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.

 

#2 Pleasure-Seeking: I have no doubt that one needs to enjoy life. More so, we all need to feel fulfilled, to be joyful and be happy. There are people who work too hard to the point of doing damages to their own bodies and souls. There is also another set of people who see pleasure as the means and the end to everything in life. So they, if possible, would love to skip the hard labor of life by all means and replace it with a lifestyle of impure, flamboyant and expensive pleasures. All of these people are extremists. However, the latter set seem more dominant here among us.

In the past, our fathers were busy drinking palmwine while our mothers were busy buying and sharing Aso Ebi. Ceremonies and celebrations were numberless. Our kings were marrying many wives and our rich men had many concubines. They all bore many children for themselves (which was good at that time), but they never thought any further than that. There were cowries everywhere but nobody invested in inventions. Nobody cared about the future. Everybody was satisfied with a culture of celebrations and ceremonies. Happy people uhn? The land was green, resources abundantly available and as long as the rich could oppress the poor, who cared?  So they had the talking drummer played in their parties:                                          
                                           Bamubamu ni mo yo (2x)
                                    Emi o mo pebi n p'omo enikookan
                                           Bamubamu ni mo yo.
While they were still drinking their palmwine, filling their stomachs with bushmeats and still sleeping with their many wives, the colonial masters came (like thieves over the waters) from the West and took them all away into slavery. But the slave-masters didn't take them alone. They took their children along. Since they were not ready to serve their nations, they had to serve foreign nations all because they couldn't come to the reality on time that pleasure was not enough. Pleasure was what they wanted. Slavery was what they got.

Today, not much has changed. Our politicians steal national funds only to go and heap them in foreign banks where foreign governments use the money to boost foreign economies while our own economy die on daily basis. Why? Because our politicians want to have enough money to spend at parties, to fill their stomachs, to spend on prostitutes, to give to their children who want to go to club houses, to compete and to afford expensive amenities. But no matter how much they have, they never have enough. Everyone of us wants "to travel" out because of the unbearable state of Africa. Seeking "greener pastures", we leave our countries behind and go into other lands to do all sorts of labor and joyfully render services we wouldn't even dare to render in our fatherland. When will this end? Even those of us remaining in the land struggling to acquire wealth, what are we planning to do with such wealth? Spend it on pleasures, parties and hoity-toity appearances?

America was built by its pioneers

I urge every African remaining at home today and also to those in diaspora: Let us consider this matter. Shall we continue to wine and dine our future away? We all love America, want to go to America and most of us even wish we were born Americans. However, we must all understand that America was built by its pioneers and to build means they labored. That's why they have Labor Day. America is not an accident or a product of luck. Their children only entered into what their fathers had labored for. It's the same for every prosperous nation. But our fathers didn't labor for us, neither are we laboring for our children. We even detest labor and despise the laborers. We just want to grow richer and go have fun in America. Well, I won't be surprised if someday America decides to shut us all out. 





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