LOOKING AHEAD

They say you cannot live in the present without influence from the past. Likewise, you cannot look into the future without influence from the present. I dare to say that the past, the present and the future are the same. For the present that becomes the past and the present was once the future when looking from the past. Then it hit me, how did a continent so full of hope and promise sway so far away from its past glories.

Africa, a continent that was once the cradle of civilization, is now the continent which is referred to as undeveloped and backward.  Africa has become land where technology is only diffused and not invented; a land that has the highest disease burden than anywhere in the world; a land where leaders fight over the mineral resources like women fighting over man; a land where leaders oppress their own people like they were slave masters; a land so rich and yet so poor. What happened to the descendants of the people who were brilliant enough to build the pyramids of Giza, the descendants of the great kingdoms of Ashanti, Mali, and Songhai?

Some say unequal terms of trade that began from the beginning of Africa’s trade with the western world. The west dictated what commodity the wanted in exchange for cheap items. When Europe demanded for slave labor, slave trade was giving birth to. When they needed raw materials during the industrial revolution, they shared Africa among themselves and colonized Africa. Even to this day the World Bank and IMF imposed Structural Adjustment Policies on developing countries—neo colonialism. Typical Afro centric thought blaming the White man for the woes of Africa. But remember it was not the White man who caused the Rwandan genocide, or the White man who sits in government offices all over Africa and engage in bribery and corruption, it is not the White man who caused the authoritarianism that plague African democracies, it is definitely not the White man who created the filth around us that causes the malaria that kills our children and surely it us, not the White man, that stop ourselves from producing our own food when we have abundant land for farming.  It is our own greed and our intolerance for people other than ourselves.

The past has been written, what has been done is gone. The past affected our present but the present can influence our future. If we start rebuilding our future from the present then the dreams we have of good sanitation, proper health care, good transportation systems, clean water and electricity for all and a sound education can be realized. Africa needs committed men and women. Africa needs patriots. Africa needs stronger bonds of cooperation among its nations. Africa needs the renaissance and emancipation of the mind of the African; a shift from the I thinking to the we thinking. Africa doesn’t need the aid but equal terms of trade and investment. What Africa needs is Africans fighting for the common good of the continent. As Michael Jackson said changing the world begins with the “man in the mirror”. Look at yourself and do your quota to help your community, influence your country in a positive way, it will affect your continent. Just imagine everybody doing the same—it will certainly bring forth a new Africa where every African dream has been realized.

To those who believe in Afro pessimism I say that Africa has the ability to progress in the mist of our present woes. May the African spirit be with us as the Holy Spirit has been with the father and the son.