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Before European acquaintance, the sidekick was big. He was different from the apprentice. He did not have to tread one pace behind his mentor. He strutted beside the priest or linguist or captain. He had a hero’s hand in all the drama and protocols. If the champion succumbed to the summons of the gods, the sidekick slipped sweetly into his sandals. Life went on. The early Europeans bullshitted the Africans that the sidekick was a slave because he was not free to go. These strangers to our customs could not discern that what kept the sidekick by his master-friend was a moral bond, and not manacles.
*Here’s something I will introduce to this blog from time to time – Beautiful Africa. I will share phenomena I consider beautiful about Africa.
(Picture credit - showbiz.peacefmonline.com)
Intriguing, NY, intriguing.
ReplyDeleteAw... thank you very much for this. I have shouted for too long and with your mellifluous voice we can make a difference, while not pretending that all is well with us.
ReplyDeleteIs it your point that because of sidekicks there was no shortage of or vacancy in leadership?
ReplyDeleteThe same Europeans shipped Africans away in ... yes, MANACLES. Therefore, you should not expect them to understand what a moral bond is!
ReplyDeleteBond??? Me thinks not. Well seems to me that there could be be more to it than the bond you describe. The europeans were probably right, The sidekick's movement may have been hampered in ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. Sounds too good to be true, anything SOUNDING TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE has a catch. To break the jigsaw puzzle you already told us what the catch is,,,, MANACLES: hey hey hey "SPLENDIFEROUS"
ReplyDelete@Fafaq anything sounding too horrible cannot be true lol. Anyway, I think that reconstruction of an image or history should be permissible. If they took out from the history textbooks a larger chunk of AFrica's history, should that sound too horrible to be true? Well...
ReplyDelete@NY Sarpong: I agree, anything sounding too horrible is never entirely accurate/true. But i still cannot see why it is terribly difficult to understand. NY asiedu's post is fairly straightforward. Deliberating over the sidekick matter is somewhat pointless, if u r asking. This is what he states :
ReplyDelete"These strangers to our customs could not discern that what kept the sidekick by his master-friend was a moral bond, and not manacles".
My understanding of Afican History including the little i know about ghanaian history confirms that oftentimes someone performing all the menial tasks that were considered too below the king or hero will have to be the sidekick. Perhaps i am wrong or may be not?
But i still agree tho,this whole thing has been cleverly constructed by the author:it is an enigma.
U shd write a novel NY asiedu, i'll be happy to read it anytime.
I like the "Beautiful Africa" slant, but I don't get the sidekick-master-friend relationship at all... I hope this is not reflection of my moral dearth. Secretly though, unless the sidekick hopes the master expires prematurely, his life is spent in the shadows of a master-friend... errrmmm... moral obligation?
ReplyDelete@ Devlin:
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Old Friend.
@ Nana Fredua:
ReplyDeleteWell, let's keep working together, man!
At Anon#1:
ReplyDeleteYes, it is my point, in part, that because of sidekicks, there were hardly any leadership vacuums. In a way, sidekicks were more ready to step up than apprentices.
@ Anon#2:
ReplyDeleteOuch. I see the reason for your indignation, but don't you think morality and moral bonds are universal values or phenomena?
@ fafaq:
ReplyDeleteYes, there was a bona fide bond. Many an excellent apprentice (excellent in attitude and aptitude) found out that after their training, they preferred to be elevated to the level of sidekick than to push off and start their own 'gig'. There was nothing sinister holding the sidekick to the master-friend.
@ Nana Yaw Sarpong:
ReplyDeleteWow, deep. It is so true that we have to reconstruct and re-orientate (yes!) our history by ourselves!
@ fafaq:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. A novel, huh? I will think about it!
@ Yeh:
ReplyDeleteUm, I think our comment thread has explained the sidekick connection a bit more.