DAGBON CHIEFTAINCY CRISIS: A SAD SAGA OF ANIMOSITY, VENDETTA, AND DISUNITY - PART 3
| Posted: Tuesday, April 05, 2005
On the 3rd Anniversary of the death of the Ya Naa, a Diasporic Dagomba writes to his compatriots
Part 3
"Falling on national governments for arbitration in the DCC is cheap, childish, hypocritical, and un-intelligent, no matter how this approach is viewed."
Resolution of differences
Ironically, in pre-educated-British-dominated Dagbon days (the first half of the C20th ), as our history tells us, Dagombas often resolved their differences by themselves and sometimes contained them without resorting to violence or killing the Ya Naa. Contrarily, with the advent of education in Dagbon (since the 1940s) we suddenly lost our ability to resolve our differences by ourselves and rather commissioned the new and un-traditional culture of running to national governments for executive resolutions which, in most cases, are idiosyncratic, unwarrantable, exclusive, superficial remedies that are unable to stand the test of time, because they merely rob Peter to pay Paul, hence leaving one of the rival gates feeling dispossessed and therefore preparing the ground for more of what we have seen in the subject period: animosity, disunity, sporadic violence, and even a regicide (an unprecedented event in our existence as a modern traditional entity).
Un-traditional culture of redress
To justify the new and un-traditional culture of redress, some might argue that during the pre-educated Dagbon era, there were deprivations going on between the royal gates with one gate trying to dominate or shut out the other for the Yani skin, but due to the absence of a third, outside power capable of resolving and passing binding judgements on their grievances, they simply contained those differences for the sake of peace and unity without resorting to actions that would inflict grievous bodily harm on their own. Worse still, such complaints of the deprived gate could not be lodged with the incumbent Ya Naa who was the source and cause of the complaint in the first place. And now that we have a third force (national governments with constitutional powers) such Yani skin complaints should be resolved by government and not by us any longer.
My response to Dagombas holding the view that we should hurriedly run to national governments to resolve our traditional differences is that that approach severely impairs and limits our ability to exploit, explore, and invent our own creative solutions which are suitable to our Dagbon traditions and acceptable by all Dagombas with a timeless value. Moreso, falling on national governments for arbitration in the DCC is cheap, childish, hypocritical, and un-intelligent, no matter how this approach is viewed. We Dagombas are always looking for an easy way out, if not the easiest way out, in getting rid of this DCC. What we should ask of government is to provide adequate security and a condusive environment for us to resolve the problem by ourselves in the traditional way.
The maximum role any national government can possibly play in laying this virus to rest is serve as a catalyst, and it is only through our own bootstrap, with government playing a facilitator role, that we can achieve real lasting peace and unity in Dagbon. I am deepily ashamed to admit that the generations of
Failure of educated Dagombas
Dagombas who lived before the advent of Western education in Dagbon, their uneducated status notwithstanding, were more intelligent than the educated generations of today. The justification for my admission is that we have never been able to resolve even a single problem that we have been faced with so far, purely due to our inability to vary our behaviour in response to varying situations and requirements, something the uneducated generations before us mastered so well, as evident by the legacy of a solid, united, peaceful Dagomba Kingdom they left for us. It has to be pointed out that being educated doesn't mean being intelligent, and being educated doesn't mean being wise, because one can be educated to the highest degree and still be unintelligent and unwise.
It is just a matter of how the educated fellow is able to use the education gained to practically change his/her behaviour, attitude, perceptions in response to changing situations, occurencies, requirements, problems, and times with the view to effect desirable, positive outcomes in society. As far as the March 2002 Yendi crisis which led to the death of the Ya Naa and many others is concerned, it is unfortunate that all Dagombas are victims of that heinous crime and all Dagombas are viewed as the perpetrators, though it was carried out by a handful of thugs.
My fellow Dagombas, this Dagbon Chieftaincy Crisis (DCC) has developed into a full-blown recrudescent virus, the Dagbon Virus (DV) which, if not exterminated, would destroy and deprive us of being a monolithic tribe. The DV, just like any virus, requires a cure, and the antidote to this evil sickness lies in our own hands. I have to confidently declare to all Dagombas that if we think about this blueprint I am presenting, and accept, implement its contents, I assure you that we can achieve everlasting peace in our Great Dagomba Kingdom. I want you to know that this Dagomba Virus (DV), as I call it, is not incurable, so the only thing we have to do is try this vaccine I am proposing to you.
Process of reconciliation
Dagbon is now at the crossroads and the time has come when we all, as Dagombas, should pull together and fight this madness called DCC and begin the process of reconciliation, peace, and unity among all Dagombas and for Dagbon. The alarming fact is that, if we allow the status quo to prevail, we face the danger of further chaos with untold consequencies that would threaten our very existence as "One Tribe with One King and One Identity". We created this problem by ourselves and we have to resolve it by ourselves.
The dark and painful past of Dagbon is not inescapable and the drive to attain peace and unity is not insurmountable, for the mistakes we have all made are not unforgivable. We should all find a place in our hearts to forgive one another, Abudu Gate, Andani Gate, the hoi polloi of Dagbon, and live as a peaceful, united, loving big family again. We should not forget that, for several centuries, the Dagomba Kingdom was one of the most united, self-loving, and peaceful traditional entities in Africa, and those nostalgic days can be achieved once again, if we lend ourselves to peace. For the past half century, Dagbon has been plagued with a cycle of animosity, vendetta, and disunity...
So what next?
The quest for peace and unity
The quest for peace and unity can be expressed, in my view, in a little algebraic expression I learnt in secondary school and wish to apply today in practice to solve a real time problem in the following peace formula:
(a +b) 2 + 2 = Peace +Unity+Strength+Prosperity
where a=Andani Gate's effort toward peace, b=Abudu Gate's effort toward peace, a and b are interchangeable to stand for Abudu or Andani Gates, 2=Government's effort toward peace. Some of you are probably thinking that I am crazy just by taking this simple formula at face value; however it is the practical peace formula for Dagbon's chieftaincy crisis. The above algebraic expression is the dream of all Dagombas and perhaps many others; however, at the moment, the status quo in Dagbon gives us the following equation:
(a-b)-2 = Chaos! Which can also be expressed as (b-a)-2 = chaos!
At one time or the other since the 1950s, at least, one of the royal houses: the Andanis and the Abudus have been working against each other in the courts of law and/or physically, thus no cooperation between them. For that matter, they have been putting in negative efforts toward everlasting peace; hence together, they have a negative(-) bond between them. They are in brackets because together they form the Yani skin. These two royal houses represent the people of the Dagomba Kingdom in this equation. The negative integer -2, represents the current government's negative efforts in bringing the two (2) sides in the conflict together for peace in Dagbon at the moment, its reasons, I don't know. Therefore, all the combined negative efforts of the Andanis, the Abudus, and the Government give us Chaos in Dagbon, as represented in the chaos formula: (a-b)-2=Chaos!.
My fellow Dagombas, we can achieve peace and unity by changing all the above negative variables and constant into positive. If and when we (Dagombas: as represented by the Andanis and the Abudus) change our negative positions into positive, and the current government also changes its negative role at the moment into positive efforts; then the chaos equation will change into the desired peace equation, thus:
(a + b) 2 + 2 = Peace+Unity+Strength+Prosperity
_Expanded: a2+b2+2ab+2 = Peace+Unity+Strength+Prosperity
where:
a2=Peace: the outcome of the Andanis positive efforts,
b2=Unity: the outcome of the Abudus positive efforts (both of these variables: a2 & b2 are interchangeable for Abudu and Andani families),
2ab=Strength or Strong Dagomba Kingdom: the extra peace dividend accrued to the Andanis and the Abudus by their combined efforts toward peace in Dagbon, and as we know, unity means strength
2=Prosperity: the outcome of the current government's positive efforts in bringing the two rival royal houses to talk peace as a facilitator; thus prosperity in Dagbon as government's socio-economic policies for development in Dagbon will be implemented in an environment of maximum cooperation among Dagombas; as represented by the Andani and Abudu Gates.
The composite outcome of the positive efforts expended by all the three parties: the Andanis, the Abudus, and the government is not only peace and unity in Dagbon, but also, strength and prosperity. This means that if the two royal houses work together, the benefits that will accrue as a result of their individual efforts will be squared: a2+b2, and with an extra bonus of double their initially invested efforts: 2ab in the peace process. Hence, when the Andanis and the Abudus work together in synergy, and government facilitates their cooperation, the Dagomba Kingdom is bound to achieve a lot more: Peace, Unity, Strength, and Prosperity.
Change
Further, we now know the peace formula, so how can we Dagombas, with government playing a facilitator role, apply it to achieve the desired outcome: peace, unity, strength, and prosperity?
Easy; the answer is easy. Change is the answer. What we Dagombas have to realize is that we can no longer seek peace in a wait-and-see or reactive manner; instead we have to pursue peace in a proactive way by taking initiatives toward reconciliation, peace and unity and making changes in several facets of our society. The younger generations have to embark on a moral revolution against the older generations by putting moral pressure on them to begin reconciliation and peace talks: the Andanis and the Abudus simply have to talk peace; not hatred. The longer the taciturnity between these two royal families continues the worse the situation of the Dagomba Kingdom gets. All the negative attitudes of the Abudus, the Andanis, and the government must be transformed into positive ones.
My ideas for peace and unity in Dagbon come in a proposal, a golden proposal offering a golden opportunity (elaborated in subsequent sections), which if adopted by all Dagombas, could serve as a planning tool in drawing a roadmap for a lasting peace and total unity among all Dagombas: a panacea for the age-old chieftaincy crisis. The proposal is an auto-Dagbon engineered solution to the DCC without government interference, except a role of facilitator. Let's face it, and let it be loud and clear to all Dagombas that, as far as the DCC and the quest for peace is concerned, no government, and I mean no government, has ever and would ever provide real true peace that is acceptable to the whole of Dagbon, because governments only appease us and not be-peace us.
The proposal calls for CHANGE in Dagbon and requires all Dagombas to change in many respects. We have to transform the negative variables and integer in the chaos equation: (a-b)-2=chaos! into positive to achieve the peace formula: a2+b2+2ab+2=peace+unity+strength+prosperity. This change involves re-structuring and re-organizing our traditional structures, institutions, and our mindset. Like it or not, the status quo is a long lane that has no turning and I know that we Dagombas are not incommutable. Change is often a painful, hard, difficult, and an unpleasant phenomenon which involves sacrifices and concessions from all those striving for it, and it goes without saying that 'no pain, no gain'. Some might even oppose this CHANGE because it is unpalatable and threatens their standings in the Dagbon society or careers, and others might do so because they want to hold on to their dogmatic positions, but I want to assure all Dagombas that this necessary change (call it modernization) is mutually-beneficial to both the Andanis and the Ahudus as well as All Dagombas.
Opposition to the call for CHANGE notwithstanding, the questions I pose to all Dagombas are:
1.How long shall we allow this DCC/DV to continue the division and destruction of our Kingdom that we have all witnessed thus far?
2.Do we have the moral right to pass this ugly virus (DV) on to our innocent posterity?
3.Do we want our children and grandchildren to inherit this disgraceful feud they simply didn't start?
4.Who do we think we are by encumbering our peaceful neighbours in the Northern Region and antagonizing national governments with our DCC?
All Dagombas should ponder over the foregoing questions.
Forward-looking Dagombas would agree that we should get rid of the DCC now and for good. Positive thinking Dagombas would say we should unite and make peace now and not later. Next question: Now we know we all want peace and unity, but how can we go about trying to unite and live in peace again and put the ugly past behind us once and for all? This has always been the million cedi question for all Dagombas since the fire started burning almost half a century ago.
To be continued in the next several editions...
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