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Africa is the richest continent on earth. That is the main reason for all the conspiracies against her. All kinds of mineral deposits are in our land in large quantities. We have rich vegetation and very fertile lands all over Africa. We have rainfall, sunshine and very good weather conditions all year round. We are blessed with human resources. Africans have very well developed brains that compete favourably with those of human beings from every other part of the world. We have people whose limbs are strong and trained to be productive from very early in life. We have medicinal leaves, roots and stems for all kinds of ailments in large quantities. We also have a knowledge system that shows how these remedies should be applied for good results. We are rich in grains, fruits, vegetables, wines and tonics. We have rivers, lakes, oceans, streams and seas. We have a rich cultural heritage that cannot be compared with that of any other people on earth. It is a near impossible task to list all the festivals, masquerades, dances, plays and events that African people are known for. So, why should a continent with such an array of bounties bear the hallmark of hunger and poverty all the time?
Africa always comes up in discussions that have to do with hunger and starvation, wanton destruction of lives and property, extreme deprivation, ignorance, disease and general backwardness. Whenever people are talking about bad housing conditions, suffering, low life expectancy and low value for human life, the examples are usually drawn from Africa.
They have served as sacrificial lambs, guinea pigs, laboratory rabbits for decades. Africa has served as dumping ground for loads and loads of toxic waste and other dangerous stuff generated in other lands. Any wrongly formulated beverage, food or wine will find its way into African markets where people will use their hard-earned money to buy sickness and death. Dead and dying electronic gadgets from all over the world will find their way into the Dark Continent before their final requiem is sung. Africa and her children will have to see to the eventual disposal of this massive quantity of gadgets, most of them emitting a fearful amount of Chlorofluorocarbons and other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.
One lesson Africa should learn from all these is that it is actually futile looking up to these so called masters for help. Any man who is heartless enough to enslave a fellow human being, deny him every right due to the human family and treat him like trash will never be human enough to grant that fellow his freedom willingly.
For Africa to be free, she must understand where the rain started beating her. She must also be willing and ready to take her fate in her own hands. Mind burglary is what I call the process that turned the rich and fruitful continent into a beggar entity. A trick was played on the minds of Africans, persuading them to accept the superiority of everything foreign, especially religion. Once we fell for this trick, the manipulation was easy. They stole our unity of purpose, our strength and valour and our belief in our selves. They stole our minds and made us believe we were inferior. We started looking up to them for everything. Formerly, we faced the ground and got our daily bread and much more by working the soil. We were proud of our accomplishments and strove to do more. The moment they got us to look up to them for something to believe in, for healthcare, for education, for food and water and for the good life, we removed our eyes from the ground and our woes multiplied. They promised us heaven and we swallowed the bait. The discerning ones among us realized that the essence of this heavenly paradise promised was to make it easier for us to let go of our wealth for them to harness. Until today, Africans have held strongly unto this paradise and are content to go through life in misery and deprivation, building upon the hopeless hope of going to heaven. They see their preachers and teachers gathering the same earthly things they urge them to drop into their own barns and they still happily pursue the elusive paradise that was only used as bait. Mind Burglary!
A major weapon used to destroy our psyche as Africans is the demonization of everything African. They made us hate ourselves, our names, our village names, our festivals and even our foods. This self hate is the main reason why we would rather buy second or third hand materials at cut-throat prices than buy a new product made in our land. This self hate is why we will abandon our healthy, God-given palm wine for something packaged in a flashy bottle and imported, even if it kills us.
Is it not baffling that the people most affected by this self-hate bug are those who were highly educated in the white man’s system. Well, it is understandable because they received a greater dose of the poison since the self hate is generously mixed into the education they came with. A good example is the fallacy still taught in our schools that it was Mungo Park who discovered River Niger. Only self hate will make an African teacher repeat this lie to his students.
The imperialists committed an atrocity against African languages when they plotted to flog them out of the children’s mouths. Again, only self hate will make an African teacher flog a student for speaking his language. Only self hate well imbibed will make an African adult who went to school to describe his mother tongue as vernacular. Only self hate will make an African man or woman to denigrate his people’s festival while jumping up and down to celebrate Christmas, an essentially non-Christian festival or Easter (Ishita), another heathen ceremony repackaged for greater acceptability. Africa can only find freedom when her people begin to return home in the way they reason. Think Africa, eat Africa, dress Africa. Recover the minds that have been stolen and Africa will be great again.
Nnenna Ihebom
