The Intellectual Landscape of Namibia
Namibia is famous for its landscapes, the wide open spaces and the spectacular dunes and seashore views. I’d like to see some resemblance between the geological and the intellectual. Two recent examples of intellectual utterances shall illustrate quite typical Namibian appearances. Since several weeks I follow the discussion about the excommunication of Father Petrus. This catholic priest specialized in the supernatural. Gert Petrus of St Mary’s Help of Christians Parish in Khomasdal believed he had been bewitched by certain of his parishioners. Hence he engaged in some counterattacks, which earned him the ‘nom de guerre’ “Tokoloshe battling priest”. If you would put this guy, say in Copenhagen or Cupertino you had to visit him in the mental hospital. Why would I say that? Two things are different outside Namibia (or Africa for that matter): 1. the belief in supernatural agents like demons, tokoloshe, fairies and elves is met with lots of scepticism nowadays and 2. the feeling that religion and its executers are untouchable by worldly matters has subsided increasingly. There is even an organization which promotes rationality and civil rights in this domain. The Brights is an international congregation of individuals who don’t believe in supernatural powers and fight for the civil equality of people with this believe and the removal of the civil privileges of people who believe in supernatural powers. This includes questioning the claims of the churches.
Under this un-African angle of view Father Petrus can be diagnosed as a mental case, he is delusional about phenomena which cannot be verified scientifically; now the African culture and religion answers that science cannot explain everything. That is right, while I tend to say that science cannot yet explain many things. But science can scrutinize statements of physical nature made by superstitious and religious minds. I am sure the observation by Mr Petrus about the tokoloshe can be easily falsified by science. Anybody with doubts can win US$ 1 Million if he proofs his case to James Randi, an American Magician who can show you hundreds of magic tricks and miracles.
This scientific rejection of his claims is a strong indication, that something is wrong with the belief- system of Mr Petrus and that his brain played him a prank. But in Namibia (Africa) this intellectual state is not only tolerated but shared by many. Luckily the judiciary kept its cool. But the following reader’s letters show strong support for Father Petrus, which is a real issue for the Catholic Church. The problem lies at keeping up appearances of a halfway sane state of mind and the opportunistic ‘respect’ for traditional believes in supernatural demons. It is a real balancing act, where to draw the line: a) Do you believe a Tokoloshe is a real thing? b) do you believe the tooth fairy is real? Do you believe Jesus Christ is a real person/god or in the same league as Santa Claus and the Stork? It could strike one or another that logically there can’t be a distinction: either there is super or there isn’t; it is like pregnant. Therefore the Church must not let any other priest deal with a sensitive matter like this. Only specially trained and loyal Fathers, who are able to erect a strong fence between the pagan supers and the true Christian ones, are allowed to tend to exorcism. In the past the Church had too much trouble with the demons, but they cannot dismiss them completely without risking being contradictory. This is the traditional (Iron Age) intellectual mode of Namibians.
At the other end of the spectrum you find the intellectual mode of a westernized indigenous individual like Alfredo T. Hengari, who idolizes intellectual virtues in a fashion of a 20th century French provenance. He does the same as Father Petrus who declared himself as a demon specialist he exclaims himself a public intellectual, justifying this position with his exceptional education. Identically he lacks the competency to fill this role. And as the (un)happy Catholics Hengari also has his followers, who are impressed by his sleights. Tricks, which he performs by defacing the English language with twisting grammar and syntax for the purpose of styling exiting sounding headlines. When one looks into the substance of what he is trying to say, one gets a feeling he is chewing at a point, but can’t put his finger on it. This kind of intellectuality is equally useless for the Namibian landscape, because it isn’t illuminating ideas and doesn’t create critical thinking. It is the same opportunistic smugness with which Father Petrus performs his witchcraft. These two extreme ends on the intellectual scale, which have common qualities, derive from one concept: dishonesty. People first have to learn to be honest before one can speak of intellectuality. The iron rule: “honesty is dumb” must be brought down, before a meaningful discourse can happen.
