PENLORDS
(Inscribing Transformative Knowledge)
Introduction: Man, from the moment of conception gets the buzz of a
welter of experiences that impress on his consciousness structuring his mental
frames to form worldviews and perspectives which are the mental windows from
where he views the world of his experience. As he gathers experiences that
mould his worldview these experiences create stories and messages from where he
develops a conscious history.
The
individual relates to the world through the window of his experiences and can
only communicate these through his stories and messages. The effect of the
experiential impressions on one’s mind is dependent on the structure of his mental
categories (mental fertility). It is therefore from this that one forms his personal
construct of the world which
advertently shapes his personality and social identity (what I call personal
identity). One’s personal identity is a direct result of impressionable
circumstances which form his internal narratives (self-conception)
and are communicated in form of stories and messages. His stories and messages
are his internal narratives and his personal identity is his history, the
history is the man.
It is usually said, and we however consider it a truism,
that one without a history lacks true self-consciousness for the presence of
self-consciousness is marked by history making and history is only known
through codification and records. Hence Hegel talks of Africa lacking history
and consciousness (reason) because history is the exemplification and
instantiation of reason.
Posterity have always chided Africa’s past (and even
present) for being uncivilized, underdeveloped, poor and lacking concrete
history. The reason for this being that unlike the European west and east and
the Asian north and south the (sub-Saharan) Africa lacked a tenable and
valuable codified history this being the consequence of the lack of a literary
spirit and skill. This might be the story of our past but certainly not of
today and the future for at every turn are old and young Africans seeking to
rewrite their history and forge a new reality for themselves.
The
spirit of writing is the spirit of self-consciousness and self-understanding.
It is the evidence of reason alive, of civilisation, of intellectual growth and
development. It is therefore true that any epoch that lacks or loses this drive
loses its identity, its history and its being. To revive therefore this
literary consciousness, is to revive a new world of hope, vision and purpose.
In a contemporary world that smacks off materialistic humanism and
subjective relativism, we need minds that would not only conceive and think out
a genuine story but are also ready to rewrite its conventional ideology with
one that is reflective of man's God-given purpose. To do this, we have
therefore, to learn the art of writing informed by an art of
the mind which transforms into an art of living.
Consequently, the Penlords have emerged with the sole objective of
inscribing transformative knowledge that would retell our ugly stories and
shift our ideological patterns towards the path of intellectual freedom,
ontological manifestation and purpose actualisation.
The essence of this write-up is to expose and emphasize
on the need to revive the spirit of writing among our people (particularly the
youth) to tell their stories and pass across their messages so as to inscribe
the change we need in the 21st century.
Understanding the Spirit of Writing.
Education can be defined as the cultivation of the human
spirit (mind) to enable it tap into the spirit of the world and harness
universal reality so as to unite with ultimate reality which is man's
overarching purpose/quest.
An educated sprit is one that has so harmonised the
welter of one's spiritual and existential experiences into an organised order
of volitional-rational consciousness that leads to ontological fulfilment (self
fulfilment). When the spirit is educated it becomes conscious of history
consequent to this there arises the need to codify or record history- this is
the birth of the spirit of writing. The spirit of writing is borne out of
rational awareness (an educated mind).
An educated mind is truly a self-conscious mind and a
self-conscious mind is a historic mind. It is within the historicity of the
mind's consciousness that the spirit of writing is born. Therefore for you to
raise the spirit of writing in a society you must educate its minds. To write
is to think and according the French philosopher Rene Descartes to think is to
be (exist). It could therefore be said that since to write is to think and to
think is to be (existence/life) it would not be out of place to say that
writing codifies, records and immortalises life or being.
The educated mind acts in view of an end (objective). In
the case of writing, the spirit of writing which is part of the characteristics
of the educated spirit writes for a purpose, to tell a story in order to pass a
message across, a message that is intended to cause a change. The spirit of
writing therefore propels change. To write is to cause a change and to cause a
change in the society is to participate in the process of making the world. A
writer is a world maker.
The Art of Writing.
The art of writing is the skill, processes, methods and
ways of passing across your message to your reading audience. To know the art
of writing one must learn the art of the mind which is an intellectual training
in the act of rigorousness, love for excellence, professionalism, critical
thinking, creativity and innovative thinking. For the art of writing involves a
systematic and methodical procedure that requires detailed ideological analysis
and synthesis. To be able to do this one must therefore cultivate one's mind.
To cultivate the mind is to educate the spirit in the acts and processes of
critical and creative thinking. To develop the mind in the art of writing the
following three things are involved:
1. Constant reading and researching.
2. Meditation.
3. Writing
The third criterion becomes key to learning the art of
writing because we learn how to do a thing by doing the thing - faber fabricandum fit. You can only develop your writing skills by constantly
writing.
A Call to Write.
The call to write is the purpose and vision of the Penlords. Every educated mind is called
to write, to codify history - his experiences - for the essence of enlightening
others. This is a paramount call to for the Penlords to harness their
intellectual potentials and help others actualise theirs. For us the call to
write is a call to rigour, excellence, professionalism, innovation, creativity,
transformation, development, success and fulfilment. We are called to inscribe
transformative knowledge.
Penlords: Written words remain
By the Penlords
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