Jill Rees: Welcome Press

            In 1560 a returning soldier Martin Guerre was sentenced to death in the French town of Rieux, in south west France. He was accused of murdering the real Martin Guerre and taking his identity, his family and his land as his own.  The man was thought to have changed so unrecognisably since his visit to southern Italy during the Italian wars, that the court claimed he was another person entirely. Writing about the case in his Essays (‘Les Boitteux’), the philosopher Montaigne, who was present at the trial in his role on the city council, ridiculed the court and the witnesses, asking how anyone could believe this stranger was Martin Guerre, reformed following his education in early Renaissance Italy, and called for an end to ignorance, prejudice and injustice. ‘Nothing is so supple and erratic as our understanding’. Whatever his real identity, the man claiming to be Martin Guerre was executed, and two international films, Le Retour de Martin Guerre, and Sommersby, starring Richard Gere and Jodi Foster, offer theories as to the truth of the story.

             There were many reasons why it was in the court’s interests to kill men like this intruder. At that time, France had broken away from the Roman church, and the spiritual guidance for the people, like everything else, was decided by the King. The Catholic Church drew the authority of its popes on a spiritual descendency from the first pope, the disciple Peter, the Rock of Christ. With this link broken, the French catholics, it seemed to some, had their fate decided by the whim of the ruler. And this ruler, Montaigne’s friend La Boetie had claimed, was a despot, bringing nothing but poverty and ruin upon the people.Indeed, La Boetie and Montaigne set about establishing the first truly democratic governance in France, inspired by the Italian republics. They ran the city of Bordeaux as elected councillors, and believed fervently in the rule of the people, although at the time this only meant the men from the landowning class, and the rule of law. La Boetie wrote his famous paper ‘On Voluntary Servitude’ or ‘Against The One Ruler’, calling out for an end to passivity and claiming that the duty of free men was to defend their towns against the tyrant, as he called the king.  Such was the power of this text, that it was cited in the new free African states during decolonisalisation, and is still studied today as an epithet of freedom and just rule. The city of Bordeaux itself was so well and justly ruled, that tourists visit the house of La Boetie in Sarlat to this day in celebration of the will to democracy so passionately expressed by this young man.

At the time Martin Guerre went for a soldier however, the world was far from democratic and far from safe. Europe suffered continuing droughts year after year, crops withered and populations starved. Diseases were rampant, including smallpox which, if it didn’t kill you, left you scarred with terrible facial blemishes. So serious did the outbreaks of smallpox become, that the economy was at risk because rich families were unable to marry their pockmarked daughters and form strong monetary unions with other wealthy families.  A vaccine had been developed, but it was not allowed in France. The Church’s view was that this was the Will of God, and should not be interfered with.  Similarly if the Lord didn’t make it rain, the people had to starve in penance.

                       Fresh back from Italy, with its new ideas, many taken from the invading Moors, men like Martin Guerre had some answers. With his pockets full of the soldier’s pay, he invested in farm materials and introduced cropshare and irrigation methods. His lands began to prosper. He and other modern liberal newly-wealthy land-owning citizens would be elected onto the powerful new council, and the old order, ruled by the parasitic aristocracy, was under threat. Ordinary citizens however, could not rule the courts. There were no juries, no defense lawyers, no education of defendants to understand what was being conspired against them, and enemies of the state could be destroyed with impunity. Only Montaigne’s voice echoing through the centuries remains to defend them.                     There were many such cases. In the same year as Martin Guerre, a man was tried and found guilty of the murder of his wife and daughter, who had disappeared some weeks before. He was sentenced to death by the Lord of the Manor, who presided as judge. While awaiting his execution however, his wife and daughter reappeared - they had been in the neighbouring village looking after her sick mother. But the court had ruled, and the execution was carried out, with the so-called victims of the murder looking on! Montaigne’s objections were ignored.

               Europe in the Middle Ages changed following the burgeoning of Renaissance thought, which put man at the centre of the universe, and declared that the One ruler was unacceptable: the people should rule themselves. Eventually this enabled industrial and economical development, education, equality in the domain of health and social mobility. No longer are people shackled by their origins, or held back for their lack of connections. A meritocracy, ruled by those who deserve it, ensures that some of those with special abilities, intellect and talents, rise to the top of society and form governments and leadership in society. As society becomes more complex and difficult, the educational standards rise and rise, enabling people to consider and control their own destiny. Of course there are still problems in Europe. Corruption in government is not unknown, but when it is discovered the individuals concerned are treated as common criminals, and the rule of law prevails. Poverty exists, but so do many state financed programmes to address it, and it is poverty which can be crawled away from, and in which you are still supported in health, housing, basic income and schooling. Martin Guerre today would be welcomed home with his new ideas.

                            Studying the development of Europe enables us to ask questions back home. Where in this spectrum does Nigeria stand? Does the rule of law form the basis of Nigerian society, and are the police actively challenging those suspected of corruption, of feathering their nest at the expense of the people and of the towns?  People speak about progress and about Nigeria becoming a great nation, but we need to ask wider or perhaps deeper questions about how we want Nigeria to develop. It seems certain that this much hoped-for future must be built on the solid foundation of justice and equality.  Those who have the spark of genius within them should be encouraged to rise in government, so that the nations’ resources can be directed towards benefiting the many, and not be siphoned away by unscruplous individuals. Every citizen should feel confident that, if they do their best and do right, their nation will do right by them. The aristocrats of Bordeaux, who once condemned innocent men to death for trying to improve society, became extinct, themselves tried by the new peoples’ juries of the Revolution. People  can see what is wrong and what stands in the way of progress, but until individuals begin to take responsibility for the underlying beliefs of the nation, Nigeria will not be able to go forward and will remain in a kind of dark age.

                      Education is the key, and education is rarely provided by the ruling class to the poorer and weaker members of society, because education, they know, will make the people free. The new enlightened middle classes in France and Britain began to make schools based on the belief that all men are equal and have great potential. They taught poor children to read and write, and to dream. The newly educated determined an end to slavery and to poverty. They formed schools, built drains to ensure public health in the inner cities, built railways so that the poor could travel round the country. Each worker contributing to this great new world reaped the benefit, and so felt his contribution worthwhile. The community spirit of the founders of the new liberal age remains within the collective mind even in this time of financial greed, and enables people to work together, to combat today’s issues and begin to establish new solutions to contemporary challenges. People have diverse skills and abilities, different educations, but all feel that they have a stake in their society, that it belongs to them.  

            And it began in one small town in south west France, with two friends La Boetie who died young, and Montaigne who spent the rest of his life writing letters which spoke out across Europe and across the ages, to bring light to the oppressed and hope to the powerless, and which led to freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law.

1,481 words

Jill Rees

27 October 2007

Abuja

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