The Palaver Tree

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Laid foot by the Ocean. After a quite shaky flight to the well-known home of luxurious seaside beach resorts. Beyond the humidity that welcomes the unaware visitor at the exit of the plane, something about the ambient air reminds me of what makes me both hopeful and desperate about Africa. A capital of natural resources that has been, in modern times at least, underserved, and utilized with too little attention to sustainability.

Like a cow (the animal of thousands symbols in Africa) which, instead of being nurtured and carefully milked, was slaughtered and sold, because it takes less effort and the expected direct return puts corn on the dining table.

A cow, yes.

One that could support the farmer plough its land, tirelessly giving milk to nourish newborn and elderly.

A cow.

One that was revered as a symbol for prosperity and long-term wealth, but now is milked to blood. When will Africa become more than a cow left to the desires of those than never saw it grow, nor walked miles to collect grass and feed it.

What if the present and future of our communities was discussed under the Palaver Tree. Do not mistake this sentence for an attempt to bring back the eternal “primitive” reading of our cultural practices. The palaver tree is a powerful institution of discussions, debates, experiments, knowledge sharing and conflict resolution, to name but a few. The palaver tree was a physical and symbolic space where the community would come together to discuss in a peaceful and constructive manner, issues of common interest.

As Nelson Mandela puts it, the African Palaver Tree is a full-fledged democratic institution. It will have taken decades of mind liberation to affirm the relevance of African traditional structures, vis-à-vis modern frame of thought.

What if we could take this one step further? Embrace our unique identity and live, as we might have forgotten to, in a society where our words and actions, are not dissonant with the set of values inherited from previous generations. Better yet export practices of the baobab tree, the Gacaca tribunals, the Chama cooperative, and other local African solutions or traditional practices with a potential global resonance?

The journey might have started but each of us can contribute to amplifying it.

I remain a hopeful wanderer on the African continent.

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