Question: What do you know about Africa, and what have you been taught or told about it? What images have you seen on TV? Have you visited? Do you know any Africans? Think about the impressions that you have of the continent, its people, and of the countries that comprise it…now let’s flip the script…
Imagine for a moment that all 54 sovereign nations in Africa were 1) at peace, 2) politically stable, 3) economically independent/viable, and 4) united in official economic and political partnership through an African Union. Imagine an Africa that controls 100% of its own natural resources which are responsible for everything from the diamonds in your jewelery, to the cocoa in your chocolate, to the chips in your cell phone. Imagine an Africa free of rampant disease and poverty. Imagine 1 billion+ Africans (almost 15% of the world’s population) with a united voice and purpose working toward peace, and prosperity, with the aim of rectifying past wrongs and striving toward a brighter future – controlling their own collective destiny. In the same way that the rise of China is making the rest of the world sit up and pay attention, the rise of strong and united African nations will upend the Euro-American hegemony that currently pulls the strings of world events.
We currently operate in a world driven by globalization and capitalism or perhaps more accurately, the globalization of capitalism, as spread by Western nations throughout the world for both economic and political purposes. It is a system that claims to benefit all, yet mysteriously only advantages the fortunate minority who already control the majority of the world's capital. We seem to live in a world operating with Orwellian, "Animal Farm" logic in which, "all humans/nations are equal, but some humans/nations are more equal than others." Apparently Africa falls into the "less equal" category as evidenced by its history. No other continent has been invaded, conquered, enslaved, raped, pillaged, exploited, subjugated, and impoverished for as long or in as systematic a fashion as Africa. I am careful not to play the "who suffered more" game, nor am I ignorant of the role that Africans themselves play (in recent history) in perpetuating the status quo. What I am trying to draw attention to is the fact that it is in the direct and best interests of the "powers that be" (A.k.a. the permanent members of the UN Security Council and most industrialized Western nations) to keep Africa poor, uneducated, fearful, and as destabilized as possible in order to maintain the current balance of world economic and political power.
Two simple observations: people who are more concerned with their daily survival do not have the time, energy, or even presence of mind to concern themselves with issues beyond meeting their basic necessities. People who are poor and hungry are easily controlled – a fact most effectively exploited under feudalism.
On the other hand, people with resources, education, courage, and stability are not easily controlled – in fact, they are very DANGEROUS!
There are few things more dangerous than unrealized potential, so it benefits the “powers-that-be” for Africa to remain stuck in the purgatory of “what could be.”
Borrowing from a spoken word poet named Shadokat, this is the first of many “mind-rocks” I will be slingin’ at the establishment in an effort to call attention to and dismantle a long broken system…
Pick up your mind-rocks, this is a call to arms…
The revolution will not be televised…
Peace,
A-i-T
PS. This is the Africa they never show you on TV – if the world continues to think of us as perpetually poor and struggling, it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy…
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