There are questions I really ask myself when I see and hear certain things about my continent. Things like horrible cultural practices, poor sanitation, lack of security, corrupt leaders, lackadaisical government workers, internet fraudsters but to mention a few. The questions are:
Why are we not there yet? I mean at the top, why are we not developed yet? Why the penury in most parts of the continent when we are so endowed with things that when properly managed could get us there? Why do we have so much time on our hands aiding us to indulge in such frivolities at critical times? Why do we cry foul when we could work to show evidence of our worth?
Then I remember that the African is too righteous. Too righteous to care about things that can cost his or her life, too righteous to right the wrongs occurring in front of his or her very eyes. The African is too righteous to be affected by things that will kill him or her, so he or she chooses a better option, to look at the other person next to him or her and be his or her God. Let me put it in plain words: Africans think that living without gossips; which they think put people on their toes, is not living. So they decide to live their lives as the ‘correctioners’ of the choices of others instead of correcting what can cause havoc and death to their entire generation, hence President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to cage people for their sexual preferences.
Imagine Nigeria, a country almost at the end of a cliff because of terrorist attacks, corruption etc… choosing to arrest and jail gay men. Incredible!
Imagine Ghanaian politicians staging drama at the expense of peoples’ livelihood by playing blame games. I don’t want to talk about Zimbabwe and the others. Imagine the future we will have at this rate. And we complain that white people see us as nothing. I guess all my protests are subdued. Why will I protest now? What grounds do I have to protest that we are less human when my own people are giving us out by laying bare their lack of good thinking?
What can I say? We should just continue to be righteous on nonsensical issues and leave the pressing ones in a huge corner, let’s pack them up in a huge corner, and like an angry tsunami filled with shit and filth, it will one day overtake all of us in our righteousness in the beautiful- horrible death we envisage, then we may probably end up in heaven.
AMOAFOWAA SEFA CECILA.
Mum Cee 