Oh Africa!

Africa my homeland, I know you've heard a lot of bad stuff about the continent well I cannot confirm or deny anything but all the good you heard about Africa is true. We as Africans know the problems facing our continent yet we never get them fixed, thats the real problem. Don't get me wrong it's not that we can't fix our problems but we are too focused on our past; we tend to ignore the present and even forget about the future. I'll try to explain myself in a couple of paragraphs

Back in basic school, we were required to take a course titled  "Citizenship Education" where we learnt bits of history; migration routes of the various ethnic groups to colonisation and independence. My point is, even as kids we were told of what was done to us and how our forefathers were victims of great atrocities but I keep wondering if the slave trade was 400 years ago? What was life like before that? What did our forefathers do?  What was their way of life? What were some of their achievements?  How come we don't get to learn about Africa before colonisation and slave trade?

We keep making avoidable mistakes just because we don't know our history and can't even tead the language of our ancestors. The Egyptian hieroglyphics is the oldest form of writing yet not even 1% of the African populace can even identify a hieroglyph from a drawing. I remember in primary school we once argued whether Egypt was part of Africa because of their skin tone. Looking back at that day I consider it silly and a joke but in case you also are conflicted my answer to the argument is simple; read the hieroglyphs. The anciet Egyptians referred to themselves as "Kemet" which literally means black people. Anyway, I'm here talking about hieroglyphics when kids can't even speak their mother tongue talk of writing it.

I could go on and on but in the words of Matthew Ashimolowo, " black people have some of the finest minds on earth. what they need is not information but rather transformation." We will only see the change we seek once we change our train of thought which in turn will change our way of life. If we move from analyzing what was done to us to analyzing what we did or did not do only then will we discover our previous mistakes and avoid repeating them.

As  a young boy I used to make jokes about how my ancestors would exchange their brothers for mirrors and clothes, looking at the current state of the continent I fear years after this generation has passed away our children will be making jokes about how we exchanged our resources for items like cars and drones. It is time to change the African narrative. It is  time to take action. God bless our homeland and make it great and strong.