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This is the first of a new series of essays that I will be publishing in the coming weeks.
We have discussed in a previous post the purpose of learning as an elevation of consciousness. This metaphor should help us appreciate why mental transformation through learning lies at the very base of our human experience. When we realize the critical and urgent nature of the duty to keep the light of the mind shining brighter, then we take greater responsibility in enlightening ourselves. I have seen candles of the mind dimmed, and I do not wish them upon anyone. The face of every person deserves to be brightened by the illuminating power of learning.
I have sometimes wondered what it takes to be in the ranks of those who turn the globe’s axis. The men and women of heavy insight, the decision-makers, by which the very present and tomorrow of the world are shaped. What does it take to be there? Well, one thing I have realized, is that such people read and work, and in that order. They understand the A, B, Cs. With a firm grasp on the fundamentals of reality, they can see the future, and with the right push in the right places, they create it.
I should emphasize, as noted previously, that our post-colonial school system is inherently opposed to the very noble duty of teaching one to learn. The system that I have gone through was designed for a specific purpose, and true learning is not one of them. Its modus operandi is taking in young minds of all sorts of talent and capability, teaching them to spell for the first two years, and for the next fourteen years keeping them busy without actually teaching them to learn. The system is willing to sacrifice a good number of these minds as long as the rest of the crop goes on to achieve what it falsely considers the intellectual’s paradise of higher learning.
British colonizers taught and bequeathed us the legacy of schooling. Oh what beneficence that was; truly the White Man’s burden. However, it has been my experience that they served the Black man crumbs on the floor while they ate the main course at the table. The colonizer’s education gives us a glimpse of the other side but perpetually prevents us from owning it. When Jesus said of the Pharisees that ‘You have the keys to the doors of knowledge, you yourselves do not enter, and you also prevent my children from entering’ (Luke 11:52-54), the creators of this education system must have responded, ‘guilty’. We were promised learning, but we never ascended to it. The Kenyan graduate still drowns in ignorance after sixteen years of education. Perhaps I should speak for myself.
The young person in Africa stands at a pivotal point in undoing this historical injustice. We may be a little late but still, it has to be done. Every thriving society goes through its period of intellectual awakening. This comes in the form of intellectual fervor bubbling from the inside out. Think of the salons of France and the coffee houses in Britain two centuries ago. We may have leapfrogged this historical evolution in our African societies, but we cannot escape the need for an intellectual awakening from within.
Intellectual transformation is a fortress against weakness and dogma that so ails the young African today. True learning and enlightenment are needed to cure the special strain of ignorance that we contracted at school.
Where are the awakening public debates? Where is the public intellectual discourse? Where is the intellectual fervor of university students? Where are the writers and the literature? Our publishing houses only churn out textbooks to perpetuate the visage of learning. Where is the university where true intellectual discourse happens? Why is there no learning in institutions of higher learning? These intellectual dynamics are the most urgent generational transformations needed today. We must hold ourselves to higher standards. We are a people asleep. I speak for the masses.
Why outsource our minds, our intellects, our identity, and our future to the West? Our ignorance is our sin. In this part of the world, people cannot wait to ‘finish’ school. I reckon with that too. And we are not to blame: if a system is so opposed to my mind’s natural inclinations for learning, then it cannot be anything else but a laborious chore from which I cannot wait to escape. When I finally did I was glad to be finally free to start learning.
Imagination
Imagination is by its essence a tool for reality-making. The mental images that we create in the mind have the potential to become reality. We can essentially conceive a state of reality as it could be, and through specific actions and efforts make it so. That’s powerful, and is the very basis of our goal-oriented behavior - our superpower as thinking, learning beings.
Information
Despite all my flaws growing up, learning has kept me grounded in my most tumultuous times. Channeling the right information into the mind has a powerful impact on our souls. We may not realize it, but behind the scenes, the fine tapestry of neurons begins to change and grow. Information changes us at a very basic level. I have seen most people who have become lost for the simple reason that they lacked information. I will easily loose my way and ‘plateau’ without written words influencing me, whispering in my mind. and nudging me forward,
Insight
It is not information that I have been most glad to encounter, however. The trap of information is that it is fun and even cool to have; knowing things and having a few facts in the head can be a major boost for the ego. As a young boy, whenever I learned a new word or fact I would repeat it to my elder brother, and I would revel in the pride of seeing him approve of just what a brilliant kid I was. However, memorizing a few facts does not make one smart, since anyone can do that. The important thing is to find insight amid this ensemble of facts and ideas.
Gathering information from books and other media is not the only hard part as my experience has shown. Once the mind is supplied with information, it has a natural tendency to want to organize and make sense of it. I have realized that my job is to work hard to absorb as much material from as diverse an array as possible - then leave my mind to it. Once in a while, insights will bubble up from my subconscious in the form of novel ideas. Having been working tirelessly under the surface – processing the information I send in, trying out new combinations of ideas, and experimenting with new connections - the brain eventually spews out thoughts so novel that they have the potential to shape the present and future.
All I have to do is give the brain space to explore, process, and create. This is so simple it almost seems trivial. I simply have to give myself time to be bored. Whether it is sitting on the couch and resisting the attempt to switch on the TV or use my phone, walking for half an hour without checking my phone, or going to bed instead of doom-scrolling TikTok. Usually, this can involve re-reading sections and passages for a fourth or fifth time, nudging my mind to find the angles I obviously have missed before.
Such decisions are mundane, but by no means trivial. They can make all the difference when it comes to the quality of our ideas and insights. Essentially, therefore, once I have done the work of gaining as much information as possible, all I have to do next is sit and do nothing, allowing the mind to do its task. (The art of doing nothing has been the most the most difficult to master).
It has been said that our generation is drowning in a sea of information while thirsting for wisdom. Insight and understanding have been elusive to me at times when I become too busy and too involved with life to see clearly. It matters little how much I know unless I can transform this learning into insight. Luckily, that does not have to be a game of chance.
Integrating information into the depths of our minds through reflection and dialogue is crucial, yet so often overlooked. If not properly integrated, these information pieces remain like loose threads in the brain. They can potentially interfere with mental clarity and cause us to stumble in our thinking.
I look forward to further exploring this topic in the coming weeks.
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