We shall start the lectures with posts on the importance of history in the national building and the risks of *negationism*( denial of historical facts).
Please feel free to share your own story here, our Facebook page and our departmental WhatsApp group.
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The table is set, the aroma fills the air, and the sound of laughter and chatter signifies more than just a meal; it's a multicultural gathering. Food has an uncanny ability to bring people together, crossing borders and transcending cultural barriers. In today's diverse society, multicultural potlucks serve as a melting pot where traditions, flavors, and stories coalesce. Let's delve into how these communal meals create a unifying cultural experience.
There’s a reason why food is often called the universal language. Whether you're in Tokyo enjoying sushi or in Istanbul savoring baklava, food serves as a gateway to a culture's heart. A multicultural potluck elevates this experience, allowing participants to sample a world tour of flavors in one meal.
Multicultural potlucks are not just about food; they're about storytelling. Each dish comes with its history, anecdotes, and symbolism. It serves as an opportunity for people to share their heritage, traditions, and even familial recipes that have been passed down through generations.
Potlucks are an exercise in inclusion. When individuals bring dishes from their native countries, it fosters a sense of community and mutual respect. The act of sharing food signifies trust and acceptance, breaking down stereotypes and promoting understanding.
Sampling various cuisines also serves as an educational experience. You learn about different cooking techniques, ingredient histories, and the unique ways each culture approaches flavors and textures. Whether it's the subtle intricacies of a French ratatouille or the robust flavors of Indian curry, each bite is a lesson in diversity.
Food education can play a significant role in promoting cultural diversity and inclusivity by fostering an appreciation for different culinary traditions, food practices, and cultural perspectives. Here’s how food education can achieve this:
(Silas Nwenya)
In Nenwe, there exist certain things (signs) one could see, hear or feel to believe that certain other things are likely or most certainly going to happen. Seeing some of these signs and ignoring them may lead one into serious and regrettable situations. Ignoring some of the signs may sometimes lead to death. As signs not much, if anything is expected to be done to avert some of the impending doom(s) associated to such signs for which they are shown. As a Nenwe person, seeing, hearing or feeling some of such signs are simply meant for one to brace up and accept the obvious, good or bad. Some again are seen to be calls to take up some actions; it is only when deaf ears are paid to such warning and signs that repercussions occure.
On the other hand, not all such signs are omen to evil happenings. Some are believed to be forerunners to fortunes; seeing, feeling or hearing them equally keeps one on a high spirit pedestal of reception.
Note: To discuss this here does not negate one's personal religious beliefs. Those personal beliefs are simply personal and one is entitled to them accordingly.
Let us look at some of such signs, feelings and audios.
*1. Glowing pot soots*
In Nenwe, when one is cooking and the soots of the pot begin to glow, two things are associated to this sign. The major one is that some of the person's palm fruits in the bush are ripe and waiting to be harvested. Failing to believe in or work on this sign may lead to the fruits getting rotten or cut and stolen by palm 'poachers'.
Two, though not very popular nowadays, this used to tell the man of the house that his spouse, having reared up her child had gone through her monthly period and is ripe and ready for fresh rounds of meeting in search of new babies. This was popular when both spouses slept in different apartments; only to sleep together when a new baby was to be sought for. Not now that the right hand knows what is in the left and the left, what is in the right since they both husbands and wives share the same bed always these days.
*2. Oke Ọmite* (Consanguinity Rats)
Consanguinity occurs when marriage is contracted between two persons who are biologically related somewhere. The relationship may not be two close so as to classify their sexuality as incest. Example when the parents of both spouses come from the same family, married apart and they beget the newly married. The concerned partners may not be aware of their individual parents' relationship. In such cases, while there is a new birth in the new family so many tiny rats are seen in and around the ọmụgọ house in the early evenings. They dash around in lightning speeds as never been seen in the house before. When such rats are seen, then questions about their families relationships are asked. When the right thing is done, the rats disappear. And what are the right things? The man and his wife will start what is called *ibu alụoke.* This is a simple ritual of boiling a sizable lump of meat. When it is done, they will bring red oil. The father of the new baby will hold one part of the meat while the baby and the mother will hold one part. The man will cut the meat into two, deep the one he is holding into the oil, bite off a portion with his teeth, eat the same and put the other part into the baby's mouth. The mother will collect the meat and eat. Then the baby's father will collect the baby, hug it; it is from then that he can touch his baby as and when he wishes. This ritual must be performed on every new delivery in the family. In a situation where they fail to perform the ritual; the child according to Nenwe's belief will die if the father touches it. When the intending spouses know of this relationship before their marriage, they will be informed of this ritual so as not to be flabbergasted at the initial sight of the oke ọmite, and then get prepared to do the needful when the time comes.
*3. Eshzi Ụkwụ & Édjọ Ụkwụ*
According to Nenwe belief, the two toes and their underneaths are 'fortune tellers' of a kind. This is to say that hitting them mildly (but not purposely) on any object while on a mission tells one of the success or failure of the mission. Their predictability is simply for one who knows how they work and it is as follows: If one is senior to a girl, his/her left toe is the good one (eshzi ụkwụ) if to a boy, then the right toe. Their opposites are their underneaths. Last born children count with those that are senior to them. Remember the hitting is never injurious but very light. What of being a senior to ejima? In Nenwe traditional belief, ejima itself is seen as being evil and does not count in this circumstance. An only children (ovu nwa) have to determine what happens often when he or she has a hitting on an object, example if as an only child, one succeeds when they hit the right toe then they count with the right; and left with the left.
*4. Throwing of Hot Water On the Compound.*
Nenwe people believe that whenever a farmer throws a pot of hot water on the compound, it goes to affect her vegetables in the farm. To avoid that one has to spill one's saliva into such hot water before throwing it on the compound or should allow it to cool down before throwing it away. It is not every quantity of hot water that counts. It is always a reasonable quantity of hot water such as the one obtained after removing ịgbọrọ from the pot with which it is cooked/boiled.
*5. Ọrịa Kororo*
In Nenwe, kororo is a kind of albatross. It is a kind of bird that flies majorly at nights. It looks like the hawk. Its chirping pierces the ears. It is believed that wherever and whenever it chirps at night someone must as a matter of fact die there. According to Nenwe belief, this has no remedy. The only thing needed is for all at the vicinity of its cry to pray: 'let it not be me and all that are mine.' But eventually, it has to be one! This therefore gives vent to the Nenwe saying: 'kororo amaa' when somebody reacts angrily in rejection of anyone's suggestion. Or 'la kororo evee' when a hopeless situation presents itself.
*6. Ewite Ngoronwe & Ozu Ewite*
It is widely believed that seeing the carcass of a dead ewite (African bush rabbit) at any time of the day or night simply means that someone related to the person must die soonest. It is also applicable when a live one is seen wandering during the day. This does not apply when it is hunted out of its hole.
*7. Itching on the Palm* Itching of the palm is not a frequent occurrence. When it occurs it is seen as a sign believed in Nenwe that puts one on the expectation of a receipt of a financial gift.
*8. Twitching on the Eye lid* Twitching of the body is a natural occurrence that when medically viewed reveals that one is anxious about a certain thing. In Nenwe, when that takes place on one's eye lid(s) it is a sign that one should expect a tear-inducing happening around him/her, such as death or some other heavy loss.
More of these signs exist but for a start let's discuss these ones as we wait for others.
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©®
By Sai Nwénya.
Traditionally and generally speaking, Nenwe people believe in reincarnation. In our parlance, it is known as ịlọ ụwa and the process of ascertaining who is reincarnating is called ịkọ ụwa.
From the time a new baby is born in Nenwe, the iru ọmụgọ period (post natal period) starts. The ọmụgọ period lasts for seven native weeks (izu ésaa); after which a kind of divination is performed to know who has reincarnated the baby. Traditionally speaking, it is believed that the reincarnating person is just a dead member of the family who has come back to life. However, it is not all the members of a given family that are expected to reincarnate or come back to life hence Madụagwụ 2011 states: 'Nenwe people believe that some of their ancestors who lived good lives while on earth do reincarnate as children to some desired extended family members. IT IS IMPORTANT TO EMPHASIZE THAT ONLY THOSE AMONG THE ANCESTORS ADJUDGED TO HAVE LIVED LIVES WORTHY OF EMULATION ARE BELIEVED TO BE CAPABLE OF REINCARNATING'
THE PROCESS:
After the child's ọmụgọ period, the father or his representative (usually the oldest man of the family, in case the father is dead or on a far journey) looks for fresh and unadulterated palm wine, the container of which must not have touched the ground (méé dụga chi shi kee ye or méé ọhụ eruhu alị) and with an egg of a native fowl. With these two items, he proceeds to a diviner or fortune teller (nwa-dibe). Both the man and the diviner will then go to his Égwụ deity shrine. The diviner cuts some ogirishi leaves, spreads them before the Égwụ shrine and puts the egg on the shrine’s stone (nkpume Égwụ) or on the ogirishi lives. He then makes some invocations through which he prays the reincarnate not to delay in appearing. (That is, to appear in the mind of the child's father who is charged with the duty of calling the expected incarnates in their family lineage).
The diviner brings out his ugbe méé (native wine cup) from his bag into which the wine is poured. The business starts. As the diviner pours the wine on the egg, the baby's father mentions names; he is then given the egg to press. If the person so called is the one reincarnating, then the egg breaks into pieces but if not the egg remains as strong as a stone no matter the amount of pressure exerted on it. This process continues until the incarnating person is mentioned. Some get blistered thumps in the process, where the reincarnating person fails to appear on time.
Having done with the above process, the baby's father or his representative goes home with the egg pieces. On reaching the compound, he would make a small hole on the compound, bury the egg pieces and carries the baby, lifts the baby up as if giving a gift to someone on high and hugs the baby calling him or her by the reincarnates name. If it is any of the baby’s grandparents, he would call him or her: Nnem or Nnam, (my mother or my father). He then throws the baby up in jubilation and kisses it, praying that this time, his/her coming back to the world will be better than the previous. He prays for the baby's long life, prosperity, active and multiplicity of procreation and every other good thing that comes to mind.
Note: In some cases the reincarnating person does not appear during the ịkọ ụwa process; due probably to the fact that the father does not remember to mention the reincarnating person. If it so happens, no worries, it is believed that the baby will grow up to 'unmask' himself/herself. According to Nenwe belief, such a person when grown, not to maturity would one day say to his father, 'I am your father, your mother, your sister' etc. At such instance, the father would as well welcome the reincarnation and appreciate the revelation.
This kind of revelation is also taken to be real because it takes place at an age when the child is still below the age of reasoning, at a time it would not be seen or taken that he/she wants to be called so so and so person.
In traditional Nenwe, everything about ịlọ ụwa and ịkọ ụwa stops here. The next is just the calling of the reincarnated by the name of the reincarnate. If there is anything bad he did in his previous coming which he/she continues to do this time around, he/she goes by the name Ọkparụ-arụ-ụwa lambọ but there is always no known sacrifice or ritual performed to revert such.
INYE ỌLỌỤWA NRI
In Nenwe traditional religion, there is no ritual or sacrifice like inye ọlọụwa nri. That is something done to host, appease or appreciate one's reincarnate by the reincarnated person. The only way to show appreciation and done by one's parents not even by the person reincarnated is simply to lavish love on the reincarnated hence the proverb: 'mụ ala-ekweehu la nna m bịarụ m ụwa mụ atụgboo ye la nri' (I won’t, because my father reincarnated my baby; feed him/her to death).
The current practice of our youths performing some rituals and believing that they are hosting their reincarnate is quite alien to our traditional religion. It is simply borrowed from mainly Anambra part of the Igbo nation. However, most religious practices even those of the Christendom are borrowed. As long as one feels satisfied with them and does not afflict others with such practices, that becomes a part of one's article of faith and I have no quarrels with that.
Reference: . MADUAGWU M.O. In a foreword to The Glossary of Nenwe Names by Silas Nwanya P.v
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Sixty four years after his murder, the aborted legacy of Congo’s first prime minister Patrice Lumumba, still haunts many. By
Shortly before noon on a Thursday in June 1960, 34-year-old Patrice Lumumba stepped up to the podium at the Palace of the Nation in Leopoldville (current-day Kinshasa) with a dream to unite his newly liberated country.
Standing before dignitaries and politicians, including King
Baudouin of Belgium from which the then-Republic of the Congo had just won its
independence, the first-ever prime minister gave a rousing, somewhat unexpected
speech that ruffled feathers among th “No Congolese worthy of the name will
ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that [our independence] has been
won,” Lumumba said.
“Slavery was imposed on us by force,” he continued, while the king
looked on in shock.
“We remember the blows that we had to submit to morning, noon and night because
we were ‘negroes’.”
With independence, the country’s future was finally in the hands
of its own people, he proclaimed. “We shall show the world what the Black man
can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of
Africa.”
But this was a promise left unfulfilled, as just six months later
the young leader was dead.
For years murkiness surrounded the details of his killing, but it
is now known that armed Congolese men murdered Lumumba on January 17, 1961,
aided by the Belgians and with the tacit approval of the United States.
“When I learned of Lumumba’s death, I was shocked,” said 85-year-old Kasereka Lukombola, who lives in the Virunga quarter of Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
His gold-coloured Western-style house, unusual in this region, was built during colonial times and is a reminder of the vestiges of nearly 80 years of Belgian rule.
Lukombola was born during World War II, he said. “At that time, a
Black man in Africa could not oppose the white settlers for certain reasons,
including the colour of his skin and the fact that he was enslaved. Those who
dared to challenge the whites were either imprisoned, beaten up or killed.”
He was 20 when Lumumba was killed. “I remember being in my village in Bingi [when I heard the news]. I regretted it, his death had distressed me. On that date, I didn’t eat, I had insomnia,” he said, adding that he still remembers it as if it were yesterday.
Lukombola accuses the Wazungu (a term meaning “foreigners”, but
generally used for Belgian colonists) of having been behind the assassination.
“The Belgians were racially segregating the Congo, and Lumumba
outcried against this. He encouraged us to fight tooth and nail to get rid of
the colonisers,” he said.
“He had discovered certain plots by the colonists against us, the
Congolese people. They wanted to enslave us forever. That’s when the Belgians
developed a hatred against him, which led to his assassination.”
Lukombola believes that if Lumumba hadn’t been killed, he would
have transformed the country into a veritable “El Dorado” for millions of
Congolese, based on the vision he had for his people and the continent as a
whole.
Tumsifu Akram, a Congolese researcher based in Goma, believes
Lumumba was killed on the orders of certain Western powers who wanted to keep
hold of Congo’s natural wealth.
“The decision to eliminate the first Congolese prime minister was
taken by American and other officials at the highest level,” he told Al
Jazeera.
Though Lumumba had friends both inside and outside the country, “as
numerous as they were, his friends were not so determined to save him as his
enemies were determined and organised to finish him off,” Akram said. “His
friends supported him more in words than in deeds.”
Just days after Lumumba delivered his June 30, 1960 Independence
Day speech, the country began to fall into chaos. There was an armed mutiny,
and then the secession of the mineral-rich province of Katanga in July. Belgium
sent troops to Katanga. Congo then asked the United Nations for help, and
although they sent peacekeepers, they did not deploy them to Katanga. So
Lumumba reached out to the Soviet Union for assistance – a move that alarmed
Belgium and the US.
In September, President Joseph Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba from
government, something he ignored. Soon after, a military coup led by Congolese
Colonel Joseph Mobutu (later known as dictator Mobutu Sese Seko) fully removed
him from power. Lumumba was placed under house arrest, from which he escaped,
only to be captured by Mobutu’s forces in December.
On January 17, 1961, Lumumba and two associates, Joseph Okito and
Maurice Mpolo, were then taken to Katanga by plane – soldiers beat and tortured
them on the flight and at their destination.
Later that day, all three were executed by a Katangan firing
squad, under Belgian supervision.
Their bodies were at first thrown into shallow graves, but later
dug up, hacked into pieces, and the remains dissolved in acid.
In the end, only one tooth of
Lumumba’s remained, which was stolen by a Belgian policeman and only returned
to Lumumba’s relatives in 2022.
In the years since the killing, Belgium has acknowledged that it
was “morally responsible for circumstances leading to the death”. Meanwhile,
information has also come to light exposing the US CIA’s involvement in
a plot to kill Lumumba.
At his home in Goma, Lukombola recounted all the “firsts” he’s
lived through during his country’s complicated history, including taking part
in the first municipal election of 1957 – in which he voted for Lumumba’s
Congolese National Movement (MNC) party “because I was convinced it had a great
vision for our country. It was out of a sense of pride,” he said.
He recounted being around during the riots of January 4, 1959; the
proclamation of the Congo’s independence on June 30, 1960; the secession of
Katanga and South Kasai between July and August 1960; and the joys of Zaire’s
economic and political pinnacle in the mid-1960s.
Having lived through the reign of all five Congolese presidents,
Lukombola understands the “enigma” that is the DRC and has seen how much it can
change.
His only regret, he said, is that many historic events occurred
after Lumumba had passed on. “If he were alive, he would restore us to glory
and greatness.”
However, not everyone looks at Lumumba’s legacy with such awe and
kindness.
Grace Bahati, a 45-year-old father of five, believes Lumumba is at
the root of some of the misfortunes that have befallen the DRC and that the
country continues to grapple with.
According to him, the first prime minister was too quick in
wanting immediate independence for the Congo, while the country lacked
sufficient intelligentsia to be able to lead it after the departure of the
Belgians.
“Lumumba was in a hurry to ask for independence. I found that many
of our leaders were not prepared to lead this country, and that’s unfortunate,”
Bahati told Al Jazeera. “In my opinion, it was a big mistake on Lumumba’s
part.”
Dany Kayeye, a historian in Goma, does not share
this view. He believes Lumumba saw from afar that independence was the only
solution, given that the Belgians had been exploiting the country for nearly 80
years and it was the Congolese who were suffering.
“Lumumba was not the first to demand the
country’s immediate independence. The first to do so were the soldiers who had
come from the second world war, having fought alongside the colonists,” Kayeye
also noted.
But it was after Lumumba’s supposed
“radicalisation” – when he was seen to be forging ties with the Soviet Union –
that he found himself in Western crosshairs as they considered him as a threat
to their interests during the crucial Cold War period, the historian said.
Congolese like Mobutu Sese-Seko were then used in the manoeuvres against him.
“For a long time, the Congo had been envied
because of its natural resources. The Belgians didn’t want to leave the
country, and the only way to continue exploiting it was to anarchise it and
kill its nationalists,” Kayeye explained. “It was in this context that Lumumba,
his friends Maurice Mpolo, then president of the Senate, and Joseph Okito, then
minister of youth, died together.”
‘He fought for justice’
Jean Jacques Lumumba is Patrice Lumumba’s nephew
and an activist committed to the fight against corruption in the country.
The 38-year-old grew up in Kinshasa, raised by
Lumumba’s mother and younger brother, but was forced into exile in 2016 for
calling out corruption in the entourage of former Congolese president Joseph
Kabila.
For him, his uncle remains a symbol of a fair and
better Congo, and someone he draws inspiration from in his own activism.
“In my family, they tell me he was an atypical
personality. He was quite frank and direct. He had a sense of honour and the
search for truth from an early age right up to his political struggle,” Jean
Jacques told Al Jazeera.
“He fought for justice and fairness. He himself refused
corruption,” he added, calling corruption “one of the evils that characterise
developing countries”.
“[Patrice Lumumba] wanted wellbeing and development … This is
inspiring in the fight I continue to wage, for the emergence of the African
continent.”
Jean Jacques feels Lumumba no longer belongs just to the DRC and
Africa, but to all those who desire freedom and dignity around the world.
Although he never met his uncle, he is pleased that his memory and
legacy continue to live on.
And although he came to a tragic and devastating end, for Jean
Jacques, Lumumba’s demise is also something that has immortalised his name and
the battles he waged.
African leaders should honour the memory of people like him and
others who paid with their lives to build a “developed, radiant and prosperous
Africa, ready to assert itself in the concert of nations”, the younger Lumumba
said.
More than six decades after Lumumba was killed, the DRC is in the
midst of multiple crises – from armed rebellions to resource extraction and
poverty.
Although it is a country of immense natural wealth, it has not
found its way to the majority of Congolese people – something many in the
country attribute to the continued exploitation by internal and external
forces.
Daniel Makasi, a resident of Goma, believes that the colonialism
Lumumba was so determined to fight, is still going strong – though it manifests
in different ways today.
“Today, there are several forms of colonisation that continue
through the multinationals that exploit resources in the DRC and that do not
benefit ordinary citizens,” he told Al Jazeera.
He added that Africans need to channel the spirit of Lumumba to
stop such neo-colonialism as far as possible, so they can enjoy the fullness of
their natural wealth.
Lumumba was able to transform the country in a short space of
time, making Congolese “prouder”, and that makes him “eternal”, Makasi said,
urging people to follow his example.
Others also agree that future generations owe Lumumba an
“immeasurable” debt for what he started.
“For me, Patrice Emery Lumumba is a symbol of resistance to
imperialist forces,” said Moise Komayombi, another Goma resident, remembering
the June 1960 Independence Day address that the Belgians considered a “vicious attack” but
that inspires many Africans to this day.
“He inspired us to remain
nationalists and protect our homeland against all forms of colonisation,”
Komayombi said, reminding himself that Lumumba’s work is still not done.
