The most powerful tool of communication known to humans is the spoken word. Language, uttered through the mouth, beats all other modes of communication. That’s because virtually everyone can transmit through their voice a decipherable sound that communicates ideas and meaning.
Almost everyone, whether literate or illiterate, can express themselves by the spoken word. The written word comes a close second. The reason is that writing came much later when humans could already speak.
Today, it’s estimated that 86 per cent of the world’s population, from the age of 15, is literate. But language – spoken and written – can be used to fuel violence. I believe the assassination of American Charlie Kirk offers several lessons about the dangers of hot rhetoric.
First, let’s stipulate that words matter. Words communicate intent, policy, and action. The Constitution, for example, is the most powerful document in any country. It defines all the powers, rights and obligations within a state. It’s the total sum of what any entity– individuals and the state alike – can, and cannot, do.
In a manner of speaking, if it ain’t in the Constitution, either directly or impliedly, it ain’t there. You can’t make it up on the go. So, the loudest voice in a country is that of the Constitution. But often that voice is the most misunderstood because it’s usually distorted and muffled by the spoken word. It’s the spoken word that translates the written word.
Second, rhetoric is king when it comes to communication. We all remember the incendiary role played by Radio Television des Mille Collines in fuelling Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Nicknamed Radio Genocide, it effectively propagated a conflagration of hatred against the Tutsi in a manner that remains chilling to this day. It advocated for the naked annihilation of the Tutsi who it termed “cockroaches.” Today, the dangers of “Radio Genocide” are amplified by a factor of infinity because of the tools of social media. Violent, or hate rhetoric, is today more flammable than at any time in human history. The fire of genocide or ethnic cleansing can be lit in an instant. Yet states and society seem paralysed in addressing this epochal challenge.
Third, we need to be cognisant of the fact that hate begets hate. The oral violence of the mouth – of verbal diarrhoea – is one of the most pressing dangers to societal collapse today. Whether that bilious rhetoric issues from the beak of a politician or the unholy mouth of a cleric, it matters not. What matters is the corrosive and toxic effect it has on the populace, especially the youth. Because hate is taught, not in-born, or hard-wired.
It’s locational and environmental. Just as you can teach hate, you can unlearn it, or teach society to cleanse itself of it. Hate may be one of the most inferior natural emotions. But one must be deliberate to unleash it, or craft it as state policy, or societal norm. Like racism and tribalism, or misogyny, hateful rhetoric is usually taught in the home, at school, in religious institutions, or other societal vistas. The sad fact is that hateful rhetoric sells – and sells big!
I am saddened by the daylight execution of Charlie Kirk. While I have no doubt that he preached hate against those who weren’t like him, I believe his killing will fuel even more hate on both sides of the political divide in America.
Feelings will harden and political rhetoric will coarsen. I fear for what’s next because democracy can only withstand so many existential stresses. Since democracy’s central lifeblood is speech, I am afraid this feverish spiral will continue until sobriety returns whenever it does, if it does.
Fourth, we are in the grip of the politics of hate – especially of the racial and tribal variety. This isn’t unique to America. It’s a global cancer. Here in Kenya, what passes for the political opposition traffics in hateful messages – coded and explicit.
Disgraced ex-Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is the incumbent friar and trafficker-in-chief of ethnic splitism. As Deputy President, he saw Kenya as a company limited by shares with those who voted for his side as the sole beneficiaries of the state’s purse. He didn’t care if, or how, others faced damnation or starvation by state alienation and marginalisation. He was so eloquent in advancing the “government by shares” motto that he was impeached for it. Imagine if such a character were to become numero uno in Kenya.
Fifth, and finally, we need to realise that hate can consume us all. I see efforts to erase Kirk’s hateful rhetoric in a bid to sanctify him. That is not the right way to remember him.
We cannot erase some of the horrible things he said about those he loathed. What we can learn from this tragedy is that an eye for eye will leave all of us blind. We must turn back from the precipice.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. He’s Senior Advisor on Constitutional Affairs to President William Ruto. On X: @makaumutua.
