I Ching for the 'African Renaissance'

A proof of concept version of this work was exhibited in an exhibition entitled: “Navigating the Bookscape”, curated by David Paton in 2006. It was purchased by the Rare Book Collection and University Archives of the University of Johannesburg.

A handmade leather bound copy in A4 format was given to President Thabo Mbeki in 2006.

First published in paperback 2006.

Published by Nomadic Exploration Press
P. O. Box 622
Wits
Johannesburg
South Africa
2050

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/za/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

ISBN 0-86970-648-9

Fellow Africans,

This simple object is offered in response to a call from one of us – an African - whose sincere concerns many share.

His plea for an ‘African Renaissance’ resonated with me, as I am sure it did with many of you. From that time, until now, I have thought about many possible responses that could in some ways address the concerns expressed in his statements.

I believe that it is possible to offer one small seed that may, or may not, contribute to such change. Please accept this gift as an outcome of my sincere efforts in this regard. I am painfully aware of my limitations to make any contribution whatsoever to real transformation. May many others come and do it better.

If this object fails to assist in the birth process of such a great ideal, please accept my sincere apology. But if one person finds transformational power in it and applies this power in their personal or public life, it was worth the effort.

Like others before me – who have wished it was possible to remain nameless when speaking of matters far beyond their personal capacity or direct influence – I too wish to be known only as a person behind a mask. Not because I wish to conceal my identity, or am ashamed, but because it would be pretentious to present a path to ancient wisdom as if I had any part to play in its foundation and development.

The real creator of the value of this work is the one who asks, studies and listens; the one who reframes old concerns in new ways; the one who is willing to let go of false necessities and formative contexts of the past; the one who applies new learning and transforms the ‘self’ in the process; the one who freely shares their own seeds for new ways to think about becoming other kinds of beings. The real creators of this work will find they are able to generate new patterns of thinking and will allow themselves to let go of patterns they relied on in the past.

From the moment this work was produced many have asked me to supply the formulae for its application. This is a matter of great concern to me.

Have we become so limited by discourses of the past that we lack the faith in ourselves to devise various methods to interpret such a work? Have we become so programmed and structured by communicative actions – both our own and from elsewhere – that we cannot see what is there before our already encoded eyes? Have we become blind and unable to produce and interpret meaning for ourselves?

Have we become so dependent on authority that we cannot determine the worth of a message or a method for ourselves? Do we need false priests to bless it from on-high before we can see its value? Do we need it meticulously unpacked in bite sized chunks according to a rationality that is not our own? Must everything we learn be offered with a spoon? Must it be force fed to us by another whom we blindly trust to make inclusions or exclusions on our behalf (supposedly for our benefit)?

If we lack the ability to imagine how this simple object (which clearly references ancient practices and admittedly augments them in several ways) may be applied to our actions aimed at an ‘African Renaissance’, then we also lack the capacity to bring about such transformation.

I delight in the young ones who have offered many suggestions for methods to use this work. I lament that students ‘educated’ by formal disciplines find it impossible to think outside of their disciplinary boundaries when confronted with this object.

Against my better judgement I will offer one insight - which is my own. I will do so by referring to my experience with a curious object when my body was considered to be “a boy”. Like many youngsters at the time, I desired and was given a strange multi-coloured cube. This cube consisted of many parts. I could manipulate its parts around three axes. This action allowed the colours (on the surfaces of the parts) to be radically re-ordered. It presented a problem to its owner.

The problem was to allow its order to be disturbed through free play, and then to restore the lost order to its original configuration – where all the similar coloured surfaces found themselves adjacent to one another.

Of course, you have guessed it, it was a “Rubik’s Cube”. There are many who have used it as a teaching tool to assist students interested in problems related to patterns, limits and the ‘correct’ order of actions.

This object you hold in your hands today is not like that at all. This work deals with the problem of patterns or regularity in the ways we think and act – that is true – but it does not have the same goal! Allow me to say that slower and louder. IT DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME GOAL !!!

Its goal is NOT to restore the lost order or codes of the past. Its goal is to entice you to go where you have not been before – where you have not allowed yourself to go before – and to find (for your own sake and for the sake of all of us - Africans) some precious insight that may help us move towards a new becoming.

I considered at first, to give you a comprehensive bibliography – as a scholar would do – but I have decided to refrain from such action because I may - through my own blindness - exclude what you may find most precious. You will find a wealth of information about the “I Ching” – as we know it in the West. Most libraries and any web search engine should allow you access to a network of statements referring to it.

If you take up the challenge to ask sincere questions – framed in the context of a possible ‘African Renaissance’; if you ask such questions about the part you may play - through your actions in this regard - I assure you, you will surprise yourself, and no doubt many of us, ‘other’ Africans.

I hope you will explore beyond limits. I hope you will find other Africans doing the same. I hope, thinking and acting in ways that make what seemed to be impossible, possible –both in our private and public lives – becomes a regular attribute of becoming African.

(2006)