by muunankari
Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 11:37 AM
Sometimes I can’t stop wondering whether is it Africa as a continent that is cursed or is it the color of our skin that is cursed? Africa, unlike the rest of the world has had it fair share of troubles. Almost all countries in Africa are classified as third world countries while countries such as south Africa, despite it been associated as a second world, reality on the ground is, that the poorest people in that country are the blacks.
Almost all the countries in Africa have in one way or another been ruled by a dictator. People who, at no one point have the interests of the people whom they lead at heart. Africa unlike other nations, in this 21st century people are still dying of hunger, curable diseases, ethnic wars and ignorance.
And let me not start talking about historical injustices that happened to Africans such as the slave trades and the arrival of the colonialists.
But unlike other countries in the world, in terms of resources, Africa is the richest of all. From best timbers from the equatorial rain forests, to the “blood” diamonds of Liberia, to tea and coffee from Kenya, to gold from south Africa, oil from Nigeria and Angola and its rich wild life and extensive popular coastal beaches, magnificent scenarios such as the great rift valley and the diverse cultural practices by the many communities in Africa.
My questions are;
why is it that we Africans, despite been blessed as we know we are, we still remain as the poorest continent in the world?
Our problems; are they dictated by the western nations? The middle-east nations or the Far East nations?
Why is it that we as Africans find it hard to solve our own problems for good without necessarily inviting other foreigners with their foreign ideas that most of the time don’t to help us solve our own issues?
After much research have come to accept the fact that we, as a people are to blame for some of the problems that we go through.
We are the ones who accept bribes to vote in leaders who lack the vision and wisdom to guide us in the right path, it is us who are quick to allow ourselves to be divided in our ethnic, social, regional gender, religious and age classes by leaders who are only after their own selfish gains.
It is us who take up arms against our neighbours just because we are not for the same political opinions and ideas.
It is us who have done away with our traditional foods for GMOs.
It is us who have done away with our traditional names for foreign names some of which we name our children yet we do not know their real meanings.
It is us who are so quick to do away with some of our morally correct cultural practices for foreign cultural practices that add no value to ourselves and in some cases are more damaging to us.
The solutions to our problems will not arrive from a convention in the UN headquarters but from us within. It is high time, as Africans we change the way we think, the way we talk, the way we dress, what we eat, the leaders we have and the way we conduct ourselves and our daily business affairs.
Let us learn how to appreciate and tolerate one another despite the many different social, ethnic and religious backgrounds that we come from and just may be we will be able to achieve the dreams and visions of the continent.
Failure to do this, then some of the problems we go through will continue to persist.
Muthomi M’muuna Nkari