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.
If anything or anyone makes a point that appears to challenge their line of thought, they get emotional and become offended without even trying to reason with or understand the point been made. Whenever anyone does not agree with them, they become critical. Because of this kind of people and some other persons who may be having some doubts and misunderstandings as pertaining to the messages or contents of my posts in THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS series, I have decided to write a more comprehensive note which should bare my heart more open.

Good things happen every day. - Maddy Bowen

Don't Get Me Wrong: The fact that I'm writing this series or that I even titled it THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS does not mean I'm a wailing wailer who doesn't see anything good about the African community. No, no, no. I love who I am and the people I belong to. Call us Black. Call us Monkeys, Apes, Gorillas or worse; but that would not make us white. In fact, I'm about to start a collaborative project with some friends of mine titled Black is a Beautiful Color. Is black not beautiful? Yes, it is. Like I wrote in the PART 4 of this series, "We may strive for self-developments, but we must continue to accept ourselves as we grow." Also reading through my posts, a critical mind might easily conclude that I'm a racist for using some phrases that tend to "segregate" the Whites from the Blacks. Am I a racist? No. I may have addressed issues as we read them in history (e.g. of how those white men took advantage of our ignorance and stupidity and used it to oppress us). I may as well address how that history has been repeating itself up till date. That doesn't mean I do not believe that there are good white people and intelligent black men. In fact, I always love to think about what that beautiful white journalist Maddy said in the movie Blood Diamond. She said, "Just to clarify, not all American girls want a storybook wedding just like not all Africans kill each other as a way of life. And yeah, it’s a shit, shit world, but you know what? Good things happen every day." I’m not the kind of guy who pretends like he can’t see any good thing. I also believe what someone wrote that when we embrace Diversity, we embrace God. Our differences make the world beautiful when we accept ourselves.

We must join hands...to get rid of the corruption, evil and terrorism
that permeate our society

Balance is the Key: Also, I cannot deny the visible technological developments we’ve seen in our Movie, Music and other Industries. But what to know is that we Africans, no matter how far (we think) we might have gone, still need to go further. We may accept ourselves as we are but we must allow self-development. We may embrace the West and the rest of the world but we mustn't do so at the expense of our children's future. We have to love ourselves and build our nations too. We may depend on the world but we must strive to be free. Our land is good but we still need good leaders. Our people are good, our culture is wonderful but we still need the proper mentalities. We need to serve ourselves not in personal selfishness but in communal unity. We must join hands, hearts and mouths to get rid of the corruption, evil and terrorism that permeate our society and systems as a result of greedy individuals who squander national treasures on personal aggrandizement. We need to change our ways and speak against those who won't change theirs no matter who they are. Bad governments. Bad systems. Bad leaders. Africa, these labels must be removed! Balance is the key. We cannot be extremists anymore. We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled anymore. THE AFRICAN PROBLEMS need African solutions. You and I are the solutions.

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