A South African academic writes that "the use of metaphors and parables remains one of the greatest assets in the African education system. Supported by a rigorously used system of storytelling and use of symbols, metaphors have for centuries provided indigenous scholarship about and for African civilizations. The intellectual resilience of African wisdom cues and philosophy endowed idiomatic expressions have not only served as repositories of community values but also anchored a normative environment comparable to recorded philosophy of other civilisations. The use therefore of metaphors creates for society a rather neutral platform to reflect on itself in relation to presented phenomena". In fact, we can escape the challenges of having to be real, by the cliches that metaphors can be.
Orwellian literature has been able to assist society reflect on itself through the metaphorical use of animals in a fictionalised story, animal farm. Round the fire stories by elders in many societies have all been found to have used animals as characters in a drama of life to transmit norms and values to unsuspecting, yet assimilating, audiences of young people. Of the many characters, the animals that were on the dinner table as stories were told, seldom featured as heroes of any story, save for 'the hare, mmutla, or unogwatsha'.
With the advent of global imperialism, and its consequence of some amongst humanity assuming roles of being predatory to others for their 'selfish developmental interests', humans as actors therein have come to resemble animals, and thus create themselves as new and interesting metaphors. The animal kingdom has established a rule that predators will in most material instances be in the minority, as well as brutal for their survival. Whilst animals have some cognition on how to survive, they are not expected to have conscience, whence their predatory nature has been normalised by humans as being acceptable. The wolf-chicken relationship is one such metaphor in the explanation of the evolution, growth and development of South Africa’s political economy in a democracy that valorises majority rule.
When chickens believe in the leadership of those chickens amongst them that dine a chicken-based meal with wolves, competition amongst chickens will be about who amongst them is not served in the next dinner. There would in this context 'chicken leaders' that negotiate binding dispensations within which the role of 'chickens in wolf dinner tables' is presented as a 'either eating or being eaten'. In cases where the 'chicken is eating , this is called empowerment, and if eaten it is called, labour'. Cushions to this dispensation will include the 'right to strike', 'freedoms of association, assembly, press, and speech', whilst not interfering with the insatiable appetite of wolves in respect of the protein that chickens are.
The pecking order on the table will thus be established, and wolf emperors and imperial centres including all sorts of 'chicken hunting specialists' will be presented in this value chain as investors of feed and related, or market forces without which chicken poverty might be a normal feature of life. Foundries of stainless steel will be established to skill chickens in the art of crafting the best butcher knives to ensure quicker loss of life for 'othered chickens'. Camps within which chickens will be taught how to present themselves at the abattoir in their various grades whose pipelines of graduation are wolf managed and controlled. As chickens line up for their abattoir moments, they will be graded in terms of which amongst them are for flavouring other wolf foodstuffs, which are for processing into tins for later consumption, which will be for off the shelve freshness and daily consumption, otherwise also called 'metsetserepa', and most critically which can be packaged for branded products in a world of wolves, and other participating predators such as foxes and dogs.
As chickens are put through the various slaughtering processes, their waste, or offal can either be served to the weakest of wolves or repurposed to propel the protein needs of chickens as they are reared. Whilst this practice has been outlawed by the wolf political elites at the advise of their dieticians, it practice which includes feeding the pork fat, has had the advantage of producing over six kilogram chickens, despite them not being layers. The chicken value chain includes their contribution without having to go into abattoirs to breakfasts of the broader animal kingdom, including themselves.
The outcome of this arrangement will at all material times be a context where all rules of co-existence are written by wolves in a democracy where chickens are in the majority. Laws will be written in a manner that advantages wolves, courts will adjudicate according to the set wolf advantaging laws.
Yes, there would be 'vegetarian' wolves that will fight for the reduction of wolf hegemony over who is served at the dinner table. 'Vegetarian' wolves will be loyal to the cause of chickens to the extent that it does not affect 'wolfness' beyond their choice to be 'vegetarian' wolves. Vegetarian wolves would thus occupy almost all strategic 'chicken' leadership positions. At worst vegetarian wolves will recruit foxes to write 'chicken based' dinner table policies whilst they focus on the 'social cohesion' aspects of wolf-chicken co-existence.
So for chickens to really change the dinner table menu, even if they know they are a traditionally cheaper protein, and can be mass produced through processes that guarantee their supply, they need to work from a base of their proteinness. Unless they alter their being proteins in the value chain, any hope of being free to determine their destiny is bleak. To change from being a protein in the glare of wolves, foxes, lions, and most dangerously your fellow domesticated cats and dogs, will require the best of liberation strategies and tactics. In the end, every evening dinner will be served at a table of wolves, with sprinkles of chickens. Happy June 16.
🤷🏿♂️A ndzo ti tsalela.
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