TOWARDS THE EDUCATION OF THE MIND AND HEART THE CULTURE OF OSTENTATION AND HYPOCRISY IS THE DEVELOPMENT TRAP OF AFRICA

ABOUT OSTENTATION AND HYPOCRISY
Let me begin by defining terms. Ostentation, is derived from the Latin word ostendere, meaning, “to show”. In English it means “showing off”. As for hypocrisy, it is derived from the Greek word hupokrisis, meaning, “comic”, and it means, “the fact of appearing to be what one is not”.
From here I go on to discuss the respective cultures associated with these concepts. The culture of ostentation refers to the structure of one’s mental outlook, where a person gets satisfaction from showing off his/her possessions, qualities, or achievements. We thus hear of ostentatious expenditures aimed at acquiring oversized equipment, inappropriate buildings, hosting sumptuous and extravagant parties, receptions, etc. When I talk of oversize equipment I mean that the equipment is not dictated by need and utility but by sheer vanity. It is the same case for inappropriate buildings, the size and quality of which is not a function of need; it satisfies the feeling of greatness. Regarding sumptuous and extravagant parties, the same desire obtains, not to meet a real need but to make an impression.

The culture of hypocrisy is akin to that of ostentation in as far as both are not honourable. A hypocrite is neither honest to him/herself nor to others. Hypocrisy deceives in essence; it aims at benefiting the hypocrite who hopes to receive recognition from the observers. The culture of hypocrisy may be described as the attitude of someone who wishes to conceal the real situation.
Hypocrisy is detestable by all standards and by all religions. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was very critical towards hypocritical people and condemned them in no uncertain terms.

The two cultures are connected. When we talk of ostentation and hypocrisy, we refer to a situation where the two cultures are used together for purposes of deception. The culture that emanates from this has a force that can destroy individuals and nations. The destruction of persons is not the subject of this essay. My focus is Africa, Kenya in particular.

EDUCATION OF THE MIND AND HEART
Social and economic development in Africa will be enhanced if Africans become aware of the needs and imperatives of development. This calls for understanding of the issues in question. Understanding is achieved by the type of education that imparts awareness and knowledge. Acquisition of knowledge is key to this imperative. This entails formal and informal learning systems, in class and out of class, with or without a teacher. This process, which one may call education of the mind, awakens the power of thinking and provides the content and structures that are necessary. Basic skills are acquired and then the wide range of ideas and concepts are learned with reference to the various branches of knowledge. However, one aspect that is underrated in this venture of education regards interpersonal relationships, the fostering of positive relationships between individuals. This is critical in the creation of a developed society, especially by traditional African standards.

Individualism, which lay dormant in Africa until awakened by the Western lifestyles, is the principal cause of ostentation and hypocrisy. The common good is not central in the minds of ostentatious and hypocritical people. Individuals who have adapted such a lifestyle do not promote the common good. They create surplus income, not for the benefit of society, but for the purpose of ostentation.

This culture is developed right from childhood. Let me demonstrate this by taking as an example the behaviour of the child. We have all observed that a baby normally cries to demand what ever it likes, without taking into account whether or not that demand may be hurting somebody else. Even when the baby sucks the breast of its mother, it is not aware that the mother may be suffering. If the breast is withdrawn before the baby is satisfied, the latter will protest by crying furiously. When a very young child says to the mother “I am hungry” and the mother replies, “Wait a little while I make you some food,” the child is irritated and shouts, “No! I am hungry! I want to eat now! Now!” That shows how the child, at a certain stage in life, can only see his/her needs, unable to be aware of the constraints and needs of the other, the mother.

“The younger the child, the more egoistic, and the more it develops in age, the more it is likely to become aware of the needs of others and to respond to them sympathetically.”1 As children advance in age, they become more and more aware that the satisfaction of their needs is limited in time and space by the needs of others. They start, therefore, to be more and more tolerant and reasonable. In the course of the years, they see, by degrees of increased maturity, that their needs, in time and space, are homogenous to those of the others. They then silently asks themselves, “After all, why me only?” Here, then, is a well-developed moral consciousness!

The original egoistic character of the child does not entirely disappear in adults. It remains in people according to the level of their moral consciousness. In some people, the infantile egoism remains almost complete, whereas in others it remains subdued so that we find some very egocentric persons, and some very generous. However, without denying the possibility of other factors, let me observe that the development of awareness of the needs of others is a moral adjustment. We can say that some people are underdeveloped morally through lack of education. Ostentation and hypocrisy are extensions of the self-promoting instincts of human beings, which are capitalistic in nature, the need to own and benefit alone. The vanity that results from this, the vanity of impressing others just for the sake of it is an offshoot of the primitive instinct of selfishness. In the domain of moral education, men and women have to learn to get beyond themselves, appreciate the needs of others and respond to them favourably.

People who become extravagant in their spending just for showing off fail to see that development means the use of available resources rationally for the benefit of the society at large. This failure becomes the underdevelopment trap in Africa, in so far as resources get consistently wasted in ostentation and hypocrisy.

The behaviour we have described earlier is evident at individual, family, and national levels. In this phenomenon, resources are diverted from their proper and intended uses and are used instead to satisfying individual egos. If the money spent on improper endeavours were channelled to more useful causes, much would be accomplished in bringing about the welfare of the people. Another way of accomplishing this–which would reduce the great gap between the rich and poor–is by reducing the enormous salary gap in Kenya. By so doing Kenyans could learn a new way of thinking whereby they would get pleasure from seeing wealth redistributed more equitably.

This leads me to discuss what I call the education of the heart. In my theory of the Education Triad, i.e. education of the mind, the heart and the body, the heart is identified as a critical target for education. I stated that the heart is often forgotten in the enterprise of education. The mind or the intellect, is the principal focus of our educational systems.2 Yet the education of the heart is critical. By this I mean that individuals must learn to get out of their egocentricity and derive joy in valuing and serving others. That means that people must move from the primitive state that is characterised by selfishness and get educated into a state where they are able to appreciate the needs of others and respond to them.

CREATING A PROCESS FOR A NEW SOCIETY
Transformation of the Kenyan society in the lines I have referred to above must take place on two fronts. The first front must be the university. The assumption here is that the university has the potential to produce leaders who can transform the society since graduates end up taking leadership positions in various sectors of the society. That means that if university students are trained to appreciate and live according to the principles of the education of the heart then these principles will be paramount in their university life. This front must be promoted in all public and private universities. This initiative is currently being designed for launching in Kenyatta University through the new office of the University Proctor/Ombudsman.3

The idea is expected to eventually permeate into other public and private universities and produce, in the next ten years, an army of new graduates who, with triangular education, would promote the creation of a new society with new values. The university, therefore, will produce two modules: one for Primary Schools, and the other for Secondary Schools, in co-operation with the Ministry of Education, to spell out the philosophy that must be promoted in the school system in line with the project of creating new citizens of Kenya. The Kenyatta University Proctor/ Ombudsman has among his nine programmes, one that he calls “Proctor’s Outreach,” intended to reach not only the primary and secondary schools, but also the family environment. At the family level, parents and guardians of children will be trained, through seminars both at the University level and at the grassroots level, on how to bring up children to be responsible and caring adults.

The second front must be religion. But what does this mean? Religion is not a prescription; rather, it is an attitude that defines a way of life. The religious way of life is guided by faith in an unseen reality. All genuine religions are united in the common core of teaching the golden rule: do unto others what you would like to be done unto you. On this basis it is not difficult to unite religions in a common cause provided the cause be positive, promoting the interest of humankind.

Education, therefore, will mean the enterprise of bringing up human beings to recognise the needs of others and to respond to them favourably. This should be the duty of all who are charged with teaching religion. All God-fearing people should, as a matter of duty, promote that ideology of religion, that is, respecting others and serving them. By condemning the vice of ostentation and hypocrisy as a way of life and, instead, using our wealth and resources rationally, we shall be able to reach meaningful development