Responsibility

In this week’s post our colleague Michael (UK team) shares some thoughts on the question of responsibility — thanks Michael!

A quick Google search will tell you what the word means: “the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone.” But what does it mean to you? And why the hell am I talking about it on the All Inc! blog? Well, it has made me think about my responsibility as a teacher, as a heterosexual white male, and heck, as a person living on planet Earth!

Throughout history people have been persecuted. And throughout history, people in a privileged position have stood by and watched. I studied a poem when taking my GCSEs* but it never really hit home until recently:

“Not My Business”
by Niyi Osundare**

They picked Akanni up one morning
Beat him soft like clay
And stuffed him down the belly
Of a waiting jeep.

What business of mine is it
So long they don’t take the yam
From my savouring mouth?

They came one night
Booted the whole house awake
And dragged Danladi out,
Then off to a lengthy absence.

What business of mine is it
So long they don’t take the yam
From my savouring mouth?

Chinwe went to work one day
Only to find her job was gone:
No query, no warning, no probe —
Just one neat sack for a stainless record.

What business of mine is it
So long they don’t take the yam
From my savouring mouth?

And then one evening
As I sat down to eat my yam
A knock on the door froze my hungry hand.

The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawn
Waiting, waiting in its usual silence.

The speaker in the poem ignores his responsibility —he does not give his voice and speak up for others— and therefore there is no one left to help him in his hour of need.

As a teacher I need to make sure that I offer a wide range of texts that give voice to a variety of cultures and sexualities. I need to make sure that I use my voice to help spread awareness. I need to be an ally. I need to be responsible.

What business of mine is it? Well, if no one speaks up and asks for equality, who will be left to speak up for you when they come to take the yam from your savouring mouth?

* GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education.
** Niyi Osundare (b.1947); “Not My Business” published in his collection Village Voices (1984).