By Prof Artwell Nhemachena

IMPERIALISTS often recycle old logic using concepts that may, on the face of it, appear new. And this is why it is very important for African scholars to dig deep into the underlying assumptions of ideas. In other words, apparently new concepts often hide old logic, just as new clothes often hide old bodies. Of course, scholars such as Passavant & amp; Dean have aptly described what is ongoing in the 21st century in terms of the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ – and scholars like Hardt & Negri have described the ‘new empire’ that is unfolding before our eyes in the 21st century. But it is unclear what is new in the ‘new empire’ if old logic and assumptions are adorned in new clothes and then repeated.

If the ‘new empire’ is not returning back to indigenous people, including Africans, the land, the minerals and other resources which were stolen during the colonial era, then how new is the ‘new empire’? If the new empire is not paying compensation or reparations to Africans whose ancestors were enslaved, colonised and exploited, then how new is the ‘new empire’ that is said to be unfolding in the 21st century? If those who were historically enslaved and colonised remain servile, then how new is the ‘new empire’ that is said to be unfolding before our eyes? While these scholarly discourses may appear to be mere ideas, it is necessary to connect them to what is actually happening including at the level of UNGA which recently passed a resolution on ‘Harmony with Nature’ in which it is argued that indigenous peoples in the world live in harmony with nature and with ‘Mother Earth’ — also known as Gaia — the Greek goddess of death who was as incestuous as she was tempestuous. Gaia, or ‘Mother Earth’, is known to have married her own son and incited her son to castrate his father. And of course, as a goddess of death, Gaia will depopulate the world by culling off humans who are said to be causing environmental damage, including climate change.

A late famous British scientist, James Lovelock, wrote that Gaia would cull the human population from the current eight billion to between 500 million and one billion. This is the ‘Mother Earth’ known for being tempestuous that the UN wants Africans to believe in and to celebrate. Of course, encouraging Africans to have aff ection for Gaia’s ‘Mother Earth’ is problematic in that it colonises African metaphysics by displacing African ancestors who are, in any case, known to detest incest, callousness, murder and the tempestuousness that Gaia is known for.

The idea of ‘Mother Earth’ or Gaia is colonial and alien to Africans whose ancestors care for their African children and protect them from murderers. In Africa; ancestors are known for loving, caring, protecting and feeding their children — and they do not complain, even if the children are many. Indeed, in Shona they say: ‘Nzou hairemerwi nenyanga dzayo’. African ancestors would not kill their children on the pretext they are too many. Indeed, it is said ‘Kuwanda kwakanaka’, and also ‘Hama maoko’, which means relatives are a blessing because they lighten the burdens. From an Afrocentric point of view, Gaia or ‘Mother Earth’ is a very strange mother out of sync with African cosmologies. Yet, in the UN Resolution on Harmony with Nature, African leaders are encouraged to teach African children about ‘Mother Earth’ and that, as indigenous people, they live in Harmony with Nature (which is translated as ‘Mother Nature’ or ‘Mother Earth’).

It is necessary for Africans to remember that colonial missionaries similarly taught Africans that they were their fathers. Some Africans ended up addressing the colonial missionaries as ‘mafata’ because the missionaries had taught the Africans to call them fathers. Now, in the 21st century, the UN is encouraging African leaders to ensure that African children are taught that Gaia or ‘Mother Earth’/’Mother Nature’ is their mother. Very soon, ‘Mother Nature’/’Mother Earth’ will similarly attract fame among Africans as ‘mata’! Colonialism is coming back to Africans through the doors of the UN.

Africans need to be careful about what their children are taught or get taught — African children have got African mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. Let not Gaia or ‘Mother Earth’/’Mother Nature’ abduct and kidnap African children. African children have a right to know who their real mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers are.

Let us not confuse African children by teaching them that they belong to ‘Mother Nature’/’Mother Earth’. Teaching them so constitutes child abuse — it is to effectively colonise the African child. African children must be taught to live in harmony with their African mothers, fathers and siblings and with their African ancestors and Mwari — not with Gaia or ‘Mother Earth’/’Mother Nature’. In fact, teaching African children that they belong to ‘Mother Nature’/’Mother Earth’ or Gaia amounts to alienating African mothers from their roles as mothers to African children. Let us remember that colonialists similarly abducted and kidnapped indigenous children, forcibly taking them away from their parents, including in North America and Australia — where they were then indoctrinated against their cultures and against their real parents. The indigenous children were taught that their real parents did not love them and that their cultures were savage and barbaric.

In Australia, such Aboriginal children who were forcibly abducted, kidnapped and taken away from their parents were described as the ‘lost generation’ as they lost their cultural orientation and are finding it difficult to fit back into society. In fact, they are demanding compensation from the Australian government for the abductions and kidnappings and indoctrinations against their cultures and parents. The ideas of ‘Mother Earth’/’Mother Nature’ or Gaia should not be taught to African children or even to African adults. They are as toxic as they are colonial. Instead of indoctrinating African children that they belong to Gaia or Mother Nature/Mother Earth, African children should be taught to love and respect their real African parents.

The UN must withdraw its ideologies that are colonial and toxic to African children. And African leaders, teachers, lecturers and universities must avoid teaching toxic waste to African children. Teaching them that their mother is Gaia, or ‘Mother Earth’/’Mother Nature’ constitutes pollution of the mind of African children. African academics need to be always on guard to ensure that such toxic waste is not pumped into our children’s impressionable minds. African parents must be put at the centre so as to avoid confusing African children. African children have to be affectionate to their real parents and vice versa, and not be abducted or kidnapped by Gaia.

The problem is often that universities in Africa are complicit in carelessly and mindlessly propagating such ideas that African children belong to Gaia or ‘Mother Earth’/’Mother Nature’. This militates against their African identities, and the identities of their real parents. This amounts to what Ngugi Wa Thiong’o called colonisation of the mind.

Let us save our African children from this. Otherwise, we are creating another lost generation of African children who lose their identities as African children, adults or citizens once Gaia is allowed to succeed in abducting or kidnapping them under the pretence that she is the mother to African children.