Africa in Delusion: Why I am not proud of Africa!
It is a very wise philosophy in life to love yours, in the words of J. Cole' even when yours might not be the creme de la creme of its category. However, praising yours to be the best when in fact it is not, is - plain delusion. If you really love something, you will do everything to make it the best or if that something is someone, you will pull everything in your control to make that person the best version of themselves just like a parent looks out for a child he/she loves. However, we Africans are more concerned with having the best uniform than having the best score. We claim we love Africa but we do nothing to protect it. Very many Africans both at home and in the diaspora who claim to be proud of their cultural heritage do nothing to advance the culture (The idea of preserving a culture is another stupid idea, one that can only come from someone who does not know what culture is).I cannot count the number of times I have heard people say things along the lines of “Africa is the richest and the most beautiful continent with the most welcoming and morally upright people.” Many Africans especially those born before the 70’s who live in western countries can hardly take a break from calling out the west for its culture, considering it to be among other negative things one that raises kids who are ‘disrespectful’ to their parents. At the same time those same folks would not be able to afford a decent quality of life if they had remained in their respective African nations. We criticize the west even though on a daily basis the U.S embassy denies entry visas to thousands of us.
Though many would like to disagree, African music really got big when people started shooting videos in the U.S. Don’t bring up South Africa because the white population there is solely responsible for the fact that it is a place other Africans think of running to for a better chance in life.
Personally, I don’t care for the preservation of the so called ‘African culture’ because when you look at culture in its entirety, not just artistic creations, you can argue that the African culture is directly responsible for the continent's economical and sociocultural tardiness. Our tribalistic tendencies translate into nepotism, favoritism and discrimination. Our forced ‘respect’ for our elders is what enables the youth to be forever marginalized, not to talk of the general hypocrisy which is the subject of this entire post. I mean in most African countries, you get social points for traveling out of your country even if its just for a week. What does that say about us? We import everything that we use to caste our society.
I do not speak my 'contri talk' and some can think they can use that to shame me but I am very happy I don’t speak it, for obvious reasons. I go into certain offices at times waiting to be served and someone will walk in, say some stuff I don’t understand and will get a faster and better service that I get because they come from the same village as the person in charge. The natural argument an African will give me against such a point is that if I knew my dialect, I would also be able to gain favors over other people in the case where I am faced with my own tribesman in an office and it is natural to show preference for my brother- I’m not going to try and justify myself here. Even when it comes to the English language we burrowed and now claim full rights to, we want to force people to read the phonetics of the dictionary different from what is written in the dictionary so as to sound African - stupid.
You want me to be proud of Africa?
When was the last time a boat overloaded with people trying to flee Europe into Africa capsize killing thousands? How many days in a week is any African embassy overworked from processing visas for foreigners trying to come in?
Or should I instead be proud of our incredible rich history - of the fact that the richest man in the world was once African? Or should I be proud of the fact that even though the pyramids of Egypt still remain mysterious architectural feats, Africa is still infrastructure-wise the most backward continent? Should I be proud of the fact that as a continent we still register the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rates? Should I be proud we still have the most heavily indebted countries? Should I be proud of the fact that we are still the most fertile breeding ground for corrupt public service officials?
Being proud of Africa can only be right if it was the case of a parent being proud of the achievements of her child born with a natural handicap unless in this case, if history is right, Africa was never born with a disadvantage; it actually had an advantage and blew it. Being proud of Africa is like being proud of a kid who went from scoring 10/10 to 0/10 and is now scoring a little better at 3/10.
We claim we love Africa but we do not pass over any opportunity to leave the continent and seek for a better life elsewhere. Building a Africa we can be proud of begins with calling a spade a spade. We have to be honest about who we are and how much we have failed. We are our own problem and any attempt to point to the west for blame is another quick out, an avenue only suckers take. Yes, maybe because of our tendency to be nice to strangers, the white man came in an took advantage of us, ok- let's get a pass for the first time. Magic System is right "on dit premiere gaou n'est pas gaou." When I look around today, the same thing is happened in a different form. What on earth do we think we are letting China do around here? Now we are just being stupid.
Slavery was only possible because the black man let it happen. In our culture, visitors get better treatment than children of the house: I’m sorry if you think otherwise but that is a dumb idea. I never understood that and I always made my parents know that. Even till date, I still have to deal with people who want to take me off a table so some white peace corp worker can sit; in my own country. A white man stands a higher chance of succeeding in business here because my fellow countrymen still feel their self worth can by augmented by association with a foreigner so meanwhile they do everything to lower barriers for the foreigner, they mount every obstacle possible in the way of another fellow citizen.
I am African, hardly proud. If you are one and proud, how’s life in Low Standards Ville or Quartier Delusional? I used to detest my Egyptian and Moroccan school mates who outright argued that they were not African but I can understand how they could so badly want to be dissociated from Africa. I’ll never be petty enough to deny I am African because that is of no doing of mine. I’ll rather do the best I can to redefine what it means to be African.