IS MY BELOVED AFRICA DYING?
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| photo: ALK |
Africa, Africa
Oh Africa
My beloved homeland
Will I survive?
What have I done wrong - Oh Africa
I cry for you - Oh Africa
We have seen it happen in our lifetime.
Beautiful African countries falling apart from their once glorious past.
Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia and many more - crumbling away ...the list is long and hurtful.
We Africans are fun loving, God fearing and hard-working peoples.
I am not just saying it because I am one .... and I am certainly not ashamed of being one.... But it just is a fact.
We are a special breed of humans who have been trampled upon for generations and continue to be subjugated, repressed and oppressed by the colonialists & neocolonialists.
And yet when they interact with us we are not just welcoming but even kowtowing them as though we owe them our lives!
It is only in Africa that one will find malnourished children playing away happily in their tattered clothes -- and yet their last meal was more than 24 hours ago!
Worse still they don't know when their next meal will be!
And when you meet them they are all smiles and welcoming.
Only in Africa!
And the current world order; the economic, political and general world order is designed to subjugate and repress my peoples.
We have no say! We are forced to keep quiet and accept what is done unto us!
We sit on a treasure trove of resources yet these resources are mined and harvested away and our peoples left with peanuts and crumbs to survive upon. And again we must keep quiet, we must not say anything!
Any complaints from my people will just attract a retort that we should blame our leaders.
The white man extorts us with expensive loans which we cannot live without and the yellow man gives us handouts in the form of infrastructural loans- which are no different than daylight robbery.
But we are enslaved and have no say...
Our countries are deliberately being colonised quietly. Colonialism never really ended - it just changed its clothes!
Our leaders have no say.
Our people have no say.
20 years ago if you lived in Kenya - it was a land of plentiful.
Today we are bedeviled by shortages.
Shortages of fuel, milk, water, money, jobs --- name it.
Crime is rising. Drug taking and peddling are the order of the day .... not just in the urban sprawls but sadly now in most rural areas too ...
Youth gangsterism is the order of the day in the urban and rural areas alike.
This eventually graduates to full scale 'mafia-style' neighbourhood armies .... does Haiti ring a bell??
Can you blame the young?
No i don't condone crime - but a person must survive and if he has no work, no food, no shelter, no money, no HOPE --- what do we expect our young ones to do.
The choice is stark - we either wallow in poverty as many do or engage in crime or drugs or gangsterism or one of many other vices that bedevil our country.
Little surprise therefore that everyday hundreds of West Africans risk life and limb and throw caution to the winds and attempt crossing the dangerous Mediterranean Sea.
They sacrifice their meagre savings which they have painstakingly collected over years - and hand it over to the people smugglers.
The people smugglers have their masters in Europe.
They own the boats.
They are the modern version of slavers and slave masters!
They live a plush and comfortable life both in Europe and in Arab-North Africa.
They dont care about the boat people.
The boat people are black Africans and therefore dispensable ....
These dispensable people are my brothers and sisters who undertake this dangerous journey in search of just a basic, dignified, respectful and decent life.
They dont want to steal or engage in any illicit affair and therefore are forced out of their beautiful home that Africa is.
They also dont want to leave Africa - but they dont have a choice.
They have no food, no money, no future no HOPE!
What do you want them to do surely!
Better die at sea than wallow in desperate poverty .... what a choice!!!
The other day Russia invaded Ukraine. The reaction from all the white man's countries was immediate and overwhelming.
Billions of dollars were pledged and awarded to a country whose population is less than that of Uganda.
In 'the first one single month of the war the US government had disbursed more aid to Ukraine than they have ever done to Africa ever forever in its entire life.
What is the message here? Are we any lesser human than Ukrainians?
Don't we also have children and mothers and sisters?
Are we not Christian and Muslims just like Ukrainians are?
What have we done wrong?
Are we children of a lesser god???
This is a clear message to you the coloniser (and you know yourself!)
For sure we don't want your aid.
We don't want your handouts too!
But on the other hand stop stealing our resources.
Our precious metals from DRC.
Our platinum, gold and diamonds from Southern Africa.
Our Oil. Our Natural gas. Our coffee. Our cocoa. Our pyrethrum. Our tea. Our talent. Our sportsmen. Our leaders. Our children.
The list is endless.
Stop manipulating our wildlife and our forests too. They belong to us.
All we want is a fair level playing field where all humans are treated with the same humanity, dignity and respect that all humans deserve from one another.
We want a fair and level playing field in terms of economic and geopolitical order.
We want you to stop stealing our resources.
We want you to stop fueling wars in Africa in the name of supporting democracy. Because the truth is that this is not the true reason you are fueling the war ... the truth is you want your arms industry to survive and what better way other than creating wars in Somalia, Southern Sudan, DRC, Mali, Niger, Angola, Mozambique, Saharawi Republic. CAR, Chad, Liberia and Sierra Leone - this list is endless too.
And then you have the audacity of terming this as terrorism or tribalism or some other names you come up with!
We also want you to stop imposing your deranged and unacceptable and un-African behaviors onto us - such as LGBT!
We have our values and customs and our religions which we respect and wish to continue practicing without being dictated upon.
Coming back to ourselves.
We Africans - let us stop relying on the others to assist us.
They will not.
They don't want to.
They don't care about us. Period.
Let us industrialize. Let us engage in research and science and modern agricultural practices.
Our two largest resources are our people and our land.
Look at Israel - a desert which they turned green. We can do it too - it is not rocket science!
Look at Denmark and Netherlands - both tiny countries yet major exporters of milk, dairy, agricultural products etc.
Let us set up strong and vibrant institutions. Let us inculcate leadership and strong morals values into our children.
Let us inculcate the need to work hard. Japan and South Korea are good examples of what hard work can do to a devastated country after the second world war and the Korean wars respectively. They sacrificed for their motherland - let us do the same for our children and our grandchildren and future generations.
Let us stop destroying our rivers and forests and our prime agricultural lands and our natural flora and fauna which we are so dearly blessed with.
Let us stop aping other peoples values. We have our own excellent values - we don't need to ape them!
Let us stop being selfish and short sighted and let us guard our environment and our beautiful lands and soils. Let us value our cultures but at the same time let us engage technology and forge ahead - as did India and China and Singapore and Malaysia and Thailand.
We can do it for we are God fearing and hard working!!
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