Africa, a land full of
immense natural wealth, the continent solved the jigsaw puzzle of the spot to
the world’s resources long before Archaeology became a passion.
However, what we have since independence
is civil war, diseases and hunger- a luscious news story for international
media.
For starters, Africa is
this continent according to international media, infested with hunger,
political violence; dictatorship…the list is endless. The west has often
portrayed Africa as inhabited by poverty-stricken, hopeless, bloodthirsty, and
barbaric people; nothing good seems to come out of this ‘Dark Continent’.
In came the colonialist
with their brutal way of leadership that called for resentment among the
African leaders under the code name Pan African. With fierce opposition from
the Pan African, the callous colonialist shied away and returned to their
motherland. It decoded to a country gaining independence from its colonial
masters.
Many decades later,
Africa has remained a shadow of its colonial masters. The fierce Pan Africanist
embarked on a journey spree of acquiring wealth that was hurriedly left by the
colonial chiefs. Today perhaps Africa would have been better under the colonial
oppression; at least development would be evident bench-marking the European
nations.
A country like Congo
for example, is blessed with gold and diamond in plenty but its people are
living in abject poverty following constant civil wars between the rebels and
the government. Is there more to this than meets the eye? Probably, invisible
faces behind the scenes, working hard to ensure the situation remains the way
it is. According to critics, the dirty tricks of the CIA had the hands in this
entire African affair.
Riek Machar and Salva
Kiir under their watch- South Sudan is burning, for some unknown selfish
interest. These are political elites who fights through volatile words meant to
spark hatred among their supporters. It takes us back to the 1994 Rwanda
genocide.
People like Uncle Bob
feel life on the fast lane on power is the only thing life offered. He would
rather die than leave the comfort of power. Power is addictive. Death is the only thing to separate him from the warmth
of power.
Our colonial masters
went many calendars ago but their presence is still felt in the 21st
century. The birth of Neocolonialism.
Countries on the Core (where
former colonial masters control the world’s economy) have come up with creative
ways that has created a piped dependency among countries on periphery, mostly
found in Africa. Money from rich countries has trapped many African countries
in a cycle of corruption, slower economic growth, and poverty. The dependency
is a self-esteem destroyer that Africa sometimes ‘feels ashamed’ when ‘begging’
for money from the World Bank.
The top list of the
transparency international 2011 corruption index in the world, African
countries lead the pack, occasionally exchanging positions among themselves.
African leadership is a
bad case study. Its leadership for a few individuals who matters to the society
at the expense of the poor majority. The political elites. The leadership is
known to have a tight grip on power, until death bacon's. They invaded public
coffers long before the world went to recession and stashed the loot somewhere
in Geneva. The Swiss banks have a reputation of secrecy. Favorite of Africa’s kleptocracy seeking a safe place for money they acquire while in power.
Over the past four
decades, aid to Africa quadrupled from around $11 billion to $44 billion, with
a net increase of almost $10 billion during the period 2005-2008 alone. This
money is meant for development but standing atop Mount Kilimanjaro, no
development in sight for Africa. The country on the Core becomes extremely
wealthy while the latter suffocate in poverty. The discrepancy is alarming. But
nobody cares. Why should we care anyway!!
The West imposing
ideologies to Africa has been the order of the day. Boot-licking relations, for
that elusive, AID towards development. Many international Organizations have
invested heavily on development project in Africa but it has never been felt in
the African nerves. Africa is the perennial victim of a villain West, a battle
ground for their own interest. Nevertheless, there is hope, only when Africa
raises its self-esteem to higher grounds and stop worshiping the demi gods Westerners.Undeniably, Africans
are not perfect. However, rarely do we engage in introspection to review the
role that we ourselves play in perpetuating these Western Stereotypes. Until
Africans capture their own reality, the continent will continue to suffer from
this tyranny of a single narrative.
