February 1, 2017 Kevin Dayhoff
I am not into Facebook arguments – see
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2016/05/beating-dead-horse.html.
I like discussion and encourage folks with other points of view to share their
thoughts with me. It is a relatively new “Facebook concept” that folks do not
like others with whom they disagree. I like my friends, whether they agree with
me or not. I am so easy. I like anybody who is nice to me.
Anyway, at least one reader really objected to when I wrote that,
“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground” is an old African
proverb.
Usually I ignore comment trolls. I simply do not have the
time to respond. But this one struck a nerve. The column was from the heart.
And besides, it brought back memories of Dr. Earl Griswold’s anthropological and
sociology research at Western Maryland College – see
https://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2016/04/april-11-1992-dr-l-earl-griswold.html:
all the wonderful things I learned in the Westminster United Methodist Church MYF
- Methodist Youth Fellowship and the many-many lectures and programs at Western
Maryland College in the 1960s… Folks and places that I recall where and when I
was introduced to the concept of “When an old man dies, a library burns to the
ground.”
So I wrote on the Carroll County Times’ Facebook page,
https://www.facebook.com/cctnews/?fref=nf:
I’d like to thank everyone for their feedback. I appreciate this opportunity to
shed some addition light on an important topic in a storied Carroll County that
is rapidly changing.
From the comments below, it appears that many folks
understand the thrust and theme of the story. I felt extremely sad when I wrote
the piece and actually it was my editors who insisted that I have the story
published. I am indebted to them.
For those I failed to reach, I apologize. Genevieve Frost wrote,
“‘old’ African saying. This saying originated in 1960. Stop virtue signaling
and rewriting history.” In a subsequent comment, Ms. Frost remarked, “Stating
that something is old when it is not, isn't an opinion, it's misinformation.”
Well - - at an l’UNESCO conference in 1960, Amadou Hampâté
Bâ, (1901– May 15, 1991,) an eminent Malian intellectual, writer, and
ethnologist referred to the old African proverb when he said, “Un vieillard
africain qui meurt, c’est une bibliothèque qui brûle.” - “In Africa, when an
old man dies, it’s a library burning.”
This, according to multiple media sources, including, “Cahiers
d’études africaines,” 1965, and Cote-d’ivoire by Dominique Desanti, 1962, “Selon
la fulgurante formule d’un ethnologue malien, Amadou Hampâté Bâ: ‘Chaque
vieillard qui meurt, c’est une bibliothèque qui brûle.’”
Actually what the distinguished ambassadeur du Mali à
Abidjan paraphrased is indeed an ancient West African proverb. Much of the
history, customs, and traditions of West Africa are in the form of unwritten oral
history. And when an elder in the community dies, the community suffers a great
loss of institutional knowledge, wisdom, and insight into our treasured customs
and traditions.
My story was an appeal to folks to talk with older family
members, colleagues, and community leaders before it is too late. It is an
ageless universal appeal to interview our elders, learn from them – and record
their stories.
The reference in my story, to the proverb “When an old man
dies, a library burns to the ground,” was to provide me with a written vehicle
to make the point that many of the eminent community leaders who passed away in
Carroll County last year were quite elderly and profoundly wise. Although I had
an opportunity to interview several of them while they were alive, I just wish
that I had taken the time to get them to sit down for a recorded questions and
answer interview.
This was the focus of the lament many of us felt when we
gathered to pay our respects to Woody Swam and gathered in a circle to tell old
Carroll County stories from many years ago, that will sadly be lost without a
concerted effort to document them.
You just cannot “Google” this stuff. There is something lost
in the translation… Some of the stories about state’s attorney Bryan McIntire
are the stuff of legend. Annie Hoff carried forward Carroll County farming
traditions from well into the 1800s. Dave Schaeffer was distinguished Carroll
County businessman that stood witness to enormous changes in Carroll County.
I use the old African proverb, “When an old man dies, a library
burns to the ground,’ often in memorial services, in my capacity as a fire,
military and police chaplain.
The saying is also used by American historians. I often
remember it in the context of southern gothic literature in relationship to the
sadness of a community when an elder passes away. Tennessee Williams described Southern
Gothic as a style that captured "an intuition, of an underlying
dreadfulness in modern experience."
In Carroll County, the subplot, the dog whistle, if you
will, is that with the death of many of these individuals; passes a certain
Carroll County way-of-life that is going away forever. This concept is greeted
with a certain dread by many in the community.
Although, the Carroll History project coordinated by the Community
Media Center and developed by the Carroll County Public Library, Carroll County
NAACP, the Human Relations Commission of Carroll County, the Historical Society
of Carroll County and the Carroll County Genealogical Society has attempted to
address the importance of capturing Carroll County oral history; much more
remains to be done.
A big thank you to everyone who read the column and gave me
positive feedback. The column was from the heart. God Bless.
