segunEGBEYINKA
08-26-2013, 02:05 PM
The Black man, we failed ourselves and we still continue to do it even to this very time. Do we not learn? Or are we simply destined to keep repeating the errors of our past?
Some months ago I was opportune to watch a documentary about a young African man born in the Diaspora but who, yearning for the knowledge of his true identity, decided to trace back his roots with the help of a diary which had been handed down to him by his father.
His great grandfather had being one of the victims of the atrocious slave trade, in fact, he was among the very last batch of slaves that were being transported across the Atlantic, when the dehumanizing trade was abolished. In an extra ordinary and unprecedented feat of wisdom the man, as soon as he had learned enough to read and write, chronicled every important detail associated with his journey across the Atlantic and his subsequent years trying to adjust to a new and strange environment. He went further to describe the village in which he came from, their unique way of life, the pattern of marks of their faces…He wrote it all in his diary. Perhaps he believed that one day his descendents would use the detailed information in his diary to retrace his steps and discover their true roots. And he was right to have believed so, for his great grandson had taken up the challenge to discover his true origin.
After searching for weeks and months, and speaking to tens of people he was able, not just to point out the country of his origin but the very village where his great grandfather had come from. He was overwhelmed with joy. He could hardly sleep the night preceding the day he was to meet with the elders of his community and his long lost uncles. There was so much he wanted to ask them. For the very first time in his life he felt important; he was home, no greater feeling should compare to that. But his joy was short lived and quickly dissipated when he was told by the elders and his uncles that his great grandfather had been sold out to slave traders. It was a usual practice, they had told him, for a family to sell one of their members due to financial lack or because the child was extremely problematic.
This young man was shocked beyond words, he just stared on, completely devastated. All through his life he had hated the Western world for what they did to Africa and what they in turn did to his family. He had hoped to hear from his uncles how the white man had rampaged their village, destroying everything in their path and stealing away young men and women to use as slaves, but he was disappointed to hear that his great grandfather was likely regarded as a rascal and thus was handed over to slave traders by the very family that should love and protect him. He had come to Africa bursting with anxious energy, hoping to galvanize his hate for the Western world, but he left completely deflated, more confused than he had been when he started his journey. I felt really sad for him.
Slavery is a hideous and demonic crime, it is the worst form of treatment any human could visit upon his fellow man and the Western world are by far to blame for this human disaster. But an underlying and bitter truth is that the black man is almost as equally to blame for this crime as his white counterpart, if not for the starting of it, for its rapid prosperity and flourishing. From Alex Harley true life account in the Novel and subsequent movie Roots, to Qurentino’s fictitious Django, there are always black men are who ready, and almost happy, to deliver their black brothers to White slavers, either by acting as a slave hunter or as a slave driver. The white man hardly entered the hinter lands in Africa, they majorly set up post by the shore and build up large forts called factories, where slaves are been kept before shipping. Most of the slaves that were being shipped away were sold by their fellow African brothers, regardless of the reason tendered.
But all of these happened centuries ago, and we could effectively argue that the white man had deceived us by his merchandise, but what about now? What are we doing to ourselves in this modern time? The gap between the rich and poor widens exponentially every day; the greed that permeates the air in Africa is completely insane. A man possess more than enough wealth for himself and three generations after him yet he still delights in embezzling and accumulating more to himself when the man who lives just in front of him can’t even boast of a meal a day. The manner of our stealing at the expense of our fellow brothers is completely outrageous and unbelievable. We own huge successful businesses overseas and have accounts scattered all over the world map, all of which helps to develop the economy of other countries, leaving the youths of Africa scampering to travel to these other countries to do odd jobs, I ask, isn’t this a modern day form of slavery? Are we not indirectly selling out our own brothers? Is the white man also responsible for this?
During the slave trade 12million slaves were charted away from Africa using the Trans Atlantic route to different Western countries. For just the past twenty years how many young Africans have voluntarily traveled to these countries to seek menial jobs? Over twice that number. Is the same thing (slave trade) not happening again but in a more effective way?
Only in Africa will you come across a ridiculous sit-tight mentality, where one man rules an entire nation for twenty or thirty years, and keeps changing the constitution to allow him stay longer. It makes you wonder, is he the only wise human in the country? If you rule your country for twenty years and yet your country is still among ‘developing’ nations isn’t that enough sign that you don’t know what it takes to help your nation, and you should probably leave? In Africa a warlord hijacks food and relief material meant for thousands of his people and he confidently watches as countless women and children die of starvation, is the white man also responsible that?
It is high time we stop pointing fingers and realize that our own major enemy is the one we see in the mirror every day. No man can make you feel inferior without your permission. We need to realize that our destiny is our own hands to mar or make. We need a change of mentality, and a holistic change of the crop of leaders that rule us.
Some months ago I was opportune to watch a documentary about a young African man born in the Diaspora but who, yearning for the knowledge of his true identity, decided to trace back his roots with the help of a diary which had been handed down to him by his father.
His great grandfather had being one of the victims of the atrocious slave trade, in fact, he was among the very last batch of slaves that were being transported across the Atlantic, when the dehumanizing trade was abolished. In an extra ordinary and unprecedented feat of wisdom the man, as soon as he had learned enough to read and write, chronicled every important detail associated with his journey across the Atlantic and his subsequent years trying to adjust to a new and strange environment. He went further to describe the village in which he came from, their unique way of life, the pattern of marks of their faces…He wrote it all in his diary. Perhaps he believed that one day his descendents would use the detailed information in his diary to retrace his steps and discover their true roots. And he was right to have believed so, for his great grandson had taken up the challenge to discover his true origin.
After searching for weeks and months, and speaking to tens of people he was able, not just to point out the country of his origin but the very village where his great grandfather had come from. He was overwhelmed with joy. He could hardly sleep the night preceding the day he was to meet with the elders of his community and his long lost uncles. There was so much he wanted to ask them. For the very first time in his life he felt important; he was home, no greater feeling should compare to that. But his joy was short lived and quickly dissipated when he was told by the elders and his uncles that his great grandfather had been sold out to slave traders. It was a usual practice, they had told him, for a family to sell one of their members due to financial lack or because the child was extremely problematic.
This young man was shocked beyond words, he just stared on, completely devastated. All through his life he had hated the Western world for what they did to Africa and what they in turn did to his family. He had hoped to hear from his uncles how the white man had rampaged their village, destroying everything in their path and stealing away young men and women to use as slaves, but he was disappointed to hear that his great grandfather was likely regarded as a rascal and thus was handed over to slave traders by the very family that should love and protect him. He had come to Africa bursting with anxious energy, hoping to galvanize his hate for the Western world, but he left completely deflated, more confused than he had been when he started his journey. I felt really sad for him.
Slavery is a hideous and demonic crime, it is the worst form of treatment any human could visit upon his fellow man and the Western world are by far to blame for this human disaster. But an underlying and bitter truth is that the black man is almost as equally to blame for this crime as his white counterpart, if not for the starting of it, for its rapid prosperity and flourishing. From Alex Harley true life account in the Novel and subsequent movie Roots, to Qurentino’s fictitious Django, there are always black men are who ready, and almost happy, to deliver their black brothers to White slavers, either by acting as a slave hunter or as a slave driver. The white man hardly entered the hinter lands in Africa, they majorly set up post by the shore and build up large forts called factories, where slaves are been kept before shipping. Most of the slaves that were being shipped away were sold by their fellow African brothers, regardless of the reason tendered.
But all of these happened centuries ago, and we could effectively argue that the white man had deceived us by his merchandise, but what about now? What are we doing to ourselves in this modern time? The gap between the rich and poor widens exponentially every day; the greed that permeates the air in Africa is completely insane. A man possess more than enough wealth for himself and three generations after him yet he still delights in embezzling and accumulating more to himself when the man who lives just in front of him can’t even boast of a meal a day. The manner of our stealing at the expense of our fellow brothers is completely outrageous and unbelievable. We own huge successful businesses overseas and have accounts scattered all over the world map, all of which helps to develop the economy of other countries, leaving the youths of Africa scampering to travel to these other countries to do odd jobs, I ask, isn’t this a modern day form of slavery? Are we not indirectly selling out our own brothers? Is the white man also responsible for this?
During the slave trade 12million slaves were charted away from Africa using the Trans Atlantic route to different Western countries. For just the past twenty years how many young Africans have voluntarily traveled to these countries to seek menial jobs? Over twice that number. Is the same thing (slave trade) not happening again but in a more effective way?
Only in Africa will you come across a ridiculous sit-tight mentality, where one man rules an entire nation for twenty or thirty years, and keeps changing the constitution to allow him stay longer. It makes you wonder, is he the only wise human in the country? If you rule your country for twenty years and yet your country is still among ‘developing’ nations isn’t that enough sign that you don’t know what it takes to help your nation, and you should probably leave? In Africa a warlord hijacks food and relief material meant for thousands of his people and he confidently watches as countless women and children die of starvation, is the white man also responsible that?
It is high time we stop pointing fingers and realize that our own major enemy is the one we see in the mirror every day. No man can make you feel inferior without your permission. We need to realize that our destiny is our own hands to mar or make. We need a change of mentality, and a holistic change of the crop of leaders that rule us.