Fueling Hate

One can make the argument that today, just like our foods; most of what we consume in terms of information is junk; highly processed (propagandized) cheap, unhealthy, easily accessible, sold by big names with long term fatal consequences for the consumer. Good healthy stuff, as in food is confined to certain outlets, hardly found on the shelves of major retail stores, and expensive. Access to, and dissemination of ‘healthy’ information is expensive in our time, in that those who seek it or choose to spread it pay dearly for it.

The growth of leftist ideology and the promotion of the ideology of “us” versus “them” mentality are being embraced at a scary pace. Hate groups , hate speech and hate crimes have been on the rise and moving further and further into the mainstream  adding steam that can only fuel the engine of mayhem.

The media has been used and continue to be used as a propaganda tool to promote certain ideals and views of the world. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once wrote that “once you label me, you negate me.” Regarding the media, he wrote:

         

          The daily press is the evil principle of the modern world, and time will only

Serve to disclose this fact with greater and greater clearness. The capacity of

The newspaper for degeneration is sophistically without limit, since it can

Always sink lower and lower in its choice of readers. At last it will stir up all

Those dregs of humanity which no state or government can control. ~ Soren

Kierkegaard

With the media evolving into mass media incorporating audio visual as compared to just print media in the past, this principle can be said to achieve such degeneration at a faster pace and impacting a wider audience.

Malcolm X expressed similar sentiments when he said "If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

As unfortunate as it may be, this seems to be the reality of our time, and it seems set to only get worse.

Pitting people against each other based on race, region, religion, tribe, ethnicity, ideology, or culture, seem acceptable today. Whatever reason we may use to justify negating others, it is a tragedy. But the human capacity to love always endures. In many cases though, that love is embraced after a tragedy which could have been averted if only we listen to voices of reason.

The voices of reason that are being sidelined in the mainstream, but they are not silent. And sooner or later, they will be heard by those who really matter, the masses being led astray.

We, as human beings, are all connected in more ways than we know, to each other and to the environment and all life forms in it. The sooner we realize that, the faster we will be able to reverse the trend of hate that is about to consume us all.

That less fortunate person, that violent person, that person you wish you never become could in fact be you given similar circumstances as they’ve been through. Let us reach out and spread love and care for one another.

It’s just “US”; there is no “THEM”. 

Days of Yore

To effectively colonize a people, the mindset of the target group has to be greatly altered. On the home front, the colonized people have to be portrayed as uncivilized savages that need salvation, to which end the media is effectively used to get their citizens to accept their narrative. As Basil Davidson pointed to in one of his series, the unconscionable European expansionist disregarded any existing systems and ways of life, holding firm unto their white supremacist beliefs that Africans are inferior beings. In fact in the diaries of one of those supposed "Christian soldiers", the following verses were found;

"Onward Christian soldiers  

Into heathen lands  

Prayer books in your pockets   Rifles in your hands  

Take the happy tidings  

Where trade can be done  

Spread the peaceful gospel  

With the Gatling gun" (Voyages of Discovery)

This was their "battlefield song" which clearly spelt their intentions under the guise of Christianity. Indeed Jomo Kenyatta hit the nail right on the head when he made his famous statement that; "When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the bible." (Jomo Kenyatta).

We can point to a lot of evidence in Africa and around the world as to the level of progress in every sphere of African society. But if we take that progress out of context, it is very easy to see Africa as the backward continent it is being portrayed to be today. The centuries leading to the arrival of the first Europeans on the African continent, saw an Africa at par with other parts of the world in a lot of ways. There is evidence of the presence of people of African descent long before the arrival of Columbus in North America. The point being made here is; how did those Africans make it across the sea long before Columbus?

If conquering the seas was the greatest engineering feat of that era, Africans, not only developed sea worthy vessels, but also had navigational skills. Though crude it may be, Africans were able to mine and purify gold and other minerals. Mansa Musa, the king of the great Mandinka Empire and descendant of the great king Sundiata Keita, is famed for his wealth in gold. In fact he was recently named the world’s richest man ever (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218025/Meet-14th-Century-African-king-richest-man-world-time-adjusted-inflation.html.) The technology needed to find, extract, and make gold products may have been crude, but it was there and the crudeness could be attributed to the time period. The fact is it was there.

When colonialism was no longer sustainable, due partly to the lies being uncovered and for economic reasons, a new tactic had to be devised. Thus came the institutions of language, education and governance. The so-called neo-colonialism is nothing short of an extension of the colonial system, only this time the people running things look like us, speak our language, worship alongside us, and share the same values and beliefs as we do, or do they? They get propped up and defended for one reason and one reason only; to grant unhindered access to whatever resources are needed.  These so called elite constitute the ‘democratic’ governments in their various countries and are champions of good governance.

In the name of promoting so-called human rights and democracy, Africa and people of African descent continue to be oppressed to the benefit of the multi-national corporations who reap exorbitant profits at great cost to human life and suffering, and the environment, more so in Africa than anywhere else. The Bible has been ditched to preach human rights and democracy. Instead of being seen as rejecting salvation through the acceptance of Christ, we reject progress through the rejection of democratic values. Thus labels like dictators, tyrants, and human rights violators have been coined to subdue leaders of countries that house their interest. But Africans do not need to be taught democratic values and governance issues, just take a look at the traditional institutions of chieftaincy.

Since it's no longer a war between East and West, or between communism and capitalism, new standards have to be set to dictate who you align yourself with; democratization, capitalism and western ideals are the new norms. Any deviation from those standards lands you in one of the labeled categories. But taking a closer look at these ideals, one can see how corporations prosper by increasing their bottom-line while at the same time dismantling traditional ideals and values.

Take Business 101 and in the section on expanding globally, it will highlight some of the barriers to international trade (global Corporatocracy) which are; the language of the host country (make European languages the language of instructions in the schools), culture (make a whole society embrace corporate culture or the culture of the country of origin to make future employees feel more at home), Infrastructure (IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs, that focuses on road and communication infrastructure – to maintain real time communication and product information), political and governmental systems (make them so that they will not stand in the way of expanding corporations and hinder the bottom-line - democratization).

The goal is an unhindered access to resources and markets, period. This move however has created so much disruption in Africa and African societies that we are left to grapple in the dark for answers, which we falsely assume will come with civil strife. Unfortunately all that leads is the self-fulfilling prophecy that Africa needs the help and intervention of others. And so the cycle continues.

African societies are collectivist societies and the institutions that they form to govern them and manage their resources reflect this ideal; they have a socialist outlook. Democratic socialism, akin to the idea Bernie Sanders builds his campaign on where governments work of the collective good and not for the wealthy few.

The argument for individualism, which Western capitalist ideals promote, is the complete opposite to what African societal norms and values are. Western societies are individualistic societies, where individual goals are to be pursued above all else, which is fine; where everyone prospers, society prospers. But in a world of limited resources such ideals are unrealistic. Competition becomes fierce, unfair and more favorable to some than others. When every man is for himself and told all that matters is his individual goals, then such competition at some point yields problems – corruption and violence. These two are at the core of the challenges facing Africa today.

Those that are privileged with power get control over the resources and limit access to those with the money (wealthy foreigners and foreign governments) to pay them off. They better their lives and the lives of their friends and relatives (the few) leaving those not in power (the majority) to their own device; no access to the resources and no means, so they try to force their way to it the only way they know how; violence. And frankly the only option open to them since all doors to dialogue are shut because the few don’t want to hear the majority whine about the unfair advantage on display; a.k.a. the corruption.

The point being made here is that Africa needs no lectures on democracy or governance. Our great kingdoms and empires were not perfect in all aspect, but they were democratic in the true sense of the word and those in charge governed well. It is our responsibility and that of succeeding generations to revive the old ways and come up with improved models without compromising the core values of community and care for one another.

But to do that effectively, we need to take a closer look at the logic behind what was done in the context that it was done. Once that logic is established, through education and experience, better ways can be developed to ensure continuity and upholding those cherished values that defines who we are. But more often than not, we listen to outsiders, who know nothing about our ways or why things were done the way they were done, and we agree with their ‘expert’ observation that we should do away with our existing systems. This is where Africa’s intellectuals have failed woefully. They accept to be spoon-fed as to what is right or wrong for Africans.

Christianity, a good religion, was used to subjugate us and throw us into confusion as to the value of what we uphold. Human rights and democracy, a natural inclination of all peoples are hijacked once again as Western ideals, rebranded and sold to us with the intent of profit maximization and domination, while our leaders are in a collective coma.

To these leaders the message is simple; no lecture from any institution or foreign government is needed; All you need to do is serve the interest of the people you turn to for your votes by delivering the promises you made for those votes; no one needs to tell you how to do that. That is all good governance is about, coupled with respect for individual choices as it obtained in the days of yore.

We Need To Tell Our Own Story

If for all these centuries past, of European/Western domination we still tell people in the west that Africa is not a country, or that  one doesn't speak African, then it says a lot about where we stand.

Africa matters only for what can be taken out of it or for when one wants to throw a pity party. The sooner we learn that, the sooner we can set out to change the course of Africa.

We have been indoctrinated en-masse to go with the narrative, to be politically correct, not to delve into 'conspiracy theories', and make excuses for the wrong actions of the West etc. But let a similar mistake happen in Africa, it's the politicians and their corrupt nature, it's the backward culture, it's 'illiteracy' or ignorance. Something inexcusable is always to blame.

We need to learn to respect ourselves first, value ourselves first, before we expect it from anyone else.

Little wonder then that a dog is mourned more than the dozens of lives lost in Africa. Social media is rife with the hash tag #jeSuisChien (#I am a dog) in reference to the French police dog killed in the line of duty, meanwhile in Nigeria Boko Haram unleashed terror, as they always do, the dozens of human lives lost got overshadowed by the loss of a dog. And as usual, African’s flew the French flag highest as a gesture of solidarity.

In case it escaped you, Boko Haram is worse than ISIS but how much have you heard of them, in fact how many in the West know about them? Since they pose no immediate threat to the West, they can be side notes to those that already do. So what if the western media sidelines events in Africa?

Why should we expect any Western media outlet to put Africa front and center in their coverage anyway? The name says it all Western media, what they should care about is what matters to the West, maybe it's because their opinion dominates the world and what they pay attention to matters most at any given time. So it's understandable if we want to turn to them to shine the spotlight on us. But why can't we put us first?

We may have a disadvantage in that we rely on foreign media for information dissemination. To start with, stop the non-stop news re-runs from CNN, BBC, VOA, RFI, and the rest, they shape our world view through our constant consumption of their news reels. They may have a better coverage of world events, but these outlets have proven time and again that they serve as propaganda tools to promote a certain world view.

If Africa culls from international news outlets only those stories that have a direct impact to African affairs and can be related to by Africans, the impact of the Western dominated worldview will be minimized.

It is not about jealousy or hatred for Western values; it is about ending the economic oppression of Africans and giving us a stable footing and a valued voice on the world stage.

"The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." Steve Biko

Let us start with decolonizing the mind.

Africa - The Side Note

Africans, the people that never really matter unless the situation can't be ignored.
The people whose opinions matter when it comes to Africa's economies seem to disappear when tragedy strikes.

For far too long, successive African governments have looked outside for approval in African affairs.
Whenever tragedy hits other parts of the world, we see the reaction and response from the world. In terms of sheer numbers and impact, symbolic significance aside, Africa suffers worse tragedies on a daily basis that somehow doesn't seem to matter to the world. Loss of any human life is a tragedy and should be mourned by all, but some lives are more valuable than others it seems.

From the solidarity marches in Paris to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack, to the recent terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of over a hundred people, the world stood in solidarity with France, rightly so. But if it is truly about the horrors of terrorism and the innocent human lives, then what about the victims of Boko Haram, or those of Al-Shabab, the massacres in Nairobi, the kidnapped chibok girls, the tragedy of the Africans lives lost trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe for economic reasons? Double standards at play? What about the tragedy of the hundreds of women raped daily in the Congo, the conflicts in Chad and Niger; or the struggles of the people of Western Sahara?

Truth is, to the major players of the world, Africa can be ignored. Recall the world's response to the genocide in Rwanda? It can also be said that the situation in Africa is hopeless, so why bother? When Facebook came up with the France filter to show solidarity with the french in the aftermath of yet another terror rampage in France, a lot of Facebook users got on board. Added to this was a safety check feature that helps people let their relatives know they were safe. Some on the social media didn't take it so well essentially posing the question why France, how about the other countries who are also victims of terror attacks, some at the same time as those in France? Facebook's response essentially stated that such things don't always happen in France (by extension the West) and that it is essential to keep families at ease knowing their loved ones are safe. So basically these things are common place in the rest of the world, so it is pointless.

Seems tragedies in the rest of the world, and Africa in particular are too far removed from anything the Western world can relate to, and we shouldn't expect them to shed the spotlight on those issues. All it is to the rest of the world is at best a side note. 

Now contrast that to the scare of Ebola making it's way to the part of the world that matters by travelers from Africa. It seemed for weeks to have been the only thing happening in the world when it broke out. It mattered not the Africans suffering, but that it poses a threat to public health in the West. 

For far too long, everyone seem to see that except the African leaders and the so-called intellectual class; or are they just oblivious to that fact seeking to entrench their positions and influence hiding behind the guise of political correctness? Until that fact fans in Africans that the West doesn't approve anything unless it's in their interest in some way, we'll continue to get dragged along like puppets on a string just to serve the Western imperial ideals. 

The players may have changed but the game is the same: take from Africa as much as possible at as little a cost as possible. Its all about profits and dominance, period. It is true that Africa's problems are multi faceted and blaming colonialism wouldn't change that fact, but for as long as we keep that mindset and believe that Africa's interest is what motivates her so called allies and partners in the West and far east, then the story shall remain as is.

The Awakening

And here I am addressing Africa's leaders and so called intellectuals. Africa's hope is in all her children, but you elevated yourselves to leadership statuses and are so swift in pointing out what should and what shouldn't be. You are apt in spotting everything that is wrong about Africa and the ways of the Africans, but you are quick at licking the boots of the imperialists who see nothing in Africa besides the profits they can garner through exploiting her people, land and resources.

You have failed Africa, failed our ancestors, failed our generation, failed God, and worse, you've failed Africa's children and unborn generations. Your greed, lust, complacency, lack of foresight and sheer stupidity has cost Africa almost everything. Her dignity, stability, wealth, prosperity, and the well-being of her children and descendants.

Why do you crave the approval of the west so much for everything you do? Africans have, and continue to suffer at the hands of criminals and sociopaths all over the place. Boko Haram, Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Mali, etc. What'd you do about it? Hundreds of girls kidnapped, leaving weeping parents behind and facing the prospects of enslavement, where was your active condemnation? The youth are dying at sea in their hundreds trying to run away from your poorly managed economies just so they can feed their parents and siblings, what are you doing to combat that? Ebola is wreaking havoc in West Africa, AIDS is taking it's toll, malaria is all over the place claiming infant lives. Yet you shamelessly fly to Paris at the beckoning of your imperial master for a so called 'solidarity march' for slain French citizens, tragic as it may be, in whose name are you doing that? True we should all condemn and stand up against terrorism, but why use our almost non-existent resources just to walk down a street?

It doesn't matter what reasons you put forward to justify your actions, you have failed us all and your misplaced priorities serve as evidence. Desperate people seek desperate measures. Listen to the voices of dissent and clean up your acts. Africans are getting fed up with your insensitivity to our plight, but worse, we are disgusted at your lack of pride and self-dignity.

A new age dawned in Africa towards the end of the 1950s, that was the beginning of the decolonization of Africa. And today, thanks to the sacrifices the various independence leaders made, Africa has purged itself of colonialists. When the heat died down, they came back and made the succeeding generation of leaders their stooges doing their bidding to the detriment of the Africans collectively. This realization has dawned on us, and just like Nkurumah and his peers saw the need for a revolution, so too do we, the young generation of Africans. When we come on stage, no boot-licking stooge will be left standing.

Of course to every rule there are exceptions, great strides are being made in Africa by some leaders, but sadly they are in the minority. It is a new age of enlightenment and the next players will be well prepared when their turn come, soon.

Africa deserves better and it will get better.

Chairman Mugabe

With his election as the new African Union chairman, he has been spared no insult. Most of those outraged by his election are totally ignorant about Mugabe, Zimbabwe, and the events that have, and are taking place in that country.

Here is a man the West loves to hate, but it wasn’t always so. Mugabe fought alongside patriotic Zimbabweans to end the racist regime of Ian Smith. The promise, and the reason for the uprising and the battle for independence was land, that’s it. A very tiny white minority of European settlers controlled Zimbabwe’s land and hence her economy, leaving the majority native blacks to literally scavenge off their own lands. Needless to say, the land was ill-gotten, as is always the case with imperialism. The results for those natives who dared to resist European encroachment and defend their land, tens of thousands lost their lives, and even more lost their land, hence their livelihood.

With the success of the uprising, and Mugabe emerging at the head, he was the hero who was going to reclaim their land as the new head of state. But he didn’t seem to act fast enough.

The new country has just witnessed a genocide, as described in some quarters. “A moment of madness” as Mugabe himself will later admit. Tens of thousands  were tortured, others fled into exile, some lost their homes. Some of the accounts recounting the event accused the Mugabe loyalist force of forcing them to sing the praises of Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, while dancing on the mass graves of their relatives and neighbors total madness and callousness.

This event, as brutal and inhumane as it was, didn’t matter to the British monarchy. Mugabe was their man. In fact, few years after this incident, the monarchy conferred on him the title of Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Bath, testament to how proud the crown was to him for his good governance. This was in 1994, barely ten years after the atrocities, despite cries from rights groups and concerned Zimbabweans/Africans. At this time, he was ‘towing the line’ - leaving the white settler lands and their owners alone.

In a statement regarding the decision to revoke his knighthood and impose the succeeding sanctions, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated: 'This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided.' (Source: Daily Mail). In case you wondering what rights abuses caused the  ‘revulsion’ that warrants such decision, well the official story line is that the violence that marred the 2008 elections in which up to 200 people died and there was ‘systematic torture’ and intimidation of opposition sympathizers was unacceptable. But in truth, that was just a cover story, they didn't care about the thousands of lives lost in Matabele land, they do not care now. The truth is Mugabe couldn't say while being a threat to their interests in Zimbabwe. Their declaration was in reaction to Mugabe’s pursuing the “Third Chimurenga” (revolutionary struggle). This was his land reform policy that was never favored by the West.

The systematic killing of 20,000 natives, who rose up in opposition to Mugabe in the early 1980s because the land they fought for was no where to be found, somehow got missed by the same media houses currently vilifying Mugabe as undemocratic and mad.

When Mugabe made headlines after the 2008 elections as a result of the ensuing violence, Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said the following in response to a question from The Telegraph that if he thinks Mugabe should be removed by force, he replied; "Yes, by force - if they say to him: step down, and he refuses, they must do so militarily." When Mugabe brutally quelled rebellions in the 1980s, killing thousands of his own people in Matabeleland region, there was not a single Liberation movement or voice to condemn his actions. So when the killing of 200 could garner harsh condemnations like the one from the respected Bishop Tutu, it makes one wonder if we only render our opposition to things after our former colonial masters point it out. Seem like the solidarity march in Paris by African leaders wasn’t a first. African Lives matter too!

What about the post election violence in Kenya that saw the deaths of about 1,300 people? A case that saw the president appearing before the ICC. Of course he was cleared of any wrongdoing, but how different are the circumstances here? Which is worse, 200 dead or a thousand more?

Tony Blair just got celebrated by Save the Children for being “philanthropist of the year.” I wonder what the maimed and traumatized Children of Afghanistan and Iraq think of that. What happened to our African moral preachers’ voices in condemning that?

I am not trying to justify what Mugabe, Uhuhru Kenyatta, or any other African leader did in their capacities as chief executive, we as Africans should be able to see things for what they are and devise mechanisms for holding leaders accountable based on our own standards and values. Until we do, we will remain divided, backward, and worse; the laughing stock of the world.

African Intellectuals and the Masses

In earlier posts, I did allude to the fact that Africa’s slow move towards alleviating the sufferings of her people can be partly attributed to the intellectual class not living up to their role. That they are, to a large extent, tooting the horns of the imperialist west with their Eurocentric views while down playing everything African.

A recent article published in Face 2 Face Africa captures this problem in greater detail and highlights the problem from its core. The author, citing from earlier authors, wrote;

African institutions of higher education are funded by Westerners,

African countries must follow after Western economic ideals (pgs. 221-222);

these ideals deny traditional African world views and perpetuate Eurocentric

mind-sets that alienate African institutions and their graduates from

common African people (pgs. 222, 225).

(https://face2faceafrica.com/article/african-colonial-education#.VQiaqo7F964)

This, more than any other factors can explain the great disconnect that exists between the African intellectuals and the masses of the African people.

No doubt, many other factors are responsible for conditions in Africa being far from ideal. But the constant bashing from Africa’s educated elites of traditional African values and ideas leaves much to be desired.

Africa was colonized not because of humanitarian reasons, or the desire to ‘civilize the savages’ but for purely economic and geopolitical reasons. In addition to military might, other strategies are used to maintain grip on power. One of these, and perhaps the most effective, is education/mis-education. As Steve Biko rightly put it; “The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” One needs not look further than Africa to acknowledge this.

African colonial institutions of learning were set up for exactly this purpose; control the minds of the people and keep them dependent. So these institutions, which hardly ever went beyond a two year teacher training college, produced no more than office clerks, agricultural extension workers, and teachers whose curriculum is designed to produced more of the same batches. And even after so many years since independence, little, if anything has changed in the curriculum in most African states as the author rightly stated. Those who got lucky to earn entry into high institutions of learning in the West, have a worldview that is not shared by a majority of their compatriots and are hard put as to how to translate these views to suit the perspective of their fellow countrymen. As a result, many get frustrated and end up giving their all to make a living in the West, contributing to their economies and refusing to see the need to sacrifice for the betterment of their own people.

Some will cite the political atmosphere in Africa as not being conducive, as well as the pandemic corruption that makes it hard for them to put their skills to effective use. In the end, they cultivate the same attitude like the imperialists; start a charity or donate to one and help the poor in Africa, a kind of feel good gesture for their own egos.

Africa once had thriving political, economic, and social institutions. These were disrupted by the coming of the colonialists and we have been playing catch up since then. The key is to unlock the systems of the past; social, cultural, economic, political, etc., study it in the context of the realities of the time. Such a study will highlight the role of any given idea in the society. We then relate that to our current situation and come up with ways of improving them to suit our circumstances now. Only then will we be able to unlock our full potential as a people.

It always takes the sacrifices of a generation or more to lay the foundations for a viable future for upcoming generations. Sacrificing comfort, high paying jobs, ease of access to needed amenities, money, social status, freedoms and liberties, etc. is needed to secure a better future for upcoming generations. We need to start putting our trust in ourselves and rely on our own abilities instead of looking for solutions from outside.

Reclaiming Our Narrative

15th and 16th century Europe, leading up to late 19th and 20th century was a Christian civilization. Even today, a lot of the values are arguably Christian oriented. The Europeans of the time have deep seated beliefs about the attainment of salvation by submitting to the will of God through Christ. That message of salvation, based on the adherence to the values taught by Christ, they fervently believed, should be the bedrock of any society. 

Missionaries going out to' heathen lands' to spread that message should get all the support they need. The least they could do was support those brave Christian soldiers; for these good, God-fearing believers want nothing more than to share the peace they feel in Christ to those not so fortunate. Meanwhile these brave warriors are out there marching, chanting their war song:

"Onward Christian soldiers  

Into heathen lands  

Prayer books in your pockets   Rifles in your hands  

Take the happy tidings  

Where trade can be done  

Spread the peaceful gospel  

With the Gatling gun" (Voyages of Discovery)

Note that the gun is in the hand and the prayer book is concealed, shows which of the two took precedence.

Meanwhile back home in the West, the media was used to keep the narrative going; selling lies by taking advantage of the existing beliefs to spin their agenda further as far as it'll go. But you can only sell lies for so long before they are uncovered. 

With the true intent coming to light, new methods have to be devised, new players, new rules, new strategies; but always with the same goal in mind; profits at any cost. Its always been the 1%, always trying to stay ahead while the rest of us scuttle along debating on what is or isn't conspiracy. Meanwhile the damage has already been done; people enslaved, lands taken by force, starvation, diseases, and death unleashed on millions, the effects of which are still with us.

Our challenge now lies in reshaping our future, reclaiming our lost glory. It may not change for our generation or the next, but we sure can start laying the foundations now. We can start with food security, a communal farm for every village ensuring sustainable food production albeit seasonally until he energy sector can be fixed. 

Gladdens the heart to witness the awakening of the African spirit in the younger generation of Africans and peoples of African descent.

Centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism have succeeded in instilling the feelings of inferiority amongst peoples of African descent, of believing that we are not good enough, that our history is as it was taught to us by our colonizers and former slave masters, that we were savages needing salvation.

Unfortunately for those of our predecessors who refused to believe the lies, the ultimate price was paid, their legacy and names tainted. Today we set out to reclaim our past glory, tell our own story, uncover the lies and take back our narrative.

It starts with undoing centuries of misinformation disguised as education. It is not enough that we look back to our ancestors with pride for what they achieved through the empires and kingdoms they built; we need to learn their ways and make it relevant to our current situation.

"If you don't know where you come from, then you won't know where you going." - (Mandinka proverb).

Let the revolution begin!

We can't wait while our children starve!