There are times when I wonder, if it is wrong to be African or does being African mean you are under a curse that cannot be broken? I have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely, positively nothing and I mean nothing is wrong with being African and we are not cursed either. I know there is so much going on from the Horn of Africa to Sub-Saharan Africa, to justify the reasoning that Africa is cursed but I refuse to accept that idea. I get so infuriated when I read an article which starts off by telling me, ‘Africa Is The Dark Continent.’ Ironically, I’m guilty as charged for I have in past times used that same line when I have written about my beloved Africa.
A few hours ago, I was listening to a programme on BBC World Service with some of the BBC’s top correspondents, from America to Europe talking about the big news stories for 2010 and I got angry. I got angry because the only time I heard the correspondents talk about Africa, as I started listening mid-way, was when the subject of the 2010 World Cup came up. They got so animated talking about frigg**g football and who was going to win. I have no issues with the correspondents talking about the forthcoming World Cup or the subjects they talked about. What annoyed me is the fact that Africa, the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent was not mentioned as a place that has a powerful voice and a significant say on the world stage where major issues are concerned. From Global Warming to the current financial crisis though Africans are getting the raw deal where climate change is concerned. No wonder Ethiopia flexed its muscles at Copenhagen and walked out with the other developing countries. I don’t blame them, I wish we took more actions and were not spoon-fed all the time. How interesting that football is what is now giving us an identity.
But how can we take our place on the global stage when we are fractured as a continent? That is why I say we are not one. Individuals nations are politically disfragmented, if I dare use that word; Somalia being the best example, a nation without rule of law for almost two decades. And don’t get me started on religion and tribal divides, we are not just divided, we are discombobulated like the bone socket of a road accident victim, who will never walk again. And you wonder why we don’t have a voice? If you will allow me use my place of birth, Nigeria, best symbolised by Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart. To think that Nigeria will be 50 in the next 10 months, yet things are still falling apart. I have no recollection of them ever coming together. Maybe before I was born, it was together but in all of my 30 years, things have gone from bad to worse and if I was not trying hard to write in a grammatically correct way, I would say they have gone ‘WORSER!’ I hope the Queen forgives me for murdering her English.
It’s great that the World Cup is coming to Africa for the first time. However, should football be what defines us culturally and socially as a continent? Are we not bigger than football? I am baffled that football is what many will use as the reference point where Africa is concerned in 2010? I’m not saying it should not be talked about, it’s a great moment for football and the fact that an African nation is hosting the World Cup should be celebrated. It is also the year of the African Cup of Nations, a double whammy for a developing world. However I would also like to remind you that over 15 countries will be turning 50 this year, 50 years of independence but what do we have to show for it? Well, you do have contracted wars, coup d’états, corruption and becoming a breeding ground for terrorists. But is that all there is? There has got to be more. Angola is hosting the African Cup of nations and not so long ago, it was at war with itself but see how far Angola has come from its war days. There is good and it must be acknowledged but the bad smells terribly foul and travels faster than the good. Okay, I give it up to Lyse Doucet, who said this was Africa’s moment but is it really our time or do we run the risk of showing ourselves up? I would like to believe that it is the former and not the latter. I would also like to believe that the South African government can turn the game into a commercial success. For me, it does not make sense that many people are yet to get a slice of the promised Rainbow Nation. Yet, South Africa is building stadiums worth millions while neighbouring communities have no electricity or water.
The World Cup got me going and so did the whole idea that Obama’s aim for 2010 is to get China and India in the bag, by cracking them. But who will speak for Africa? The West does not talk to us do they? They talk at us and tell us what to do because we gave them room to do so by putting them on a fri**ing pedestal. While I really hate what president Omar Bashir of Sudan is doing in Darfur, there is a part of me that respects his stubbornness and defiance of the West though his intentions and actions are well misplaced and wrong. The question is yet to get an answer, collectively, who speaks for Africa at major global meetings? The UN is handicapped where Africa is concerned and even more ineffective when Israel and Palestine come into the equation but my concern and beef is not Israel or Palestine. They can fight their own battles without my help. My anger is with Africa, so allow me to get it out of my system.
According to one of the correspondents being interviewed, “Obama is not emotionally attached to Europe.” In other words, they will do what America wants when the time comes just like Blair went to Iraq with Bush. Great that the US and Europe have that understanding, but what has Africa got in 2010? Muammar Gaddafi the clown and his United Sates of Africa idea which is already dead before it takes shape or that we are fraternising with Hugo Chavez without a clear direction of what the relationship with South American countries will do for us? Did our leaders ask themselves the benefits of such relationships before they left home in 2009? I don’t think so!
Again, back to my beloved Nigeria, where the president has gone AWOL and no one has asked the question if we are on our way back to a military regime via a military coup d’état? Democracy is hanging on a thin thread and no one has smelt the coffee brewing in secret. While I don’t want us to go back to the Babaginda or Abacha years, if we are not careful, that is where we are going to find ourselves.
And this is where I step back and say we are not one. We have never been one. We would like to be one but that is not possible because we are different in our ideologies, governments and system of governance and we do not have the same goals. Some of our leaders talk with their ass and fart with their mouth. Some don’t speak at all and you know who I’m talking about. We speak different languages and believe in different things. And we have forgotten that we might not all come from the same house, but we must respect each other. Some of the laws in our individuals countries respect freedom of speech and expression and in some, there is no such thing as freedom of speech or expression. And so, I ask again, it is the first year of a new decade, a defining moment for Africa if we seize the day, should football or our achievements since we gained independence from our colonial masters be what defines us as a people and our identity as Africans? And how do we get past the very fact that we may not be one but we can work together for a better Africa?
Images: Images are from Google and Southern Africa UK website.
