Post by Onyango Oloo on Mar 14, 2016 17:01:09 GMT 3
A digital essay by Onyango Oloo
Millions of Kenyans glowed with pride recently when one of our own made it to the shortlist of the $I million Global Teacher Prize awarded to the one exceptional teacher in the whole wide world who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession and wider community.
Ayub Mohamud who teaches business and Islamic studies in the Eastleigh suburb of Nairobi also offers special classes against violent extremism.
Even though the ultimate award eventually went to
Hanan Hroub, a Palestinian mwalimu, we all felt we had won much the same way we feel when Vivian Cheruyoit or David Rudisha romps home first after a superb athletic feat.
It is inspiring see a dedicated patriot working so selflessly to guide Kenyan youth away from the lure of violent extremism and criminal terrorist exploits.
But this not what this essay is about.
I wanted to talk about “deradicalization” one of the buzz words being bandied about in the print and electronic media.
Back in the day when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, every Kenyan youth wanted to be labeled “radical”.
Being considered a “revolutionary” was a badge of courage everyone wanted to earn.
You see, in those days, “radical” and “radicalization” meant something very different from its current usage.
In the epoch of the one party state; in the era of the big man; in the salad days of dictators and despots we all hankered to do something “radical”; something “revolutionary”; we wanted to change things; we wanted to transform our politics in Kenya and overhaul our socio-economic circumstances.
We wanted everybody signed on to the radicalization agenda.
Baby faced undergraduate Kenyan students still living with their parents desperately grew goatees, donned black berets and pretended to be
Che Guevara,
Dedan Kimathi,
Bob Marley or
Amilcar Cabral.
And they had the
kitenge and blue jeans to accentuate their credentials.
Young Kenyans who had never perused
Das Kapital or the
Little Red Book pretended to be Marxist-Leninists.
To be radical was to be chic; to be fashionable, to be the life and soul of the University of Nairobi halls of residence.
I am not joking.
When, as a 22 year old social science student
Onyango Oloo was jailed for five years on a sedition charge by a Nairobi magistrate in November 1982, I was immediately hailed all over the country as a hero, a freedom fighter. Amnesty International promptly adopted me as a prisoner of conscience.
Back then, there was a very high premium to be considered a “radical” with an overt radicalization agenda.
Back then radicalization meant fighting for progressive change; fighting against oppression and dictatorship; fighting for a new Kenya promising gender equality, youth empowerment and democracy for the marginalized.
We radicals had nothing to do with hurling explosive devices in shopping malls or machine gunning innocent passengers in buses.
That is why today I am sad, even angry,; how such a powerful and empowering word has been stolen and co-opted to mean its exact opposite.
It is time we radicals of yore reclaimed radicalism.
Having said that, we must commend the noble efforts of the Ayub Mohamuds of this world to fight against violent extremism, intolerance and bigotry.
Fundamentalism of any kind-be it Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Hindu is toxic and odious.
Witness how this poison is being employed by
the far right in the United States right now; watch what the Hindu zealots in the
Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are doing in India and the gory exploits of Daesh, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab is familiar to us all.
But if we want to turn Kenyan youth away from violent extremism the main way to go about it is first of all to change the living and working conditions of young people in Kenya.
They have to have decent paying jobs which allow them and their families to live with dignity and respect; we must respect the Bill of Rights of the Kenyan Constitution and stop criminalizing peaceful, democratic dissent; we must prosecute police, soldiers and paramilitary personnel plus those loose, foul mouthed politicians who demonize entire regions and religions through ignorant hate speech; we must learn the principles and practices of living in an open democratic society which upholds and defends the rights of all.
Millions of Kenyans glowed with pride recently when one of our own made it to the shortlist of the $I million Global Teacher Prize awarded to the one exceptional teacher in the whole wide world who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession and wider community.
Ayub Mohamud who teaches business and Islamic studies in the Eastleigh suburb of Nairobi also offers special classes against violent extremism.
Even though the ultimate award eventually went to
Hanan Hroub, a Palestinian mwalimu, we all felt we had won much the same way we feel when Vivian Cheruyoit or David Rudisha romps home first after a superb athletic feat.
It is inspiring see a dedicated patriot working so selflessly to guide Kenyan youth away from the lure of violent extremism and criminal terrorist exploits.
But this not what this essay is about.
I wanted to talk about “deradicalization” one of the buzz words being bandied about in the print and electronic media.
Back in the day when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, every Kenyan youth wanted to be labeled “radical”.
Being considered a “revolutionary” was a badge of courage everyone wanted to earn.
You see, in those days, “radical” and “radicalization” meant something very different from its current usage.
In the epoch of the one party state; in the era of the big man; in the salad days of dictators and despots we all hankered to do something “radical”; something “revolutionary”; we wanted to change things; we wanted to transform our politics in Kenya and overhaul our socio-economic circumstances.
We wanted everybody signed on to the radicalization agenda.
Baby faced undergraduate Kenyan students still living with their parents desperately grew goatees, donned black berets and pretended to be
Che Guevara,
Dedan Kimathi,
Bob Marley or
Amilcar Cabral.
And they had the
kitenge and blue jeans to accentuate their credentials.
Young Kenyans who had never perused
Das Kapital or the
Little Red Book pretended to be Marxist-Leninists.
To be radical was to be chic; to be fashionable, to be the life and soul of the University of Nairobi halls of residence.
I am not joking.
When, as a 22 year old social science student
Onyango Oloo was jailed for five years on a sedition charge by a Nairobi magistrate in November 1982, I was immediately hailed all over the country as a hero, a freedom fighter. Amnesty International promptly adopted me as a prisoner of conscience.
Back then, there was a very high premium to be considered a “radical” with an overt radicalization agenda.
Back then radicalization meant fighting for progressive change; fighting against oppression and dictatorship; fighting for a new Kenya promising gender equality, youth empowerment and democracy for the marginalized.
We radicals had nothing to do with hurling explosive devices in shopping malls or machine gunning innocent passengers in buses.
That is why today I am sad, even angry,; how such a powerful and empowering word has been stolen and co-opted to mean its exact opposite.
It is time we radicals of yore reclaimed radicalism.
Having said that, we must commend the noble efforts of the Ayub Mohamuds of this world to fight against violent extremism, intolerance and bigotry.
Fundamentalism of any kind-be it Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Hindu is toxic and odious.
Witness how this poison is being employed by
the far right in the United States right now; watch what the Hindu zealots in the
Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are doing in India and the gory exploits of Daesh, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab is familiar to us all.
But if we want to turn Kenyan youth away from violent extremism the main way to go about it is first of all to change the living and working conditions of young people in Kenya.
They have to have decent paying jobs which allow them and their families to live with dignity and respect; we must respect the Bill of Rights of the Kenyan Constitution and stop criminalizing peaceful, democratic dissent; we must prosecute police, soldiers and paramilitary personnel plus those loose, foul mouthed politicians who demonize entire regions and religions through ignorant hate speech; we must learn the principles and practices of living in an open democratic society which upholds and defends the rights of all.
