**6. Towards a superlative imperative for African upbringing**

A superlative imperative can be interpreted as a deliberate phrase that intends to place Africanity as the norm for bringing up African generations. It is an attempt to revive and creatively "legalize" that which was considered backward in African culture. It is a postcolonial category drawn from hybridity that not only resists the imperial modes of parenting and upbringing but also raises up a new breed of Africans that continue the legacy of African epistemologies and in communality. It is a decolonized ubuntu, because much of what passes in scholarship as ubuntu philosophy is one conceived in western categories. It is ability to retrieve, permit and Christianise African values and categories for raising a new breed, a new and counter-generation of Africans.

It has already been noted that waves of cultural renaissance are already bashing the ship that is Africa. Mawusi [19] has observed that "African culture contributes immensely in the upbringing of young people." In order for African upbringing and styles of parenting to have a superlative imperative approach then the following proposals are made. The proposal of this chapter is for Africa and the African church to ride on this new wave and help Africa reimagine parenting that is supposed to herald a new generation. To do this the church has to evolve an epistemology that counters the renaissance of bad culture and promote a renaissance of African upbringing. While Mawusi proposes that an urban rural hybridity through visitation9 , should be embraced towards this end, it is worth reinstating that raising a new African generation goes beyond bridging the gaps between rural and urban cultures. There is a tendency only to condemn the urbanized African as the bedeviled culture. The real picture is that all of Africa needs the parenting renaissance which is captured in the superlative imperative concept. It is either all of Africa is renewed or none is renewed at all.

The second proposal is for parenting through children. As has been noted, parenting is about influence. If the child space has been irreversibly marked out, then we need to use children to achieve the children that we want. We need to decolonize the narrative that children can only be parented by parents. The Swahili maxim that *asiyefunzwa na mamaye hufunzwa na ulimwengu* lit "he who is not educated by the mother will be educated by the world" should be employed to capture the *ulimwengu* here as including positive peers; the children. Viewed in this way, African children's groupings can be employed as agents of parenting. Therefore, African institutions that primarily deal with children ought to be onboarded in their programs and curriculum for the success of a counter-generation in Africa.

The last proposal is for the African Christian church to be in front in heralding a truly African spirituality. The church is a respected institution in Africa. It has many programs that help shape Africanity. Moreover, the church in a notoriously religious Africa has the respectable religious voice. The voice of the church is authoritative

<sup>9</sup> This exposition is calling on our African nuclear families to rise up if they have completely neglected the extended family. The extended family is tearing apart especially in our bigger, busy cities. Nuclear families should make it a point to visit their hometowns and patch up with their extended families. Parents should frequently introduce their children to their extended families on both sides.

and can be usefully exploited to decolonize esoteric methods of upbring and to encourage methods of parenting that resonate with Africanity.
