POWER AND MADNESS

(INSIGHT NEWSMAGAZINE, No. 001, February 2003)

One unlearned lesson that the human history of all historical epochs teaches us is that power and madness are next-door neighbours. Frequently they end up as bed mates. Most human beings, whenever they have managed to gain unlimited power, that is, absolute or relatively absolute power, without any effective checks and balances, and sometimes even in spite of checks and balances, have ended being drunk with power, to the point of madness. I once visited the history museum of the pre-colonial ancient kingdom of Abomey in Benin Republic and was shown the grave of one of its most powerful autocratic-tyrant monarchs who pretended to be immortal and no one had the courage to contradict him. A young lady used to kneel in front of him permanently holding a little bowl into which he could spit, in case he happened to cough. If, by any chance, the sputum missed the bowl, the penalty was the immediate execution of the young lady!

When he finally went the way of all mortals, the way of all flesh, the way of all human beings, his spell persisted over his subjects and he was buried together with 42 ‘volunteers’ from among the younger members of his harem, so they could continue serving and ministering to him in the world beyond. Did that resurrect him? Courageous resistance to such power-induced madness led, in some parts of Africa, to power regulation and control institutions such as the Ngomba, Kwifon or Ngwerong societies of the grassfield regions of Cameroon. Such regulatory societies were charged with protecting the land and the people against the whims and caprices of the King and could control him to the extent of restraining/constraining some of his actions, restricting his physical movements, banishing him, or, in extreme cases, even executing him.