Omuluabi: Self Actualization and Communal Responsibilty

Dr. Gbadegesin really analyzed and broked down the research question in his own understanding. He went in depth of what the question was asking and how to approach it. He said that we must acknowledge the human condition and its enduring problems, the role of various fieldsof study, in the production , advancement, and transformation of academic knowledge related to those problems. Of all he talked about his three main points were: transforming academic knowledge into wisdom, the ignorance surrounding the African history, and of course Omoluabi. He focused alot on the concept that one needs more than knowledge, they must also have wissdom. Not only should they have have wisdom but to be completely educated, you must transform the learned knowledge ino wisdom. The process doesn't stop there either; one must also apply that wisdom to inform others. In his powerpoint he defined wisdom or someone that has wisdom as someone that is skilled in turning his/her knowldege to serve the process of human relations. From this definition and his elaboration in what it meant to be wise and how one must transform knowledge into wisdom, I concluded that even though knowledge is necissary to have, it means nothing if it isn't transformed into wisdom. I also came to the conclusion that having wisdom alone is not enough. If one has wisdom but never applies it and use it to serve others than it means nothing. To have true wisom one must first transform their acaddemic knowledge into wisdom and then use that new wisdom to "serve the process of human relations." Despite the fact that I grasped the concept of the idea that one must transfom knowledge into wisdom it wasn't clear as to how. Yes, it was stated that knowledge isn't enough, but it was not stated how to actually go about transforming it. I too had this dilemma with Dr. Carr. Their viewpoint on wisdom versus knowledge was the same, but they both never went into detail as to how one must go about this transformation. Dr. G also commented on the ignorance surrounding African history. He brought up the idea that academic knowledge was sometimes innaccurate. He said that academic knowledge teaches that Africans have no history and that there is no Black Philosophy. In his lecture he went about prooving how influential Anciet Egypt/Africa was to the progression of human progress. This topic also reminded me a lot of Dr. Carr's because he too taught on how significant Africans was to language and human progression period. By hearing about the importance of Ancient Africa I was taken back because like Dr. G said we are taught the only history of Africans were slavery. We meaning me, wasn't taugh about the positives of African history only the depression of my people. I was taught about the Europeans and Englishmen contributing to the human progression by agriculture and eventually technology. I was never taught that African's created hieroglyphics or any of their contributions to the world. The lecture given by both Dr. Carr and Dr. G were very informative in that aspect. Finally, Dr. G taught us what Omoluabi was. He define it as a child begotten of the chief (source) of Iwa. It was someone of character, disciplined, self improving, and uses practical wisdom for the benefit of society. This definition was self explanatory and I was quickly able to link it to the his main focus: transforming learned knowledge into wisdom. He used this term to once again explain the true meaning of what it means to be wise. A person who gains academic knowledge, transforms it into wisdom, and finally uses it to benefit society, much like the Ancient Africans did. Like my ancestors I too want to be labled as an Omoluabi!