A Fable for our Times

This is my own recollection of (and re-working of) a James Thurber story called "The Owl who was God". I first encountered it in my first year of University. It applies, I would have thought, to politicians and leaders of every age, ilk and kind. But in South Africa, I think it applies particularly, at a time like this and I offer it to our new batch of Ministers and officials, as I did to those which preceeded them.

Once upon a time, all the animals of the forest gathered together to elect a leader for themselves. They were all in a very excited state and the forest resounded with the cries and twitterings of animals and birds engaged in very important business.

“Ahem!” said the Secretary Bird, in a very important sort of way, “Shall we begin?”

The animals all agreed that they should, and the Giraffe, being the tallest, began to make something of a speech, saying how glad he was to be there and how important an occasion it was and how grateful they all were to the Secretary Bird for being willing to be both Chairbird and Secretary Bird at the same time. And although the Secretary Bird would have liked this accolade to have gone on a little longer, business really was pressing.

“Well”, said the Secretary Bird, “any proposals?” There was a very definite silence in the forest. Then a buzzing noise from one of the Bees. And then silence again. In fact quite an embarrassing silence.

“Er, excuse me”,said the Fox.

“By all means!” said the Secretary Bird, a little suspiciously. “I propose the Owl”, said the Fox.

Well, with that, all the animals of the forest went into a bit of a tizwoz.

“The Owl!” one and all were heard to cry, “Why on earth the Owl?”

“Because”, said the Fox, restoring a little order, “Because he can see in the dark and answer any question.”

The animals thought about this for a while.

“We would need to put this to the test, said a Lizard, “But I’ll second the proposal”.

That done, all the animals of the forest gathered around the largest Oak tree where the Owl was standing above them with large glowing eyes.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” asked the Secretary Bird.

“Twoo” said the Owl.

“Why does a lover call on his love?” asked the Secretary Bird.

“To Woo” replied the Owl.

“What is the name of a very famous Anglican Archbishop?”

“Too Too” said the Owl.

“What is another word for ‘that is to say’ or ‘namely’?” asked the Secretary Bird.

“To wit” replied the Owl.

The animals were most impressed. It was very dark and quite impossible to see at any distance, but the Owl really did seem as though he could see in the dark and answer any questions put to him.

“Can he see in the daytime too?” asked a timid little Dove.

The animals all laughed at this ridiculous suggestion and brushed it aside with the contempt it deserved. “Of course he can see in the daytime!” bellowed the Elephant.

“Of course he can!” shouted all the other animals.

The next day, all the animals were marching behind their newly elected leader. The Owl, puffed up with great importance, stared around him with large, unseeing eyes.

“To wit” he said periodically.

“To woo!” came the enthusiastic response.

The Owl began to start up the highway. When he bumped into things, the animals all bumped into them too. Everyone was happy. How clever of them to have elected a leader who could see in the dark and answer any questions. Indeed, without any doubt, the Owl was the wisest and most experienced and … Oh! They couldn’t find enough words to describe his virtues!

As the animals were walking up the highway, and bumping into things the Owl bumped into, a Hawk flew over their heads shrieking loudly.

“There’s danger ahead. Something is coming along fast!”

“To wit?” asked the Owl.

“It’s a truck travelling at 160kms an hour and you are all in its way!”

“Whoo?” asked the Owl, seeing nothing.

And the truck came along and ran over all of the animals and they lay in the road, quite, quite dead.

MORAL: If you can’t see in the daytime, or heed the voice of foresight, don’t lead people up the Highway.

Slave Mentality

I came across an article recently, by political commentator Andrew P Jones, which made a very interesting point, in the after-glow of the Obama victory. His point is that while indeed the Obama ascendancy to the Presidency has been great and historic, the unquestioning support which African-Americans have given him is something deeply rooted in a master-slave mentality.

African Americans, he argues, have proved themselves in the past, to be virtually incapable of rallying around the “ideas” of liberty (incorporating such issues as restitution and reparations for slavery and psychological independence from the majority) but when a charismatic leader such as Obama comes along, they will follow him, blindly, to the end.

Jones relates conversations he had with his grandfather, who was born in 1861, four years before slavery was abolished. His grandfather had many recollections of the history (which largely preceded him), given to him by others. Most startling was that, contrary to popular belief, many slaves did not hate their white masters. Indeed, slavery was unbelievably hard, but rather than see their masters as tyrants, they saw them as benefactors who looked after them, so long as they acted like slaves. Slaves, he contended, had much more affinity with their masters than they did with other slaves, whom they treated with contempt – since the only way you could survive as a slave was by doing others down.

Most slaves didn’t have any concept of freedom, because being slaves was all they knew. Rather than being free, the fantasies they harboured was about living in the big house, and being the master. Jones’ grandfather had said to him that slaves didn’t want to be free. They wanted to be the master.

I have thought about this startling comment quite a lot recently as we enter a period of elections in this country – particularly in the context of the rather toxic politics of the Western Cape. And I have said before, in this column, that their Obama and our Mandela are not the same thing, by a very long shot. Obama had whites voting for him a-plenty. Mandela most certainly did not – however much they might now love him – I doubt whether they will, even now vote for his party the ANC, in any significant numbers.

But Jones’ argument puts a whole new perspective on it all. What he is saying is that African-Americans, in general, have voted for a master. Behind this master are all the institutions (political and otherwise) which are not in the control of blacks, but rather remain in the control of whites. This is very different from South Africa, where the black majority, once it gained political power immediately set about the task of remaking those institutions. To quote Jones:

“…white people, I submit, via their institutional control of the political system in the United States, elected their first black president, just like black people did … (in South Africa)... We African-Americans, on the other hand, because we do not have that kind of institutional control, nor the mentality that would create it, chose ourselves a master whom for now we shall treat like a king.”

In the Western Cape, slavery has left its mark in the psyche of the majority of the people, in a way in which it simply has not done in the rest of the country. Jacob Zuma’s ancestors were never slaves. They were oppressed, but they were never slaves. And yes, both have suffered immense oppression, but there is a psychological difference between them which plays itself out in the politics of the present (among other things). Because I would bet my bottom Dollar that what the majority of people in the Western Cape really want, and will demonstrate at the polls, is not freedom. Not real freedom - political, institutional, social and psychological - which they build for themselves, from scratch if necessary. What they want, is a master to look after them well.

25 January 2009

The Article referred to in this column is Andrew P Jones: “A people chained by a slave psyche” in The Argus 20 January 2009.
Andrew P Jones is a political commentator and author of the book Barak Obama: America’s Saviour or Judas Goat, Diary of a mad black voter