It's time Kenyan politicians donated their brains to research

 President Uhuru Kenyatta shakes hands with Cord leader Raila Odinga while Deputy William Ruto(right) and Hon. Moses Wetangula look on at State House

The impact of slave trade and colonisation on the African psyche is variously fronted to explain our unenviable position on the global stage.

However a detailed analysis of the slave trade and colonisation often falls short of providing convincing answers. During one argument, a friend snidely wondered why our ancestors never sailed northwards to colonise and exploit Europe.

The simple answer is that we had not developed a world conquering technology by the time of the scramble and partitioning of our continent. All indications are that we will not be developing one any time soon.

The late Prof Ali Mazrui attempted to explain the African heritage by exploring the three influences that have had an impact on the modern African. These are time and climate, European colonisation and Islam. This theory provides some answers yet we still concede that many of the answers that could explain our current state have decayed with the fading memories of our history.

Cannot stop worrying

Look, Claire Albright, a teenager growing up in London, has a reliable record of what London was like in 1450. She will be able to trace her ancestors to Richard III who lived close to 1,000 years ago. However, Claire Atieno, a teenager living in Nakuru will hardly know her ancestors beyond her grandparents and, if very lucky, her great grandparents. Once these comparisons are made, one cannot stop worrying about the generation that will inherit Kenya 300 years from now.

In the world of science, researchers recently reported a miraculous breakthrough in the treatment of stroke – a condition which results from death of a section of brain cells due to compromised blood circulation in the brain. It commonly leads to paralysis of the upper and lower limbs on one side of the body.

Scientists at Stanford University in the US have reported amazing observations in which stem cells injected into the brain of a stroke patient have helped the patient to walk again. This demonstrates the fact that while the world is on the move, we may be digging ourselves backwards into the past. For this reason we must think about the future.

Did our ancestors who lived in Kenya 300 years ago ever think about us? Did they spend sleepless nights wondering what kind of earth we would inherit? We do not have sufficient evidence to argue in either direction. As a matter of fact, we only have a hazy image of what their challenges and triumphs were.

What is left of our possibly rich pre-colonial history is a few stories of legends who excelled in battle. These too are fading away with the growth of the urban culture. Today it is easier to comprehend the state of life in a roman village hundreds of years before the birth of Christ than it is to know about the ways of our people in 1850.

Behaviour and decisions

The current inhabitants of Africa must begin a deliberate process of communicating to the future generations. We must begin preserving important arte-facts from our time that will help our great, great grandchildren to understand our thoughts, behaviour and decisions. Every Kenyan who is literate should pen an autobiography in English or Kiswahili. It doesn’t have to be 800 pages, it can be ten pages or less. Autobiographies are not just a preserve of former prime ministers and presidents. The inheritance of information and wisdom beats wealth. Today who of us would not be happy to read the thoughts of his great great great grandmother who lived in 1780? We happily would if we could but we can’t so we won’t.

This tragedy must not befall future Kenyans.

What happens at the family level should be expanded to the community and eventually the national level. At the national level, we should urge our leaders to voluntarily donate their brains to a state anatomy museum when they die. These brains can then be studied one hundred years after death using the technologies that will be available at the time. This period can of course be negotiated depending on who has something to hide.

We all agree that leaders face difficult decisions while in office. There are many times my opinion of a leader has completely changed after reading through their autobiography and coming face to face with the tough choices they were presented with. In the same manner, when our future scientists dissect our leaders’ brains, they could encounter startling revelations that could tie with historical decisions made long ago.

The scientific findings thereof can then be used to streamline historical facts especially in the context of unbecoming behaviour such as greed and tribalism. Once a neurobiological basis is established, the burden can be lifted from the shoulders of the accused posthumously.

A part from absolving some from wrong doing it could as well instill a sense of immortality.

Dialogue or Constitution?

In future it may be possible to download all information in the brain, store it in a computer programme and extrapolate it to new life situations. In the example of the current Kenyan stalemate about the electoral commission, we would simply feed the problem statement into the brain programmes of a few past wise leaders like Nyerere, Mandela, Sankara and Nkrumah.

What would they do in this matter? Dialogue or Constitution? It would be interesting to establish what these great icons would choose in such a dilemma of great national importance. The outcome would undoubtedly influence decision making.

This ‘brain’ project may not be supported by certain religious or cultural beliefs. But whatever our beliefs may be, we must establish multiple ways of sending signals to the future societies so as to help them avoid our past or present mistakes.

— Chitayi Murabula, a medical doctor and member of Thirdway Alliance Kenya, and a commentator on social issues.