The Fourth Heritage Initiative
Newsletter
ISSUE NO 01 | Sept 2022 | VOL 01
The Inaugural Edition
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1. What is the Fourth Heritage Initiative?
2. The books that inspired the Initiative
What is the Fourth Heritage Initiative?
This is a voluntary mindset transformation organisation whose founding was inspired by the ideas in the books The Fourth Heritage and Beyond the Fourth Heritage. The organisation is registered in Uganda and was launched on 12th Sept, 2022 at the Uganda National Cultural Centre by the Minister of State for Gender and Cultural Affairs Hon. Peace R. Mutuuzo.
The Initiative is a purpose-led organisation with the following attributes:
- Our Purpose: The reason we exist is to inspire the change of African mindsets
- Our Vision: To be the foremost mindset transformation organisation in Africa.
- Our Mission: To create the new African who is critical and able to transcend the limiting factors caused by our heritages of birth.
Guide: We are guided by the principles of seeking true knowledge, then putting in the work and effort to individually change our mindsets so that we live happy successful lives.
Operational Strategy: We offer Thought Leadership via our books, trainings and speaking engagements, and we partner with other organisations whose activities are in line with our purpose of changing African mindsets.
The Inaugural Board is composed of:
- Mr Emmanuel Kirunda: Author, Energy Expert and Chairman of the Board
- Mr. Fagil Mandy: Educationist, Author, Business man & Director.
- Dr. Mercy Ntangaare: Playwright, Educationist, Theatre maker, Director
- Mr Tim Mununuzi: Nutritionist, Entrepreneur, Blogger.
The books that inspired the Initiative
The book The Fourth Heritage was first published in 2009 then in 2011. In this book, I present my personal view on how we Africans can integrate what Prof. Ali Mazrui called the triple heritages of tribe, religion and colonial influences.
I propose the Fourth Heritage model which is a way for people to use sceptical reasoning to choose the good, while discarding the bad, within the triple heritages.
In both narrative form and diagrammatical illustration, I argue that just as the legs are what we stand on, our tribes are our roots; just as the chest has the heart – the organ that stores our deepest emotions, similarly our religions store our deep passions; just as the hands are what we use to function, similarly the colonial languages are what we use to function in the modern world; HOWEVER since the brain is the most important organ in the body, the Fourth Heritage should be the most important heritage that dominates and guides the triple heritages.
I predicate that with the Fourth Heritage, people will be able to transcend the limiting tribal/closed mindsets to have open successful mindsets.
Guide: We are guided by the principles of seeking true knowledge, then putting in the work and effort to individually change our mindsets so that we live happy successful lives.
Operational Strategy: We offer Thought Leadership via our books, trainings and speaking engagements, and we partner with other organisations whose activities are in line with our purpose of changing African mindsets.
The Inaugural Board is composed of:
- Mr Emmanuel Kirunda: Author, Energy Expert and Chairman of the Board
- Mr. Fagil Mandy: Educationist, Author, Business man & Director.
- Dr. Mercy Ntangaare: Playwright, Educationist, Theatre maker, Director
- Mr Tim Mununuzi: Nutritionist, Entrepreneur, Blogger.
The book Beyond the Fourth Heritage goes beyond identity to propose a thinking framework on how anyone, especially Africans can search for and acquire true knowledge that is beneficial for their functioning in the modern world.
The book answers the question, once you are comfortable with who you are, then what? I employ 12 hypotheses which are the 12 chapters to propose that once you have the right knowledge in line with who you are, then it becomes your duty to create value here on earth, and the highest value we humans have created is the written tradition. The cultures that have a written tradition are the cultures that are leading the world. Since most African cultures are based on oral history, no wonder we are lagging behind in the modern civilization.
More pertinently, I spend a great deal of effort in the book to describe the historical and psychological factors that have led Africans to internalise self-defeating mindsets and pre-modern minds. In the thesis chapter, I propose the theory of the 3 limits: the tribal limit, the religion limit, and the colonial limit. It is only when we can go beyond those limits, that we Africans will be able to reconcile our roots with the forces of modernity.
By Emmanuel Kirunda
