In 2022 race are we capable of a rebirth of political purpose?

President Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and former PM Raila Odinga at a past function. [File, Standard]

Herman Melville’s 1851 classic, Moby Dick, was a contribution to the American Literary Renaissance (1830–1865). Like the European Renaissance before it (1300–1600), the American rebirth was a rediscovery of lost values. In this context, emphasis was on literature – and especially on Romanticism. There was, in particular, a search for the place of literature in advancing democracy. Was it possible to use literature to restore lost social and democratic values?

The question remains relevant in all civilisations everywhere, all the time. In our African context, the debate raged in the 1970s about progressive art and art for art’s sake. Should art be celebrated purely for neutral aesthetic appeal, or should there be some useful social function? Applied more broadly, what is the value of beauty? Does being beautiful just end there, or does it seek to realise greater goals? Can beautiful art support a noble value-based social order?