WILL AFRICA EVER BE FREE?

#ENDSARS: I stand with the Nigerian youths, joining my voice to end police brutality.

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed, it must be achieved”…Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945) 32nd President of the United States.                                                                                                                                        Freedom                                                                                                                                                       It will interest you to know that as bad as the slavery era has been constantly resented and the perpetrators condemned, slavery still persists today, underneath our noses and perhaps surprisingly, before our very eyes.

The recent killings of dark skinned people in the United States has caused peaceful protests to turn violent because of apparent racist claims and undertones, resonating the slave trade that occurred about four centuries ago, when Africans were shipped to the west to very painstakingly cultivate plantations that has accrued immense wealth for the slave owners, and benefitted the countries in question on the long run. 

In all of this, dark skinned people have expressed tremendous fear and threat of subjugation, hate and systemic racism aimed at annihilating them, making freedom a rare and essential commodity.

 “Until the Lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter”… J. Nozipo Maraire (1964 - ) Zimbabwean Doctor, Entrepreneur and writer.

True African (Hi)story

 History they say belongs to the victors, perhaps this is why it is hard to come by any substantial African history of note detailing her greatness, achievements and her contributions to the world, because she was conquered and then oppressed by the warlords and mercenaries in a Trojan horse. In as much as the Western world have had their fair share of poverty, wars and epidemics, they have also come a long way, seeking better future and fortunes to leave great legacies for their coming generations. In the course of this however, our dear Mother Africa became a blatant casualty.

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you”…Winston S. Churchill (1874 - 1965) Former British Prime Minister

 

Divided… we fell

A school of thought explains that slavery has always been a part and practice in Africa. A chain of command existed firmly especially in line with royalty where the king would have slaves tend to his family, and the elites too had armies of them at their beck and call. 

It became so extreme in some climes to the extent that it turned out to be a cultural norm for male servants to be castrated for fear of sleeping with the king’s wives or daughters, or amongst themselves. Some slaves were even slaughtered upon the king’s death with the belief that they would serve him in the afterlife.

“If you are living an original life, there is absolutely no need to compete with anyone else”…Edmond Mbiaka 

Unhealthy Mix 

It is known the world over that various tribes with different languages and cultures made some form of compromise in order to peacefully co-exist as nations with mutual respect and benefits. In this light, the ways countries were created and named, especially by the master colonizers A.K.A. the Europeans, Spanish and Portuguese is a questionable mix. 

Here, the question arises whether the apparently forced union was put in place for the benefit of the west in terms of resources or for the sovereignty of a free and genuinely tolerable people. 

This line of thought is imperative because multiple claims arose, faulting the unions due to the tribal clashes and regional suppressions due to stereotypes of supremacy of certain clans over others, by implication, detrimental to their development.

“In this world, it is too common for people to search for someone to lose themselves in. But I am already lost, I will look for someone to find myself in”…C. Joybell C is a Writer, Poet, Business Investor and Counsellor.

Discovery and Awakening 

We are all social animals, which makes the love and co-operation we show ourselves worth it. With intelligence, we can discover ourselves. Intelligence which comprises knowledge, wisdom and empathy in no particular order is stringent upon the collective survival and prosperity of humanity, unfortunately however, due to greed and corruption of the souls of some of us, we let strife thrive, and our sacred hearts are polluted to reveal hate, and subsequently, catastrophe.

Will Africa ever be free? Truth be told, it looks very much less likely. In as much as I hate to be pessimistic nor a prophet of doom, it would be an unfounded denial not to admit seeing the obvious. Africa’s weak institutions have permitted decay in the education sector, corruption, injustice and suppression, all which have the potential to lead to self-annihilation. 

Nigeria, the Giant of Africa and most populous nation in Africa, and of Dark skinned Africans with over 200 million people recently celebrated her 60th year independence with no commensurate development to show for it in proportion to her contemporaries. The low key celebration was marred by youths protesting to put an end to a unit of the Nigerian Police known as Special Anti-Robbery Squad dubbed #EndSars, and garnered international support. They are found to be notorious in extorting and being lethally ruthless with good-looking youths, especially millennials that are distinct in the western trend. This problem is not isolated, but rather a spin off of endemic and generic issues that stem on poor leadership, illiteracy and lack of confidence and belief in the potentials of the African people.

We recently got information that SARS has been indeed ended in some way, a controversial move that the Nigerian youths refuse to believe, but will the perpetrators of evil be brought to book?  What it currently looks like is that the youths recognizing their powers will have no choice but to clamour for #EndPoverty, #EndIlliteracy, #EndUnemployment, #EndPoorHealthcare, #EndKillings ?

God bless Africa and the entire world!

Thank you, and be awesome because you truly are.

Akin Abimbola. 

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Sources: Brainy Quote, CNN, Google, Good reads, Punch, 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.