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Several years ago
when I was living in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, an artist friend once took
me to the home of a rather remarkable personage. Located in the
outskirts of the city, we were ushered past a gate that opened up into
a forested sprawling compound. On the veranda sat an old man in the
company of his wife and frolicking grandchildren.

The man looked
rather frail, but his face shone with a noble serenity that comes only
with wisdom and knowledge mixed with a pure heart.

We were welcomed as
though we were princes. Refreshments were laid at table before us. The
wife was all over me, wanting to know more about me, Nigeria, my work
and family. She told me, “‘mon mari est un profésseur”.

It turned to have
been one of the great understatements of the century. The man in
question was none other than the distinguished Ivoirian philosopher,
sociologist, statesman and sage, Professor Georges Niangoran-Bouah.

Born circa 1928 and
orphaned at an early age, he surmounted every odd to become a man of
learning and great accomplishment. Having graduated with a doctorat
d’Etat at the prestigious Parisian Institut Pratiques des Hautes
Etudes, Niangoran-Bouah pursued a distinguished career in academia in
France and in his own native Côte d’Ivoire.

But the man’s claim
to fame are not his chain of academic qualifications or even the senior
cabinet positions he held in government. Rather, it was in his
originality of thought.

Niangoran-Bouah
stands, in my view, in the same rank as W. E.B. Dubois, Chancellor
Williams, John Henrik Clarke, Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Cheickh Anta Diop who
have done so much to shape our understanding of Africa’s place in the
great heritage of universal civilisation. His contributions have been
mainly in the field of ethno-sociology, in particular, Akan gold
weights and in a new field which he singlehandedly invented,
‘drumology’.

In a path-breaking
study of traditional Akan gold weights, Niangoran-Bouah was able to
prove conclusively that these objects were no mere ornamental
decorations as had been generally supposed, but that they contained
forms of secret knowledge dating as far back as ancient Numidia. He
believed there is a treasure trove of secret knowledge that lies buried
in our ancient ornaments and artefacts. Such hidden knowledge was not
meant for the masses but to those initiates who can use it and preserve
it for generations yet unborn.

The other field in
which Niangoran-Bouah has made significant contributions has been in
the area of drumology, i.e. the study of African drums as a system of
communication. Again Niangoran-Bouah was able to prove that drums in
traditional Africa were not merely instruments for music and
entertainment; rather, they served the higher purpose of communication
to which only the discerning were privy.

It was my honour to
have met this great African sage. I learned from him that the pursuit
of science as a vocation also requires an openness to the strange and
the mysterious. He taught me that we Africans have a great heritage and
must never see ourselves as the inferiors of anyone. In fact, he
believed our ancestors had a sphere of gnosis that was way beyond what
was fathomable to the ancient Greeks and Romans.

He told me that in
the forest of his native Grand Bassam, he could make a particular sound
and the bird of his desire would appear. He insists this is not magic
but a form of science that our ancestors have known since time
immemorial. He was not bluffing. An endless stream of European and
American researchers and scholars were beating a path to drink from the
reservoir of this ancient Akan wisdom.

As we conversed
into the wee hours, I could see that he felt bitterly disappointed at
the turn of events on our continent, much of which external meddling by
world powers — war in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the crisis in Côte
d’Ivoire and the descent into barbarism in Rwanda, Somalia and the
Congo. He looked upon me with deep compassion as though from a distant
height. For the first time in my life, I felt the summons of fate, the
call to higher duty in the service of my continent and my people.

This year marks the
golden jubilee of over a dozen African countries, from Senegal to
Benin, Cameroon, Gabon and our own country Nigeria. For most of our
countries, the celebrations have of necessity to be rather sombre
affairs. The sobering reality is that there is more to lament about
than to celebrate. From the feet of this master, I learned that
Africa’s crisis is not just a social and economic one. Rather, it is a
profoundly spiritual crisis borne of moral distemper and derailment of
our most sacred values. Our continent needs more Niangoran-Bouahs who
embody the honour, dignity and spirituality of our ancient African
people and who can give us guidance in these benighted times.

Niangoran-Bouah went to join the ancestors on the 26th of March 2002. His work must also be ours.