“Generation comes and goes but some persons do not want old generation burdensome baggage to rest in perfect peace.” - Imaife
Some still want to wear past generations wristbands. They regale at old wristbands dimmed omnipresence and wished their entrenchment. They see them as all deserving. But do all still fit?
Every generation is kind of a tapestry. Often, there is the desire and enthusiasm to undo a bit of this collage. Others think otherwise and try to fuse old generation paraphernalia to the present, decreeing the past must not rest from its works even after jubilees!
It is always in the heart of men, sometimes reeling out innuendos, euphemism, inexactitudes and caricatures of what are thought as custom and tradition in the quest to sustain the past in a complex new circumstances of life. These are like hardened lava in a milieu disallowing flows in disparate rational, environmental, cultural, technological worlds. Refusal to see and accept a kind of breaks in generations and inappropriately downloading their wristbands are conterminous project with delusion and nkuyeri!
Always, think it through, shrouded evil one may wittingly or unwittingly be giving a nod when it looks convenient. Ask yourself uncomfortable questions like who are known living twins of the 1930s or later in your community? What happened to others, even after Europeans had taken over the justice system?.
Mind what you support in the name of custom and tradition. They may be unenviable wristbands from generations you never knew. Do not be lullabied, believing that all sun rise and set are exactly the same every time and in every place because there is a new day break and evening every day. Remember, some days the sun rises without being seen throughout the day. If you don’t know ask normal solar light engineers not ‘political solar light’ contractors. The engineers would tell you how solar dependent light works in sunless rainy season.
Many generation wristbands are underlaid on philosophies or world views of a time. Such views are often domiciled reflecting where they developed. The process of development of western philosophies are known. Carlyles, Bertrand Russel and other contemporary philosophers provide lights. African philosophies are known too. They deserve no repetition.
Wisdom and thoughts of any given time are not static. It flows with multiple influences, sometimes gaining entry to unusual places even dominating. Such dominance arises from activities of those who control the means of the society. In the past, their conventional wisdom was imposed by variety of modes- agglomeration of men or women known as the state. They used force, education, religion, family, persuasion, foisting personal ideas nourished to general ideas. Today, it is culture, custom and tradition.
It therefore implies that origins of various philosophies had their start to a location and time. In time they may filter beyond their territorial confines and age. It is the reason we today still invoke Western philosophy especially when one perceives a universal outline akin to other philosophies elsewhere. But a wholesale change always pose the challenge for sameness. The German philosopher says you cannot step in the same water twice. Same applies to some philosophies in various locations. It makes wearing same generation wristbands across various generations not exactly. The archetype hardly survives in every generation.
Custom and tradition go through the dynamics of change even when it is not convenient for their operators. Power imposition, trade, cultural infusion and diffusion and travels initiate change. It’s worth a recall that a visit to Lagos to see his son in 1923 compelled the king to use the same toilet with women. This was an abomination in their custom. On his return home, the king Obi Or, abrogated through the Council of Elders the custom(abomination) that a titled man and a woman cannot use the same toilet! Modernization threw a spanner to the works of customs and tradition here. But change overtook tradition!
In the 1980s, a new king Ok. also abolished the compulsory 3 to 6 months traditional mourning for widows. He reasoned that some daughters of the community were high government officials who had only a week official, compassionate leave. Were they to keep wearing black mourning cloth, sitting on bare floor, not bathing everyday and waiting for 3months before traditionally removing their ‘sackcloth’? Were they expected to loose their permanent work positions as ( Directors, Permanent Secretary, Executives etc.) for the death of a husband? Many wahala for ‘dead bodi o’
A follow up was reduction of compulsory mourning days to five days for titled chiefs wives/others and removal of other unacceptable inhuman practices associated with mourning of a husband. For some cultural purists, romanticists and irredentists, the action of this new king makes sense. But on other issues they take umbrage as it does not suit their narrow and selfish proclivities. Anything not pandering to their perceived wisdom leaves one castigated even brutalized for underserving debt to customs and tradition. Think again what you support now in the name of culture, custom and tradition.
Note that the Millennial and Gen Z generations may not understand the basis of your cultural impositions. Usually, these are seen as underserving and infringement on their rights in a new world environment. They are distant from you. Gen Z is not part of these woozy contraptions. Hardly do they wear or appreciate your cultural wristbands. When they see them, they hardly make the same meaning out of it. The ship obviously left the harbor. Those with cultural baggage for this ship may only send messages that may or never be acted upon. Those with sufficient knowledge and means of enforcement are either limited or not there at all. Older generations should always understand the limits of their advantage.
There are glaring reasons for the knowledge gap and desired consensus expected by cultural purists being far-flung. The language of old has changed. The world speaks a new language even in the sub languages of your areas.
Take for example non verbal symbolism in language that means a lot for the old. Igba urio - simply roving the hand around one’s head and spluttering a word means a lot and could lead to a scare for those who understand. Euphemisms, symbols, signs, twerking of the nose, eyes, mouth, hands and legs were greatly deplored in communication in the past. Some are non- performative, nuanced verbal prosthetic. Indeed, they are igbudu esiri esi. A little touch entraps the un-wary. How much of these are known and currently employed by the new generation? Yet, when tradition and culture are bandied, some less informed joins in the chants. Note too that there are cultural intangibles that mean a lot for the old generations. We may not deal with it here. However,it is helpful for one to understand one’s subject to avoid disembarkation on quicksands and muddy terrains of cultures and tradition.
As I always say, a reader has a lot of work to do. Some current wristbands are simply a mockery when thoroughly examined in the context of old and new. Look at it again. This is not a walk to abolitionism but a caveat on absolutism. Reflect how culture and tradition in the listed areas have eroded or changed.
⁃ Identities - men and women
⁃ Heritage
⁃ Visual and non visual
⁃ Environment
⁃ Quotidian activities
⁃ Political climate
⁃ Education
⁃ Religion
⁃ Authority
⁃ Laws
⁃ Culture
⁃ Art
⁃ Technology
Understand what you propagate as culture, customs and tradition. Knowledge puffs . True knowledge humbles. It is a choice. Make the right choice.