(JollofNews) – One of the most annoying things about and African scholarship and academics, if one wants to do a thorough degree/undergrad/postgrad/PhD. studies in African Studies, one must go and study it in the United States or abroad because in African universities for some reason such a course seems (as we are told) absurdly useless (note the irony).
Then we have adults and leaders (people we are supposed to be looking up to here) stating on social media how decolonization and neocolonialism are being overstated as an excuse for laziness as well as the overuse of words like Eurocentric and Afrocentric.
The truth is these words have helped me to begin to unravel more of the collective African identity than the mere casual observation of the events around me in the past twenty years of my life. So, this line of reasoning is wrong.
We can’t just say Africans develop slowly because we are lazy. You can’t tell a depressed person they are not doing anything with their lives because they are lazy. What brought on the depression in the first place? They are sick and you must deal with the root cause of the sickness before any form of healing can start. If leaders aren’t leading well why is that? Is it because of the way we think? Our worldview? What brought on this worldview? You find colonization played a big role in how Africans began to view themselves in comparison to themselves, and, well, everyone else, thus the need to, as Ngugi Wa Thiong’o puts it, ‘Decolonize the Mind’.
Understanding why Africa is where it is, looking at its history, past mistakes and successes and learning from them is necessary to making any lasting change in a continent that has a lot of big talk about the leaders of tomorrow but which does nothing to prepare them to lead well.
Therefore, African Studies is important. Therefore, learning about people like Thomas Sankara, and Nyerere is important. Why reading Frantz Fanon’s book ‘Wretched of the Earth’ and seeing how he predicted things like tribalism and division becoming an issue after colonialism, is necessary. Because without knowledge and understanding of these things leaders will continue to lead in ignorance.
The author is founder and former managing editor of The Independent, the Gambia’s only private newspaper before it was banned by the government in 2005. He was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, a 2007 Nieman fellow and is the author of Delayed Democracy: How Press Freedom Collapsed in Gambia published in 2013.
“Because without knowledge and understanding of these things leaders will continue to lead in ignorance”.
The most conclusive and educative bit of this article.
It indirectly refers to the likes of Gambia’s Adama Barrow and his clique of followers, those who believe in the TOTAL dependency syndrome; from education, to economics, politics and social trends . ALL must come from the WEST to be revered and accepted.
We need to learn from our learned ones as you stated: Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Osagyefo Dr Kwameh Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, Ali Mazrui, Madiba Nelson Mandela……..and of course Alagi Yorro Jallow!
I mean genuine learned patriotic Pan Africanist leaders. Not the “jumped-up” neocolonialist bourgeosie leaders and their henchmen! Then we’ll remain where we are.
The answer is the big “If”
If you want money, to ask the West
If you want aid you ask the West
If you want to migrate you go to the West
If you need relief from wars you appeal to the West
If you are in any kind of crisis plead to the West
The people of the West respond to all your troubles and force western governments to act on their behalf.
..and yet Alagi does not have a good word to say about the West, even though he works their, was educated there and abides their.
If the West no longer responded….You would have to man up and clean your own mess up. Now that would be a first. Free your mind of mental slavery to the West. Change your own nappies and grow up. This playground philosophy is uninteresting.
Jack my next lesson is >> When When When.
Bourne//// Pure genius.