By Kayode Ketefe
Today, April 4, 2013, precisely, marks
the 45th anniversary of the brutal assassination of one of the greatest social
reformers of modern times, Martin Luther King Jr. This illustrious African
American was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He
was a thorough-bred human rights activist, Christian minister, social reformer
and a pioneer in the African-American Civil Rights dynamics of the 20thcentury.
His philosophy of non-violent struggles
stood out palpably as a phenomenal virtue in contradistinction to the then
prevailing culture of hate, intolerance and racial bigotry.
He was the father of progressivism, and
an ardent admirer of Mahatma Ghandi of India to whose school of non-violent
resistance he belonged. Shortly after visiting India in 1959, his fledgling
non-violent human rights dynamics became radically crystallized and he spoke of
this pacifist orientation in the following terms “I am more convinced than ever
before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon
available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human
dignity".
He was a great orator. A
man singularly talented with uncanny abilities of leading a worthy cause that
he profoundly complemented with his inimitable oratorical prowess, King was an
embodiment of alluring virtues.
People would gather and
listen to him and instantly become transported with the sheer powers of his
diction. They would become enamored and inspired with his insightful rhetoric
as he reeled out the immutable truths that penetrated all way to the soul.
You could not listen to him
and remain the same. More importantly, he practised what he preached, unlike
some god-forsaken, self-appointed hypocritical leaders that gallivant about in
our society today.
Such was his talents that
his “quotable quotes” ran into thousands of witty sayings, aphorisms, etc, all
of which thematically revolved around his life-long preoccupation with
egalitarianism and social justice.
These notable quotes do not
only furnish insight into his non-violent philosophy for social-re-engineering
and racial equality but also constitute literally enduring nuggets of wisdom in
human relations anywhere in the world. Few of these are “I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”; “We must develop and maintain the capacity to
forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to
love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”; “Change does not roll in on the
wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must
straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your
back is bent.”; “An individual has not started
living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic
concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
It was through the
foundations of egalitarian agitations and sacrifices made by human rights
pioneers like King that ultimately procured a new America where it is now
possible for somebody like Barack Hussein Obama to become the President.
Longevity of life has very
little to do with accomplishments. Jesus Christ spent only 33 years and he
accomplished his divine mission, becoming the greatest man that ever lived.
Martin Luther King Jr spent only 39 years and he changed the concept of
social relations in United States forever. He was assassinated on April
4, 1968.
Conversely, there are still
many Nigerians today who in their late 6os are still busy stealing public funds
maddeningly and without compunction. What is the meaning of a long life
spent exclusively on narrow pursuit of individualistic interests?
Every person who is so
selfless as not to shirk from sacrifices bringing personal
misfortunes in altruistic pursuit of self-assigned task of making
the society better than they met it are in the same league with Martin Luther
King.
We have had and still
having such prophets in Africa, though they are regrettably in short supply. We
have had people like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah,
Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Ken Saro-Wiwa
etc. Incidentally, the last mentioned hero, Saro-Wiwa, had a life with a lot of
parallelisms with King.
They both led fearless
lives devoted to the uplift of a particular section of downtrodden people - the
Niger-Delta people and the American Blacks respectively; they both were great
orators outspoken and irrepressible; they were both feared by the
establishment; they were both inexorably committed to non-violent struggles;
they were both prize winners –King won Nobel peace Prize while Saro-Wiwa won the Right
Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize.
But alas, they were also both murdered in their prime at young age!
Nigerian society today would do well to
imbibe the philosophy of King. It is tragic that our present society is
one which has proven incapable of coping even with the slight tension. This is
an era when our tolerance threshold has plummeted and every social friction or
disenchantment blossoms into major crisis and pogroms, culminating into
internecine terrorism and mindless carnage. We need the King’s spirit for a
true national rebirth.
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