Oh Africa, where is thy pride?

OPinion

Africa, a land filled with greatness 

“If you do not know where you are going, at least do not forget your origin” says a popular African adage. The Africa of today seems to have lost track of her destination, and worst still, it has little or no knowledge of where she is coming from. It is so pathetic that her citizens prefer taking their chances on the Mediterranean sea rather than fight for the future of their respective nations.



I ask myself, is this the vision of her founding fathers? I shudder to imagine what her heroes like Nelson Mandela, Patrice Emery Lumumba, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, and co were to return to earth, what kind of Africa will there be confronted with?

They will be confronted with an Africa, in tension and turmoil. An Africa were the D.R.C is unsettled. The Central African Republic is at war. In south Sudan, the two major tribes have risen against each other, forcing her citizens to flee to neighboring countries for safety. Eritrea, Cameroon, Egypt, and even Libya are experiencing tensions. Very few African nations are better off. Africa is at war with herself.

They will be confronted with an Africa, which statisticians and renowned economists have branded a growing economy, but in reality, it is stagnated. We live in continent whose young men and women have no love for their motherland. Our young people are constantly humiliated at the embassies of big European and American nations as they seek pastures anew. This is the tragedy of Africa.

Ours is an Africa were people have lost their self pride. An Africa were Africans are not proud of their things. This is an Africa which does not tell her story. We rely on the CNNs, the BBCs, Radio France and co to tell our story to the outside world. When our young people want to enjoy themselves, they sing the praises of football stars like Manchester city, Liverpool, Barcelona or PSG, never minding that we have the Kaiser Chiefs, the Raja Casablanca, the Eyimba FC, or FC Leopard doing us proud here on our continent. We prefer to celebrate western artists of Hollywood, or Bollywood forgetting the fact that we have the Olu Jacobs, the Patience Ozokwor, Mercy Johnson of Nollywood, or Bongowood, or Riverwood and so on. Our women’s greatest source of joy is cheap low grade Mexican soap operas.

But these events are not on the pages of our newspapers. There are discussed only mutedly. I wonder if we even control our media. Events in in this part of the world are not regarded. Yet our leaders go cap in hand, to solicit for funds and assistance from our more illustrious neighbours, never minding the fact that they have misused and abused the little in their possession.

Why must we remind ourselves of these realities, you might ask. Throughout the ages, the battle of will, has always been a battle of the mind. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And if your mind is conquered, then you are going nowhere. And therefore, if Africans are to begin to make a contribution in the affairs of men, Africans must begin to think. We must begin to realize that we must take our destiny in our hands. The western world, where we are striving to enslave, drown ourselves, only became great because they decided to agree to build their nations together. So I ask, what are you thinking?



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