CLIVUS TRANSACTUS:

CLIVUS TRANSACTUS:

The Nature of Clivus

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By Gbujama J. M.

What is the nature of Clivus Transactus, is the un-deciphered inquiry, to a specific reply without oration, of it being a confirmation of sorts; the spirit of the deal on the hill. The original deal perhaps dates as far back as the traditions of sacrificial offerings of the systemic beliefs of cultures, tribes, and families, burnt offerings of simple incense to the fattened calf, and most redemptive, the sacred crucifixions of empire symbolizing the guilt ridden bearings of human-kind. Such deals are included in the Christianly conversion of cultures for instance, as noted in Christopher Fyfe's settlement account of the Krio on the hill tops of Freetown as a method of historical preservation against the stringency of the valleys below, separating themselves so much as to be able to grow into a distinct line; as well, those same hills being the site location for the construction of the Organization of African Unity's village experimentations for greater Africa in Sierra Leone, built in 1980, an attempt to nationalize, secularize and at the same time be inclusive, albeit in an unsuccessfully short term, in the traditional elements of African culture. Indeed, it was on the hilltops that Hannibal of Carthage made his emblematic cross over the Alps of Switzerland into the fortresses of Rome, radiating an intersecting imagery of Empires above the urgencies of local networks. Yet, even much more goes into these images associated with the polities where laws are passed and decisions made, perhaps best symbolized by Moses' receipt of the ten commandments, and this being, beyond the antediluvian construction of plateaus in the form of pyramids and stone temple peaks. Whether such receptions would have been considered relevant were they forged down in the valley below instead of up on the wuthering heights of politics, down below in that situation where the goodness of the Samaritan found its place, is another question all together. Therefore, this discussion of the spirit of law formation rests not only on religious beliefs but on how power and order is perceived, as some sort of elemental to be handed down as seen in the idea of Brazils’ angelic posturing Christ looking down upon the hills from its earthly corpus, as closely held to its physical associate, the heavenly sky. Hence, the spirit of Clivus Transactus attempts to establish why it is if we do at all, believe in such processes and if not, then why are such processes perpetuated?

Clivus Transactus is an attempt to put forth alternative methods of observation towards the misused mechanisms of government and its agencies; of police, law courts, bureaucracies and assemblies. It is an attempt to merge the architectural design of polities with that of its cultural purposes and intents so much as to be able to see history in its developmental morphean complex and senses; to be able to awaken both the national citizenry from both a personal and public slumber as regards their political behavior. There is little truth for instance, in a complete read of incidents as occurred 100 years ago if not seen to some extent through an ongoing structural residue of the present. In this regard we will be able to predict incidents, to solve crisis, to influence historical directions and if properly applied, generate a history out of mystery and confusion. We will be able to see the awakened-ness of a polity for instance in its political cloth as related to the narrations of world history in the realm of centralisms; that is in the idea of political centralization or as one proponent of global culture deemed in a most scientific manner; the forth dimension.

In relation to case study, it must be addressed the apprehensions that exist towards the definitions of Americanisms in relation to Africa for example, its rural elements as well as most controversial, the effects of urbanization. It is most disconcerting that the pace of developments in commercialization for instance, are more successful in condensing the gap between the definitions of an American identity and that of Africa, and in trade similarities even than that of the professional, cultural or federally national – and even if the latter relations do exist at all, they are perhaps in covert. More specifically, even if bureaucratic links appear to have been ahead in step in the construction of the African Area Studies Library for example, situated in the Library of Congress, conceived in 1978, at the very heart of political leadership; the question remains whether this link will achieve two things; first, is whether the library will be able to distinguish itself from being perceived as a corrupt extension of the archaic idea of European settlement in Africa as an indigenous component, more so than an expression of new symbolism of African migration into the Americas (much like early interpretational conversions of European migration into what is now considered American history) That is, whether its presence will be able to develop into a defining mutualism. Yet history has taught that it is needless to argue the somewhat implicit futility in the recreation of national origins over and above that of traditional ethnic origins. This perhaps is the paradox of the nation of Liberia more than any other polity, without exempt in defining Americans as being American, no matter where they may be. Clivus Transactus is not - in some manner of advertisement, a call for the imposition of such concepts on the identity of others, the districting and redistricting, rule and over rule between modern and traditional elements. However, much like the Goths imposed themselves upon the Ancient Romans or the invading barbarians that followed, the undesirable question in these kinds of political transitions is – who were the barbarians?

With Clivus Transactus there is the possibility then to see beyond immediate national interests and political behavior, further into relations, to consider the greater struggles of political dominions and their inhabitants; to consider the equivocating realities of political interaction being; that for example, it was professed that it was the tradition of freedom that established Monrovia in the mid - 1800’s, in an inherent contradiction of the direction of North American continental settlement. However then, this poses the question of the issue of American colonial imposition upon Africa unlike in the acclaimed Freetown example; both sides in deference deeming the other of less philanthropic intent, especially in reference to Africa as being the “dark” continent as opposed to England’s modernistic “protectorate” argument; a far cry from its medieval language. The imposition by Black colonists, is perhaps non-distinct from European departures from such endeavors or the eventual nationalization of tribal interests. Nonetheless, on the other hand, it is a tradition of freedom that made Liberia a pioneering participant in the formulation of the Organization of African Unity, maintaining its African loyalist correlation with that of English loyalist Canada, over that of the American and their government; a relationship which ironically was eventually bolstered, with the resurgence of an indigenous Liberian dictatorship in the 1980’s. From the maintaining of relationships with the black leadership of the American South in the 1950-60’s to the influx of even indigenous Liberian refugees to the Americas in the 1990's, the question that remains in an undulating pendulum, is whether Liberia is conceivably the most loyal nation to the concept of Africa that has ever existed or implicitly - its greatest infiltrator?

Perhaps then, it is the manner in which nationalism has been represented, an annoyance of local cultural definitions, not to say the least, that compromise the greater regional histories and relationships. In this, the application of the performance of empiricism in politics much akin to its pan-African past may help in the preservation of cultural interests, while at the same time piece through the greater issues of trans-nationalism, since no such traditional cultural-ism was ever at the fore of the interpretation of nation-state establishment, for it can be argued that it was not only man that evolved but the idea of the modern state. This is not to suggest Clivus Transactus to be the actual model of such solidarity, or to negate the so-called secularization of African cultural-ism, but to make observation for a need to found new paths of explanation that are more historic to political performance and the modern state. Perhaps, there is much credence given to the style rendered by Helen Johnson Sheriff’s presidential coronation for instance, considered by some as being opulent but not to be overlooked as being stage relevant falling short to criticism only in regards to the simplicity of the legacy of Sheku Toure’s Guinea.

Hitherto, Clivus Transactus is no ode to African politics, it is only as stated an example of how certain political imagery facilitate in the revival of nation state politics and the ability to actually envisage and engage those universalisms, Sheriffs inauguration being, not simply the routine installation of office but a history of ceremonial bureaucracy with the ability to reasonably connect polities such as those in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the African Area Studies library at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, to as far as the thespian studios of California - for if one cannot understand what is an African, then it will be unlikely to understand his place in Africa, Europe or elsewhere; much-less America.

CELEBRITY VERSUS PERFORMANCE

In deliberating issues of political stage we have been driven to consider the conflict between celebrity and performance. By celebrity it is meant, a state of being celebrated and widely known, acclaimed or accounted on something specific, sought after by civic leaders or journalists or honored for a signal achievement of sorts, while to define performance would mean to consider a process of carrying out a deed or a manner of reacting to various stimuli whether those of literary, artistic or oral compositions. It was in this regard that after the invasion of ancient Rome by the barbarians, historians have stated, that the earth was thus engulfed by the dark ages or medieval era in which castles loomed in their splendor with little empirical justification for their grandeur. Indeed, it was during this era that Sultanic and African empires flourished, exit of bush civilizations and Berber moors, perhaps giving reason for the misnomer the ‘dark’ ages, wherein the medicine and chemistry of the fictional “Merlin”, witch doctors and shamans; the Arabians and their Scimitar Blade, were left to experiment with the residue of Roman imperialism; and as such the predictability of such an era is often told not in constant narration, but in almost a mythical manner as to the rise and fall of the personalities therein. In fact, though there are many reasons accredited to Roman failure, much was also due to the issues of celebrity and performance. For instance, were it not for celebrity, the ambitious would not have been able to find their place in headship, the people would not have been able to skirt their unjust oversights and transgressions against the individual and traditionalism; and there would have been no hypnosis as to the performance of order which is necessary in the settlement of grievances and claims. Indeed, it was during the celebrity’s rise and fall that most of the disorder of Empires occurred; that Caesar put to waste of Pompey, the senate to Caesar, giving military hopefuls, vampirisms palate - a bloodthirsty appetite for the taste of civilian glory. Yet, it was not celebrity but performance that sustained the insurgences, that developed long-standing bureaucracies, given the mediocre tendencies of the mass under leaders like Augustus who demanded higher values and performance; and that were able to thwart the cancerous euphoria applauded to celebrity, generals and heroes, further tempted to unsung clerics and soldiers.

Even within modernity, perceiving knowledge as a cause for notoriety per se has been misplaced in its usefulness, such as did the celebrity of capitalist interests often equate itself with the degeneracy of communist systems, with defectors actualizing almost the same results or cultural neutralizations in moral decay, as was the populist reasons for the willful vanquish of cultures by authoritarian proletariats. The populist has in this regard of equating knowledge with notoriety, filled the offices of politics with entertainers and the like, as opposed to performers; a debauched craving for Nero, indicating that pluralism has run its gamut with the alternate tendency to abuse the bearers of knowledge through assuming systemic roles in pretext of a right through pluralism to attain the productiveness of others. To be sure, it is a treacherous fusion to include the rights of pluralism with that of individual productiveness, the results of a deal in which most historians mark the decline of systems or in the case of Clivus Transactus - movements down hill. However, it would be counter productive to await the compilation of a nationalized philosophy as reason not to transmit our thoughts towards current and ongoing changes within the realms we find ourselves, as if such writing in the past were not the interpretations of chaos in hindsight. That, in point of fact, should be the actual nature of an education - the very purpose and problem civil engineers ought to be making every effort to solve.

Nevertheless, the question remains as to what happens to the individual, the family, tribe, culture - which over a period of time may have extensively grown into what for discussion purposes may be termed as some form of derogatory repetition; those that deny through the assumption of good faith an autonomous notion; who through a system of enlisted actors are in the current, merely remnants of past empiricism. That is, of the things observed over a period of time, the notion of depravity carries its own deliberate impact and weight on deed – which directly discredits systems of celebrity and performance in politics. This derogatory inclusion arises out of a system of mute politics in which silence is a negotiating component of trade often alternating with its extreme side; aggression. This mutation of political conflicts and agreements affect all sectors of society, of education, business, housing, banking, engineering etc. It eventually produces the peculiar results, terms and facilities; contradictions in causes and that of systems.

Indeed, perhaps one of the most cross sectional mutations of African politics is Liberia’s position within hemispheres of hegemony; not falling within that of the western arrangements; that is, the United States having some bearing on the Caribbean and the Americas beneath, while not quite being part of Europe’s hegemonic sphere of influence over that of Africa.

Cautious note must be made then, that even though celebrity in politics may be looked upon as a reward for past performance and as an introduction into the processions of government; the dictator or parade movement in course of the populist, as mechanism of match or outshine to the cacophony of mass idolatry - it is often, in purview of some degree of personal authority, in public exhibit frequently subject (but not restricted), to a fickle changeability. That is to say, that of all the necessities and its representations, fame or the desire for a name, as Percival argues, is perhaps the least relevant though often carefully selected, in meeting the needs and demands of the polity. However, celebrity is not implicitly suggestive of being in conflict with performance only to infer a contextuality necessary in the implementation of the latter. For instance, though James Earl Jimmy Carter Jr., was a peanut farmer, he rose to fame nonetheless in representational government despite the humility of his earlier profession and was able therefore to apply his celebrity in specific policy formation towards issues of international purpose in the creation of the Carter Center in Atlanta. Thus celebrity did not impede on the performance of the political or on limitations of professional anonymity, but instead acted as a facilitator. Quite in reverse, even though Ronald Reagan was perhaps one of the most iconic American leaders to date, this did little towards the successful implementation of his defense initiative program. Therefore, it can be generally stated that performance may in limitation be a by-product of the assurance efforts of celebrity, which often plays a subservient role to issues of sovereignty; perhaps the most important issues of performance being - those of control, predictability, and historical reference, given the framing of governmental bureaucratic policy. In spite of this, it is the response factor more so than any apparent openness of process that remains most pertinent; that question whether government answers to its deeds, its directions and the error of its ways; the proxy of its extensive agencies, bodies - the oligarchic whispering percentage of its populace.

Gbujama J.M.