The ongoing pandemic has given impetus finally to governments in the region assigning additional resources to improving food security. Barbados in the period has been developing a closer relationship with Guyana and we have seen cooperation to increase black belly sheep production to satisfy local and some regional demand for lamb. There are additional initiatives we hope to see bear fruit in the coming weeks and months mentioned in a previous blog – Government Initiatives to Address Food Supply – The St. Barnabas Accord. Last week Minister of Agriculture reported there is a plan to slash food import bill by 20% when a food terminal is established in Barbados with the help of Guyana. It is a reminder the founders of CARIFTA envisioned Guyana to be the bread basket of the Caribbean almost 50 years ago.
Yesterday a direct flight – a first from Nigeria – to bring delegates to attend a 3-day investment forum one may argue is the result of the effort of the government to forge close ties with some African countries to create business of opportunities. The AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum will take place in Barbados from September 1-3. The forum represents an opportunity for the Caribbean and African private sectors to explore opportunities for trade and address challenges that have historically prevented deeper collaboration. The forum is being hosted by the African Export-Import Bank. The blogmaster is hopeful there is meaningful collaboration coming out of the engagement.
In a previous BU blog – Barbados based Fintechs on the MOVE the entry of Barbadian Fintech companies was highlighted and from reports have been reaping success on the African continent. It bears no reminder that 95 percent of Barbadian are of African descent, we therefore share a historical bond.
The video was sent by Ras Jahaziel of https://rastafarivisions.com/. He is a long time contributor to Barbados Underground. The more middleclass and upwardly mobile we become as a Black people we seem to be receptive to allowing our history to fade by retreating to a eurocentric form of existence – David, BU blogmaster
Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley was invited to participate in Ghana’s 65th Independence anniversary. To be expected she delivered a speech that has provoked discussion.
Prime Minister Mottley at Ghana’s 65th anniversary of Independence celebrations
One encouraging approach of this Mottley government is the obvious policy to forge closer links with the Mother Country. Many are smiling at the news an MOU was signed to pursue trade, investment and knowledge sharing opportunities with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). Also the alliance between Kenya and Barbados which saw a two day conference which brought together business people across different sectors in both countries.
The detractors will continue to moan that improving alliance with Africa countries is being being pursued because traditional source markets have dried up, so what!
Quite apart from the fact that “Black” and “White” are artificial constructs based on bogus premises and stupid stereotypes (which distort our existential authenticity as much as it does theirs) the simple truth is: all we have to do is respect ourselves. REPEAT: ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS RESPECT OURSELVES!
Respecting ourselves, truly respecting ourselves (not a stand-alone phenomenon, but one that is accompanied by self-esteem, self-belief, self-validation, self-actualization and, most importantly, self-love) is a mammoth undertaking for any people who have had a comparable history to ours. This turn of phrase is laughable for its emptiness, since no others have; not by a long shot. In short, nothing to compare! The task at hand is uniquely ours. The task at hand is two-fold. One. Demand & collect trillions of dollars in reparations from Arabia & the West for 14 centuries of material enslavement. Two. Regain our rightful minds. This task is to effect our own rebirth and cease to be what Professor Thomas has aptly termed natally alienated and morally imbecilic. Admittedly, this is no easy task. One generation of enslavement is bad enough. Fourteen centuries of inter-generational dehumanization is deadly. But rise from the dead, we must!
To every poison there is an antidote. Ours likely exists in our midst, hiding in plain sight. In fact our problem is not one of discovery but legitimization. Legit # 1: recognizing that we have a problem in the first place. Legit # 2: desiring its resolution. Legit # 3: actually taking the medicine. This is what we owe ourselves, our Ancestors and our children’s children. Yes, we owe it to ourselves! (What they owe us is trillions in reparations). It is entirely likely that a handful among us have undergone this process and effected our rebirth. Speaking personally, we know of only a few; a precious few. And, at the very top of this very short list stands such luminaries as Mirambo, Nzinga, Sandy, Rodney, Azikiwe, Kaunda, L’overture, Hypatia, Nkrumah, Lumumba, Imhotep, Toure, Shaka, Diop, Nyerere, Garvey, Zumbi dos Palmares, Jomo Kenyatta, av gbhnd, hiding in plain sight from most of our blinkered plant-African brothers and sisters, Molefe Kete Asante. Thank you Molefe and your illustrious associates for swelling our Ancestors’ chests with pride! Thank you, thank you, thank you!So, let’s not pick on the Chinese or any other group. Let us simply respect ourselves, truly respect ourselves and be the self-validating people God intended us to be. This must be the basis upon which we relate to ourselves. And this, in turn, is the only basis upon which we should countenance transactions with others; be they large or small, friendly or hostile, material or spiritual.
I am wondering why the USA Black Lives Matter Movement has remained silent on the killing in Uganda. During your recent riots the whole world stood and solidarity including many on the African continent. Why the silence? Are the lifes of Africans on the continent of any lesser value?
– Kammie Holder
The deafening silence coming from Comrades David Denny and David Commissiong and other local pan-Africanists advocates who rode the #blacklivesmatter protests for all the popularity it benefited a narrow agenda are now silent about events unfolding in Uganda. The loud dissenting voice in the person of Bobi Wine real name Robert Kyagulany and his house arrest after the recent election in that country should have triggered an immediate outcry from so-called local and regional Pan Africanists based in democracies like Barbados with a strong African ancestry. Sadly one must conclude that unless the US and UK have reason to protest injustice there is little traction to be had.
Barbados Underground quotes the indefatigable social and environmental commentator Kammie Holder on the silence of our people to what is unfolding in Uganda:
Unfortunately, it would appear the fake protestors are either just not interested or do not understand what they marched for.
It is deliberate the blogmaster decided to focus on political events unfolding in Uganda at this time and not the inauguration of Joe Biden in the US. There is the hope that although our geopolitical influence is limited, we should protest in the loudest way possible given our lineage and the fact we must always try to live vicariously through Africans.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley should not hesitate to use her global platform to lend a voice to the injustice being meted out to Bobi Wine. The irony for Blacks everywhere should be that an attempt by US Ambassador Natalie E. Brown to check on the well-being of Bobi Vine was refused by the Ugandan military.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Dr. Martin Luther King
The blogmaster extends gratitude to Kammie Holder for highlighting this matter and for calling out the Dennys and Commisiongs charged with showing leadership in matters related to Pan African affairs.
MARIJUANA LAWS AND THE LEGAL BANDITRY that maintains The Old Slavery Status Quo of White Wealth and Black Poverty.
The Old Slavery Status Quo of White Wealth and Black Poverty long after Emancipation. Their purpose? to keep Rastas and the majority of the Black population ECONOMICALLY DESTITUTE, so that they would be forced to keep on begging for jobs
Whenever there is a harvest on the slave plantation it is the slave-master who will be going to the bank to continue his process of wealth accumulation.
So how come it is the slave that has always been the leader in Harvest celebration?
The landless X-Slaves were brainwashed to celebrate Crop Over
Demand for travel determines the servicing of routes by airlines.
The pandemic has triggered economic hardship worldwide, failures and or downsizing of some airlines, and in the absence of a definitive end to the effects of the pandemic, an on-going contraction in the demand for travel. This is bad news for Barbados whose economy is tourist dependent.
Whilst the country is in a wait and see position, it might well be beneficial if it looks at establishing a connection with Western Africa via air travel. As the most easterly Caribbean country, Barbados is nearest to West Africa, 6,406 km from Ghana and 7,431 km from Nigeria. There are seventeen (17) West African countries of which Nigeria and Ghana have a population of 100 million and 30 million respectively. Ghana is defined as a third world country but with the world fastest growing economy in 2019 and Nigeria, a rich 4th world country. Both Ghana and Nigeria have controlled the spread of Covid-19 and could be the main routes.
Demand for travel between Barbados and Ghana and Nigeria would have to be assessed by the Government of Barbados. In the absence of information, Barbados could benefit from promoting its educational institutions from primary to tertiary level. Parents who can afford tuition plus boarding and all the incidental costs might for a variety of reasons, prefer their children being schooled outside of the country. It might also be possible for Chefette to expand into West Africa. How Barbados can benefit from other aspects of oil rich Nigeria and agricultural based Ghana will also require research.
This suggestion is not new; both Jamaica and Guyana tooted flights to Africa but they failed to materialize. However, the present economic climate might just be right to follow through with these West African airline routes. Though flying to Barbados, most of Virgin Atlantic airplanes have been grounded by the pandemic. Dire warnings about the continued spread of Covid-19 in the USA, UK and even Europe do not indicate this airline will return to full flight in the short term. With assets grounded and the airline bleeding money, Sir Branson might well be receptive to a route from Barbados to West African countries. His planes would be back in the air earning money. There’s no direct competition. Ticket prices can be relatively cheap because the airline would be flying to an oil rich country, Nigeria. However, the viability of each route is incumbent on Barbados justifying demand.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the former slaves in the Caribbean reverse the slave triangle to carve out trade between West Africa and the Caribbean and even North and South America.
This challenge is not outside the Prime Minister of Barbados’ orbit. The PM has resource people who can pull together a comprehensive Business Proposal. Her several interviews at the international level has raised her profile which should lead to contact and persuasion of the key international asset providers, Sir Branson or the alternative British Airways and though not discussed herein, the governments of Ghana and Nigeria.
This is not a start-up business where projected minimum start-up capital would be around $22 million in the first year as per a Business Plan done for a proposed new airline in 2010. The airport hubs, planes, personnel, etc., already exists. It would be interesting to know the flaw(s) in my idea.
Thus, when others impose the image of their deity upon you while you abandon your Gods, and accept theirs, you inevitably become their spiritual prisoner —
Dr. John Henrik Clarke
In every culture, there is a belief in a supernational being (Almighty), and the relationship between humans and God requires worship and sacrifice. And, in any recorded human history, humans practiced some form of cultural religion — spirituality, so, culture cannot occur without education, while education is impossible without some form of societal culture.
From the time in antiquity, religion comprised of regular ceremonies centered on a belief in a higher supernatural power (God — the unknown) that created and maintained the order of things in the universe. Over a period, religions focus on the spiritual aspect of God, creation, human, life after death, eternity, and how to escape suffering or to be adjudicated afterlife. That is the reason why every culture made Gods in its image, similarity, and representation in their cultural space.
There is nothing more important in any culture or life than the worship of something. The only question is whether the worship is the right One, done in the right way. However, every religion believes that they are the right One, worship the right way, and their God is best in their cultural space.
Hence, the essence of worship is to establish and maintain a relationship between human beings and their God within their cultural space. Thus, worship can be defined as an extreme form of love, unthinking devotion and adulation for a God. When God is an exaggerated worship of the cultural self. And, God is as the wind, which touches anything and everything. For that reason, religion can be restrictive, repetitious, show regard for something sacred within an organized system of beliefs and practices, leading to a supernatural spiritual experience.
Therefore, the concept of God is an attempt to forge an identity in confrontation with a limited understanding of the unknown universe. That is why Leeming, David Adams attested that the existence of God fulfills a significant human needs. While Gods are symbols of ultimate reality, and their existence provides a sense of significance in an otherwise random universe. So, religion or worshipping is not a European invention introduced to Africa.
Are human traditions and practiceshypothesis or scientific, and how can one discover the reality of religion instead of the true religion?
LOCKED IN A MENTAL STATE that was purposefully designed by white Slave-Breakers.
AFRICA has been painted with such a negative brush that for a very long time, the knowledge that you came from Africa was not a source of great pride. This shame has long plagued the mind of the African who became a Negro during the slave-breaking process. It caused the search for origins outside of Africa, because very few Negroes wanted to be linked with a place that had been covered with such shame.
Lest we forget Chinua Achebe’s things fall apart, the center cannot hold, and no longer at ease. It is no longer at ease for the west to sustain the fallacies that Africa did not contribute to world civilization and or history.
The internet was described as a disruptive technology, so it is the idea of redefining and repackaging Africa. And, as Omoyele Sowore vividly described Nigeria as a construction site and that the leaders can no longer operate with an analog mindset for the 21st century.
Thus, redefining and repackaging Africa requires a disruptive delicate balancing creative act that must challenge the colonial contradictions and dismantle the old colonial indoctrination. Therefore, just as the internet was a disruptive technology, Africa needs a disruptive awakening, for the new dawn. Africa can no longer operate with the colonial mindset and contradictions in the 21st century. Consequently, Africa needs a shock therapy, a rude awakening for the 21st century, and must challenge the future.
And, until Africa tells her stories from her perspectives, her stories will always be told from other’s cloudy lenses. Africa must develop her storylines and make it appealing, if not, Africa will not be respected anywhere in the world.
However, according to Dorothy Blake Farden, Africa’s first contribution to human progress, then, was the evolution of man himself. And, as George G.M. James revealed in his book, Stolen Legacy; how Greek philosophy was stolen Egyptian philosophy. James also stated that ancient Egyptian were the first to develop a complex religious system called the Mysteries, the first system of salvation in the world, yet, the west argued that Africa did not contribute to world civilization.
All the countries with colonial imposed names should change their names to reflect the new Africa. According to Jim Rhon, whatever happens to you from age zero to eighteen, we blame your parents, however from eighteen up, we blame you. Africa is long due for redefining herself with new names and attitudes that reflect her for the 21st century.
Consequently, Chukwudi Okeke Maduno (White Magic: The Origins and Ideas of Black Mental and Cultural Colonialism) emphasized that the role Africa played in the evolution of human civilization has not been enthusiastically acknowledged, but falsified and understated by the west. Thus, we must understand the destruction of black civilization by Chancellor Williams, which led to the delimitations of Africa, her current state of despair.
Conversely, the basic factor for Africa regeneration is the awakened race-consciousness, which means that a new, and unique civilization to be added to world history, as posited by Pixley Ka Isaka Seme.
And W. E. B. DuBois prophetically stated that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, and Africa has long been the clown of history, the football of anthropology, and the slave industry.
We must be attentive to the alarm of Carter Godwin Woodson, the mis-education of the Negros and Fela Anikulapo warnings, teacher don’t teach me nonsense, an education without interrogation.
We should remember the writings of Yosef Ben-Jochannan’s Africa the mother of western civilization, and Cheikh Anta Diop’s Africa Origin of Civilization.
And Dr. John Henrik Clarke’s famous quote on religion, anytime someone says your God is ugly and you release your God and join their god, there is no hope for your freedom until you once more believe in your own concept of God. However, Africa spirituality forms the fundamental pillars of all aspects of our societies, as Joshua Maponga III also contended.
Marcus Garvey believed that all Africans in the diaspora should return to their rightful homeland — Africa. And Dr. Kwame N’Krumah proclaimed resoundingly; that the survival of Africa can only be achieved by United Africa, in his 1963 OAU speech. Likewise, Amílcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, and Frantz Fanon were strong advocates of African unity. On the other hand, Muammar Gaddafi played a significant role in the transformation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU). And as the head of the African Union (AU), Muammar Gaddafi was resolute that Africa’s power lies in its unity — One Africa (United States of Africa).
Bob Marley reminded us to guard against mental slavery, and the liberation of the consciousness of our mind is a must, to change the course of Africa’s history.
Nevertheless, Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao opened the French pandora box, revealing the sustainability of the French economy by the francophone African countries. While Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba (PLO) eloquently urges us to seize this opportunity and make our mark as a people in this 21st Century. In essence, PLO was advising Africa not to miss this window of opportunity to make a change for the 21st century. And I preached that the way forward for the 21st century Africa is to re-define herself on the world stage and not by any foreign religious salvation.
Although most eastern and western world sees negative media depictions of Africa as a land of social, economic, and political failures, instabilities, and sufferings, Africa is a huge continent rich in natural mineral resources, human capital, and underdeveloped opportunities. Roughly 1.3 billion Africans reside on the continent, while an additional 400 million of her children live in the diaspora. What a resounding powerhouse of people!
Despite the negativities, Africa is the motherland of humanity, a continent of extraordinary beauty and endless fascination.
So far, Africa has not seen reasons to aggressively campaign to redefine, repackage herself, and sell herself to the world. These can be attributed to African leaders’ unfamiliarity with the power of imagery and public relations or the fear of retribution from the colonial interests in the status quo Africa.
However, I applaud new Africa’s consciousness and efforts in repackaging Africa. A strategy I called “Africa Re-Defined”, a new way forward for the 21st century.
And according to Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba (PLO), We must refuse to be known as the Continent that never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
In this new world order, Africa cannot afford to be waiting for handouts from the east or west, Africa must start promoting herself in earnest, a move that will undoubtedly create opportunities for her many children. I have religiously preached this reasoning to Africa for over 30 years, and it is time to challenge the contradictions of the colonial interventions in Africa. And I have been a strong advocate that the way out for Africa is to create her unique marketing strategies geared towards the new world order (a media house).
Nevertheless, it is Africa’s responsibility to promote her image in the new dawn. And who can best develop Africa’s image rather than her many children scattered all over the world? These are the people I called the “ambassadors” in your backyard. However, it is necessary to use these ambassadors to promote, redefine, and repackage Africa for the new dawn. The diaspora understanding of Africa, skills, cultural know-how, personal interest, and enthusiasm uniquely position them to help facilitate and promote Africa for the new dawn. They are dedicated and have the best interest of Africa in mind, and they understand the significances of the positive image of Africa on the world stage.
Their expertise and understanding of these countries’ perceptions of Africa will clear the paths to strategize a comprehensive redefining and repackaging for Africa. Beyond all else, they understand these perceptions, can anticipate, overcome culture, tradition, life, and business style, that can help elevate the image of Africa for the new dawn.
Although many African countries have begun opting for selective eastern and western styles for tackling political, economic, and social problems, lifestyle changes have created vast African market opportunities for anyone with quality products and services. Yet, African countries refused to use these ambassadors as tools to answer these pressing progenies.
New strategies must constantly be formulated, implemented to meet the needs and demands of tomorrow’s marketplace.
However, before Africa can successfully implement the repackaging strategy, and sell herself to the world, she must undo the effects of colonialism and eliminate the residue of the colonial brainwash. Hence, Africa must first make the necessary conscious internal efforts to change and sanitize her home, while simultaneously eradicating the ruminates of colonialism, when implementing the new media strategies.
Furthermore, James Baldwin made a passing reference, not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. Africa is facing new dawn in world history, and must not miss the golden opportunity to change and make her mark for the 21st century.
It is better to follow even the shadow of the best than to remain content with the worst.
Here are some recommendations for the media strategy that requires some internal changes, which will help facilitate and affect the new image campaign. These suggested recommendations are not limited to only these ten: Beauty & Hair Care, Diaspora Relocation Assistance,Education,Governance,Health & Medicine,Judicial,Languages, Names,Religion and Technology — Internet Accessibility.
Beauty & Hair Care
The African woman is the epitome of beauty, God’s best creation. However, African women need to redefine their concept of beauty in the context of Africa and self-esteem, and not from the Eurocentric perspectives. Huberta Jackson-Lowman posits that perhaps the most insidious effect of white supremacy racism has been its impact on how people of color view their physical appearance.
As a psychoanalyst, and in his book Black Skins White Masks to analyze the psychology of colonialism, Fantz Fanon examines how the colonizer internalizes colonialism and its attendant ideologies, and how colonized peoples, in turn, internalize the idea of their own inferiority and ultimately come to emulate their oppressors. Thus, racism functions as a controlling mechanism that maintains colonial relations as ‘natural’ occurrences.
After centuries of being brainwashed to believe the fairer-skinned are superior and should, therefore, be more favored, particularly if their facial features mimic Eurocentric ideals of beauty, has had a rippling effect — Fumi Fetto.
Most of the hair care products purchase and used in Africa are imported from countries such as India and China. According to Statista.com, the Asia Pacific region has the largest market for hair care in the world. And the global haircare market value amounted to about $85.5B in 2017 and is expected to grow to $102B by 2024.
Catherine Saint Louis noted that throughout the Caribbean, Africa, and in the United States, the devastating effects of skin bleaching, can be seen in the faces of women whose skin though lighter, exhibits thinning, and who are requiring dermatological treatment to deal with the destructive health effects of skin bleaching.
Diaspora Relocation Assistance Program
When reasonable basic infrastructures are in place, many Africans in the diaspora will be incentivized to come back home — Africa, which will undoubtedly lead to knowledge and technology transfer. The proposed five-year special relocation incentives or program should include but not limited to the followings:
Housing and personal effects
Education
Health
Special Business Funding
Tax Breaks (Business & Personal)
SMB/SBA New Business Support Programs
Other additional appealing incentives (country specifics)
Imagine how many Africans in the diaspora that would return with their entrepreneurial spirits, talents, know-how, to stimulate and rejuvenate the economies of the continent, coupled with the rich African cultures and people. These are the future architects of Africa’s developments, their diversities of knowledge from around the world, to be harnessed in Africa, imagine the possibilities? The improved infrastructure will also help reduce the brain drain from Africa.
Colonial Germany set a historical partner of racism and discrimination against dark-skinned people in Africa and the African diaspora, that some feel continues, unfortunately, down to this very day — Firpo W. Carr Ph.D.
Education
Education without interrogation and intelligence is an immense progeny in Africa. For example, roughly 4% to 6% of Nigerians in the US have PhDs/Doctorate degrees, higher than any groups, and South Africa leads the continent with the highest PhDs/Doctorates. Despite all these academicians, Africa has not seen any reason to reverse the colonial imposed academic systems that failed Africa.
Why should our literacy competencies be based on foreign languages? How many countries in Europe use other languages for their literacy standards, no matter how small the country? The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), should be abolished, it has outlived its usefulness. Each country in that council should set its own standard high school examination, independent of other countries.
History of Africa should be taught from elementary to the university level, particularly the effects of slavery, colonialism, and corruption. Courses on corruption and its effects on the continent should be offered and emphasized from kindergarten to university levels. Why study the geography of North America, and not study the geography of North Africa in our school system? Unfortunately, and likewise, most Africans are not taught the history of their country or Africa. Instead, they study and glorify the history of Europe, while neglecting their history.
More degrees should be offered for African history and languages, instead of degrees in English, French, and other worthless languages without added impact or significance to the development of Africa. Practical vocational and technical institutions should be developed, rather than theoretical academics. Africa should be proud of her diversity of languages, and they can be harness for open source software and apps developments that will facilitate technology development within the continent.
Governance
Plato warned that the punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of bad men. All political power is inherent in the people, and accountability is the core of any democratic system, which is based on elected officials working on behalf of the people — their constituents. Africans deserve better. Africa has enormous natural resources, and human capital unparalleled to other continents. Foreign forms of governance are not conducive for Africa, they do not put our cultural settings and values into consideration, likewise they are not sustainable. How can small countries like Malawi, The Gambia, Eritrea, Togo, Kingdom of Lethoso, Swaziland and Benin support a democratic or parliamentarian system of governance?
What Africa needs are officials, both elected and appointed, who are dedicated and accountable to the citizens they are required to serve by law. According to Peter Obi, a former governor in Nigeria stated: what the society allowed them (politicians) to abuse today will take revenge on us tomorrow. Accountability has the potential to transform government and put political power back in the hands of masses — not politicians. Thus, wise men who refuse to do anything, suffer under the rules of idiots. If all Africans determine to hold their public officials accountable, Africa will be a prosperous, peaceful, and harmonious continent.
It is time for change in governance in Africa, hold elected officials accountable to transform government, and put power back in the hands of people.
Health and Medicine
Africa should have eradicated malaria, sickle cell, and tuberculosis from the continent by now, instead of waiting to the east or west. According to the World Malaria Report 2019,sub-Saharan Africa accounted for approximately 93% of all malaria cases and 94% of deaths in 2018. More than two-thirds of deaths were among children under the age of five. The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the number of deaths caused by malaria in sub-Saharan Africa could double to 769,000 in 2020.
Africa must understand that the east or west is mainly interested in diseases that affect their race and continent. Africa should question their medical interventions or interests in Africa, because of their history for medical abuse and neglect. We cannot forget the famous syphilis research experimentation on African Americans and in Guatemala; because their goals are for their safety and profits.
Africa must develop her pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing facilities for security reasons and stop depending on the west or east for medicines. Instead, Africa should also encourage and harmonized standards for herbal medicines within the countries and across the continent. We have all the natural cures and remedies to cure Africa and beyond.
Judicial
The imposed judicial system is not conducive to the African cultural systems. The old fashion judicial wigs and gowns have out grown their usefulness. It is time for change and the change is now. Our judicial gowns or representations should reflect Africa and not the colonial intervention. The whole judicial systems should be reformed to reflect Africa, not Spain, England, America, or France. However, we can harness the best parts and incorporated them with our cultural settings. Africa needs a reformed judicial system to reflect 21st century Africa.
Languages
Research and studies indicated that the mother tongue (thinking language) is the best instructional language, an enabler that facilitates better learning, understanding, and transfer of knowledge. Colonial languages should be phased out and no longer used as the standard to measure literacy in Africa. Africa should be proud of her diversity of languages.
Africa should use major languages of their country as the instructional language; however, they should also teach other major languages alongside the instructional language of the locality. The colonial languages should be an elective, if at all offered. This will finally lead to developing a new lingua franca for the country, just like Sawhili is used in eastern and southern Africa.
Language is not inherent in humans; it is a learned process. We can develop a new lingua franca for Africa to facilitate commerce, development, and harmony.
Names
Places such as Victoria Falls, which the people call Mosi-oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders on the Zambezi River at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and likewise Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria. When and how did Victoria own lakes and islands in Africa? They ought to be reverted to their original African names.
Are there any islands or falls in the colonial countries named or called by African names? Africa needs redirection of her thinking, mindset, and should free herself from the destructive colonial mentality.
Africa ought and must erase all the colonial indoctrination from her psyche to forge a new beginning for the 21st century. Africa should think and must think like leaders rather than have the enclosure of the mindset, names like Nollywood should be changed as well. Nigerian movies industry should be a leader and not a follower of Hollywood. Every European country name their movies industry their own creation, yet for Nigeria movie industry to be relevant, it has to associated or align with Hollywood by naming her movie industry “Nolly-wood”. What a disgrace? Leaders always behave like leaders; Africa should develop the leadership mentality or mindset in all its endeavors for the new dawn.
Religion
If foreign religions are the answers to Africa’s colonialization challenges, then what are the questions? How are foreign religious salvations relevant to the answers to the questions of colonialism, social issues, instabilities, economic and political failures in Africa?
We are children of superior religions and Gods. Thus, Africa should develop their indigenous religions, package it, and sell it to the world like other religions. We should export our superior Gods to the world, instead of worshipping imported religions or gods. Why settle for foreign gods in our land?
If these foreign religions offered a better place other than this earth as they claimed, how come the so-called religious leaders have not gone there to get a better life? This absolute brainwash of the foreign religions, the opium of the poor, failed Africa.
Every group of people should worship the Gods of their imaginations and representations. After all, God is an exaggeration worship of the cultural self. The Bible or Torah and the Quran is a collection of religiously authoritative texts or books, a documentary hypothesis. After all, every religion is about morality and ethics, an elaborate system of worship and levels of discipline which imposed dos and don’ts on the activities of humanity concerning nature. Religions are different roads converging upon the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads so long we reach the same point — The words of Gandhi. Africa has superior religions and Gods, worship your Gods, and be content.
Technology — Internet Accessibility
Internet accessibility and affordability should be a human right in Africa. Internet technology is a game changer and should be deplored in all aspects of life on the continent. The 21st century is a knowledge-based society or economy and is no longer limited to any geographical area. However, affordability and accessibility are the keys to develop and harness the full potential of the technologies.
Internet cost is far too expensive in Africa, Nigeria has the highest cost for accessibility in the world. The high cost limits people’s ability to harness the power of internet technology possibilities. Make Internet more accessible, affordable and open to accelerate development, says New World Bank Report. Why outsource our technological needs to India, if the cost of housing the technology is made affordable and reliable? Imagine the number of jobs it will create on the continent? Affordable high-speed connectivity facilitates and accelerates business development, innovation, expansion, e-commerce, it creates wealth and new opportunities by attracting businesses that want to relocate to areas with a strong and connectivity presence.
The future is creativity, innovation, and technology. Why has Africa not developed her social media apps or platform to rival Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tiktok? Africa should innovate, develop, support, and buy technologies made in Africa.
The ultimate goal of the redefining strategy is to create, own, and operate a continental (African) media house. We recommend all African countries to contribute a minimum of half a billion dollars towards the creation of the continental media house that will rival CNN, RT, France24, and Al Jazeera.
The personnel should include Africans, African Americans, and Afro Brazilians media gurus, with the HQ located in any African country, and housed in the US and Brazil, with branches all over the world. We also advocate a name from any African linguistics, meaning Truth or Telling Our Stories. This media house will tell the world our stories and to correct any negativities about Africa.
Linguistic diversities define Africa as one of the most linguistically diverse continents. It has roughly estimated 2,000 different spoken languages, divided into four major categories which include: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Khoe. I am very confident that we can formulate or create a name from those 2,000 languages for the media house. Hence, we do not need any foreign names for the media house.
We are gods in the body of God, truth and love our destinies. Go then and make of the world something beautiful, set up a light in the darkness — Awakening Osiris; The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Normandi Ellis.
In conclusion, will Africa ever rise again? Yes, there has to be a re-thinking and re-birth, only when she becomes Africa all over again, The New Africa of the 21st century. Thus, the world is changing; Africa must change her thinking, and think anew, act anew.
“Education without interrogation, teacher don’t teach me nonsense”
Submitted by Dr. Bamidele Adeoye
The arrow of time is always delving deeper in us, constantly forcing us forward, and in any story, time only flows when the story is told. The arm of time is always ticking to the beat of change, and change is as constant as time. We should move along with time, and not be swept along by the tide of time.
Progress is the attraction that moves humanity — Marcus Garvey
The essence of education in all societies is to prepare individuals to be useful and effective participants in their society. It prepares youths to be active and productive members of their societies by instilling them with the necessary skills and talents from an early age.
Koma Kenneth stated that education is everything that prepares the young people for either integration in a given specific society to perpetuate the established values and norms of such society or transform and changing such values and norms.
While Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere defined education as the transmission of accumulated wisdom and knowledge of the society from one generation to the next and also to prepare the young people for their future membership in the society in which they find themselves.
Thus, the African educational system, “it takes a village to raise a child” concept, the education, knowledge, skills, and attitudes were passed from generation to generation mostly orally, and training was done by example in most African societies. In essence, the training was done directly, formally, indirectly, or informally by the family members, kinships, village groups, and the community at large participated in the educational and socialization process of the child.
Therefore, the African concept of it takes a village to raise a child-focused on producing a well-grounded, skillful, accommodating, and civil adult capable and able to contribute to the development of the community at large. As a result, the concept of education was never a colonial invention in Africa. Rather, training systems existed in Africa long before the intrusion of the rogue colonizers.Magnus Bassey posited that the African training was very practical, those who took to fishing were taught navigational techniques like seafaring, the effects of certain stars on tide and ebb, and migrational patterns and behavior of fish. Likewise, those who took to farming had similar training. Those who learned trades and crafts, such as blacksmithing, weaving, woodwork, and bronze work, needed a high degree of specialization and were often apprenticed outside their homes for training and discipline. On the other hand, those who took to the profession of the traditional priesthood, village heads, kings, medicine men and women diviners, rainmakers, and rulers underwent a long period of painstaking training and rituals to prepare them for the vital job they were to perform.
And no matter how old we are, we are a product of the community that raised, trained, supported, and helped shape the way we see the world from childhood. For that reason, western education has limited values compared to being educated in the “it takes a village to raise a child” concept and the values inherited from them. That is why the concept it takes a village to raise a child is very crucial in African societies.
The African system of education emphasized practicality, social solidarity, equal opportunity for all, homogeneity with culture, and religion focused, which were later destroyed by the introduction of western theoretical education that impedes Africa’s development.
“If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one” ― Carter Godwin Woodson.
The later introduction of western education excluded; African languages, history, cultures, religions and lifestyles in their curriculums. And practicing African cultural lifestyles or languages were discouraged or punished in those institutions.
Early churches discriminated against and discouraged the use of African names for baptism, forcing Africans to take biblical names for baptism, indirectly vied that African names were not Godly enough for Christian Salvation. White missionaries consistently preferred biblical names, and that they (Africans) stopped using an individual’s given or non-Christian name after their baptism — Katharine Gerbner. Likewise, traditional beliefs of naming ceremonies were frowned upon.
Unfortunately, decades later, Africans now mimic these behaviors in their institutions and at homes. That is why it is not surprising that the younger generations of Africans can hardly speak in their mother tongues.
Regrettably, and so far, 52 languages (Wilkipedia, 2020 & UNESCO) are extinct in Africa. Foreign instructional languages and religions introduced by the colonizers (western educational subjugation and negative attitude towards own languages) were the leading contributing factors to these losses. Therefore, the extinction of any language is not the loss of spoken words. Instead, it is the loss of self-identity, cultural, historical, linguistical, and psychological.
Baffoe, Issah and Amoah, Anthony Kwaku noted that Ghana had made concerted efforts to prioritize the use of indigenous languages in education. On the other hand, Mako Muzenda posited that South Africa’s proposal to teach students Mandarin has not been well received. Instead, there was a call for more focus on indigenous languages, which have been neglected by the education system. Despondently, Zimbabwean primary and secondary schools planned on introducing more foreign languages: Mandarin, French, and Portuguese into the education syllabus, instead of indigenous languages. Liseli A. Fitzpatrick put forward that language is the main conduit that transports cultural expression and marks one’s identity.
Thus, the further introduction of more foreign languages instead of indigenous languages in the school systems must be challenged and frowned upon, it will undoubtedly further exacerbate the extinction of more languages, if not checked. If this trend continues, Africa will deliberately seek more foreign gods to worship due to its “enclosure of the mind” syndrome. It should be noted, that the introduction of more foreign languages to the school systems is not limited to these few countries mentioned above.
That is why, if the elders leave you a legacy of dignified language, you do not abandon it and speak childish language — Ghanaian Proverb. In short, western education is culturally biased that it makes Africans consider their cultures and languages along with their history with a disdainful and shameful attitude.
Dr. John Henrik Clarke acknowledges that to control a people, you must first control what they think about themselves, and how they regard their history and culture. And when your conqueror makes you ashamed of your culture and your history, he needs no prison walls and no chains to hold you.
According to Vanqa Tembe, basically training was intended to enable an individual to play a useful role in society. Education was seen as a vehicle through which western cultures can be fostered or promoted in the African continent by its colonizers. Western education was meant to reinforce the colonial conditions by inculcating the values of colonial society and training individuals for the service of the colonial state.
The colonizer’s unfamiliarity with the diversities of Africa’s culture, training, and religion, they viewed any practices different from theirs as inferior, barbaric, and degraded these practices as witchcraft, devil-worshiping, and heathenism. As a consequence of their close-mindedness and superiority complex, they sought to convert and then exploit Africa.
Bartolomé de las Casas was part of the early conquistador of the Indies. Later, became reformed and a strong advocate to stop the Christian dehumanization and violence against the Inca Indians. Bartolomé de las Casas enumerated the account of the colonial destruction of the (Inca) Indians in his most influential writings the Brief Report on the Destruction of the Indies (1542). The conquistadors’ excesses reflected the reasons why the Christians killed and destroyed such an infinite number of souls (Inca Indians) because of their greed for gold and their desire to enrich themselves within a short time. Bartolomé de las Casas emphatically vied that Christ did not come into the world to die for gold.
That is why dehumanization and colonial violence in Africa intertwined with Christian intrusion.
As a result, the word “colonization of Africa” is a conjuring word for masking the disorganization, and dehumanization of Africa. And it should be called by the rightful and detrimental word association, Dehumanization of Africa, instead of colonization of Africa.
Research and studies indicated that the mother tongue (thinking language) is the best instructional language, an enabler that facilitates better learning, understanding, and transfer of knowledge. Despite these indicators, the colonizers discouraged these enablers and facilitated the self-destroying behaviors.
The colonizers intentional mis-education had a devastating effect of the psyche of Africa, particularly the confusion of six foreign instructional languages, excluding Arabic; English (20 countries), French (20 countries), Portuguese (4 countries), German (3 countries), Spanish (2 countries), and Italian (3 countries). Useless instructional languages on the continent that excluded Africa’s heritage.
However, a subtle indirect emphasis was placed on religion to manage the conscience of Africa, to be forever subservient to the colonizers’ interests on the continent. And Africa, sheepishly took the bait with the hope of heavenly salvation, when the colonizers did not believe in their own god.
With reference to Dr. John Henrik Clarke’s famous quote on religion, “anytime someone says your God is ugly and you release your God and join their god, there is no hope for your freedom until you once more believe in your own concept of God”. Thus, when others impose the image of their deity upon you while you abandon your Gods and accept theirs, you inevitably become their spiritual prisoners.
The introduction of western education was to reshape Africa for government control, religious mission, and economy in favor of the colonizers. Therefore, making it possible for the newly educated African elites that would later become leaders of the church, commerce, industry, and politics, their future masked indirect instruments of change. According to Bishop Jordan, J. P. Shanahan the head of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Eastern Nigeria in the early twentieth century, acknowledged that those who hold the school hold the country, holds religion, hold its future.
Thus, western education and religion were subtle key elements in masking class and race superiority, used to manipulate, dominate, and oppress Africans.
Western education was also designed to instill foreign cultural values, and Africans were craftily manipulated to abandon their own cultures, history, education, languages and traditions. And unfortunately, Africans did not understand that the colonizers did not only colonized people, but they also colonized the interpretation of history itself and was rewritten to favor them at the expense of other people.
Yet, culture is the product of human creativity, imaginative contrivance, the overall concept of self, life, and God, which is uniquely and endemically localized, one’s enthrallment. That is why there is no right or wrong culture, superior nor inferior culture, and every culture has a logic of philosophy guiding it. Consequently, the question is to understand the behavior of the people in that particular cultural space or localities and settings.
What makes one God superior to the other, if the concept of God is an exaggerated worship of the cultural self? According to the Cambodian proverb; “Do not take the straight path or the winding path. Take the path your ancestors have taken”.
That is why African culture, in every facet, is not an accident or inconsequential, nor decorative, or the songs as the west contended. Instead, African culture is about the body of moral and ethical values placed on each member within that cultural space. Cultural values do not limit the intelligence and know-how of the people. However, it is the collective strength of the people within that particular cultural space.
Likewise, Africans cherished the inviolability of their culture because the most fundamental aspect of human identity is their culture, a foundational part of the conscious self. Hence, Africans considered their culture a powerful concept of self-identity and self-esteem which should be respected.
Unfortunately, western education and religion infringed on Africanness, with a subtle but destructive scheme, to replace them with western lifestyles and values, which in essence, very detrimental to Africa’s existence.
Culture cannot occur without education, which is the transmission of values and accumulated wisdom of a society, while education is impossible without some form of societal culture.
The learning strategies, training, and teaching methods African societies engaged for a very long time were discarded and weakened at the expense of western education.
Furthermore, Apollos Nwauwa argued that, while missionaries used education as an instrument for effective conversion of Africans to Christianity, colonial governments saw education as a means of socially and politically controlling the subjects. In turn, education and religion confused and corrupted the African psyche, as expressed by Chinua Achebe series of books; Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), and The Arrow of God (1964).
That is the state of hopeless disorientation caused by religion and the imposed colonial education. From an African proverb perspective, one who causes others’ misfortune also teaches them wisdom. However, the colonizers left the back door unlocked, with a tool to confront them. The wisdom from the Zambian proverb states that the worlds of the elders do not lock all the doors; they leave the right door open.
Africa’s western education was a catalyst and a perceived contradiction; while empowering in one hand, it became alienating and corrupt on the other. The unintended consequences of western education are the consciousness of knowledge, coupled with access to a vast amount of data (information), unparalleled in the history of mankind. The academic consciousness and knowledge are the tools to challenge the colonizer’s manipulations.
The pandora box was opened with renewed awakening and consciousness, as predicted by Pixley Ka Isaka Seme’s speech, The Regeneration of Africa on April 5, 1906.
Fantz Fanon avers in Black Skin, White Masks that colonizer internalizes colonialism and its attendant ideologies, and how the colonized internalize the idea of their own inferiority, ultimately emulate and speaking the language of the colonizer at the expense of their language, is to appropriate its world and culture. Since language is the carrier and instrument of culture. Thus, racism functions as a controlling mechanism that maintains colonial relations as ‘natural’ occurrences.
Instead, western education, theoretical (memorization without thinking) academics without interrogation or practical, provided the workforce for the continuation and exploitation of Africa’s resources with the help of the pseudo educated Africans. The German educational policy was designed to train Africans as laborers to ensure the regular supply of workers for the colonial system.
Walter Rodney posited that colonial education in Africa was an education for subordination, exploitation, the creation of mental confusion, and the development of underdevelopment; killing the communalist spirit in Africans and replacing it with a capitalistic one, corrupting the mental sensibilities of Africans by providing selective training to fill auxiliary positions in the colonial service, emphasizing vocational rather than a well-rounded education, disregarding the peoples’ cultures in the educational curriculum and fostered the underdevelopment of Africa’s intellectual resources.
For example, Nigeria is a society obsessed with titles, where they are addressed by various titles, such as their college degrees; architect, engineer, nurse, teacher, accountant, chartered accountant, surveyor, barrister, SAN, advocate, Pharm, along with other worthless and useless titles; Sir, Dame, Chief, Pastor, Alhaji, Alhaja, Elder, Imam, Prophet, Mallam, Prophetess, Igwe, Chief Dr. Sir, High Chief Alhaji, Double Chief Sir, Man of God, Merit, MD (not medical), PA, CSO, Chairman, etc., that does not enhance or advance the development of the country. Deplorably, they call their rouge politician(s), excellency(ies). Regrettably and unfortunately, Nigerians are exporting these useless attitudes to pollute other African countries, and hopefully, they will not succumb to these negative behaviors that have no relevance to the development of the continent.
Yet, most of these degrees are not advanced degrees, what a paradox, while Nigeria remains the poverty capital of the world and the number three most terrorized country (Global Terrorism Index 2020). As noted by the Justice and Empowering Initiatives director, Chapman Megan, 1.74% (10.6M) of the 610 million children in the world that cannot read and do basic mathematics are in Nigeria.
A country that imports foreign companies to help develop their infrastructures despite these fanciful degrees and titles. What is the essence or benefits of these fanciful theoretical degrees that do not advance the development of the country? In consequence, these fancy theoretical degrees require foreign partnerships to validate their competencies before they can embark on any major infrastructural developments.
How many foreign countries partner with African companies to develop their country’s infrastructures? On the other hand, Africa is constantly seeking foreign companies to help develop its infrastructures, yet, Africa has thousands of college graduates with so-called technical expertise in those areas for development.
These questions should be subject to investigation; why these so-called graduates are unable to develop their infrastructures independent of foreign companies?
That is why Ali Mazrui hypothesized that Africa produces what she does not consumes and consumes and what she does not produce.
If Africa husbands her resources, she should have changed the trajectory of her western educational systems, and likewise, she does not need loans from any foreign countries or foreign partnerships to develop the continent. Consequently, Africa should start questioning or investigate these fancy theoretical degrees and how it relates to the development of Africa? Or are the answers about corruption and lack of trust in their academic institutions’ proficiencies?
Africa can do better and must do their best. However, if Africa does not change the course of her western education and religion, Africa will jeopardize its Africanness, thus Africa must protect and preserve its culture, and religion. Otherwise, Africa ways of life and the overall essence of what makes Africa intrinsically unique are at the verge of permanent destruction, if she continues on the path of western education without reforms.
And Africa should have listened and taken heed to the preaching and echoes of John Langalibalele Dube’s gospel of self-help and inner change.
Therefore, Africa is a continent where banks destroyed the economy, doctors destroyed health, the government destroyed freedom, judges destroyed justice, politicians destroyed accountability, the press destroyed information, religion destroyed morals and ethics, teachers destroyed education, and university destroyed knowledge.
The politicians are corrupt at will and deluded by their precipitous audacity of impunity, while they are impervious to the misery of the masses.
Why is this education system still acknowledged in Africa? Is Africa proud of this inherited academic system for Africa’s development? And who are the beneficiaries of this current academic system, Africans or colonizers? Why are Africans not enraged and repugnant against the systems (academic and religion) that failed Africa?
These and many other fundamentally intensely critical questions should be asked and investigated after roughly sixty years of the so-called independence in Africa. Therefore, Africa should question the concept of independence, independence from whom, and what? Were Africans not independent before the intrusion of those rogue colonizers?
Freedom is what we do with what is done to us, and man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is, therefore, nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is ― Jean-Paul Sartre.
Unfortunately for the colonizers, the African race is like an Indian rubber; the harder you dash it to the ground, the higher it will rise — African Proverb.
Conclusively; western education in Africa was designed to indoctrinate and reinforce colonizer’s values and lifestyles while the foci were to prepare Africans for the service of the colonial state. On the other hand, the African system of education emphasized practicality, social solidarity, equal opportunity for all, homogeneity with culture, and religious focus. The damage by the colonial intervention and indoctrination in Africa is so entrenched that the status quo of the colonial interests is still perpetuated indirectly by Africa’s pseudo elites.
Africans have been in denial that western religion and education did not have calamitous effects on the psyche of Africans. Conversely, this western academic system and religion should be challenged and questioned for its practicality and the sustainability of Africa’s development for the 21st century.
Finally, the task for Africa is to collaborate with the academic and indigenous religious communities to research, document, and compile her religiously authoritative texts in a refined form — books, just like other religious books.
Likewise, the academic system should be redefined and reformed, to transform the learning experience that will incorporate a holistic perspective of Africa in terms of culture, history, language, religion, cultural space, and the people into consideration.
Then, Africa will wake up with a renewed consciousness, a long-overdue rebirth in cultures, education, history, languages, and the religions of Africa.
Africa, the motherland of humanity, a gift to the world that keeps giving, and it should be respected honorably by the comity of nations, no matter her state of affairs.
