A CURSED CONTINENT??

 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 21^st 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.