MY TAKE
AFRICAN LEADERS WORSHIP AT THE ALTER OF POVERTY

I just did a little research and to my amusement I found out that Africa before the 1884 Berlin Conference (scramble for Africa) had no countries. There were just empires, kingdoms and at most boundaries. No wonder the first thing the Europeans did was to get rid of our history and cultures when they came, setting up cages in the name of countries, forcefully bringing strange bedfellows together. No wonder no one taught us about the Songhai Empire, Benin Empire, Timbuk tu, Mali Empire and their likes but had the effontery of telling us about Lord Lugard, Christopher Columbus and the rest of the wanderers who called themselves discoverers. Who gives a hoot about Columbus? If he were to be alive and was brought to Akodnakpa, we will still be told he discovered Akodnakpa even when we know as a fact that the Gbagyi's have used that river for over 200 years fishing, crafting and all.Why I always study history is because you can never go anywhere without knowing your past, you can never solve a problem without knowing the root cause. When you go to the hospital, the doctor would ask you a lot of questions about your medical history, which informs his diagnosis.

I keep telling people that civilization started from Africa. The early man who was a wanderer and gatherer came from Africa. The greatest leap in terms of civilization was the discovery of fire, which was discovered by the Africans. Ever since fire was discovered, it has made life much more easier for man. For example because of the discovery of fire, the early man was able to cook his food thereby making it easily digestible, specialising his internal organs giving him longevity of life in the process. With the advent of fire, man has been able to conquer his space, generating warmth for himself, it has equally helped in combustion for his engine and fire has also helped him in conquering/subduing his environment. However, fire was supposed to make life easier for man, but man still used fire to destroy himself and his environment. Either through the fire that comes out of the barrel from his gun or the fire that explodes his balisters.

In my own opinion especially as someone who studied Zoology, I find it as a folly submission to perceive that man is the most intelligent of all animal specie. We all know that man is the only animal that pays for his food and space he is domiciled(isn't that foolish). Have you ever seen a Giraffe, zebra, Monkey or Lion paying for food or land rate? So what's so intelligent about man? Man is the only animal that has invented gods for himself, if he is not worshiping the sun, it's the Moon, or trees or papers called money. For the sake of my submission, let me not deviate, I will save this for another day.

So what really happened to Africa before the advent or influx of the slave masters, Arabs and Europeans? If you have watched the black Panther, it would give you an insight on the kind of civilization Africa had before the fall of Africa. Africans had technology that was ahead of their time such as the pyramids of Egypt that gave electricity without the wiring system we have today( you just place a bulb in sand and light comes on) or is it the advanced horoscope system or advanced literature? At least you are aware of the work of art(s) that still lies till this day in the British museum, the French museum and so on. It's no hidden fact that Africa and Africans built Europe and America. Half of the population of Africa were taken away from Africa, initially by the Arabs, then Europe and America. With our sweat, minerals and blood Europe and America was built, when slavery lost her luster the colonial project came about and then finally the neocolonial project we still have today. I give all these history so that we can have a firm grasp of the present realities that confront us. The only two things that they succeeded to impose on us apart from their superior weapons were that of religion and inferiority complex. I will not talk of religion today for obvious reasons but will talk of the inferiority complex they carefully enshrined on Africans. Apart from the strategy of divide and conquer that they still practice today all over Africa with a typical example of Nigeria ( the south and north, us versus them). At least now everything from Africa is of inferior quality but everything from overseas is of superior quality. Even the China of yesterday is bringing things into Africa, when it's common parlance that everything made in China that comes to Africa (especially Nigeria) is fake. We have mastered the art of looking down on anything made in Africa.

We have so much inferiority complex that our economic advice has to come from Europe ( world bank, IMF, WTO etc.), our military hardware has to come from Europe, our clothes, phones, gadgets etc have to come from Europe when we all know that Europe seldom has any mineral resource. All the resources comes from Africa, be it cotton for your Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace etc. Crude oil used as fuel and natural gases, diamonds and gold that they bring back so you can engage your fiance, steel ore taken from Africa to make private jets and cars sold as Benz, BMW, Peogeut, Toyota etc,they take your fish and send you canned sardine, they take your meat and send you corned beef, take your tomatoes and send you tomato paste, even when you go abroad to school they take your culture and you come back hating your own kind because you have learned how to talk through your nostrils while you eat with knives and forks. We go on holy pilgrimages to Mecca and Israel boosting the revenue of those countries in a tune of billions of dollars when the enlightened ones know fully well that God dwells in us and not in some building or country. No wonder these days when I dress in my native attire, eat my traditional food, speak my dialect, use my African name and sing my Gbagyi songs I am termed local. Just this morning I was watching a music channel, and I saw an African musician singing with a big teddy bear in his hands, I asked my self, what's he holding the teddy for?

Just as the great Chinua Achebe always captured in his books, Africa's problem is leadership. When the colonial masters left, they still kept noecolonialism intact. All the countries that got independence from French colonies still have neocolonization intact, they signed a "PACT" with France that 85% of all their revenue will be deposited in France, to be overseen by the Minister of finance of France, it's a known fact, do your research. Anytime they need money, it is given to them through loans with an interest of not less than 25% or they sacrifice the sovereignty of their countries(I hope the word sovereignty sounds familiar in the terminologies used when sub Saharan countries take loans from China these days). Only God knows what countries who got their independence from Britain signed. No wonder the west has a hand in every leader who emerges as head of state in most African countries. And all the African leaders who have tried to be revolutionaries, we know exactly what happened to them, the Thomas sankara's, Sylvania Olympio, Aguiyi_Ironsi, Ali Shermeke, Francis Tombalbaye, Murtala Mohammed, Teferi Bante, Williams Tolbert, Samuel Doe, Laurent Kabila, Muammar Gaddafi. If it is a coincidence to you, to me as a student of history, it is not a coincidence to me. The rest of the leaders remaining are just puppets in the hands of the Imperials who just like their brothers "the early man", are just interested in wandering and gathering,but this time around it is not food they gather but they gather houses,cars,private jets,clothes and shiny objects (Africa must wake up and see beyond gathering toys). So like I was saying, where they can not assassinate, they cause confusion in that country so they can continue milking. So are the current trends in Nigeria familiar? Or is it strange that when one American is kidnapped in Africa,it takes them a couple of hours to regain their freedom? But for the black skin the war goes on and on. There will always be confusion,wars, inflation,religious conflicts and all those other big words in Africa because it benefits Europe and the West. What's the way forward? It's captured in my book. When it's out, make sure you get a copy.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Bureaucratic and political corruption in Africa by John Mukum Mbaku ( Solomon Solomon Ngbako Ngbako was generous with the book from his library).

SONG RECOMMENDATION
Africa by Toto

WORDS ON MARBLE
To care deeply about a State that does not care about you is a tragedy.

A tragedy I have come to embrace.............Malebo Sephodi

that's the whole idea of mind control to control you by reducing your worth