The Blood Floods for Independence

The End Result of Greed: Never does nature save for itself let one thing to dominate. Nature is complex but every part in the complexity is an indispensable force.  When a force in a subject is suppressed, another gets room enough to be dominant.  The colonizers having suppressed their power of being human i.e. people who evaluate and make sound judgements, the power of un-lovingness -cruelty and disorder became dominant in their lives. Driven by greed and ego rather than humility and prudence, they turned against each other and wanted to wipe away each other or colonize each other. They started wars that all generations would live to remember. To end this war, they had to drop on fellow human beings nuclear bombs. The effects of such like actions have persisted and affect every newborn. Automatically, the Africans against their will were carried away to fight in these wars. Without proper training they were on the front line fighting against an enemy they never would know because many of them were shelled down.

  Seeds of self-realization: However, quite a number returned home, having learnt the tricks of the white man especially in war. They had discovered that the white ones were no gods. Moreover, to add to their zeal, they had also heard stories of or about freedom fighters from other parts of the world like Asia and India. Africans decided that it was time for the white man to go back home. Many went into the forests and became guerrillas. Those that had read books of the white man, even the bible, used them against the white man himself. The white man could not understand how an African could dare him. They issued out all their might and it truly had devastating results. But Africans proved that those who kill the body couldn’t kill one’s soul. They fought resiliently, some dying, some being tortured, some being imprisoned for ages and some being exiled but the struggle continued. The white man called the freedom fighter all kinds of names. The preachers stated it clearly ‘this is the work of Satan, the children of God are supposed to be as humble as the sheep and should never be associated with terrorism, murder or rebellion.’ The beatitudes were the song of the pulpits each day. They called on the children of God to consider what the Lord had done for them by bringing the white man into their midst. The white man had brought them souls for heaven, education, proper medical care, good building material and technology of the highest order. Why would they be so ungrateful like the silly Israelites who easily forgot Yahweh that he had always to punish them before they could come to their senses?

Confusion and Divided Loyalty: There was a lot of confusion in Africa. Some Africans went by what they heard and saw the white man saying. The white man had brought cars, aeroplanes, better utensils and many others. They saw something desirable in the white man’s ways and goods. But many of the Africans saw the much that was being looted. They saw the suffering that they were being subjected to- living like a slave in your own land and being treated like a small kid. They saw what repercussions their children would have to bear from the looting and laying waste of African resources. They saw how alienated they were, having been separated from their roots, their culture and their heritage. They appreciated the white ones for the life affirming contributions but also abhorred them for their life denying contributions.

When the conflict in Africa was too much, and after all, they white ones had already gotten more than they expected, the whites hurriedly collected the last morsels they could gather and offered the fighting Africans an olive leaf.

            Demand for Independence; an Ironical demand: It is interesting to note that as much as many Africans wanted white-folk to leave the African states, they did not want to let go on the western influences. They could not think of going truly African again. Deep ingrained in them was an inferiority complex. What was western was superior and letting go on that would be falling back into primitivism and backwardness. So they showed the Muzungu the front door but made sure the backdoor was open for him and his ways. In some African states, the colonizers only gave in to some caricature of a ceremonial African leader but everything was run within the auspices.

Those that truly handed over hurriedly added “we are still there for you, do not worry about things going in the wrong way”.

The wrong way in this case meant going against westernisation. Believe me, not the latent westernisation that we grumble about in these latter days, this was blatant westernisation that was deliberately posted as the only way forward.

No independent African government thought of a governance system that is uniquely African. Everything was done with western forms as a frame of reference. I am tempted to conclude that much of what is called “African socialism” was veiled westernisation. Many of the thinkers of those times wrote theses that were, in a way an affirmation of the strength and appeal of westernisation. No wonder some of them started posting very funny stories in the name of describing ‘ African ness’. Read some of their books and you realize that they were just reacting and not giving statements of facts based on the humanity and existential development of the African.

There was no intellectual movement towards appropriating the circumstances in the different African states. Anything to that effect was quashed and no criticisms were allowed. All that was done was a changing of guard and maintaining of a status quo in thinking as in doing with a little difference just in ways of poise but not in form. That is why, to date, intellectuals still find audience with long theses on Neo-colonialism in learning institutions but never do anything practical towards real African independence. Real African independence will only be achieved when Africans especially the leaders start working with the common good as their guide.

The nature of our communities calls that we can only succeed if egalitarianism is embraced. We are divided through and through; we have clans, sub-tribes, tribes, regions and states that form the African continent. Unless a state gets a leader who is interested in the common good, corruption, tribalism, regionalism, nationalism and all sorts of isms based on geographic or blood relations will exist. I am one of those who dream about the United States of Africa. In fact, my dream is bigger, I dream of a world united under one leadership. Why can’t such unity be achieved? It is because we think of leadership in terms of one being a lord over the other. I am not interested in superpowers that can subject the whole world to their rule. I am thinking of a code of conduct, a code of understanding that unites all into one world undivided along ideological lines. Take it or leave it, there is my way, your way, the right way and the wrong way. If we can think straight, we shall distinguish when we are thinking ‘we’, when you are thinking ‘you’, when we are thinking wrong and when we are thinking right. As long as we can have an objective code of conduct, an objective ethical criterion, we shall be able to live in harmony. We shall have a united states of Africa because all our leaders stand for the same ideals. Some of our leaders cannot think unity because they are only effigies of some foreign powers. It is interesting to note that some foreign, western, leader support coups or certain conflicts or the reinstatement of certain kinds of leaders because that serves their interests.

Think about some of the long lasting civil wars/conflicts experienced in Africa. Where do the different guerrilla groups find support? It is true that some African governments support anti-government movement groups in neighbouring countries. However, it is also true that some anti-government movements are funded and armed by certain western powers. If not direct support to such like groups then indirect support by not helping cut supply of weaponry through black markets. There is no point claiming to fight terrorism yet you are the high-ranking manufacturer and distributor of weapons that wreck havoc in some parts of the world.

Neo-imperialism exhibits itself in a number of poignant ways. Think about international trade and the price fixing mechanisms involved. Think about multinationals and their influence on the activities of governments of states that are not economically stable enough. Sometimes I wonder why we even have organizations like the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc. Maybe these organizations should just officially be declared as belonging to certain states because it is this states that determine the interests of these organizations. Think of the World Bank deciding on any policy that goes against the interests of England or the USA. Neo-imperialism is very evident when one focuses on the operations of African governments. They are modelled on colonial forms of governing and there is every effort to follow or measure their progress on the path followed by the West. It is also evidenced in the relation between African states and their former colonies. There is still a paternalistic tie anchored on latent inferiority and dependence on the part of the Africans.