Acha kutuongopea mchana kweupe, labda kama unamaanisha wanawabomoa kina Malcolm X (rejea kitabu tata cha Manning Marabale) na Assata Shakur (rejea tamko la kuendelea kumsaka kwa udi na uvumba); haya pinga na hii:
"The dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on Sunday, October 16, 2011 added another impressive monument to the tourist trail in Washington. The site features a 30-foot statue of the late civil rights leader gazing out on the Tidal Basin. Following are some of the U.S. capital's other historic monuments" -
Work completed on MLK memorial - CNN.com
I am not talking about orthodoxy, hagiographers and hangers on, you will find those in any society.
I am talking about the general trend of the population, the idea of heroism itself is being exposed as a fairy tale like simplification of complex personalities.
Name any major "hero" and you will find a humanizing side that questions if this entire hoopla of heroism is wort the paper it is printed on.
Idea ya "heroes" inaturudisha kule kwenye zama za "watu wachache wataongoza wengi", dunia inatoka huko sasa, kila mtu anataka kushiriki katika sote kuongozana.
Why would I need a hero while I know we are all human and fallible?
MLK was a philanderer, Malcolm X was a drug dealer and couldn't take care of his wife, the founding fathers were dishonest slaveowners who claimed all men are created equal.
Nyerere pretended to be a devout Catholic while he was being immersed in the depth of rituals of traditional religions, and he let his cronies get away with murder, and the list is endless.
Why should I care too much for heroes? When every last one of them has failed in a way or another?
Why put them on a pedestal? Apart from others that I can just find a thing or two, good and bad, to learn, without the hoopla and jingoism of heroism?
Do we still have time for that simplistic mindset?
Why the penchant for hagiographies?