Africa
has been politically backward and naïve throughout the last century with so
many atrocities, anomalies and injustices. Its children thought that, one day,
things will be better, but since the era of independence dawned the situation
has remained the same or even got worse. Ills, evils and self-destructions of
all kinds continue to plague the African continent.
Africa
has lost its natural, human and material resources to wars and massacres. Coups
and counter-coups have continued to play havoc with African society. Should
confidence have been reposed in the statements of the likes of Kwameh Nkrumah,
Thomas Sankara and Patrice Lumumba, to the effect that Africa’s problems will
turn to brightness? Is there any optimism for Africa? Will African children
live to see this happen?
One
may ask why Africa has remained the poorest continent the world has ever
produced. The answer is simple.
The
intolerance and lack of respect for one another among Africans combined to
invite trouble in Africa. Africans are killing each other and destroying the
continent’s resources all because of these leaders’ power hunger. It is enough
to mention the gun rule and slaughtering of people in Liberia and Sierra Leone,
and killing of innocent civilians in Cassamance (southern Senegal) among
others. These indicate that African leaders are themselves responsible for
Africa’s underdevelopment and political mayhem. With this era of political
ignorance and naivety occupying Africa, there is more than ever need for a
continent, indeed a world, without leaders or political borders.
As
we entered the dawn of the new millennium, intellectual sycophants have started
howling and trumpeting that it will be a millennium of African peace and
development. One renowned intellectual was quoted as saying that “in the next
millennium, Europeans will come to Africa as refugees.” Is it not during this
prelude stage of the millennium that floods occurred in Mozambique, killing
hundreds of people? That hunger and starvation entered Ethiopia? That thousands
died in Nigeria as a result of the religious wars? That mass religious suicide
occurred in Uganda? That the senseless land dispute heated up in Zimbabwe? And
the wars in Rwanda, Cassamance and Burundi intensified?
With
these madness’s in our midst, only the insane would predict a bright future for
Africa. Until socialist politics is introduced in Africa, the gloom of this
“Heart of Darkness” shall continue.
Historically,
the wildlife, natural resources, and culture have made Africa a highly valuable
continent to the western world. Africa has gathered the attention of western
tourists, western explorers, and western imperialists from all over. As such,
Africa has been heavily influenced over time by western interests.
The
parading of malnourished and naked African children in front of cameras and
images of lions and gorillas in the jungle, have dominated most Western media
news outlets over the past two decades. The presentation of African news by
Western media convinces the audiences in United States, Europe and other parts
of the world that the entire continent of Africa is hopeless, poverty and
disease stricken. Images of skyscrapers, well developed road networks and other
manifestations of modern development in most African countries are usually
absent in the mindsets of Western media audiences. (Ahmed Mheta, 2015).
Western
Medias when reporting tends to focus on the negative and not the positive. Bad
news sells well. People feel better about their lives when they hear others
have bigger problems than them. A European who’s unhappy he can’t get a
mortgage, will, however unwittingly, likely see his life in brighter lights
after watching footage of people with no electricity, no running water and
little food to eat.
So
when a foreign journalist enters a space in which he speaks the formal but only
understands the informal, a great deal will necessarily be lost in translation.
I believe that it is in this space that most of the mistakes occur when writing
about Africa. I argue that most Western journalists who come to Africa believe
that they can get by because they speak English or even Swahili, but never
really get down to the essence of what it means to be a South Sudanese in war
for instance, an essence that is fundamentally related to the ability to be able
to switch between the three or four languages and their attendant identities.
(Nanjala Nyabola, 2014)
Even
before the age of exploration, countries have been acting based on their own
personal interest. It was during the late 1800s that the western world really
started to explore deeper into the heart of Africa. What the explorers found
was an abundance of land and resources. The only thing standing in their way
was a group of primitive people with spears, not guns. Through this
technological advantage, Europe was able to successfully claim Africa, its
people and its resources as its own. Seeking only to reap the economic and
territorial advantages, settlers created quick local governments and didn’t
bother industrializing Africa. When countries in Africa began to win their
independence, these newly formed countries were left hundreds of years behind
the western World, with corrupt governments in control.
African
states must be reconstructed based on African culture, history, traditions,
norms, values, priorities and needs (however these are defined by Africans). It
uses history to demonstrate that African political system radically and
permanently altered after Slavery to serve minority and western needs. To
reverse this trend, Africans must first recapture their economies such as
development implies Africans’ control over the resources within their borders
for the sole benefit of African child, man and woman. African people must also
realize that they have to take ownership of their own development and democracy,
based on the African context.
It
is a clear testimony that western countries and their selfish African
associates like any other group protect their own interest to the detriment of
the majority of the people. The dependency of the majority of the population on
religious fatalism, corrupt African leaders, or predatory western countries
will only result in bankrupt development
Therefore
we need to recognize that Africa’s interest differ from those of western
countries. The Africans want to live in dignity, economic, self-determination
and peace, while the Western countries want cheap Labor who accept and inferior
position in a western dominated world and market for their goods western
countries also want to exploit African’s natural resources at their own
interest. Given the nature of the relationship between African and western
states, the Africans cannot industrialize unless the process is controlled by a
small white minority.
Furthermore
conflict, war disease and epidemics will depopulate the continent to such an
extent that it will never be able to
compete in the international economy, African countries and people will
eventually self-destruct under the combined impact of war, famine and disease,
acting as efficient checks on population growth.
The
west has United States of America consisting of 52 countries, they also have
the European Union, but why are they against the united states of Africa?
Because they don’t want to see Africans to speak in one voice, So that they can
make friends and enemies, because the pan African will be termed as their
enemies and the greedy, selfish and the self interested African leaders will be
their friends. On these note Africans will never surface without being united
and speak in one voice.
In
conclusion, for the continent to be the united states of Africa. African
leaders must work as a team towards accomplishing the mission and vision statement of Africa,
and Africa need to solve it own problem without the emergence of any foreign
policy, as we are independent countries.
By
Saidina Alieu Jarjou
Activist/Blogger
