Refers to Jereweat Blog.
What we call "history" is born from a collage of glimpses and images, insights, documents etc… While these “sources”, these “raw material of history” does not presume to tell the comprehensive story of early slavery or colonialism; it does offer tantalizing glimpses into the past. Of course, history lives beyond its contemporaries… See MyBlog earlier on.
It is a truism that colonialism did a lot of harm on the cultural, political and economic nerve of the African state. But whether we are now in a phase of pan- Africanism, that does not require reparation; with the damage to Africa, to the damage of our capability for unity, and the capability for democracy, good governance and the question of nation building, to the issue of the harm done to the people of Africa and Africans in Diaspora, the damage is not in the past; the damage is here with us now. It is in the wars which are going on in Africa today. It is in the current socio – economic underdevelopment which has continued to ravage Africa, while other/majority part of the world experiences some acceptable, but rapid and continuous level of economic development by leaps and bounds!
We are people of the day before yesterday ( we have a history) and the day after tomorrow (we have hopes); long before slavery, we lived together in one human village called Africa; then the strangers came and took some of us away, scattering us in different directions of the globe. This have made Africa a donor to both developed and the relatively rich economies of the world. But this is more so in terms of the brain drain syndrome that is still prevalent in Africa today. Before the strangers came, our village was the world, we knew no other. Now, we are scattered so widely that the sun never sets on the descendants of Africa. The world is now our village and we plan to make it more human between now and the day after tomorrow.
At the same time, we cannot afford (to continue) to blame colonialism or slavery endlessly. The price of doing so is not only high, but is usually paid in anguish and regret. Of course, an apology (although the perpetrators of slavery/colonialism are long dead now) may have the soothing balm on the psychology of the likes of Toyin Agbetu and his supporters.
However, expecting apology from one not directly linked to the said ills is not logical, and even if done as requested, it may be full of hypocrisy. This is more so, since it will be very difficult, if not impossible to decipher true apology from a bogus or “cooked” one.
Moreover, expecting an apology from the descendant of the former perpetrators may provide them the leverage or rather, the comfort to devise another subtle means of exploitation, knowing fully well that the victims (Africa) will gladly accept an apology from the beneficiary (West) in the future.
No matter how willing and well intentioned the West might be in tendering apology (I wonder the possibility of that, given the “pride” of the Western oligarchies) or salvaging Africa from the doldrums(if at all they can do that for Africa), few of them will be in concord to the whole process, since very few of them have the knowledge, or rather a better knowledge on our current local conditions and problems.
Beside, colonialism and slavery are the shared objectives of the West and Africa – although the West had the upper hand! So, if Tony Blair or the Queen of England etc should apologized on behalf of their forefathers, who will do so on behalf of our forefathers who sold their cousins, uncles nieces etc, who are/were themselves our forefathers?
Our leaders, who are our fathers, are still exploiting us today. They are still selling us cheap. They have mired our image at the international level. The case of Nigeria and others are open books. That of Zimbabwe and others are special breeds of its own
So, instead of wasting time to fight the past, which inevitably will bring no recipe for the current development agenda for a modern society, we (Africa) should go back to the drawing board. We should be more concern with stopping modern slavery: restriction of our products to the rich Northern markets, dumping of products, debt burden, denial of some good or rather, acceptable voting power in the IMF/WB etc, and in the Committe of Nations, child trafficking/child labor/cheap labor etc.
Africa must occupy the drivers seat, sort out those things we can do for ourselves, do them before soliciting for anything “ external”, either in the form of apology, support or help. We should not allow irrational sentiment to becloud our faculty of reasoning.
Moreover, although, glorious future awaits Africa, that future does not lie with any ethnic section, cliquish, religious bigots or the scoundrels who parade themselves as our leaders. What Africans need is a national ethos and no group is better placed to do this than the youths. The youth, including the likes of Toyin Agbetu must be given the opportunity to begin the re-examination of Africa. The youth’s needs to constantly challenge themselves even in the midst of deprivation and wants. They must not let the baggage of ethnic chauvinism and many other ills that have mired our great continent in underdevelopment to weigh them down. With these, African renaissance is here to stay.
What we call "history" is born from a collage of glimpses and images, insights, documents etc… While these “sources”, these “raw material of history” does not presume to tell the comprehensive story of early slavery or colonialism; it does offer tantalizing glimpses into the past. Of course, history lives beyond its contemporaries… See MyBlog earlier on.
It is a truism that colonialism did a lot of harm on the cultural, political and economic nerve of the African state. But whether we are now in a phase of pan- Africanism, that does not require reparation; with the damage to Africa, to the damage of our capability for unity, and the capability for democracy, good governance and the question of nation building, to the issue of the harm done to the people of Africa and Africans in Diaspora, the damage is not in the past; the damage is here with us now. It is in the wars which are going on in Africa today. It is in the current socio – economic underdevelopment which has continued to ravage Africa, while other/majority part of the world experiences some acceptable, but rapid and continuous level of economic development by leaps and bounds!
We are people of the day before yesterday ( we have a history) and the day after tomorrow (we have hopes); long before slavery, we lived together in one human village called Africa; then the strangers came and took some of us away, scattering us in different directions of the globe. This have made Africa a donor to both developed and the relatively rich economies of the world. But this is more so in terms of the brain drain syndrome that is still prevalent in Africa today. Before the strangers came, our village was the world, we knew no other. Now, we are scattered so widely that the sun never sets on the descendants of Africa. The world is now our village and we plan to make it more human between now and the day after tomorrow.
At the same time, we cannot afford (to continue) to blame colonialism or slavery endlessly. The price of doing so is not only high, but is usually paid in anguish and regret. Of course, an apology (although the perpetrators of slavery/colonialism are long dead now) may have the soothing balm on the psychology of the likes of Toyin Agbetu and his supporters.
However, expecting apology from one not directly linked to the said ills is not logical, and even if done as requested, it may be full of hypocrisy. This is more so, since it will be very difficult, if not impossible to decipher true apology from a bogus or “cooked” one.
Moreover, expecting an apology from the descendant of the former perpetrators may provide them the leverage or rather, the comfort to devise another subtle means of exploitation, knowing fully well that the victims (Africa) will gladly accept an apology from the beneficiary (West) in the future.
No matter how willing and well intentioned the West might be in tendering apology (I wonder the possibility of that, given the “pride” of the Western oligarchies) or salvaging Africa from the doldrums(if at all they can do that for Africa), few of them will be in concord to the whole process, since very few of them have the knowledge, or rather a better knowledge on our current local conditions and problems.
Beside, colonialism and slavery are the shared objectives of the West and Africa – although the West had the upper hand! So, if Tony Blair or the Queen of England etc should apologized on behalf of their forefathers, who will do so on behalf of our forefathers who sold their cousins, uncles nieces etc, who are/were themselves our forefathers?
Our leaders, who are our fathers, are still exploiting us today. They are still selling us cheap. They have mired our image at the international level. The case of Nigeria and others are open books. That of Zimbabwe and others are special breeds of its own
So, instead of wasting time to fight the past, which inevitably will bring no recipe for the current development agenda for a modern society, we (Africa) should go back to the drawing board. We should be more concern with stopping modern slavery: restriction of our products to the rich Northern markets, dumping of products, debt burden, denial of some good or rather, acceptable voting power in the IMF/WB etc, and in the Committe of Nations, child trafficking/child labor/cheap labor etc.
Africa must occupy the drivers seat, sort out those things we can do for ourselves, do them before soliciting for anything “ external”, either in the form of apology, support or help. We should not allow irrational sentiment to becloud our faculty of reasoning.
Moreover, although, glorious future awaits Africa, that future does not lie with any ethnic section, cliquish, religious bigots or the scoundrels who parade themselves as our leaders. What Africans need is a national ethos and no group is better placed to do this than the youths. The youth, including the likes of Toyin Agbetu must be given the opportunity to begin the re-examination of Africa. The youth’s needs to constantly challenge themselves even in the midst of deprivation and wants. They must not let the baggage of ethnic chauvinism and many other ills that have mired our great continent in underdevelopment to weigh them down. With these, African renaissance is here to stay.
4 comments:
Hello Pius:
You have some frank and balanced points in this post and others, and thanks for the visit to the Grandiose Parlor. I appreciate your comments. It appears you are blogging from Nigeria, I'm I right? Cheers.
You are absolutely right imnakoya. But I wouldn’t know what gave you the inkling that I was/am writing from Nigeria? Okay, maybe from the profile on my blog. Am I right? Laughs. Thanks for you response anyway.
You list Abuja as your location.
Exactly and that is it.
Post a Comment