|
Black Africans derive great joy from their ancient heritage
and history and millions are still proudly Africans despite the mayhem and
poverty of their resource –rich continent. Black scholars and Afrocentrists
from all corners of the world salute Africa as the veritable and undisputable
birthplace of civilization. Countless stolen artefacts in Western museums
attest to the greatness of this sun-drenched continent. When we thumb
through the glorious past of mother Africa, we may be prone to accident by
falling into a frozen time warp of ‘gloria Africana’ and one may also be guilty
of putting a sentimental halo on our yesterday.
Today, black Africa sits on a pressure cooker that is
building menacingly like a time bomb set to explode and cause ripples and shock
all over the world. Black Africa is today an observer and part player in the
dynamism of globalisation that has bless and curse our modern world. As waves
after waves of humanitarian, social, economic and political change sweep across
the world, black Africa stagnates and falls deeper into wasting poverty. Our
destiny is arrested by a band of blood sucking cabal and we are forever thrown
into the miry clay of helplessness and quiescence. Our shared values are in
diametric opposition with the rest of the world.
The communal-centred society, romanticised by
pan-Africanists and other apologists of ‘gloria Africana’ has long disappeared
and in its place, we have erected a tombstone proclaiming our degeneracy into a
continent of fathomless pit where man must eat man to survive. Communal living,
which was once our best weapon against the soulless individualism of the West
has long evaporated as greed and materialism infected us, and destroyed for
good, our noble ideal of being our brother’s keeper. Through wrong headed
economic planning and astonishing daily wastage of resources, black Africans
brought about self-inflicted poverty and moral decay on a continent blessed
with peaceful and law-abiding citizens.
Yet, black Africa desperately wants to lead a double life.
We want to be seen as a progressive, modern, democracy-driven continent but
unmindful that beneath our facade lurks a thoroughly repressed, angry and
stratified humanity clamouring for real equitable redistribution of wealth held
down by leader-looters. Let me quickly declare an interest. This writer
belongs to a tiny band of radical realists who are less overawed by the theme
of gloriana in black African turbulent history. Black Africa’s past is bygone
while the present is a long tale of pain, shame and hopelessness. Our recorded
history of utopia and native innocence has given way to a hardening of
compassion and wickedness.
It is often said that nations of the world have weaknesses
and almost all of them carry dark spots on their backs, which, ironically, they
cannot see. Germany, it must be said, is still saddled with the horror of the
final solution of the Jews. Russia’s own demon is in its shameless gulag.
France reeks of Vichy. United States hubris is located in the genocide of
slavery. Britain is weigh down by the shame of its colonialism and rapacious
stripping of black Africa’s resources. Japan has its Pearl Harbour disaster.
South Africa is tormented by the iniquity of apartheid. Rwanda agonises over
its genocide. Nigeria, my own Nigeria, embodies the decay of the entire
black African continent. She is massively corrupt, decadently poor, rudderless,
selfish, uncaring and unpredictable.
Some of these countries have been able to confront their
shameful past and re-entered the world with dynamism and a pledge to re-write
their present in glowing progress and social justice. They have been able to
sow strong foundation of peace, economic progress, harmony and freedom as we
have seen in US, UK, Germany, France and Japan. However, black Africa remains a
stubborn giant, unable to confront her demons and lay sound foundations for a
forward trajectory in her disastrous history. Rather, the continent has
degenerated so badly that we urgently need to confront the disturbing truth
about ourselves. So, what happen? Why are we disconnected with the global
sphere? Who are we? Why are we so radically different from the rest of mankind?
Why is our society in a permanent state of chaos and underdevelopment? What is
keeping us down? Why do we convey to the rest of the world an ugly impression
of naked evil, brutality and unimaginable viciousness and cruelty? Why are we
like Cassandra who is able to foresee the future, but utterly powerless to
embrace it?
Why do we stagnate while the rest of the world is at a
supersonic speed to create a better society where there is peace, progress,
freedom, happiness and equalities for all? For a start, who are we, is a
nebulous question in its entirety. We can say, like the United Nations, that
mankind is one and black Africans are part of humanity. In this statement, we
merely offer a temporary comfort to black Africans who are blind to the wide
chasm separating the black race with the rest of other colours. Equally, mankind
is one, may be a deliberate double-speak honed to offer blacks some acceptance
in a runaway world that has turned its back on black Africa. We are regarded as
part of humanity to remove the notion of difference and superiority of races
being readily peddled by race merchants who are shocked at the state of our
development.
Mankind is one is an emotion-laden statement consciously
coined by the United Nations to obliterate the permanent stain of slavery and
colonialism on the damaged psyche of the black race. Today, our modern world is
less accommodating. Race merchants are now on the loose and are becoming more
emboldened in their desire to offend and dispensed with the worn-out flattery
of black Africans.
We are seen through the cold prism of our society which
offers them ammunition to describe us in less flattering terms. We are still
been perceived as unintelligent, dirty, noisy, monsters, barbarians, brainless,
organically corrupt, sexually incontinent, violent, greedy, inhuman,
adulterous, pagan, liars and material-minded. The self-created millions
of permanent underclass in a continent of material and human resources,
continue to reinforce the belief of race merchants that black Africans are
imbeciles and genetically close to apes than mankind. In defence, black
scholars and Afrocentrists are excavating the buried glory of Egyptian
civilization as measurable yardstick for our high intelligence. By the way,
Egyptians are not Negroid like you and I! We have to admit that we are
sensationally different from our Maghreb cousins. Black Africans are endowed
with abundant mass of flesh on the nose and generous thick lips. The nose of
our Egyptian cousins is distinctly aquiline and the hair is wavy.
Ancient black Africa, we are told was blessed with mortals
with superhuman abilities. Our ancestors built the pyramid, invented scientific
instruments, founded the world’s religions and many ancient local chiefs could
knock out six voluptuous women in a row without Pfizer’s Viagra! As a radical
post-modernist, I found this timeless sentiment, tirelessly hilarious. Who
pulled the plug on our past abilities? Who is the Dracula that drained our
medieval intelligence and left us in this rut? Could it be the whiteman, the
perpetual victim of black Africa’s fall from grace to mindless profligacy?
Tijani, a social and
Afrocentric scholar, lives in London.
|
Posted by Robot| 19.04.2008 15:49