MAJUTO NI MJUKUU

This is Swahili proverb has been rolling around in my head for the last few weeks. It translates to Regret is a grandchild … I’m sure you catch its meaning.

For sixty years since ‘independence’, some Afrikan governments and leaders have been laying firm foundations for the failure of their people and nations. Consorting with their former terrorizers in unholy neo-colonialist bonds that ensure that their countries remain in slavery for the foreseeable future… bonds that have toxified politics, agriculture, business, education, health, finance, development, sports – ensuring that everyone in Afrika is bound by the same rules that the rest of the world lives by. As if Afrika is their helpless little brother or infant child who must kowtow to their every demand, without a mind or a purpose of her own. These governments and leaders, fearing the possibility of ‘the worst thing that could happen’ to themselves, continually sell the souls of the 1.3 billion who are meant to be under their careful stewardship to the so-called global elite. As if they as ‘leaders’ are immune to the mood swings of those controlling their puppet strings.

Do you know that the word elite, according to the dictionary, means: “A group or class of persons considered to be superior to others because of their intelligence, social standing, or wealth”? So if we’re to go by that definition, which is intended to exclude billions of people in the world and place on a pedestal surrounded by rarefied air, a mere handful – then we’re saying that these so-called crème de la crème of society are superior beyond the reach of mere mortals. This ‘superiority’ therefore entitles them to bully, intimidate, rob, rape and murder those ‘inferior’ to themselves, wherever they may be in the world, whenever they feel like. Because that’s what they do. Arrogantly dominate global matters with a phone call, a flourish of a signature on a cheque or some other document, an endorsement extended or withdrawn – and all this to their own economic benefit. So they’re not only murderous, they are selfish, narcissistic, greedy and pompous to boot. Are we really saying that is the cream of global society? That immorality, hedonism, wickedness and a blatant disregard for the welfare of others are the global standards for all that is good? If we are, then the world is in a whole lot more trouble than we ever imagined. Worse yet if the Afrikan ‘leaders’ and middle class aspire to be like these despots, sociopaths and self-inflated fools who know nothing of the fate that awaits them… then we are – indeed – firmly on the path to total destruction.

That is the madness that Afrikan leaders have subjected themselves to, choosing to bury their heads in the sand and to ignore the fact that whether they cooperate with them or not, their days as leaders – or otherwise – are weighed by these scum as only valuable if they are meeting their repulsive demands. For as long as they are useful, they shall be retained – but once those days are done… well, the history of Afrikan leaders is well known to you.

The question then becomes, why not just live and lead with the dignity of one who is not ‘owned’ by these tormentors? That way, if one dies, they die with their honor intact, leaving behind a true legacy to demonstrate to others the wickedness of the hidden hands and the truth that the ability to chart one’s own course is possible. Isn’t this why we sing the praises of the likes of Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Gen. Muammar Gaddafi and John Pombe Magufuli? Those who dared chart their own course and whose names now speak because of the choices they made that are so contrary to what has been called the norm these days?

For the past almost two years through Msingi Afrika Magazine, eleven months through the book A People Called Afrika: Rebuilding the Afrika of Our Dreams and about 9 months through Msingi Afrika TV we have been sounding the warning and banging the drum trying with everything to inform, remind and warn Afrikans about the things we have been learning. Things that have been missing from our classrooms, newsrooms, political and cultural spaces. Things that are tools to empower and restore us as Afrikans to our rightful place. We have been pointing out that:

1.          The continent of Afrika is beautiful, richly resourced and abundant in all things we need as Afrikans to build ourselves into the powerhouse we are meant to be;

2.          Our people are amazing, strong, wise, intelligent, innovative, creative and well able to drive Afrika’s growth agenda to the heights that it should attain;

3.          Our numbers are our advantage and if we come together, we can do more than we have ever dreamed of;

4.          Our young people need to be given every strength to articulate themselves because within them lie the solutions, the courage and the freshness that the continent needs right now. That the older generation should not see the young ones as trouble makers because they are asking questions and seeking for change but that instead of trying to stiffle them, they should be trained in how the world really works and then be unleashed as a force for change,

5.          Our indigenous knowledge which definitely includes natural medicine is powerful and should be harnessed NOW for us to be able to gain an edge that gives us the ability to lead the world in the direction it ought to be taking;

6.          Afrika needs to run, screaming, far, far away from taking on any new debt and tell the world that all the pain it has suffered since colonialism and now under neo-colonialism is payment enough for any money the world claims that Afrika owes;

7.          Afrika needs to turn inwards and build, together, in harmony and in a way that is sustainable. Each country harnessing its best resource and providing its solutions in a complementary way with others to build a cohesive whole;

8.          The countries of the West and the East are NOT our friends. They are NOT looking to make us sustainable, independent, healthy or whole. They are only looking to further subjugate and control us, for their own benefit;

9.          Afrika can overcome this if it just drops the foolishness of Western and Eastern thinking and begins to redefine its own paradigm drawing from ancient Afrikan wisdom, with an understanding of modern times – via its sons and daughters in Afrika and in the Diaspora – and build on the basis of that new paradigm.

It has also been made very apparent that the people elected to (or otherwise occupying) public office in Afrika are aware of these issues outlined, meaning that they are responsible for what they do or don’t do with what they already know. If they were ignorant of these things, of the games and the propaganda being worked against us, it would be a different story. What remains is a call that was made in one of our videos to the Afrikan leadership to choose to courageously expose the truth to their citizens and educate the populace on what is really going on in the world around them. To transform #1.3billionstrong Afrikans into empowered, independent thinkers and leaders who cannot be intimidated in any forum, to make Afrika such an imposing and impressive force, that the global bullies will have no choice but to turn and negotiate with Afrika rather than slay the vocal Afrikans one by one – either directly or by proxy – and use that sneaky strategy to silence the whole. Talking and not taking appropriate action should have ended like the day before yesterday.

Each time we at Msingi Afrika Magazine look at the various issues going on in Afrika against Afrikans, it breaks our hearts and not just because the issues are unavoidable but because we look at our young ones and see how clueless and helpless they are about the future. We have to change things NOW.

The status quo… is not an option.