More than fifty years after independence, Africa is still not free. This beckons the question of "Why fight for independence when we cant live up to it, why is Africa not yet free?" In other words, the African Puzzle. Independence and growth as defined by society is ones position compared to that of another. Is Africa poor because we use mud houses while Europe and other parts of the world build skyscrapers? Is Africa not free because we have leaders who have been in power for ages while in other nations they stay for just two terms of office? I have chosen to define freedom and growth as a state of mind. Have you ever asked yourself, what makes us African? Have you ever asked yourself, why do we always blame others for our misfortunes? Why does the African continent lack originality and why are we perceived by the world as a people completely different from how we see ourselves??

Self Identity, the knowledge of who we are and who we want to be is a great factor when considering gaining freedom and growth. We can never be free and grow if within our minds, we don't have an image of what makes us free and if we don't believe we are great and meant to grow. Mohamed Ali was great not because he was the most talented but because, every time he stepped into the ring, he said to himself "I am the greatest" and that self image/identity is was propelled him to greatness. Inferiority complex is the best way to describe how a majority of Africans feel about themselves. What ever happens to us, we most often feel like we are being marginalized. We should learn to accept criticism for the greatest in history were always despised.  

It is high time each and everyone of us redefined the way we view ourselves and Africa. The American Dream might seem far-fetched but it works. Not because it is real but because the Americans believe in it and always work towards it. It is not magic. Just as you would never be good at any subject in school if you believe you can't pass it, you will never attain anything in life if you don't believe in it and work towards it. But most of all, we need to have a complete self image. Knowing who you are is the best way of achieving what you want. It lays your strengths and weaknesses before you and gives you a clearer path. 

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that no matter how great or simple your ideas are, if you don't know how to brand them and make the world see them, then its an idea, a concept or a line of thought gone down the drain. We need to rebrand Africa the way we want the world to see it. The mud houses we live in is part of our identity, its who we are. We just have to make the world see it as a way of life rather than a financial condition. When you come up with an idea, let it solve the problem of you immediate surrounding. The world would always adopt it if it is great. When Steve Jobs invented the Macintosh, he aimed to solve and existing problem in the United States of America. But since the idea was great, the world adopted it. American products, from Google to Facebook sell to us the American way of life. It is time to brand and create the African way of life.

Originality! Originality! Originality!. Just as it is a custom in Africa for parents to call our names three times when there is something of great importance, I chose to do same with originality. The only thing that can make us different in a world of constant evolution is originality. All nations have gone through separate challenges. Every nation, people and culture are shaped by the experiences they share over the years. For us it has been slavery, colonialism and though had to say, in a midst of vast fertile lands, we still experience famine. 

The west dealt with the abolition  of the slave trade by sending some of the slaves back home and others to different parts of the world. They dealt with colonialism by creating organizations which gave us "on paper" freedom while captivating our minds. It is in our position as Africans, to take up individual challenges to not not only free our minds but become our own people, become who we are born to be. The only way we could achieve this is through originality.

Africa is a jig-saw puzzle of 54 pieces. Just like every great jig-saw puzzle, it is up to the player to put the pieces together, but unlike any puzzle, there are 1.111 billion players. We just have to figure out how to put the pieces together. We need to create a new self identity. By not only redefining our image on the world stage but by also being original. We need to revisit our roots. As my role model, Mahatma Gandhi once said  and I quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world". 

Continue reading

The past couple of weeks have been heart breaking and jaw dropping all around the world as the news of xenophobic attacks in South Africa proved that black history is dying and the struggles of all African heroes who fought for the liberation and unity of Africa is going down the drain. Xenophobia, which I consider a cousin to racism, is the dislike of citizens from another country or region. However, a lot of people around are looking at this from the point of a physical struggle but which is not the case. Xenophobia is an ideological struggle, which dates back years if not centuries. 

Dating back to the apartheid, South Africans have always lived with the ideology of, "they are not Africans" and that, "being a part of the Great African Continent is just a geographical miss happening". Reading Conversation With

Myself (Pg80) by Nelson Mandela , I stumbled on this very interesting conversation between Mandela and Richard Stengel. During which, Stengel asked a question. It didn't make much sense at first sight, but if the dots were to be connected backwards, they would connect perfectly with the xenophobia attacks. The question went thus and I quote 

"STENGEL: But the story where the chief [Albert Luthuli] asked you why you hadn't consulted him about, about the formation of MK, was that on this trip or was that when you returned from Africa?"

Looking at it from this perspective, I wouldn’t blame the South Africans for their reactions. An ideology is never changed over night. I would blame their leadership system for ignoring to revert this ideology in their nation. 

Notwithstanding, there is a second twist to this story. It is the part where the South Africans carrying out these attacks have proven their low knowledge of African History. If and only if they could take a minute to sit down and look back in time, they wouldn't undermine the heroic role many African leaders and states played towards the liberation of African. We though vary in degree are by no means exclusive. South Africans were accommodated in different nations for safety and given jobs to fend for their families. For many who strike today against their fellow brothers are alive because of those they kill. 

Ideological battles are the biggest plaguing the African continent right now. The only difference is, that in South Africa was given a name. From immigrants being tortured in North Africa to the future leaders of our great continent being killed in attacks in the East, to religious battles in Central Africa to the loss of lives and separation of families in the South, Africa is at war with itself. I weep, not for the present generation but the heroes who sacrificed a lot for the present generation. Again and again I weep, not for the present generation but because the only history we will ever write for ourselves, is the history where we turned our backs against ourselves to shake hands with those who put us in this very situation.

If I were a South African, I would live up to the tittle of "A Rainbow Nation" and be a symbol of peace. If I were a South African, I would never honor all the fallen heroes from Muammar Gaddafi to Robert Mugabe who made a decision to tilt destiny in our favor. But since I am only an African, I continue to weep and wait for the day the Rainbow Nation will truly become the rainbow amidst Africa's rain. Everyone is to be blamed. The system is to be blame for not killing this ideology of segregation, the attackers are to be blamed for ignoring our History and the African media must be blamed for little sensitization.

Continue reading

Change is usually defined as the act of making something different or using a different approach to a specific situation. In the recent years change has probably been used more times in political campaigns than ever before. Its face value gets the votes and its intrinsic value either ruins or develops a society. From the United States of America’s 2008 presidential elections to that of Nigeria in 2015, politicians have implored this word as a reflection of the new era they intend to create. That has left me pondering, what do they actually mean by “CHANGE”. This article is going to look at change from two different perspectives. These two perspectives are two opposite lanes on the highway of foreign policy, a shift from physical captivity to mental and diplomatic anarchy.

The “On Paper” end of human slavery in the United States by the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1^st 1963 was a stepping to something bigger. Something that the targeted slaves would go through years of study and volumes of books and actually still sign. It was the beginning of foreign policy. A set of laws and limitations that promote change but yet still give change.  Its very first child has taken away millions of lives and promoted spending while millions die each day of hunger and lack of shelter. A child so expensive to educate and each day that passes, something has to be ameliorated to make it better. No doubt it was named DEMO-CRACY. Really wander and ponder when this whole “DEMO” will be over the full version released. Democracy was given to third world countries as a condition to restore what actually belongs to us. At a time when very few people in those parts of the world knew what it was and its promoters understood it inside out. We went into a deal which enhanced CHANGE but then left CHANGE.

The other elements of foreign policy sound more like its grand children. From the IMF and The World Bank to the United Nations and the International Court of Justice are all good concepts with two main objectives, to promote CHANGE and leave behind some CHANGE. Ever wondered why all Heroes (leaders of 3^rd world countries who took the bull by the horn) began perishing for unjustified causes? The answer is simple. They began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They understood what the whole system was meant to do. From Libya to Burkina Faso, Iraq to Syria, the system has been tailored to creating CHANGE and leaving some CHANGE.

Wonder where all this is leading to, well let me break it down for you. The two perspectives of change here are those of the powerful nations and the developing nations. The former has a very high face value but the latter has an invalid intrinsic value and a result of that of the former. The wars and ousting of leaders in developing countries creates a vacuum for exploitation by the west. This exploitation, often done in billions of dollars boosts the western economy and oil the wheels of positive growth and technological advancements in those countries. Meanwhile somewhere in the 3^rd world country, Change (the left overs from the exploitation process) is being used to promote a system created by the same people who exploit these countries thereby creating another vacuum for investment with funds gotten from exploitation. The next leaders come and promise Change. The borrow investment funds from the same people whole exploited us. And then, at that point, just that point when the 3^rd world countries are about to make it out of the rat race, we bay back the loans and all they are left with is CHANGE.

ARE THRIRD WORLD COUNTRIES EVER GOING TO EXPERIENCE CHANGE OR ARE WE GOING TO CONTINUE LEAVING ON CHANGE????

Continue reading

Continue reading