THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS (Story Behind)

Call us Black. Call us Monkeys, Apes, Gorillas or worse; but that would not make us white.

A More Comprehensive Note

As a liberal author who loves to share his opinions with different categories of people, I've understood over time that no matter how plain or compendious you try to make your points, there are some kind of people who wouldn’t understand still, not because they can't but because they don't even try to. Most of these people are opinionated and defensive. They are theorists who are afraid that a shining light of reality may prove them wrong. Such people grew up with, developed or accepted some particular mindsets. These theories they adopt become their realities. They talk about it. They preach it (even when they can't live it). They make their religion out of it and deliberately shut their eyes and hearts against other realities around them.

THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS (PART 3)

#3 Lack of Originality

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines Originality as the power of independent thought and constructive imagination. Well, I decide to define Lack of Originality as the power to produce nothing but purchase everything. It's an African problem not because we can't produce but because we are so obsessed with foreign products to the point where we stop improving on our own and then treat what we make with disdain. The end result is that we spend all our fortunes helping foreign countries improve and create new things (by purchasing them at very high expenses). Meanwhile we grow more dependent on the rest of the world. We can no longer live without the things they create, and since we have to spend all our earnings on their products, we are broke enough to be unable to make our own.

You may want to read THE COMPREHENSIVE NOTE on The African Problems series.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR RESOURCES

Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.Talent is one of the most valuable assets that you can possess – makes sense, right? In this competitive, global workplace, almost anyone can develop skills, but talent defines your true potential – the internal, natural ability to do something well as you integrate your education, training, innate gifts, experiences, emotional intelligence and purpose. To realize and maximize potential, the holistic approach of assessment is a key factor to define your talent and chart opportunities for it to develop. Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them. Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life. It hits a target no one else can hit but genius hits a target no one else can see.

THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS (PART 2)

In the The African Problems (Part 1), I was able to discuss Materialism as a major attitude that we need to battle as Africans. I discussed how it has affected us from the past till the present moment and how each one of us can change things by being less materialistic. Today, I'll go on and discuss the next attitude I consider to be a major set-back for us.

Everybody was satisfied with a culture of celebrations and ceremonies.

 

COURAGE: UNDERSTANDING THE POWER

Martin Luther King was a man that spanned for only 39 years. He was a black man in the American society. However, he is a man that would be remembered forever. In fact, there are places in the United States of America named after him. He was a man that stood on behalf of the blacks living in America at a period in which the blacks were looked down upon by the whites. This is what is called RACISM. At this period, the blacks were inferior to the whites. They lived as slaves among the whites. In fact, it was in the law that when a black is seated in a bus while a white is standing, if demanded by the white he was supposed to stand up for the white to sit down. It was that bad. They didn't have access to the things the whites had. Their source of survival was mostly at the mercy of the whites. Oh! What a life. No freedom as a human, a black can be bullied by the white and he would still go scot-free.

THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS (PART 1)

Introduction
We Africans by all means have contributed significantly to the world's civilization in all areas of life and professions. Our exploits fill human history. We're a strong, hardworking and relentless. Martin Luther King Jnr, Chinua Achebe, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson, Desmond Tutu, Mohammed Ali, Wole Soyinka, Barack Obama, Usain Bolt and many more have made  enormous inputs that have changed our world in general. Yet, from the view of the world, it seems something is still wrong with us. And not only from the view of the world but even those among us whose eyes have been realistically opened can tell that our continent really needs to undergo genuine intellectual growth. Although most of us have lived in so much pretense that we with the attitude of the unconcerned (and often religiously) wave away any kind of discussion tending to address our problems. Hence, like a patient with a chronic disease who proudly covers up his wounds from treatments, we now have to suffer the consequences as our own wounds start to eat us up, set us behind the world and gradually destroy us.