in the former colonies.
Take Nigeria as a typical example. Over six decades after independence and with the creation of 36 states and 774 local governments, Nigerian political elite still describe themselves as northern. southern eastern and western. This is a sad thing It means the political class cannot see themselves as one They continue to describe themselves as Northerners Easterners and westerners and therefore continue to impact regional consciousness in the minds of their followers who are the vast majority of ordinary citizens If the colonial masters divided Nigeria into three disparate regions named East West and North to make disunity permanent among the political class. If political disunity led Nigeria to civil war for three harrowing years 1967 to 1970 If as an attempt to remedy the destabilizing effect of disunity, we created all the states and local governments one wonders why our political leaders still continue to see themselves in terms of their geographical location. Why do we still have statements like Tinubu is not doing well for the North? Why do we still refer to Tinubu as a candidate of the west instead of a candidate of the All Progressive congress? Why do our political leaders still see Peter Obi as Ibo candidate instead of candidate of the Labour party? Why is our political leaders still clinging to geographical description which the colonial government created to make national unity impossible?
The sad thing is that politicians have succeeded in impacting this negative trend in the minds of the entire elite in the professions in academia and indeed among the ordinary people. If the colonial masters brought the nationalities together without allowing them to negotiate the terms of their togetherness. If the colonial government imposes the name of the country which it derived from its geographical location. If the colonial government banned the language of the colonized so as to reinforce colonial rule One wonders why the political class has continued to sustain the dubious arrangements imposed by colonialism.
Why are our political leaders approaching 2027 with adherence to geographical description? Why are some political actors still saying Tinubu does not deserve second term because he has not done well for the North Why don’t they say Tinubu does not deserve second term because he has not done well for Nigeria as a whole? Look at the furore over tax reform and all the argument that it doesn’t deserve to be passed by the National Assembly because it is not good for the North instead of it doesn’t deserve to be passed because it is not good for Nigeria?
Why is it that most times the political actors from the North are usually the first to invoke their geographical location as a political tool? When we are talking of cut off marks for candidates taking public examination they will see themselves as Northerners and ask for lower cut of mark. When they start it, then others follow. And just in a twinkle our political forum becomes toxified.
Our political leaders must be careful not to throw our country into another convoluted crisis in 2027. They must learn to see political programmes and ideology and national interest as priority instead of ethnic and geographical descriptions. They should learn from countries like the United States of America that made so much progress in its evolution to the extent that racism has been greatly reduced so much that America produced Obama as President, something unthinkable during the era of rabid racism of the 60s.
Our stability as a nation will be hastened if our political leaders can stop invoking geographical description and concentrate on programmes and ideology and national interest.
Ajao wrote via waleajao2002@gmail.com.