Note: This text is an excerpt (retouched) of an intervention that I 'I made on 10 February at a conference broadcast live on Radio Klédu. The occasion was the literary season in Mali. And the theme was:''AFRICA AND THE FAMILY new dictatorship.'' I found the style unsuitable and have reformulated this way:''THE NEW AFRICA AND THE SURVIVAL OF FAMILY DICTATORSHIPS''. Furthermore, I first took care to limit my intervention in Mali, had not intended to elaborate on the complex realities of the continent. Then, I stuck to two aspects of one problem which refers to ancient traditions - the birthright - and the other to the profit imperative - MONEY.
is a hot topic that earned me a sharp reaction from some stakeholders including the famous Aminata Dramane Traore, reacts to name of a traditionalist DOUBTFUL ... She had finally eclipsed when, to cut off debate, I touched a SHAMEFUL PART OF THE HISTORY OF MALI. The moderator, PROFESSOR Singar, went up SPEECH forbid me to the chagrin of some young listeners were quick to express their dissatisfaction with this dictatorial attitude, who certainly did not finish crack in our society ...
"For the well-born men, the value does not depend upon years." This reality is hard to make his way in Malian society, still clinging to a sacred value in the past: The birthright. A tradition which goes completely against the tide of new creed DEMOCRATIC whose country is officially claimed. This is one of the great paradoxes of Mali today!
the birthright is an ancestral reality that governed almost all of family and social relationships in traditional communities in Mali. This privilege of age was also the foundation on which rested the POLITICAL SYSTEM. Hence this type of government called gerontocracy (The power of old).
Today, our society has undergone profound changes to the point that even addressing the issue of birthright at an angle STRICTLY FAMILY, this practice adapts very well with the environment in which we operate. This explains the insoluble contradiction, derivatives and neuroses that plague family relations, strongly tinged with animosity. So that, to achieve a balance must be achieved to curb this phenomenon, became a social scourge TABOO-erected in a suspicious LAW OF SILENCE.
PERVERSION WORTH ANCESTRAL
prevalence birthright was justified in the mode of acquisition of KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM of the ancient period. The eldest was legitimately presumed to know more than the younger according to the methods of transmission through initiation which was done by group and age level. More individuals rose in age, he rose in rank. Within the family, SECRETS OF THE PATRIARCH were also given to the senior who, on occasion, assured him the co-manager of the family patrimony. This privilege was granted him both for his age and the supposed moral profile derived from its position as an elder. On the death of the patriarch, when the latter had no younger brother, the eldest son succeeded him in command of course family affairs. He knew he was guaranteed some good walking and family cohesion, on behalf of a MANDATE is sacred.
However, this privilege of an elder, like any privilege or power, could sink into abuse in accordance with finding posed by the Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu: "Any man who has power is tempted to abuse it." And to counter this trend, we must that by the arrangement of things, the power to stop the power. Therefore, in case of drift, the birthright could face the family council (or village elders) who was an effective counterweight.
Other times, other manners! The company has evolved, and this brings with it other realities! The birthright, whose former company was a perfect match, has been misrepresented and perverted as to be a CAUSE OF BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS. It is ironic, this privilege is former associate now to another type behavior based on individualism WESTERN DEMOCRATIC which removes any legitimacy, making it more intolerable and more unjust than ever. The wise and omniscient eldest is now replaced by ELDER sensualist, brainless and egocentric.
This turnaround is due in part to the birthright longer relies necessarily on the degree of wisdom and knowledge. The traditional initiation BROTHERHOODS (already weakened by the denigration caused by a massive Islamization of the country) have yielded to the colonial school. So the cadet may be much brighter than the eldest as the level of knowledge than wisdom. Simply because the younger was more predisposed to this NEW FORM OF ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM.
Another paradox is that the colonial school, if done properly, far to depart from our traditional culture, can lead us to a better understanding of this tradition now collected in specialist books written by researchers in the Colon language that only a good education in colonial schools can help to decipher ...
Cadet formed by BOOKS initiation and study tours around the world necessarily know more than the senior who has gone away anywhere, neither in education nor in the world. And combining these shortcomings an immoderate taste for luxury and pleasures of worldly life. It is nonsense that such a senior wants to rely on traditional birthright without being steeped in this traditional culture and the culture that even contemptuous judge moribund. Was not previously thwarted by a family council (which is almost over, because of loosening of family ties), it becomes a tyrant who can ruin the whole family.
They are dictatorial situation intolerable that found both in cities and in countryside. Both in extended families than nuclear. Both in polygamous than monogamous families. On behalf of a former transvestite value, default SON SENIORS poison the lives of their cadets they are usually jealous and where they experience a seamless HATE.
Caught by reality, and cornered a prisoner of his instincts, the headstrong eldest think so exorcise its shortcomings and its complexes with this FORM MAGIC: "I am your elder! I prevail on you at all, whatever your moral and intellectual achievements! Or you submit, or you're resigns! "There comes that point in mind if age is supposed to impart wisdom, it is the same for trial. As taught in our society. The eldest did not think that this privilege which he claims, on behalf of custom, would be withdrawn in traditional society, because of his misconduct. It would simply be ostracized from society. At follow
Mountaga Fane Kantéka
mountaga40@hotmail.com
Tel: 223 76 69 24 47
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