ABOUT AFRICA - If we don’t define ourselves, others will define us

A story is told of a certain zoo somewhere in Africa. In this zoo, there are many beautiful animals. Environment is wonderful. But, as you go through the door of the zoo, the first cage that you see has got a monkey in it, and that monkey is doing masturbation.  And it does the business all day. So, when the people come into this zoo, the first thing they see is this monkey doing its business. And they are actually so engrossed by what it’s doing. They don’t want to go any further. And they never get to see the wonderful animals. And they never get to see the wonderful environment that this zoo has. And when they leave, they go back and they tell their friends about the monkey and what it’s doing.

So their friends come and they don’t go any further. They stop and they look at the monkey. This story could be compared to Africa.  It is a continent with a wealth of beauty, but this beauty is hardly brought to the screen by the media.  It’s ignored. For years, Mother Africa has been disfigured as a dark continent with litany of evils. She has been stereotyped as a continent synonymous to war (slaughter-fields) corruption, hunger, drugs, Malaria zone, incompetence and illiteracy. Some people have even considered Africa as a one country. A friend of mine working as a missionary in Bogota surprised me when he told me that some people  in  that  city  considered  Africa  as  a  one  country  run  by  President Mandela. This is ignorance.

The continent of Africa is one of the richest in terms of the natural resources. Mother  Africa  has  platinum,  gold,  oil,  gas,  and fertile  soil,  rare  breeds  of wildlife, awesome weather, excellent brains and talents. She can take care of the whole world if managed properly.  This Mother is able to feed everyone, without harming herself.  Unfortunately, pollution and exploitation of our environment in the name of building better economies, is massive.

Africa is a ‘Canaan, flowing with milk and honey’. She has water bodies that could generate large amount of power.  River Congo alone can supply Africa with all the power that she needs. In fact, its power could even be exported West as a surplus, and remodel the Africa’s distorted image. What about Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean? Is it only good for outing or place to relax in those warm beaches? Definitely not. Their tides could be tapped to generate clean electricity. Oceans could be harnessed for the eco-friendly energy. What is needed is to “put politics aside” and get to the business of making our Africa shine. Great Britain, Denmark, France and Germany get their electricity from ocean tides and currents. Needless to mention is the wind and sunshine that is waiting to be utilized.

If we don’t define ourselves, others will define us.  We all have a noble responsibility to fight this unjust stereotyping that has killed our self-esteem as Africans. It will not be easy to kill this mindset that West has planted. We need to tell ourselves that there is no country that doesn’t have problems. We need to show them that Africans are not the sad, hungry looking folks as normally depicted in the media.  We can do this if we live the philosophy of Ubuntu. When  famine  struck  East  Africa  region,  Kenyans  organized ‘Harambees’(fundraising) and other countries like South Africa came in to give a genuine help. Is this not the beauty in our continent that west hardly sees?

We need to rediscover African values that will reshape our Mother. Pope Benedict in Africae Munus calls Africa a spiritual Lung of humanity. True! It’s indeed a lung that will breathe African values that promotes family unity, love of the neighbor, and hospitality. Charity begins at home. The possibility of  having healthy lungs breathing African values will be determined by how well we  raise  our  children,  how well  we  form couples,  and  how well  we  form Religious people.

 Together Let us arise and build a new Africa that all will be proud of.

Scritto da Anthony Gathambiri.