OH AFRICA!
A continent endowed with mineral, human, and material resources.
But managed by murderous, misanthropic, and misappropriating leaders.
A continent that sold its own people to strangers in tall ships.
And never wondered where they were being taken.
A continent that has its people dying in the thousands every year in the Mediterranean Sea trying to be enslaved once more by Europeans.
And those not enslaved in Europe and America are enslaved by Europeans and Americans living in Africa. And the Chinese are not far behind!
A continent that built Europe and America.
And yet cannot build itself.
A continent of dictators, duplicity, double standards, and dastardly behavior.
And is the first to sign any International Treaty condemning such actions.
A continent where genocide has forestalled a green revolution.
And mediocrity and incompetence are rewarded by praise singing and tenure elongation.
A continent that has most of its wealth stashed in foreign bank vaults.
While its leaders go cap in hand to the same banks begging for usurious loans.
A continent that prays for development.
While others plan for development.
A continent that chases shadows such as homosexuality.
While others chase substance such as improved standards of living for its people.
A continent that bestraddles the Equator with the greatest exposure to sunlight.
Yet is the darkest continent at night in these days of cheap solar energy.
Isn’t it time that we turned Africa over to a new and improved management to fully exploit its potentials for the betterment of its people.
Time does not wait, even for continents!
I wrote a poem this morning at about 4:30 AM: Africa, Listen, I am talking to you…where are you going to run to, from the lion(Britain),from the Tiger(China), from the Crocodile (America) and moreover, the Anaconda(African Leaders). Oh! most dehumanized where are you going to run to?…
FOR YOUR READERS TO FULLY APPRECIATE YOUR INSIGHT, they should be advised to read between the lines in Frantz Fanon’s, “The wretched of the Earth” published in 1961, the year the author died, to view your themes on Africa, from their roots. They should be advised to begin from the Preface and the Forward, not jump into the text as some readers are wont to do. I know that you sometimes eschew violence, as weapon for the fight for freedom and liberation, maybe, because, you understand that whenever African’s use violence, in the streets of the metropolitan home of the colonizer’s or on the African streets, they will be mowed down with the same ferocity as pre and post colonial times. Fanon recommended the colonized use of force to liberate themselves. At this juncture, in line with your article: “Africa still colonized” would you sincerely be a Fanonian in you manifest idea of African re-humanization?… Thank you very much.
The colonists are longer on African soil as Masters. However, they still colonize Africans through international monetary organizations, bribery, religion, and a craving to be like the erstwhile master in dressing and consumption but not in knowledge, governance, and the environment.
The only violence in Africa today is Africans on Africans violence. And you know that Africans do not read, so none is going to explore Frantz Fanon!