Leave Space

The way we experience the world is, at best, an overlay on reality. A tool to engage with something we don't have the tools to fully understand. The Yogis call this Maya, and the Enlightenment calls this a World View. If we have learnt anything from the unintended consequences of historic Civilising Missions and Revolutions, it is that "Burning things down" normally results in chaos, wars result in us putting basic emotional intelligence aside, and ideology results in spirals and loops of turmoil. If we are hooked on Drama and Rage, we won't see the links between our worlds. We won't be able to communicate. We need to rediscover tolerance. Have fewer opinions that don't leave space for those who disagree. As the speed of change increases, the quality of our breathing needs to improve.

"Maya - The Mirror of Illusions"

Davies (1910)

Fork Identities

 

Fork 'n Cheese

Building National Identities is a relatively recent human past time. But don't tell anyone. Tartiflette is a traditional French dish. In reality, it was created in the 1980s to promote the sale of a type of cheese - Reblochon. Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. Similarly, most of Europe did not adopt the Fork until the 18th century. It took time to overcome the perception as an 'unmanly Italian affection'. Then, gradually, it became viewed as rude and uncivilised to eat with the fingers. It is worth remembering that the idea of Nations (race-based states) only started at a time, in 1800, where everyone was mostly poor and disconnected. By 1975, Europe and the Americas had become rich. By 2015, Asia had started catching up. Our race-based idea of nation-state civilisation suffers from falling for tall tales of forks and cheese.

Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age began just over a century after the death of its prophet. The Abbasid Dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle. Claiming closer blood links, in 750 CE they assumed control of the empire and moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The inclusion of non-Arabs in the Ummah (supra-national community) meant the capital became a centre of science, culture, philosophy and invention pulling on the learning of the many civilisations (in all directions) that preceded. This period is bookended with the sack of Baghdad in 1258 CE by the Mongols of Hulagu Khan. Just one example of the shared learning was the inclusion of zero (not in Roman Numerals) and the Hindu number system from an Arabic scholar studying Indian Mathematics, which was then spread to the West by Pope Sylvester II who studied in Barcelona in his youth (where he learnt Arabic).

The Abbasid House of Wisdom

Iraq

The idea of continents as separate land masses with different identities is very recent. The Fertile Crescent is a connected area that has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. The area between the Tigres and the Euphrates river, which became known as Mesopotamia, was one of the Cradles of Humankind - linked to the wheel, cursive scripts, mathematics, agriculture and astronomy. Iraq's modern borders had little to do with history and were the product of the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided up after World War I. Its primary function was to ensure the British Empire still had access to oil. The 'Kingdom of Iraq' gained independence in 1932, but was overthrown and abolished in 1958. The Ba'ath Party took control by force in 1968 - Ba'athism was a nationalist movement promoting the creation of a unified Arab state.

Pre-World War I Ottoman Empire

Fertile Crescent

Peer-to-Peer

One challenge we have with helping solve the problems we can see is an implicit superiority. Some justified Colonialism as a 'Civilising Mission'. They saw development as a path from being a barbarian to being civilised. Missionaries were sent out to educate the savages. Very little effort was made to learn. I believe we learn best when it is in both directions. We learn best from peers. If someone's world is too different from yours, you are unlikely to be able to understand their challenges, let alone suggest a reasonable path out. All advice is autobiographical. For feedback to resonate, we need to be able to see our story in others, and their story in us. 

Missionaries

Moscow

Moscow is the largest city entirely on the European continent. It has 13.2 million people in the city limits, and 17.8 million in the urban area. One of the nicknames for Moscow is the 'Third Rome'. After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Grand Duchy of Moscow started to see itself as defenders of the Orthodox Faith. This was central to Byzantine identity to distinguish themselves from the Barbarians, from the North-West and from the East, who had overthrown the previous Empires. Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople declared himself Kayser-i-Rum, "Caesar of Rome". Ferdinand and Isabella who built up the Spanish Empire, bought the titles and imperial rights from the heir of the last Byzantine Emperor. The Barbarians became the Emperors. The Emperors became the Barbarians. And repeat.

Moscow

Not a Zoo

Wifi is not a product of colonialism.The Renaissance was more of a Naissance as trade, travel and communication brought Northern Europe's 'Barbarians' into the fold of the globe's team effort of learning. Much like happened in China after Genghis and Kublai (Mongols) 'conquered' China and founded the Yuan Dynasty. If Wifi (or anything 'modern') is a product of colonialism, then the Industrial Revolution wasn't born in Britain. 

We learn off the back of what has been learnt, bring our own understanding to whatever we hear and see from others. Our collective knowledge far surpasses anything any one of us will ever know or understand. So yes, the Industrial Revolution was born in Britain. It was born to ancestors from all over who discovered and created maths, writing, philosophy, science, politics and all the other bits that created the conditions.

My two homes, South Africa and the United Kingdom, are struggling in different ways with the idea of decolonisation. 

The 'Mud Hut Fallacy' is the idea that before European colonisation, there were only savages living in Mud Huts. This fits nicely into the idea of a 'Civilising Mission'. A naive understanding of decolonisation would have it that that means going back to mud huts. 

Decolonisation is linked to the Anti-Globalisation movement. Neocolonialism is the idea that multi-national corporates, and capitalism, are continuing the domination, but just in a different form. A push back on one global solution being imposed on local people. Ironically, it seems the 'Take Back Control' Brexiteers end up sharing language with those who would consider themselves on the far left. Even if their motivations are different.

Both the colonisers and the colonised want control of their local areas. Time has past and you can't wave a wand and undo it. Our identities have changed. Our histories have changed. You can get an understanding of that. You can do a better job of empowering local communities while improving essential freedoms of movement.

One of my Pet Peeves is when visitors to South Africa, or other parts of the continent, moan about how some of the cities look like anywhere else in the world. Authenticity gets mixed up with lack of technology. Uniqueness or difference as a territorial constraint rather than a natural development. Game parks, yes. Bustling cities, no. My gut reaction is, 'we are not a zoo'.  The technological progress that comes around the world belongs to us all. A big chunk of the Tech Wizards of Silicon Valley are immigrants. London has also changed drastically. Authenticity doesn't mean protecting your vision of what others should be.

The fact that London, New York and Johannesburg are closer siblings than to their respective rural areas creates lots of tensions. Rural areas tend to protect identities. Cities create them in a constant process of creative destruction. Both have value.

At the heart of the problem is a tension between control and respect. Empowerment and power. Discovery, and protecting what is important to us. Identity politics where our identities are up for grabs.

Lions don't wander the streets of Joburg

Silk and Mud

People seldom believe what they are doing is wrong, and do it anyway. The evil villain doing evil with a cackle while stroking his cat. The architects of Apartheid, and other builders of ethnically based nations, were pushing back on the idea of Empire building. They used self-determination as justification. The builders of Empires in turn had used the civilising mission. Though in direct opposition, both required founding stories to give them back bone. Both were soaked in supremacy. The 'Mud Hut Fallacy' pushes the idea of only one group of people being responsible for progress. One group owning the truth. The others were in Mud Huts. Neither the architects of Empires or Apartheid would have considered themselves evil. Both would have believed deeply they were in the right.

To believe in the Mud Hut Fallacy, you have to have a very superficial knowledge of history. Or make one up. Rome was built off the riches of Egypt after the fall of Cleopatra who picked the wrong strong Roman. When Alexander the Great went on his conquests, he didn't look to the Mud Huts of Western Europe for the greatest learning. He went east. On silk roads. Timbuktu on the trade routes through the Sahara produced the richest man to have ever lived. Mansa Musa was known only in Western Europe in legend, though able to visit Mecca on well travelled paths.

Silk Road

The concept of a grand march of western civilisation as white men past the baton is bonkers. Greece; to Rome; to the Enlightenment; to Spain, Britain and France; to America. This makes for a good patriotic story, but ignores the wide tentacles of knowledge. 

Stories are more enduring when they aren't built on exclusion.  Walls don't last as long as roads.

Next Page

A civilising mission sees progress as directional rather than relational. It views learning as a ladder rather than a holding of hands. It plots the rise of the barbarian to a higher state rather than seeing things for what they are. The Curse of Knowledge means it is incredibly difficult to unsee what you have seen. It becomes harder and harder for two people to communicate as the way they see the world diverges. Even if, in theory, you are on the same path, the path is always changing. The best way to learn is to find someone who is on the next page. The best running partner is someone who is keeping a similar pace to you, but a pace that keeps you honest. The truth doesn't lie at the destination, it lies in the people we surround ourselves with. Learning lies in building paths, not finding them. Don't lead or follow. See.

Find someone on the next page

Tanzania

Most of the history I learned at school about Africa was from a European perspective. I later learnt the Age of European Discovery and the Renaissance wasn't the birth of culture, but the introduction of North West Europe to the rest of the world. The Arabs had their turn before that group of Europeans, discovering the contributions of Persia and Greece, amongst others, before them. Africa's history with Islam stretches well before the European enlightenment. Amongst other flavours, migrations of Bantu  speakers from the West (1700 - 2300 years ago) and Cushtic speakers from the North mixed with influences of the connections to the wider Afroasiatic world in the area that is now Tanzania. Colonial competition between Omani Arabs and the Portuguese saw control of Zanzibar since 1699. Imperial Germany took control of Tanganyika after the late C19th Scramble for Africa and before WWII. Its independence from Britain came in 1961 and then in 1964, Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar merged after a revolution overthrew the Arab dynasty. Power changes. Learning lives on.

Tanzania

Afroasiatic Languages

Swahili

Egypt

Ecumene is a term for the Known World. Before the idea of continents, the words that became Europe, Africa and Asia were just areas of the known Old World. Not separate. The Eurasian land mass is one, and is connected via the Sinai Peninsula to Africa. The building of the Suez Canal was a 10 year undertaking connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea finished in 1869. It is 193.3km long. Besides a land connection, the cultures of Africa, Europe & Asia have developed alongside each other. There is no border. At the heart of that connection is Egypt, which became one of the world's first nation states in the tenth millennium BC.  As a cradle of civilisation, it was a source of some of our first writing, agriculture, cities and religion. Where we started building communities. 

5th Century BC Ecumene

Suez Canal

Ideas Have Legs

There is some irony to which bits of the world we consider Europe. The first Christian State in the world was Armenia. 'European Civilisation' sees itself as a progression from Egypt and Greece and Rome. The Old Word 'Cradles of Civilisation' were not in any of the current European Union countries. The Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages give tangible evidence that ideas have legs. Some choices of National symbols are also ironic in their attempt to develop a unique identity. During the first Crusade Henry II took a fondness along with Genoa to the cross of Saint George, also shared by the country Georgia. Saint George was born in Lod, Israel (then Lydda, Syria) and died in Izmit, Turkey (then Nicomedia). When Constantinople (the capital was moved from Rome in 330) became Istanbul in 1453, both the Ottoman's and Russians saw themselves as the inheritors of the Roman empire. So did the Holy Roman Empire. When we start to describe things we love by characteristics and ideas, we realise how many of the ingredients we share.

Old World Cradles

Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Indus Valley and the Yellow River