What is this thing
about the white man’s religion and colonization the reason for African’s
inability to make progress? This isn’t new. You obviously have seen this
statement in a social media discussion. I listen to Nigerians talk about going
back to traditional religions and colonization being the reason for African’s diminutive
growth. They are also quotes like “the white man asked us to close our eyes to
pray and by the time we opened it, we had the bible and they had our land”. This
is one of many of such “quotes”. It sounds really deep and weighty to the African
man but I beg to differ. It is just another ‘African excuse’ as far as I am
concerned and a really stupid one at that.
If you are African, please
gather round the fire. We need to have a serious discussion about the pattern
of reasoning and the perspective from which we see things. But why are we so
shallow in our thought process? Why are we intellectually lazy and end up
making imperceptive and dull-witted conclusions? My friend keeps stressing “Africa
needs to prove that it is not under a mental curse”. I hate this African generalization
so I will constrict it to Nigeria (but feel free to put your country as your
shoe fits).
I like to point out
that over 50% of the countries in the world were colonized. This is a vague statement
so I would make it clearer and concise. The veto power countries (that is world
power countries) are five of which 3 were fully colonized and one (China) was
partly colonized. The United States of America was colonized by the British. France
was colonized and colonized and conquered up until 1944 by many countries. The
UK was colonized and colonized and colonized. The only country of the five
which wasn’t colonized was Russia. But as usual, Africans must play the victims
of everything that is wrong with the world. Why am I stating these facts? From colonization,
America moved on to be one of the greatest countries in the world, France
climbed world power and Britain went ahead to colonize over 50 countries
including America that Africans so love and worship ( I know I decided to
constrict it to Nigeria but I cannot help it).
Africa was colonized,
so? Get over it and move on from there already. If South Africa wasn’t colonized
and retained for as long as it was by the whites, they would have been on the
same level as other African countries (this doesn’t mean I support apartheid or
white supremacy though). Why whine and cry about things that happened so many
years ago instead of trying to make it better? After other countries gained
independence, they went to become great except for Africans. We sat here and
complained they handed us their religion and the bible. Are you under any
compulsion to follow their religion? Why use that as a point of contact every time
we want to state our inability to develop? There are Christians in developed
worlds. Take a trip to Rome and see for yourself. Even in their religion, they
have been able to make a better life for themselves.
Take a good look at the
United Arab Emirates aka Dubai that we love to frequent after stealing Nigeria’s
money and all our celebrities go to hold weddings and birthdays, it was
colonized by the Britain’s, got independence and went ahead to become awesome
(so awesome we can’t get our hands of it). A highly religious nation, now it is
the envy of all Nigerians. They have never used their colonization or their
religion as an excuse to not make headway. They didn’t slack around and
complain about how they were handed the Quran. They didn’t wait for someone to
come and save them. They worked hard, learned from the west and went ahead to
compete with them.
Until we stop giving
excuses for our inability to do for ourselves, until we get productive and
creative, until we decide to move from the point we have been in 1960 (or
whatever year your own country got its independence) when the British left us
and develop, until we hate the word “developing” country and decide we want to
be a developed country, we would sit here and blame the white men for our poor
governance, the stupid choices we make and even our present recession.
Africa, please prove
you are not under a mental curse. Stop giving us a bad name and making people
associate the black race with stupidity and insensibility. We are so much more.
I am sick and tired of you whining about the white men and colonization. I
honestly do not want to hear it. Don’t write a book about it, don’t sing a song
about it, don’t pen a poem about it… It is a disgusting idea, it is dumb, it is
shallow, stupid, senseless and it has to be kicked out of this country and our
minds. We should only learn of it as a part of our history and not a cause to
wallow in underdevelopment and impoverishment.
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