Muntuism, like the Mosquito, the Bible and the Quran has been a governing influence over the African people since the first Muslim traders chose to direct their superior strength towards selling for profit, human beings too underdeveloped to prevent themselves becoming trading commodities.

The Christian buyers who built fortunes from the labors of these unfortunates, contributed in equal measure to the prevailing Muntuism that has become the blight of Africa.

Without recognizing and addressing Muntuism, continuation of the cycle of hopelessness that is the History of the African, is assured.

What then is Muntuism.

Muntuism can be measured by its relationship with the base emotions. On the long road from mans humble animalistic beginnings towards the enlightenment that thoughtfulness strives towards, there have been many landmark moments.

Plato (428 - 348BC) articulated the duality of the human condition in terms of; The rational soul. The seat of higher moral qualities, located in the brain, which he identifies as being 'Immortal, godlike, the best and purest in human nature.'

And on the other hand, the irrational soul, located in the chest governing the base emotions. Anger, fear, lust, jealousy and so on. It seems clear to me that this bi polar element is present to a lesser or larger degree in every human.

Simply put, a left brain element that rationalizes according to ingrained value judgment, working with or against a right brain element, reacting to base impulses in an atavistic intuitive fashion.

Base impulses I understand to be those messages written on varying layers of our genetic make up that form the first messages to the formative brain. Anger, Jealousy, resentment, lust, greed, selfishness, fear and aggression to mention but a few.

The transition from a base-impulse-led, animal like condition, towards a considered personality possessed with higher values, occurs when the left-brain element underwrites an ethical code that puts the base values into a workable perspective.

A few examples of higher values include: Consideration towards others, selflessness, generosity of spirit, kindness, compassion, sensitivity to the pain of others and detachment from the thrall of the base values.

A process characterised by the individual assuming accountability for their own actions. Recognising the balance between action and reaction in a process that considers more than just selfish interest.

By way of illustration - an Arab slave trader, responding to the base impulse of greed, unable to balance higher considerations such as compassion and sensitivity, who profits from selling human souls into living purgatory, whilst praising allah five times a day for the absolution this process enables in his denial based reality, is a Muntu.

The key to this arrangement between the brain hemispheres working positively lies in balance. Too much Left Brain ignoring the right brain impulses will eventually become depression, manifesting in a disorder, either psychologically or physically. Or both. When the balance goes the other way, no left-brain balanced rationalization, where the individual remains governed exclusively by base values, you have Muntuism.

As a case study of Muntuism, examine the credentials of George Bush in terms of the 'rational soul' versus 'irrational soul' model. How many of the higher values - the best qualities in human nature - can be identified. Contrast this list with how many of the base values are self-evident.

Until the balance of power shifts, and our political system evolves towards representation of the interests of those motivated by a higher good by a leadership that has progressed beyond irrational soul attachment to base values, we will remain mired in the wars of ignorance that continue to characterize mans struggle to rise above the muckiness that is Muntuism.

Andrew Brel.

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