INTERROGATING “MR INNOCENT”: CALLING OUR KNOWLEDGE BASE AND CONTENT TO QUESTION.

ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY-CHAIRPERSON OF BOIPELO CENTRE FOR REGENERATIVE KNOWLEDGE (BCRK), ITUMELENG MAKALE, AT THE STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION FOR BOKAMOSO HIGH SCHOOL HELD AT STINKWATER, HAMMANSKRAAL ON 23 AUGUST 2008

First giving all honour and praise to the God of our fathers, for He has surely remembered the covenant he made with our forefathers, I greet you in PEACE!

To the Principal of the school, honourable members of the School Governing Body (SGB), honourable members of the academia; I am eternally thankful to you for adopting and giving us Boipelo Centre for Regenerative Knowledge (BCRK) this blessed opportunity to share the truthful meditations of our hearts, I greet you in PEACE!

To our honourable guests from the Department of Education, may it be credited to your account that you’ve come out selfless, genuine and truly dedicated in answering to our call by taking time out of your most probably tight schedule beyond the scope and parameters of your work, I greet you in PEACE!

The subject the thumbnail sketch of which I have been requested to present to you all on this occasion pertains to the very kingpin in the name of the organization Boipelo Center for Regenerative Knowledge, understanding what we mean by Regenerative Knowledge.

The Concept of Regenerative Knowledge

With higher rates of illicit drug use, alcoholic consumption, criminal convictions, domestic violence, disrespect to the elderly, unwed motherhood (disintegration of the family) and so forth, our society has undoubtedly shown itself to be the most vulnerable and degenerate. Maybe we need to check the parameters of our security. What forms that? It is the leadership – parents, teachers (both secular and religious), Boards of media, political leadership etc. Perhaps critical and central to our inquiry/investigation should be calling into question the very knowledge base and content upon and by which this leadership is founded and constituted. It stands to reason that if the people are being led by someone or some authority, then where they are today is where they have been led to by that someone or authority ferried through the knowledge vehicle . If all our actions are the end results of the application of some knowledge, this should suffice an analysis in the illustration of the power of knowledge.
In the context of Education, educating/facilitating, learning and schooling are apparently key processes involved in the dissemination and assimilation of an already produced knowledge. One may ask: Is the imparted knowledge inspiring to learners so as to make our learning institutions attractive and give them warmth and power? Is this knowledge capable of giving sanctity to the human and social goals; and make man accountable?
Considering a largely significant number of our children who, after they graduate, become so aloof of their immediate surroundings, their own people and own selves, one has to conclude that the type of education our people receive, whether from the classroom or other forms of media, does not either give meaning to life or that it fails to enable the recipient to have a reality relationship with his/her environment. The knowledge that is being produced seems to be having to its applicant a de-sensitizing effect witnessed in the inability of our people to conceive and tap into life-enhancing and sustaining elements of the universe. With the diminishing of the spirit of Ubuntu (righteousness) individuals in our society have become so body-centric (materialistic) and have learnt to gauge life only in terms of the intake of oxygen and success in terms of massive buildings, flamboyant cars, mansions and access to what they call advanced technology but very poor at heart- More material acquisitions; less soul. What direction does an African teacher give to African learner who is exposed to adrenalin pumping mind candy magazines, novels, television programs having a de-intellectualizing effect and other seemingly innocent hedonistic social activities and programs purported to keep our children off the street?
Any conscientious and honest Black educator will painstakingly bear witness that the kind of education for which he/she is the instrument, due to its imprecision and ambiguity and devoid of sense of right and wrong, does not allow a black child to acknowledge truthfully the things he/she is observing. No Black educator can proudly declare the goals of this type of education to be sacred if it is not inherent in its knowledge base to create children with a sense of adoration and sacrifice to its principles.
It is my assertion that any knowledge the application of which miserably fails to create a harmonious social ecology of people is degenerative; any knowledge that prevents the diligent pursuit of Truth which unites and activates all of the other relative elements of life that will lead to a new state of mind and a new social order and arrangement is degenerative.
Transformation is a trite and mostly deliberated upon concept in institutions of ‘higher’ education within the domain of what is called student politics along with so-called progressive academics. To these naïve Black student activists and so-called progressive academics, transformation is only to be dissected within the context of mere access to and exit from these institutions. Their transformation agenda only entails fighting against academic and financial exclusions, fee increment etc. They have gullibly taken education given to them as innocent. The content of the curriculum is never questioned. The level of critique, if any, does not penetrate the higher regions of the definer’s intellectual sphere.

The genius that has produced all the knowledge is never deciphered. Our children, friends, brothers, sisters and ourselves included have studied/are studying in institutions that do not, in terms of knowledge production and curriculum, encapsulate the African essence in respective areas of academic pursuits. With the Eurocentric curriculum, what is taught radiates and responds to the promptings and yearnings of Europe and turns a naïve and unsuspecting Black child into an agent of that response.

Do we even have words in our languages which translate to the English word ‘education’? If we don’t, then even the idea of education does not capture the African essence of teaching, learning and schooling. ‘Thuto’ does not translate into education, this is to maginalise African conceptology for if the English equivalent of a word in my mother tongue differs from it conceptually, and I embrace the latter then I speak with my tongue cut off, I am a zombie.
Our forefathers understood that during the process of training a student, inevitably becomes “dedicated” to safeguarding that which he has been “trained” in. The idea of “education” was not an African concept hence there’s seemingly no African word which directly translates to education. Exploring the African concept for teaching; learning; schooling, etc, the word “dedication”, I concede, would be the closest in understanding the concept adequately enough.
For example; when the student is trained/ of love he will be dedicated to safe-
guard the idea of love. It stands to reason, that the destruction of our moral fiber as a nation came about as a result of a direct application of knowledge/idea in which the agents of destruction were trained and are dedicated to safeguard.
It is against this background that we, Boipelo Centre for Regenerative Knowledge (BCRK), Recognising the grave necessity for Collective work and responsibility in response to the dysfunctionality of our society, have collective mindedly conceived the new philosophical outlook we coin REGENERATIVE KNOWLEDGE by which we seek to establish a Power base in our society to develop complete constructive change amongst our people and to restore our Pride and Dignity as a People.
The idea of Regenerative Knowledge bears testimony to our resurrection as it frames our minds with the understanding that, looking at the state of the world today, something must be wrong with the knowledge base and content after which the human society is being shaped, and that there is definitely a dire need for new knowledge production that can reverse plagues that had befallen humanity, and fashion us in the image and likeness of all the life enhancing and sustaining universal elements and forces. This idea, internalized, properly incubated in our minds and wisely set in motion, will be of utmost significance to our elevation and the re-sensitization to TRUTH and life itself.

Ladies and gentlemen it is our eternal prayer that you do not see this work as either some sterile philosophical discourse or a pool of intellectual gymnasts. There’s a lot at stake here, our people are facing extinction. It is only our conscientious involvement and commitment to this mammoth task and the escalation of our yearning levels for change that will set us in a tireless and selfless mode of fighting.

May we forever be guided in this way when employing and imploring our skills in this war of words, ideas, concepts and thoughts above which the truth has to take precedence and be made manifest. It is right thoughts coupled with energy that can produce tangible salvation for us and our people.

As we continue to reflect on our walk since the beginning of our quest for TRUTH, we find the mind to be the battle field of the spiritual warfare (a war we have come to understand is simply a war of words, ideas, concepts, ideologies and world views) and perhaps a construction of man's inclinations with seeking to understand his origin, nature, purpose and destiny.

Those having control over the minds of others do not have to worry about the latter's actions as all substance is simply the manifestation of a thought. There can never be any more evil than causing the naive and unsuspecting masses to accept as true and valid that which is false and invalid and make them confidently affirm to it. This has evoked in me a sense of calling everything to question. Seeking Truth (right knowledge of reality) is the beginning of our quest. Nothing will be immune to interrogation, our current "beliefs and practices" included, if one is to find truth in its absoluteness and purity (untainted with men's traditions, be they political, legal, social, philosophical, theological etc.).

We are never complaisant with the status quo in relation to the state of the world, are you? We've never abdicated the fighting spirit, have you?

You may have had thoughts like "why do bother?" "Whose hero do you want to be?" "There is nothing you can do to change the world". This is being self-defeatist. People often give up on their pursuits not because of some external supervening impossibility but because of a low sense (or lack of) of self-worth and self-esteem or perhaps as a result of having been emasculated to a point of seeing themselves as too delicate or fragile to stomach the punches that come with change. Change is good only if it's for the better but effecting it only the courageous can take pains of transition.

“Divine dreamers dream beautiful conclusions, but they also dream beginnings so that it is clear to them what must take place in order to arrive at that conclusion.”

Ben Ammi Ben Israel


I greet you as I came before you, I greet you in PEACE.

KGOTSO!

THANK YOU