January comes from the Latin word Januarius, which was named after Janus. Janus was an ancient Roman deity who was the guardian god of portals, gates, and doors.
Janus was the patron of beginnings and endings. It is depicted as having two faces, one in front and the other at back.
In the initial Roman calendar, which had only 10 months, the year began in March. In that ancient calendar, January and February were completely missing. The two months were only added in 713 BC.
Despite this addition, March continued to retain its position as the first month of the year until about 153 BC.
Being the patron of beginnings and endings and a deity with two faces, Janus was deemed fit to occupy its present position. It uses one face to say good-bye to the ending year and uses the other to welcome the coming year. January maintained this position in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
Do you now realize the connection between the ancient Roman culture and the present European and world civilizations? Do you see that no reasonable person disconnects himself or herself from his or her roots?
Do you realize why the academic world no longer tolerates the words pagan, idolatry, fetish, and uncivilized when referring to a culture,religion, or people? Yes, if any culture, religion, or people can be called pagan, idolatry, fetish, or uncivilized, none would escape it.
Imagine that Janus were to be an African deity. I tell you, many African Christians would never celebrate crossover nights because night and darkness have nothing in common.
Yes, many of us who refer to themselves as believers should rightly be called self-haters. We just hate ourselves and anything that has a connection to us. We need to restore our brains to factory settings; otherwise, we are gone..
Learn or Perish!…
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Self-education
is the key to unlocking the chains of ignorance, leading us to the freedom of enlightenment.
When we take charge of our learning, we embark on a journey of self-discovery, breaking barriers and expanding horizons.
It’s not just about acquiring knowledge;
it’s about questioning, challenging, and understanding the world around us.
Each book read, each skill learned, each question pondered, brings us closer to a liberated mind, free from the constraints of unchallenged beliefs and perspectives.
This journey is deeply personal yet universally empowering.
It fosters independence, critical thinking, and the courage to seek truth.
As we educate ourselves, we become architects of our destiny, capable of shaping our thoughts and actions.
This process isn’t just transformational; it’s revolutionary.
Embrace self-education, for it is in the pages of a book, the pursuit of a new skill, the exploration of new ideas, that we find the wings to freedom.
Learn or Perish!….
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Liberation Movement leadership needs to understand that:
1.divergent opinion is healthy in sustaining the movements. Successful leadership emerges out of support of able, honest, frank and professional followership.
Surrounding oneself with incompetent, praise singers and often deceitful followership and subordinates is their greatest undoing. Equally those with divergent opinions in the ranks should have moral conviction to say issues frankly, openly and professionally without being opportunistic for own good but for the general good of the Institution.
2.The supremacy of the Ideology and the Institution. Party ideologies and Institutions are permanent though they evolve over time. Leadership and leaders are generational and not permanent.
This brings to the fore, the idea of ideological and institutional supremacy over personalities. Leadership is only as good as its followership. Each generational leadership sets the leadership tone which guides its followers. Followers are, because of their leadership.
3. Ability to separate the individual as a person and the professional personality they occupy in their position of authority. Once we realise that Bureacracy assigns us authority through positions we hold in our lifetime and that authority is temporary and so are the positions we ascend to in our lives, we will be better leadership to live with. This would lead to idea of each generational leadership mentoring the next.
4.Leadership succession is a natural process. Today we are in leadership and the reality is tomorrow we will leave. Our success as leadership is often measured by our ability to produce the next generational leadership. Leadership succession should never be acrimonious strategic issue and no matter how good we are suing our leadership times, we can never lead for eternity.
We have to pass the baton stick someday and we should do so in a manner that sustains the future. Debate around leadership succession is an important survival agenda item in the course of running any Organisation and it should be tabled, discussed openly and frankly without fear or favour. Existing leadership should provide the impetus and channels of such a discussion.
5.Empathy
Finally, empathy will get leadership and followership far at all levels of operation and will help maintain the bonds and relationships they have into the future.
Thank you.
BY KENNETH DUMBURA
