Colonisation

So, guys thought we’ve forgotten or something? I’m sure that this is the kind of thing a lot of Africans and black people in general have been asking themselves all so often regarding the issue of colonisation, exploitation, slavery and so on. That been said, should Africans on a whole be locked in their past or they should rather concentrate on finding a new identity to their continent? An identity which is not connected with the image of an eternal sufferer and revenge seeker, an identity in which all Africans can identify themselves with one common goal, path and target. All these are questions which I will try to answer in this post. It’s not about ranting about the wrongs that were done to Africans in the past, but rather an attempt to concentrate on the solutions to this problem, coz there’s really a problem of identification among Africans nowadays and this is sickening, really.

The reason that pushed me into writing this post was the article I read on Russia Today the other day which described in detail how Britain systematically destroyed documents in colonies regarding the actions and wrong doings of Britain in its colonies. This is not a surprising fact on itself, I mean it’s quite clear that a colonial master will be interested in destroying evidence of it’s wrong doings inflicted on its subjects, but what really stroke me is that rather than giving a public apology for these actions they actually tried to hide this evidence. So, all this and much more really got into me and made me see the bigger picture, that in which Africans are always in a position of compensating their suffering and so on. Of course, I condemn colonisation as a practice and in no way I will try to justify this or even more try to portray Africans as pseudo-victims and so on. In fact I would like to take it a step further and demand a massive push from the global elite, movers and shakers to promote the notion that colonisation and slavery have probably been the worst form of genocide inflicted on a race ever. I mean, why should this be reserved to Jews and the Shoah? There’s no reason why we should have a monopoly of pity, right? And there is no reason why there should be such a variety of movies, museums, books, lectures and courses dedicated to one crime against humanity with an almost complete ignorance of the other. When is the last time you’ve seen a massive blockbuster about colonisation and exploitation of the African continent? I’m not talking about entertaining movies such as Django (though it’s probably the best movie I’ve seen recently), but about stuff like _The Schindler’s list_ and so on. Something that will have a global recognition, win awards and even more be an ongoing issue in the worldwide press.

Another issue I have with colonisation as being the primary reason for African under development is the fact that it brought in Christianity as a major religion in Africa. As I mentioned in my post about _God Loves Uganda_ there is really no reason why Africa and it’s population should be the most fervent believers in the world. This was a land with it’s own believes, it’s own values and traditions and then came the white man and bam!!! You’ve all got to worship this bearded guy we call God and read these amazing fairy tales we call the old and new testament. I know there are many religious people out there who will probably stop reading at this point, but you should all know, especially if you position yourselves as Africans first and christians later that religion just like any form of dogma is yet another tool that can be used to manipulate the masses and your ex-colonial masters sure did a good job with that. Shame on you my black brothers and sisters for falling into this trap. In fact this should be the first thing you should give up on if you want to move on with your lives.

That been said, I tend to agree with people who say that Africans for the most part tend to enjoy their role of victims and seem to never have the desire or possibility to move on. It’s true that tribalism, war, under development, poverty, illiteracy and so on don’t help Africans with the whole “we can so better” idea. Nevertheless, I don’t think that it is a lost cause. In fact, I think that now, more than ever is the best time to make a push forward and try something new, something that Africans or should I say black people in general have never tried before - unite. That’s right, you know that simple concept of getting together to achieve a common goal or aim? I mean, how hard can it be? Many nations and nationalities have done it in the past, so why not Africans? Is it a curse of some kind? Is it that Africans are naturally divided and can’t find common ground? I don’t think so. In addition to this, we all live in a world were interconnection is at an all time high, were collaboration is an easy thing to do. So, why not try. It’s really sad and sickening that most Africans prefer to concentrate on two things most of the time. First, what is it that divides them and then, how bad the “white man” is. This doesn’t limit itself to black people in Africa only. The same can be said about blacks living i every corner of our planet. There is never a sense of unity, just a role of victimisation which has become a kind of inherited feature for all blacks. Be proud of who you are, your legacy and move on.