The Bright Idea and Africa

The Bright Idea and Africa

By Leo Igwe

Until recently, the word “bright” existed only as an adjective. According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, the term ‘bright’ means “full of light, shining strongly, strong and easy to see, cheerful and lively, intelligent, quick to learn, and hopeful; likely to be successful.” But in 2003, the term ‘bright’ got an additional meaning as a noun thanks to two American Brights- Mynga Futrell and Paul Geisert. Hence today we can talk of ‘a bright’, ‘some brights’, ‘the brights movement’ etc. We can make valid expressions like “Idris is a bright” “There are two brights in this hall” “Brights are meeting today”.

A bright stands for a person who has a naturalistic worldview. A bright’s outlook is free of supernatural and mystical elements. The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic outlook. Brights refers to individuals who are often described or categorized in various ways as humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, skeptics, rationalists, naturalists, secularists etc. Some brights belong to churches, mosques and temples. They often espouse very liberal and progressive views and take part in religious activities for social reasons. They don’t take belief in God, spirits, angels, demons, witches and wizards, seriously.
Brights seek to live moral and ethical lives without leaning on these imaginary entities. They base their actions, thoughts and morality on reason, science, experience, common sense and freedom. Brights exist everywhere- in schools, colleges, and universities; in villages and cities; in seminaries and monasteries. Brights are drivers, mechanics, pilots, soldiers, wielders, traders, writers, engineers, scientists, philosophers, theologians, priests and imams.

Since 2003, brights all over the world have been coming together as a movement otherwise known as the Brights Network.(www.the-brights.net) The major aims of the movement include-
-Promoting the civic understanding and acknowledgement of the naturalistic worldview, which is free of supernatural and mystical elements.
-Gaining public recognition that persons who hold such a worldview can bring principled actions to bear on matters of civic importance.
-Educating the society towards accepting the full and equitable civic participation of all such individuals.
Currently the Brights Network is registering all brights into an internet constituency and is helping to connect all whose outlook is free of supernatural and mystical trappings worldwide.

The Bright Network now has several local chapters and communities in different cities, countries and continents. The local units are helping brights raise their profile and impact society’s outlook regarding the naturalistic worldview.
In Nigeria, and Africa, most brights are in the closets. There are few brights who have gone open and public with their views and identity. This is because in Africa those who openly express views and outlooks that are free of supernatural and mystical elements are perceived negatively. They are regarded as perverts, as abnormal and immoral human beings. Africans still equate goodness to godliness; and morality to piety. Again in Africa most social and political institutions are religious. Most schools, colleges and universities are covert churches and mosques. They are weapons, which religious proselytizers use ‘to spread the supernatural message’. Religion and politics (and education) mix. So, most brights in Africa identify with one religion or the other just as a cover in order to ‘lead normal’ lives; to avoid persecution, exclusion and discrimination. Most brights on the continent live and operate behind religious and supernatural masks.

But the Brights network was founded to provide individuals with naturalistic outlook a constituency and a community to assert and express themselves with dignity and pride. The Network works to bring together all brights so that they can impact on social, cultural and political development in their communities.
For it is when brights rally together that they can become visible, and gain public respect and recognition. It is when brights are organized that they can make any meaning impact on the society. Humankind has suffered a lot as a result of the harmful and destructive effects and defects in supernatural and mystical belief systems. The supernatural worldviews peddle divisive, conflicting and contradictory doctrines, which have caused hatred, oppression, alienation, human rights abuses, conflicts and bloodshed. The jihads, the crusades and the inquisition were all violent campaigns inspired by supernatural sentiments. The belief in witchcraft is another supernatural mumbo jumbo that has led to the killing, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of human beings.

Peddlers and purveyors of supernatural and mystical wares have undermined scientific research and discoveries. These ills -and others- will continue to plague the world until all brights march into the open, organize, mobilize and constitute themselves into a force for social, civic and cultural change and transformation. Supernatural fads and fantasies will continue to ravage the globe until those with naturalistic outlook are able to stand up and be counted. And the time to do that is NOW. I am a bright, what about you?

Leo Igwe, an Enthusiastic Bright, lives in Ibadan, Nigeria

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