"Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. ”... J.F. Kennedy 35th President of the United States of America (1917 - 1963)
The Slavery Angle
Slavery is perhaps the most sensitive and seemingly controversial topics of the past five centuries or so, and as broad as the topic is, it cannot be fully captured in an unpopular blog post, yet it is an important reference point for actions of the mash-up of current generations.
Africans have carried the burden of the thoughts and feelings of their ancestors’ enslavement for as long as they can remember, and the singular act of the enslavement and export of Africans to the west has caused the descendants of the poor captives to be caught up in a huge wealth gap and also suffer stereotypes and psychological trauma especially because it has caused certain classes of people to leverage on a superficial claim superiority over time, creating division, hate and claims of systemic racism.
In as much as this is true, there are some points that may have to be noted, for instance, the very people that ‘perpetuated’ the slavery export are long gone in as much as the slavery system was meticulously orchestrated.
Historical legend tells us that slavery was already in existence among Africans long before the westerners arrived, and even if there was no evidence of this, at least we can all see how African leaders loot the treasury of their people, deprive them of infrastructure and humane livelihood, suppress the press and arrest people that protest for justice, seeking to drown their voices while anarchy exists in broad day light. This is nothing short of enslaving your own people.
“Freedom has many difficulties and democracy isn’t perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people I, to prevent them from leaving us. ”… J.F. Kennedy 35th President of the United States of America (1917 - 1963)
Apparent Freedom
Africa and Africans due to sovereign act rights tend to act free, but are they really free?
It is not a secret that the western world control the African economy through demand for Oil, financial policies, strategic presence, constant supervision of her activities, exploration of her resources and exploitation of Africans’ vulnerabilities, which include professional use of age long intelligence garnered due to millennial / historical head start. Africans in power also have greed for vanity ridden material wealth by African leaders bourne of stereotyped poverty of the mind, embedded illiteracy, feel for need to oppress and intimidate the down trodden and less privileged, and absence of emotional and financial intelligence, making freedom feel like a mere mirage.
It has all been figured out and weaponized, all hidden in plain sight. Even the blind can see that Africa doesn’t only have massive potential, her resources have sustained the world economy for centuries, and she might as well be dubbed the future.
Rather than Africa being celebrated, she is constantly shamed and attributed to all forms of negativity such as illiteracy, poverty, corruption and even terrorism.
Perhaps it is a reversal psychology of sort; Africans appear to be less confident about themselves without validation from the west. It is understandable that the western world have a massive head start in education, leadership, experience, inventions, discoveries in medicine and so much more that Africa has had to imitate them in most aspects of living, notwithstanding, countries like China, Israel, Russia and so much more have evolved realizing the imperative need to reinvent themselves especially by not only coming to terms with reality about themselves, but also accepting themselves and learning to discover the core of their being and reveal the result of such uniqueness to the rest of the world so that she can also be seen and respected as the asset she truly is.
“People turned against each other cannot turn against those responsible”… DaShane Stokes (1979 - ) Author, Sociologist, Public speaker and Progressive Activist.
The Pitting
Whether you know it or not, the world is filled with secrets, mysteries, conspiracies and tendencies for bad guys to do evil, even when the good guys try to avert them. In a nutshell, our uniqueness and the apparent relativity of the complexities of this world causes people to see the same things in different ways such that it is easy for the people in power to create scenarios to make us act in predictable ways to meet the selfish ends of a class of people.
The existing theories that shape our lives and push us to predetermined directions include Oil, finance, weaponry, drugs, porn, media, agriculture, manufacturing, racism, religion and even the internet all of which are basically about the bottom line.
Although there is competition throughout the world, it is on another level between Africans. The unqualified people want the top spot and strive to get there through corruption, only to practice inefficiently and keep rolling the cycle of mediocrity, causing a ripple effect of repeated and irreparable damage, which causes dysfunctionality in the system, and fosters a bleak future for the youths, which is a clear reflection as seen today.
Tribal and religious sentiments have helped divide the longstanding unity between good people because the supposed leaders have due to their greed spread hate, instead of educating and empowering citizens, they chose to impoverish them and oppress them with heir common wealth, altering the eco system and tipping the natural balance of nature.
“The people’s silence is a tyrant’s greatest advocate. The less captives talked, the less they knew, the more they feared and the more they feared, the more easily others could manipulate them to their own ends, the more easily the captives could be controlled”… John Kramer. (1956 - ) American Darts player.
Culture
Africa very visibly boasts of rich cultures across the continent, those beliefs have shaped their thinking, building up their ideas of fashion, integrity, laws, ceremonies that stand out and their perception of tolerance for other cultures, lifestyles and technology.
Their level of acceptance of foreign lifestyle has virtually and gradually eroded their existing customs, threatening their nostalgic heritage, here where being a good or bad thing is delicately subjective.
Perhaps also we can actually say that the fact there is a thin line between the African culture and superficial slavery especially in resonance with the apparent freedom that education and technology is offering the new generation, throws all cards to the table, a time bound occurrence, which will ultimately reveal if the current leaders will be immortalized based on the type of legacy that they eventually leave behind.
So does Africa matter? Well, it appears to matter more to the western world than to Africans themselves, because for every African that has refused to speak out loud against the injustice and corruption, and the servitudes of the common citizens, silence means consent, hence they are shamelessly comfortable with the mediocre status quo, the exploitation of their good people.
Does Africa matter? Of course it does, but it will only start being important and valuable to the African people if they put on the armour of confidence bourne of untold courage, when they teach their offspring to bow to no one and they can only be truly independent when they free their minds. They will continue to wallow in the shackles of slavery even by their fellow country men if they don’t embrace the boldness to speak out against injustice, mediocrity, illiteracy and corruption, for it only reveals the beasts of our own making, that come out in ugly ways such as terrorism, division, oppression, greed, selfishness and inability to love ourselves.
God bless, and I wish love and healing to the entire world!
Thank you, and be awesome because you truly are.
Akin Abimbola.
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Sources: Brainy Quote, Blythe, Google, Good reads, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Wikipedia, You tube
This article is an original piece, which was reasonably researched, contains considerable opinion and is composed in a unique style of the author.
The names in actual stories are not real and the stories in this write-up are fictional. Consequently, people’s names appearing are purely co-incidental, except for quotes and news that are typically referenced.
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