There has been no shortage of people and books giving a litany of sorrows of Africa. There has been no shortage of strategists; no shortage of summits, and conferences and general assemblies all expounding the miraculous path Africa must tread to reach remarkable heights. The bottom line has been that most of these have been annual jamborees of noisemakers. Nothing comes out of such discussions except news headlines to the delight of the media and sponsors of such events who mostly are non-Africans.<\/p>\n
Over and over, again and again, Africa remains the only continent that still stands as a scar on the conscious of humanity. Our economic growth, in the words of Pan Africanist Dr. Patrice Lumumba, is well analogised by statisticians and romanticised economists to be growing yet poverty is ravaging our people. Africa is failing to feed itself. Africa is importing food despite the fact that over 60 percent of the arable land on earth is in Africa. Unbelievable, at the dawn of independence Africa was able to feed herself. Africa is retrogressing.<\/p>\n
We are now being confronted with an Africa that we are even failing to understand, an Africa that is at war with herself. If we go to the East, it is no better as Al Shabab is causing havoc; the West is at the mercy of the reign of terror of Boko Haram. And even as our young men and women are escaping Africa to find solace and jobs in the countries of their former colonisers, they end up losing their lives to the merciless waters of the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n
The story of Africa seems to brighten occasionally. It would appear that much of Africa stories are blanketed in darkness. To many Africans in Africa, their cont inent which remains the richest in natural mineral resources, offer them nothing but pain such that to them happiness seems more of an occasional episode in their long and unending drama of untold misery.<\/p>\n
But Africa has to rise and Africa must rise and Africa will rise. The rebirth of Africa needs to start with the rediscovery of the Africa identity. Africa has had more bloodshed for its fertile land, and mines and lakes and all the abundant natural mineral resources. Let the blood, sweat and toil of Africans for Africa be the oil driving the engine of our passion to uplifting our continent from the meshes of poverty and the \u2018dark continent\u2019 label.<\/p>\n
If Africa has to rise from the excruciating and ravaging jaws of poverty and underdevelopment, then Africa must realise its identity and build on it. Africa must take pride in what it has, explore it and dominate all trade lines. Ali Mazrui was right; Africa produces what it does not consume and consumes what it does not produce. This is what Africa must change. We should cross the Jordan of being mere producers of raw cotton, raw coffee, raw soya and other agricultural products to the Canaan promised land of finished products.<\/p>\n
Never before than now does Africa needs a vibrant media that will articulate issue of Africa for Africans and beyond. We only learn of Africa more on BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, F24 and other international media powerhouses. We no longer have documentaries of Africa\u2019s success stories documented by Africans to enhance our pride and showcase our progress in various fields. No remarkable stories pertaining to Africa are published in Africa media but international media that gives some snippets on Africa. If anything, the media in Africa has been the perfect messenger of famine, genocide, hunger, deprivation, political factions and factionalism, murders, rape, wars. The media in Africa has to a great extent played the devil advocate for Africans and Africa. What we have in Africa is the media that cherishes sorrows and lamentations and gives a blind eye to any tangible progress taking place in Africa.<\/p>\n
It is time that Africa learns to forgive its past and forge a new way forward. Africa needs to embark on a new testament of progress. Africa has to unmanacle itself from mental imperialism. We have been perennial losers of the battle of the mind. Now we have to be hatching Africa solutions in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Tunis, Lagos, Lilongwe and many capitals of Africa. It smacks of mental slavery that developmental programs for Africa are developed in Washington, Oslo, Paris, Brussels and other first class capitals of former colonizers. Africa must learn to listen to herself and provide solutions for herself.<\/p>\n
Africa for Africans first is the slogan Africa must live. Intra-trade in Africa has never grown beyond 10 percent. Africa is failing to do trade within herself. It is appalling that though we tout tourism as another big thing in Africa, our market is not Africans themselves. The makeup of our hotels and more tourism destinations is in the interest and target of Chinese, Indians, Americans and Europeans. We lost our Africa. Our tourism must start with we Africans, must be strategized in the interest of an African in Africa. Our people should learn to associate with the things they have and take pride in them. The marketing of Africa is in the taste of non-Africans.<\/p>\n
Africa must unchain itself from the horrendous chains of colonial masters. Why is it that over half a century of independence years, African states are still divided and referred to on the lines of their former colonial masters? We have the lusophone, Anglophone, francophone and many others. We are the only continent that is divided by those that are not in Africa. We have to start being referred to, and as we deserve, as AFRICA. We have to exorcise ourselves from the ghosts of inferiority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There has been no shortage of people and books giving a litany of sorrows of Africa. There has been no shortage of strategists; no shortage of summits, and conferences and general assemblies all expounding the miraculous path Africa must tread to reach remarkable heights. The bottom line has been that most of these have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20175,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20173\/revisions\/20175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}