A Recompiled Essay: April 9th 2009

Particle II

THE INTER-DISCIPLINARIAN

THE FITYIYE HYPOTHESIS

By Gbujama J. M.

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A most over analyzed issue in African culture is corruption. Yet another contributing ingredient prevalently cited but disregarded in analysis is the Krio term Fityiye, its meaning, implications and permeable limitations on political life and its effect on socio-cultural cohesion. Inexact synonyms in English are; imprudence, rudeness, saucy-ness, cheek, boldness, indolence et cetera. A likened term may be Chutzpah as noted by Harvard Professor Alan Dersherwitz in description of Jewish influence on American culture and its apprehensions. In Mende, the equivalent is Mahkahvei, not uncommon to the European term for evil; Machiavellian. Fityiye has traditionally within linguistic contexts suggested a certain amount of boldness misappropriated towards the wrong party, ergo the combination of terms Fit Eyes or in a more American Southern militaristic example, to Eyeball, or to look directly towards an authority; perhaps reason given, that combat soldiers are often encouraged to look their enemy straight in the eye. Domestically, Fityiye was in the communal order of Freetown past, termed as un-training or unmannered behavior. In spite of this, it would be inaccurate to ascribe British English equivalents to the term, since “fit eyes” connotes a sense of properness or ability. This is exacerbated in Gambia’s linguistic inversion of the expression in African linguistic Wolof speech patterns as, Yiyefit, thus accentuating an urbanized mélange of West African culture.

Admirable notation of scholarly contentions must be made, that Sir Milton Margai, much like Mahatma Gandhi, was retreated to the Island of Bonthe in Sherbroland after studying as a medical doctor in England. Result of a homeland security and colonial bureaucratic restrictions, which did not allow for employment in Freetown or England where most modern medicine men sought practice, it was no doubt with tribally partitioned contempt that Margai was at the fore of the national independence movement. This is only one example of perceived Fityiye; as was the entire process of anti-colonialism depicted as spurned slight against some sense of respect. This makes no manner an argument against policy or the quandaries that arise between generations and that of change; however in retrospect, it must have no doubt failed to appear, as if the colonial administration was some form of conservatory and protection of rural interests; but instead indigenously considered nominally, as a dependent outreach of Fityiye. Most recently, Sierra Leone politics has obscured classic arguments of post-colonialism, perhaps influenced by appeals for even greater involvements by foreign elements on the one hand and an extreme disinterest in external matters on the other. Of national Fityiye, except in the troublesome special court issue – a body with absolute international right to adjudicate on local issues, Fityiye as a nationalized expectancy it can be said then, has achieved some degree of muteness. Internationally however, the previous power tensions between US and UN interests, epitomized by New York City’s traffic citations of UN diplomats against the principles of immunity, were brought to question, then later eased by isolationist US Senator Jesse Helms, whose UN speech may better have been considered the moment of truth with reference to growing tensions regarding the cavernous underbelly inherent between urban interests, federal and con-federal agreements, and their differences; issues of Fityiye in a manner of speaking. As Helms notes in his UN speech: This will mark another first; never before has the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ventured as a group from Washington to visit another international institution. I Hope it will be an enlightening experience for all of us and that you will accept this visit as a sign of our desire for a new beginning in the US, UN relationship. This was perhaps the most formal rivalry of Fityiye to ever have been internationally witnessed on either side of such disputes. Thus from the chambers of history, philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau so eloquently recounts; As soon as men learned to value one another and the idea of consideration was formed in their minds, everyone claimed a right to it, and it was no longer possible for anyone to be refused consideration without affront. This gave rise to the first duties of civility, even among savages: and henceforth every intentional wrong became an outrage, because together with the hurt which might result from the injury, the offended party saw an insult to his person, which was often more unbearable - than the hurt itself.

Moreover, annexed to an association with age, most recently, the linguistic growth of Fityiye has expanded the debate over its use to encase a sense of tort or trespass with serious intent, far and above that of a trivial disciplinary concern. In this aspect Fityiye involves the aberrant masquerade of insult culminating in civil trepidation; the idea that is, that any road was built by one person alone. There is the example of a recent encounter of a passer by along a lonely dust road, in which one person declared; how dare you pass on this road which I built, and the response; one day you too will walk on a road which you did not build. Therefore, Afro-Culturally weighed in scale of African culture, it can be considered that the age of Senator Helms (this is not to infer that Helms is African) compounded with that of Africa’s reverence of old age is brought to focus when examining political agreements or disagreements of this nature in the true sense; as David Garrow notes; the elder A. Philip Randolph versus a young M.L. King was a subterraneous source of organizational tension during the American civil rights movement; much like many opposing criticisms of Sierra Leone’s Siaka Stevens (1967-86) were every so often, generationally driven beyond any hold of political reason (Stevens being born at the turn of the 20^th century in 1905). Furthermore, of expectancies not met, such as the unmasking of an ostensibly familiar dancing deity apparent, which causes little physical damage (though culturally forbidden) is its definition and interpretation not simply as a dispute between mortals, but rather an audacious if not lawless spiritual confrontation. Therefore in custom, when a deity is in procession; money and honor is customarily given or a respectful vanishing for cover. On the other hand, there is the contemplation of a recent incident in which a government official was blocked by the revelry of a football team deity, the outcome of which secularist treatment of native forms contradicted if not outright challenged its very foundation of plural authority. In such state of affairs it can be said; tradition did not win. Thus in a receptive sense, Fityiye has found its place in youth generational indignation, peer to peer disagreements and the conflict of the sexes, in model of rebellion that attempts to distinguish the misconceptions of young men and women in context of Africa’s mentioned age complex often juxtaposed to modernity and its western glorification of youth – or moreover, that of native objections of a modern dimension undergoing a pubescent catharsis. As African women resonate in a secularist tone; Na foh Di fitYiye, we Noh go tek am! ; exclaiming not to take insult in the characterization of the baw-baw or child and his arrival.

In use of scrutinized approaches in analyzing attitudes towards Fityiye, is the concealment of old ideas of Animism dressed up as new; as in Plato’s Phaedrus (370 BC), the idea that every life form carries a soul therefore there is in all things, a competition between man and animal. Yet, it is questionable if animals hold this observation of continuous comparatives beyond reason; whether a homoeothermic dog ignore its physiological nature, Lion reject its appetite in exchange for reason, snake its stoicism for personality or moreover, goats consider humans anything other than slaughterers of their kind. Quite doubtfully, it can be said then, that habitually Fityiye finds itself a contrivance caught between a higher examination of learning towards the conditions of beings, such as Social Darwinism and that of a lower order of comparable reasoning. The trouble with the canicularian theory of man’s best friend is that such acceptance comes from some argument of likeness, which cannot be said to even be remotely true in modernistic terms, since the hypothesis of animism itself puts forth a belief against materialism. In order to embrace this belief, there must be a respectful return to - the bush life.

Examined within confines, Fityiye is often accepted as these types of cultural misunderstandings, such as the African forbiddance of splashing water on an elder or stepping over stretched out feet is similar to Chinese restrictions forbidding touching an adult’s head. Insufficient of these examples is the appearance of the casual; those aspects not encompassing Fityiye as it may be argued culturally as a willful act indicating uncouth misperceptions or worse - contempt. Politically added, various national examples of eruptions against perceived Fityiye include; the Hut Tax war of Sierra Leone (1898) like its colonial matching in Kenya, the more infamous Mau-Mau movement (1951); also western educated pull out of the APC government of Sierra Leone during the final years by westernized elements due to increased East European certifications and so-called aspirant lumpens. Well included are NPRC military disciplinary actions in Sierra Leone; akin to political extensions of the general history of radicalism in conventional wait; the more youthful delay of Mandela and Gandhi, for example, under imperialism; or that of Castro outside of the American negotiating assembly. Thus in terms of the sensitivities of civilizations underneath which the blood of generations boil; it may be that wisdom of post war nationalism has furthered tolerance between the historic relationships between Western British English and American academic playing fields, with the Queen of England beginning her parliamentary speech with a respectful gratitude to NATO allies, the expansive protection so to speak; leaving at quest of Fityiye, other origins of knowledge.

Currently, the most relevant issue of import in caution against Fityiye in certain nations is the containment of the internet itself, as exemplified in China’s recent tight markings of such communicative ports (unlike its coastal record of emigration); so therefore, three aspects should be considered in recent insider calls for internet governance and issues of regulation versus de-regulation, as suggested by the argument that the internet holds no sacredness over other telephone systems. The first is that peculiarity should be made between control of the internet and the means of control; there being, a certain pointlessness to any aggressive or oppressive expansion. The second, historically - the insubordinate rupture of science from philosophy in its cyclical state, often being in current manifestation of invention, places one ahead of the other. Internet growth over the last 20 years did not occur in step with the public interest considerations of the legal sector, even though may have involved personal attempts to further free speech. It would therefore in extreme be a terrible means of elective politics, to be used for some manner of governmental program writing of sorts - even on a local network level; the idea that is, of push button interactive or download democracy. There would in effect and result eventually be no characteristic between private and public functionality. The internet may suggestively be the path of so-called innovative or novel approaches. So far, due to increased commercialism (speaking of organized business interests above that of simple advertisement) it is doubtful whether any such Cyber hegemony or harmony has occurred, other than the entrance of established privatization models into the variance of the cyber-salon for spheres of influence. The third is that as consequence of reason, real internet justice would be the written word in consideration of its spatial dimensionality as opposed to being considered a simplification of the reverse. For instance, it is reasonable to argue that it is the mind that makes decisions and proscribes judgment, though quite distasteful to suggest that a web page, e-mail or messenger forum is a court room. While some forms of science encourage random sampling in principle, the intentions of justice on the other hand, particularly legal authority are in contrast, since justice is a specific balance and result. It is not necessarily arrived at by broad experimentation - unless that is the desired goal (as concerns communicative freedoms); perhaps unification ideals, the technological moratorium on Fityiye lies on the internet’s spatial dimensionality being a permissible buffer of tolerance; Cyberspace.