01/03/2024
The Shame Curriculum – our only hope for the future– Eng. Bakeine Musiimenta
As we journey through life, we get education formally and informally. The formal component of education is designed by various curriculum development institutions with society needs and the general environment in mind.
Informal education refers to a lifelong learning process, whereby each individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from the educational influences and resources in his or her own environment and from daily experience. This education has the largest bearing on our lives, society and how we are perceived by our society.
I define shame as an emotion derived from failure to adhere to your values, attitudes and culture. When we sin, we are expected to be remorseful, not take pride in sin, but repent with a promise to try not to sin again, which is an uphill task. However, the act of repentance and prayer for forgiveness from the almighty indicates that you are guilty and ashamed of sin. What is important in this sin, remorse and repentance cycle, is the promise to do better or reduce the amount of sin caused to society and to God. In the prayer for penance or penitential act at the beginning of mass in the catholic church, we confess sins committed in thoughts, words and actions, in what we have done and what we have failed to do. This implies that if a society developed a culture of guilt for sins committed in thoughts, words, actions, in what has been done and what was not done, then we shall have moved far in the war against corruption, social disorder and lack of peace.
Achieving the above is difficult when society has mainstreamed corruption and sin in its informal education. Our cultures have some words of wisdom that support corruption in leadership. In some parts of africa, it is said that one given a leadership position has been given an opportunity to become rich. Another word of wisdom is: when one of your own harvests honey, you lick your fingers. There are many other sayings that are an indication of how society perceives leadership positions and benefits. So, we have to design cultural changes to promote fairness and good behavior by anyone in a position of leadership.
A shameless person is regarded by some societies as one not worth living. Some African societies value shameless behavior as positive when it generates wealth for the individual or society just like the colonialists did in the past. Colonial kingdoms like Spain, Britain and Portugal benefitted from piracy, murder, r**e, slave trade and plunder in the countries colonized and still benefit from the proceeds to date. All the activities that enriched these countries in their quest for territories were shameful and deserve apology and compensation.
Shame is defined differently by societies and their level of tolerance. In western culture, guilt can be relieved through confession, self-righteousness, or the justice system, but in Japanese culture, shame cannot be removed until a person does what society expects, which may include drastic measures such as committing su***de. Sepuku or self stabbing with a sharp knife, is the well known Japanese method of maintaining honour to your family or society if you are engaged in shame.
Our African societies need not adopt the Japanese definition of shame and expected solution, but can adopt methods to not promote shame. As discussed above, informal training by a society that has developed praise for those engaged in shameful behavior may not be enough. At family level, we have few role models to emulate because of the herd mentality acquired over the past 40 years.
On November 30, 2017, the former Chief Justice and Chairperson of the JLOS Leadership Committee, Hon. Justice Bart Katureebe, urged JLOS stakeholders to name and shame corrupt officials, if corruption is to be eradicated in the sector. "One way of fighting corruption is to identify the corrupt, name them, shame them and get rid of them," he said. We cannot shame all involved in corruption if we do not have a society definition of shameful behavior. This is because shameful behavior has been mainstreamed in our society. I have spoken to some lawyers who tell me that a client has to chose an advocate depending on which judge is handling his/her case, to ease co-operation.
Formal education remains the only viable option to train society out of the mess comprising of a bunch of viruses (corruption, impunity, littering, immorality, alcoholism, drug abuse, election rigging, greed, etc). We need a new culture that emphasizes self-criticism and modesty ultimately affirming social harmony. We should therefore design “the curriculum of shame” with definitions of the viruses that are causing disorder in society and under development.
I recommend that family heads ask their members what they define as shameful behavior regularly, so that we mainstream the definition of shame to the youth. Teachers and lecturers should devote 5 minutes of their time to the “the Shame curriculum” on a daily basis.
Cultural changes are also necessary redirect our societies to shun shameful behavior. There is need to use cultural leaders in resetting the trends that promote mediocrity, like seeking favours from politicians for votes and seek to elevate their societies to higher ideals that will bring growth to the youth like meritocracy. In Japan, some of the core values are thinking of others, doing your best, not giving up, respecting your elders, knowing your role, and working in a group. These concepts are taught explicitly and implicitly from nursery school into the working world. We could also ask cultural leaders to set up methods that help promote their language and culture in line with “ the shame curriculum”.
The ministry of Ethics and Integrity should be at the forefront of “the shame curriculum” by promoting its mainstreaming both at school level, cultural leader level and parliamentary level. Winning an election through rigging should be shamed by society and the guilty should be banned from elective politics. Such a reaction to rigging is only possible when society does not condone shameful behavior as a result of graduating from our only hope: “the shame curriculum”.
For God and My Country.
