The Mind Of A Bigot, by Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema

Bigotry. One of the ugliest words in English Language, if you ask me. Its connotations are not beautiful: narrow-mindedness, intolerance, prejudice, ignorance, and in extreme cases, societal upheaval. The Cambridge English Dictionary defined bigotry as ‘the fact of having and expressing strong, unreasonable beliefs and disliking other people who have different beliefs or a different way of life.’

Bigotry can be religious, political, cultural, and even sexual. It is a universal trait that manifests itself in various ways in different societies. Sadly, Nigeria is not exempted, even among her educated classes. Indeed the average Nigerian who knows what bigotry is will be offended if you call him or her a bigot. But a short objective interaction with such an individual will convince you that bigotry is probably embedded in his or her DNA.

At this point let us find out how to identify a bigot. There are basically five attributes of bigoted people. Studies show there are certainly more features of bigoted people but only five are discussed here.

First, bigots usually have a literal, one-track, narrow understanding of their beliefs. They do not accept that their beliefs, whether religious, political, cultural, etc. can be seen from different perspectives. Examples are Christian and Muslim fanatics and how they interpret the Bible and Quran.

Also, because they see their beliefs and ideas as sacrosanct, bigots do not question THEIR beliefs. Thus, the political bigot will never critically look at the candidate or ideology or political party he is prepared to kill or die for. The cultural bigot will say tradition should be followed unquestioningly. Anyone who has a different view is ‘Haram’ (to use the Arabic term for forbidden), even when logic and reason are brought to bear on such rigid beliefs. Interestingly most of the mindsets of bigots fall to pieces if you can get their owners to answer this fundamental question honestly: what really is the basis for this belief of yours?

Third, bigots are usually ignorant about views, people and ideas outside their narrow domain. This has absolutely nothing with being educated. The average bigot will not take the time to look at life beyond his or her cocoon. Why? Maybe the bigot was bred on a diet of ignorance and lies by authority figures like parents, teachers, religious leaders, etc. For those of them who went to school their education may be so wonky it only embedded prejudice, instead of expelling it. Perhaps this example from my experience in the classroom may amplify this point. I was teaching a history class of junior secondary school boys. These lads come from different ethnic groups in Nigeria, and if you know Nigerians, you will know that tribal prejudices are passed from one generation to the next. As I was outlining some rather unsavoury historical facts committed in a precolonial Nigerian state, students who had been indoctrinated to regard people from the ethnic group that came from that area as bad people began to mock their mates, confident that they had history on their side. Of course I burst their bubble with some ugly facts about their own people. The essence of what they learnt from me that day is that every people have ugly stains recorded on them by history.

Bigots love emotionalism. That is why many leading bigots throughout history and right into our time are demagogues who draw crowds of unthinking and unquestioning followers. Bigots wrap their bigotry in different cloths to get their wonky beliefs into people’s hearts and minds. Thus the jihadist will turn his aspiration to destroy the house of infidels into an appeal to Islam. The Christian bigot will justify his maltreatment of unbelievers and destruction of worship places of adherents of African traditional religion with the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to spread the gospel. The tribalists will argue that the other tribe should be dealt with because they are responsible for the bigots’ woes. Indeed there are so many apparels one can cover bigotry in. If you are critical you will observe that bigots, including those in positions of power and influence, are hostile towards sincere and persistent thinkers and questioners? They put labels on them: ‘philosophers who do not know God and will go to hell’, ‘corrupters of morals’, ‘haters of our culture and tradition,’ ‘atheists,’ etc. Some are even accused of reading many books! (I have been found guilty of this). In cases where power is on the side of the bigots, those who refuse to be swayed by their demagoguery may end up in unpleasant situations.

Finally, bigots are not outright liars. In many cases the average bigot’s warped belief system and thought processes emanate from reality. But the problem is how they chose to interpret reality. Do they work with full information about this reality? The 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria is a case study. The ethnic and religious backgrounds of the three major candidates were the reality political bigots drew upon and based their understanding of electoral outcomes. Subsequently, people from the other sides were labelled, and age-old myths were reinforced. Other realities did not matter. For example, there were Yoruba who truly believed in the Labour Party candidate. Just as there were Igbo committed to the APC candidate. But as we saw in ensuing narratives, bigots turned such realities on their heads and used them to justify their perceptions.

Bigotry is far deadlier than cancer. It destroys individuals, societies and nations. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 is just one eloquent testimony to the power of bigotry. While the war against bigotry should be fought by all, those of us who are called to create worlds with words, pictures, songs and symbols are unique front liners in this age-old war. How much of other worlds, cultures and lives do we know? Do our creations speak to the principle of humanity before any other creed? Do we, the creatives, give our gifts to the service of bigots just to satisfy our stomachs and bank accounts? Worse, do we use our talents to push the narratives of the bigots? Let nobody be fooled: the writer, singer, sculptor, film maker, is human and thus capable of bigotry. But it is doubly painful because by our calling we are supposed to be arrowheads that pierce the deepest hearts of systems of bigotry. Perhaps the first imaginative step in fumigating the minds of bigots with our creations is to immerse ourselves in cultures that are not ours by the accident of birth. That is why my hat remains permanently doffed for two great writers who did this admirably. The immortal Cyprian Ekwensi, an Igbo, who so immersed himself in Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri worldviews that his fiction set in those cultures remain evergreen in the hearts of all who read them. Contemporaneously, Henry Akubiro walked the same line with ‘Yamtarawala, the Warrior King’ which deservedly made the shortlist of the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature last year. The play opened up the cultures of the vast swath of Northeastern Nigeria far better than any history textbook. These are just a few of the measures we creatives can take to kill the seeds and plants of bigotry.

Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema is a historian, teacher and author. His email address: henrykd2009@yahoo.com