The African knows not God?
Shame on you
Gye Nyame
The African proclaims
God is...
Omnipotent
Omniscient
Omnipresent
san-kofa
Monday, 13 June 2011
YOU ARE AN ADDICT!
YOU ARE ADDICTED TO INFERIORITY COMPLEX
You've accepted the lie that
You're inferior to the Caucasian
'Cos you've been made to believe
You have no glorious past
You belong to a race of non-achievers
All your customs and traditions are
Backward, barbaric, pagan or satanic
BUT YOU CAN KICK THE HABIT
By accepting the truth that
You're created in the image of Most High
And therefore you're unique
Your customs and traditions
Were given you by God
To suit your environment
You have a glorious past
And the ancient civilizations of
The Nile Valley, the empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai
Attest to this fact
YOU ARE FREE
Be yourself
But when need be
Learn from others
But not copy them
ELSE YOU WILL BACKSLIDE
san-kofa
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
FULL … FOOL
Fed on a bowl of lies
Prepared by:
"White" supremacists
Ingredients:
"Black" inferiority
And
"White" superiority
Spiced with:
"Black" Satan
And
"White" God
Err! Err! Err!
Full … Fool
san-kofa
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
SENSE … NONSENSE!
He sees everything "black" as bad
And sees everything "white" as good
Just like his mentor planned
He abandons his "pagan" name
For a "Christian" name
Praise the Lord! He has seen the light
She is not content with her "black" skin
So, she bleaches to be "white"
Skin cancer? Forget it!
Her hair she regards as "tense"
So, she has to "relax" it with dangerous chemicals
Oh! The side effects? But I still have to look beautiful, she squeals
His native tongue is for the “uneducated”
His colonial master's tongue for the "educated"
So, speak he must, broken English? Still, e sabe some
Eating his indigenous dishes with his fingers is "bush"
He is “civilised” so he must eat with cutlery
After all, his eyes has "opened"
Only the "unsophisticated" wear native attire
So, he being “chic”, he must wear suit and tie
Never mind he is uncomfortable in the blazing African sun
His marriage rites are "pagan". That's no marriage
So, he has to do "wedding". That's marriage
The cost? Don't worry, God will provide
His traditional religion?
Hey, don't go there. It is Satanic!
Just like his preacher says on Sundays
African! Be still and know
Sense … Nonsense!!!
san-kofa
Monday, 6 June 2011
“LOOK ALL OVER THE GLOBE ... THE DARK RACES STAND STILL, THE FAIR PROGRESS”
Robert Knox in his book, The Races of Man noted, “Look all over the globe, it is always the same, the dark races stand still, the fair progress…There must be a physical and consequently a psychological inferiority in the dark races generally.”
He is not alone in this jaundiced view of Africans. Edward Long in his History of Jamaica, one of the most influential books of the age, asserted, Africans are “void of genius … and almost incapable of making any progress in civility or science” that these characteristics were to be found throughout the vast regions of Negro Africa and that Negroes (Africans) should be regarded as a separate species intermediate between Europeans and similar species and ‘orang-outangs’.
One of history’s most “renowned thinkers” David Hume, a philosopher, said, “I am apt to suspect the Negroes … to be naturally inferior to the white. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation, no ingenious manufacturers among them no arts or sciences.”
Thomas Jefferson, a former president of the United State of America is also on record to have said that “I advanced it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks whether originally a distinct race or made distinct by time or circumstance are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind.”
The most disturbing aspect of this whole issue of the perceived inherent inferiority of the African is the fact that many Africans have imbibed these views. As indicated by Rev. Dr. Mensa Otabil in his book Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia,“Many black people have mentally accepted the logic of black is inferior. We may not verbalize it or even be aware of it but it is in our sub-conscious minds.”
One need not look far to see the truth in Otabil’s assertion. In our Ghanaian languages, we have the term “me broni” in Twi or “nblorfonyo” in Ga which literally translates to “my white person.” This is a term of endearment! In addition, we have Africans especially women using chemicals to bleach their skin or straighten (relax) their curly hair just to look like the Caucasian. Malcolm X who was a victim of such self-degradation recorded in his autobiography, “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair.” He further admits, “I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are “inferior” — and white people “superior”.
But why is this so? Again as pointed out by Otabil, “when a people distort history they can easily isolate you in order to dominate you” and this is precisely the case. History as pointed out by Dr. John Henrik Clarke is a “clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography.” Where do we stand on the map of human geography?
It is an indisputable fact that civilization originated in Africa, precisely, Kemet (Egypt). Among the Nile Valley (Egyptian) civilization were the advancements in medicine and mathematics. This is evident in the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest medical treatise in existence believed to be written as early as 4200 B.C. or as late as 3100 B.C. which describes 48 different injuries to the head, face, neck, thorax and spinal column and the appropriate surgical methods for treating them. There is also the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus written in c. 1900 B.C. which contains over 80 mathematical problems and their solutions such as surface of the sphere, the square root (Pythagorean Theorem), the quadrature of a circle, the volume of a sphere an the formula for finding out the surface of the circle, rectangle, triangle and trapezium.
Some may argue that this only buttresses Knox’s argument since the Egyptians belong to the fair race. But nothing is farther from the truth. The ancient Egyptians were Africans (“blacks”) and this supported by both classical authors of antiquity and modern scholarly works.
Herodotus, the “father of history”, is on record to have noted with regards to the origin of the Colchians (Colchidians or Colchoi) who lived on the shores of the Black Sea that: “It is in fact manifest that the Colchidians are Egyptians by race … several Egyptians told me that in their opinion the Colchidians were descended from soldiers of Sesostris. I had conjectured as much myself from two pointers, firstly because they have black skins and kinky hair and secondly and more reliable for the reason that alone among mankind the Egyptians and Ethiopians have practiced circumcision since time immemorial.”
The “melanin dosage test” presented by Prof. Chiekh Anta Diop at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (U.N.E.S.C.O.) sponsored symposium held at Cairo between January 28 and February 3, 1974 which provided a means by which one could determine the phenotype of the Egyptian royal mummies, showed a melanin (the chemical substance responsible for skin pigmentation) level which is absent in the white-skinned race. This was based on samples taken off the mummies from the Marietta excavations in Egypt in the physical anthropology laboratory of the Musée de L’Homme in Paris. This laboratory procedure of assessing melanin level by microscopic observation also buttresses earlier assertions of ancient Egyptians as “blacks”.
Other modern inventions by Africans in the field of science and technology make nonsense of the assertion that Africans have not made any contribution in manufactures, sciences or arts. Elijah McCoy revolutionised the railway industry when in 1873, he developed a small, oil-filled container with an adjustable stop-cock that automatically oiled moving parts while machinery was still in motion thus doing away with ... trains stopping every few miles for a workman to oil parts. The superiority of his invention prompted buyers of his device to ask, "Is this the real McCoy?," a recognition of the inferior ones on the market. In 1916, Garett Morgan won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety and anothergold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs for his invention of a gas mask and a citation by the United States Government for his traffic signal.
Africans have also not been left out of the arts. The “Father of Russian Literature”, Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers were all Africans just like those earlier mentioned. Do not be misled by the names.
If the African race seems to be standing still it has nothing to do with his inherent inferiority. This has more to do with historical factors. Four hundred years of slave trade and enslavement, a century of colonialism and apartheid cannot be trivialised.
About ten million of able-bodied men and women were shipped across the Atlantic and the labour and revenue derived from this trade was very important in the industrialisation of Europe. About a century of colonialism following the abolition of the slave trade witnessed the continued exploitation of the material and human resources of the colonies. The colonial economy was one oriented towards the production of raw materials for the metropoles rather than developing the industrial base of the colonies. Apartheid and other forms of racial segregation also deprived Africans both at home and abroad of basic human rights.
These factors are largely responsible for the underdevelopment of Africa and Africans in constradistinction to the fairer races. The dark races’ natural inferiority to the fairer races is a myth and we need to empower ourselves with the true knowledge of our history and culture.
san-kofa
“O PERFECT REDEMPTION, THE PURCHASE OF BLOOD!” – HOW THEY STOLE OUR GOD
George Thompson, a British Wesleyan missionary to the Mendi Mission in Sierra Leone in the nineteenth century recounts a religious experience he had on 25th June 1854 with the people of Kaw Mendi. He notes that after he had preached to and exhorted the “heathen” many were delivered from the “bondage of Satan into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Traditional African religion has been the subject of vicious attacks at the hands of some Europeans since their arrival on the shores of Africa, a crusade presently taken over by some overzealous Africans. Traditional African religion has been deliberately misinterpreted to justify the derogatory tags attached to it. It has been called names, which neither reflects what the religion believes in nor practices. These names range from animism, fetishism, totemism, and ancestor worship to down right condemnation as a satanic religion.
Sir Samuel Baker, an explorer presenting a report to the Ethnological Society of London in 1887 on the Nilotes of Sudan reflects the perception of traditional African religion as a religion without a belief in a Supreme Being. He stated, “Without any exception, they are without a belief in a Supreme Being, neither have they any form of idolatry nor is the darkness of their minds enlightened even by a ray of superstition.”
In Some Letters from David Livingstone, 1840-1872, David Livingstone noted in reference to the Batlapi, Bakwain and Bakhatla of East Africa that, “At some remote period their ancestors appear to have been addicted to animal worship, for each tribe is called by some animal, by it they swear, and in general neither eat nor kill it, alleging as a cause that these animals are the friends of their tribes. Thus the word Batlapi, literally translated is ‘Men (of the) Fish’, Bakwain, ‘Men (of the) Crocodile, Bakhatla ‘Men (of the) Monkey etc.”
But did the African acknowledge and worship God? To the African, God is no stranger. This is borne out by the Akan proverb, “Obiara nkyere akoda Nyame.” Literally translated it means, “No one shows a child God.” To the African therefore, the knowledge of God is instinctive. This knowledge of God is articulated in names, prayers, invocations, songs, myths, stories, and religious ceremonies and in virtually everything that the African does.
It is widely acknowledged among Africans that God is the creator of the universe and humankind. This belief is expressed in the names by which He is called in numerous African languages. One Akan name for God, Borebore, for instance means “Excavator, Hewer, Carver, Creator, Originator, Inventor, Architect.” As Borebore, God is the designer and creator of humankind and the universe. The Akamba of Kenya also call Him Mumbi meaning “Creator” or “Maker” which also reflects the belief in His being the Creator.
Apart from God being acknowledged as the Creator, He is believed to be the provider of the necessities needed for maintaining His creation. This is succinctly expressed in the Ovimbundu name for God, Suku, which means “He who supplies the needs of His creatures.” The Asante of modern Ghana also see Him as the sole source of their lives and for this reason they refer to Him as Amosu, “the giver of rain” and Amowia, “the source of sunshine or light.” The significance of these names lies in the importance of rainfall and sunshine to the food that sustains humankind.
Among other African concepts of God is the belief that He is Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent. His Omniscience is limitless, infinite and absolute. There is therefore a common saying among the Yoruba that “only God is wise.” They also believe that God is “the Discerner of hearts” who sees both the inside and outside of man. The Bamum of Cameroon in their name for God, Njinyi or Nnui, which means “He who is every where”, expresses the idea of God’s Omnipresence. The Shilluk also say that He is like the wind or air.
That God is also omnipotent is evident in the Zulu description of Him as “He who bends down even majesties,” and “He who roars so that all nations be struck with terror.” For the Ngombe who live in the very thick forest of Zaire, which they continuously try to keep under control, the forest is a symbol of power. They therefore comprehend God’s omnipotence in relation to the forest and praise Him as “the one who clears the forest.”
One other concept of God is the belief that He is the ultimate Judge and his judgment is impartial. That is why the Nuer of Sudan for example believe that God is always right no matter what befalls them. This is based on the belief that “God evens things out, rewarding good to those who follow good conduct, and evil to those who follow evil conduct, and overlooking breaches done accidentally or in error.” The Ewes, Gas and Akans of Ghana also recognize God as the ultimate judge rewarding good and punishing evil in the popular saying “Me kwe ne Mawu”, “Nke ha Nyongmo” and “Me di a ma Nyame” respectively when someone does something to them. This literally means, “I have given it to God” which in fact means God will judge the matter.
The above concepts, which are by no means an exhaustive list of African conceptions of God shows that the African acknowledged the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God and it was to Him that all worship, obedience, reverence, and adorations was given. This was manifested in worship; which may be defined as showing religious devotion through words or deeds to the divine, God in the African context. This religious devotion was externalized through sacrifices, offerings and prayers amongst others either through intermediaries or directly to God without any intermediary.
In Akan communities, an important feature of the courtyard was the Nyamedua or “altar to the Sky God.” It is in the form of a tree or a forked post between whose branches a pot or a calabash is wedged and into which sacrificial offerings are placed. Its name Nyamedua or “altar to the Sky of God” speaks volumes in that it shows that to the traditionalist, God is the recipient of the sacrifices and offerings. Another important feature of Nyamedua is the fact in homes where they were found, the oldest member would not eat until he/she had put some of the food into it for Nyame (God). Also in shrines, they were placed to the right of the shrine room entrance signifying the presence of God or that the activities of the shrine are dedicated to God. The Asante also when pouring libation first mention God because He is the Creator and the ultimate provider of their wants and needs.
It is also important to underscore certain beliefs and practices in traditional African religion that have led to its villification. Africans are not unique in their use of religious symbols, something referred to by Europeans as fetishism. In Christianity, some believe in the sacramental view of religious symbols e.g. medals like the crucifix worn by the Catholics and the icons used by the Orthodox Christians. The so-called “lesser god” is not God or a lesser God for that matter as is evident in the different generic names and attributes for the two. Rather, they are divine spirits of God, or angels, as Christians know them. Similarly, ancestral veneration in traditional African religion termed as ancestor worship by Europeans is no different from veneration of saints in Catholicism.
Yet, in spite of the enormous indisputable evidence which show that Africans worshipped and still worship God, in their own way – note that they call Him the same name with the same attributes in our local dialects – some still insist that Africans worship anything other than God. This illogical argument simply stems from the unfair principle that those who do not worship God the way we do it worship something other than God. This has been used at certain points in history to justify the sub-human treatment of the African and the colonisation of the continent.
It is important to recognise that only a better understanding and appreciation of our cultural values which invariably shapes our way of life would help eliminate the inferiority complex and thereby help promote a vision of ourselves as equals.
san-kofa
Saturday, 4 June 2011
AFRICAN, DO IT THYSELF!
“Every man must be architect and implementer of designs that define his destiny.”
Well, the problem with the African is that he has neither been the architect nor the implementer of designs that define his destiny. Is it then any wonder that he wallows in abject poverty, disease, squalor, wars and in fact foreign domination? Of course not! He who seeks his independence must himself be independent. And have we been independent in our thoughts, words and actions?
Our desire – true political, economic and social independence and respect as an equal race – has yet to be realized because the African simply is not doing for himself what others are doing for themselves. Just look around you. They, the Caucasians (“whiteman”) or the Mongoloids (“yellowman”), produce the clothes you wear and the shoes you put on. The materials you use for your clothes you wear and the shoes you put on. The materials you use for your buildings, same. The food you prefer these days – fried rice and chicken, burger, pizza, ice cream, apples etc. – same. Your beverages – fanta, coke, beer, guinness, wine, champagne, etc – same. Your electrical appliances – television, sound systems, air-conditioners, refrigerators, cookers, etc – same. Your means of transportation and communication – cars, trains, airplanes, ships, telephones, computers, fax machines, etc – same. Your medical equipment and medicines, same. Just name them.
No one is disputing the fact that Africans invented some of these things but who controls their production now? Again do not be deceived, some of these might be produced here but the question is by whom? It is not enough to call on foreigners to come and invest here. What are we doing ourselves? As succinctly expressed by Ayi Kwei Armah in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, “we do not serve ourselves if we remain like insects fascinated by the white people’s power. Let us look inward. What are we? What have we? Can we work for ourselves? To strengthen ourselves?”
Sometimes, I shudder to think what would happen to us if these people pack bag and baggage and leave for their home countries. What would happen to us if these people decide not to give or sell to us the clothes, food, materials for shelter, the domestic appliances, the means of transportation, communication gadgets, medical equipment and medicines? Can you imagine? In fact, God forbid but the horrible truth is that, WE ARE DEAD!
But as sound thinking rational human beings, does it make any sense to put our lives in the hands of other people, people who time and time again have amply demonstrated to us that they have not the least interest in our welfare? Whilst our governments are at the mercy of these “benevolent” Western governments and their financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank, we the citizens are slaving for “greener pastures” in their homelands. Those who have not yet had the opportunity are just biding their time. For how long are we going to be the obedient servants of others?
God did not create any race to be the servant of another race even though there is no denying the fact that there would always be masters and servants in any given society. But just as God does not control any one’s will so is it up to the individual/group to decide what category he/she/they want to belong to. We by our actions and inaction have relegated ourselves to this ignoble position. As Marcus Garvey rightly points out, “Lagging behind in the van of civilization will not prove our higher abilities. Being subservient to the will and caprice of progressive races will not prove anything superior in us. Being satisfied to drink of the dregs from the cup of human progress will not demonstrate or fitness as people to exist alongside of others, but when of our own initiative we strike out to build industries, governments, and ultimately empires, then only then will we as a race prove to our Creator and to man in general that we are fit to survive and capable of shaping our own destiny.”
What have we as individuals or collectively done to lift Africa up where she truly belongs – in the highest regions. Note what Frederick Douglass says “Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.” Until we begin providing for our wants and needs there is no way we can ever be truly independent and recognised as equal human beings.
san-kofa
AFRICAN, BE THYSELF!
“God in His own wisdom made each race in a unique way with its own unique culture to serve His purpose. Until we Africans understand this and begin to develop our uniqueness as the other races have done instead of trying to be like them, we will forever be dependent on them and always feel inferior to them.”
This cry for the African to be him/herself has become necessary and indeed urgent because most Africans now think they are doing the right thing only if it is also done by the Caucasians (“whiteman”). In the extreme case, the African feels he/she is more like a human being when he/she is like the Caucasian. In simple terms, our standard of measurement has become “white” i.e. “white” is good and of course “black” is bad. If not why is it that anyone who cannot express him/herself in any of the former slave master’s language i.e. English, French, Portuguese, etc. no matter how fluent he/she is in any of our indigenous languages ridiculed? Why has the bleaching of our black skin to look “white” by both men and women and the straightening of our kinky hair particularly by our women become the order of the day? Why have foreign dishes, I mean that of the Caucasians and the Mongoloids (“yellowman”) become the preserve of the rich with a symbol of prestige attached to it? Why has it become an elevation of one’s status to have a Caucasian friend or companion even among our university students?
I am of the view that the root cause of all these is the acceptance of the doctrine of the inherent inferiority of the African to the Caucasian. This candid observation is better expressed by Dr. Mensa Otabil in Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia, “Many black people have mentally accepted the logic of black is inferior. We may not verbalize it or even be are aware of it but it is in our subconscious minds.” One need not look far to see the truthfulness of this assertion. There is the popular saying that if on your way to church you meet a “whiteman” you better return for you have met God. Ludicrous, isn’t it? Well, this should give you fair idea of the depth of the inferiority complex.
The cry to be ourselves is therefore a call for the rejection of this baseless doctrine of African inferiority. Baseless grounds on which this theory has been propounded have been proven to be nothing but big, bad, terrible lies fabricated to keep us in perpetual servitude. An example is the Hamitic hypothesis used to justify the establishment of grim, grisly and ghastly political institutions like apartheid in South Africa Canaan , the fourth son of Ham and not Ham himself who was the recipient of the curse. The text explicitly states the “Let Canaan be cursed.” That aside, the basis of this Hamitic hypothesis which is that the three sons of Noah represented three different “races” namely, Shem (“Mongoloid”), Ham (“Negroid”) and Japheth (“Caucasian”) is absurd to say the least. As Rev. Dr. Cain Hope Felder points out it in his introduction to the Original African Heritage Study Bible (King James Version), it does not even make sense logically or scientifically to say that “within the ten generations from Adam to Noah (and without the introduction of any outside factor) a genetic change took place which allowed one man (Noah) and his one wife (of the same race as himself) to produce children who were racially different.” But this of course is what they would like us to believe.
It is high time we stopped rewarding these criminal doctrines with a rejection of ourselves and rather in the words of Langston Hughes, “…express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.” It has become imperative that we be ourselves because this attempt to be like the Caucasians and in the process rejecting ourselves has not only resulted in a high moral degeneracy and juvenile delinquency hitherto unheard of in our society but it has also led to the loss of our respect and dignity simply because he who has no respect for himself has no respect from others.
Being ourselves means we must be original. In other words, rather than reject, let us accept who we are and what we have and develop them to suit the times or conditions when and where necessary. As R.S Rattray, (a Caucasian) notes in Ashanti (a microcosm of Africa) “the ideal should be, not to become pseudo-European but to aim at progress for their race based upon what is best in their own institutions, religion, their manners and customs and that the Ashanti [African] will become better and finer men and women by remaining true Ashanti [African] and retaining a certain pride in their past, and that their greatest hope lies in the future, if they follow and build upon lines with which the national sunsum or soul has been familiar since they first were a people.” What else have we been than African since creation?
san-kofa
AFRICAN, BELIEVE IN THYSELF!
“Belief in your self that you are equal to the other in the endowments of body and mind is the only solid foundation known for the tallest skyscraper.”
There is no disputing the fact that confidence, belief or faith – whatever one might choose to classify it – is a vital ingredient in the success of a person. Even the slave master recognized its importance in the sustenance of this inhuman system. This Lerone Bennett Jnr. notes in Before the Mayflower, “More was needed: the slave, if slavery was to be successful, had to believe he was a slave …Each slave was taught that he was inferior to the meanest white man and that he had to obey every white man without thinking, without questioning. Finally, if these lessons were learned, the slave looked at himself through the eyes of his master and accepted the values of the master.”
This is exactly the case of the present day African. For far too long, the African has not been doing for himself what others are doing for themselves i.e. the provision of his needs and wants because he has been made to believe he cannot do it. This is summed up by one university student, who presumably should know better that “the most stupid Caucasian (“white man”) can manufacture a balloon but this the most intelligent African cannot do”
Well, I don’t blame him. He like many African students is a product of an inherited colonial educational system that does not allow the African to exercise his creative capabilities. Rather, he is made to absorb and reproduce (chew and pour) what others – the Caucasians, sometimes erroneously – have produced. Hence he is made to believe that he is incapable of creating anything and has to look to others for the provision of his basic needs and wants. Consequently, he has resigned himself to fate hoping that some miracle might happen to change his situation or that the Caucasian would one day come up with solutions to his problems.
However, if we are to lift Africa up where she truly belongs – in the highest regions - this must change NOW! Simply because neither has chance ever “satisfied the hope of a suffering people” nor has and people “… that solely depended on foreign aid, or rather upon the efforts of those, in anyway identified with the oppressor, to undo the heavy burdens, ever stood forth in the attitude of freedom.” Only “action, self-reliance, the vision self and of the future, have been the means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom.” And this starts with the belief in one’s self.
Belief in self means the recognition of one’s ability to achieve what he wills, of course with the help of the Father. It is high time we realized we are as capable as the other races in the endowments of both body and mind. An article in The Georgetown Weekly Ledger of March 12, 1791 about Benjamin Banneker whilst noting the arrival of the commission which made the original survey of Washington, D.C of which he was a member buttresses this fact. It stated, “…an Ethiopian [African] whose abilities as a surveyor and astronomer already prove that Mr. (Thomas) Jefferson’s concluding that that race of men were void of mental endowments was without foundation.” Other evidences of the African’s ability to achieve what he wills abound in the creative artistic and scientific inventions of Africans. These include classics like The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas.
The message therefore to the African is that, “there is no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our minds.” And in pursuit of the propagation of this gospel, I would like to suggest an African Heroes and Heroines Day to honour our heroes and heroines and secondly, the establishment of an African Hall of Fame where the statutes, busts and photographs of these heroes and heroines with their biographies and achievements would be exhibited to inform Africans of what has been achieved by one of our kind. It is sad to note that because our African heroes and heroines have been neglected the African has no African to look up to either in the arts, business or sciences thus depriving the African of the belief in his race as one of achievers and consequently in himself as an achiever.
We have the God-endowed talents that can and must be harnessed to do for ourselves what others are doing for themselves. After all, is God not a just God? If he is, does that not presuppose that He created all men equal?
san-kofa
AFRICAN, RESPECT THYSELF!
“He who has no respect for himself has no respect from others.”
That the African has lost the respect of the other races as an equal race that needs to be treated with dignity is putting it mildly. And this bluntly put is the fault of none other than the African himself.
Why do I say that? Have you seen anyone with respect for himself who bleaches his skin with dangerous chemicals just to look like another race? Would anyone with a sense of respect for himself again use dangerous toxins nicely couched as “relaxers” to straighten his hair just to look like another race? Tell me if treating you God-given language with contempt whilst hailing that of others to the high heavens is a mark of self-respect. You may also have heard the saying “yevu kuku ye nye ameyibor gbagbe” literally meaning a dead “Whiteman” is equal to a living “Blackman”. Can you imagine! I bet you know that the term “mi broni” literally meaning “my white person” is term of endearment!
Look, any people worth their salt do not make it their profession to always go bowl in hand begging for “aid”. But is this not the official duty of our governments? And you call this a government of people who respect themselves? Please, give me a break! As Keba Dabo rightly notes in Aminata Sow Fall’s The Beggars’ Strike, “Poverty has never compelled people to beg; poverty has never excluded self-respect, human dignity.” It should rather impel them to be ingenious. Let’s get it straight, a self respecting person is a master of his own destiny and architect of his own fate. And in pursuit of attaining his fullness on earth employs to the fullest his God-endowed mental and physical capabilities.
We as a people have got it ingrained in our psyche that everything about us – physical characteristics, culture and history – is infinitely wrong and as such, we are the first to deride ourselves. But there lies the problem, once, you start belittling yourself you open the floodgates for others to do likewise.
Just take our physical characteristics as a case in point. Are we that ugly that we can’t sing even one line in praise of our beauty? So every time we have to praise the beauty of our women it is always in reference to the Caucasian as evident in the very popular line “mi broni”. I need not tell you too that having a Caucasian as a partner is a huge status symbol not only that, to count yourself among the beautiful your vital statistics has to be like that of the Caucasian as the standards of beauty clearly shows in our foremost beauty pageant the “Miss Ghana”.
Again, tell me what is so wrong with our hair that we have to go through hell, literally to have it look like that of the Caucasian. Remember those days when our old folks had to put those “straightening combs” (presupposing as the name does that our hair is crooked) into fire until it was hot then use it on their hair? These days it’s the “relaxers” (I wonder if that means our hair is tense).
What points are we driving at? That God is so ugly that we do not want to look like Him? After all, does the Good Book not say that we were created in God’s image?
Then comes the “backward” culture. In our eagerness to be accepted as “civilized”, we have abandoned our way of life for that of the Caucasians. So, the “educated” African wants nothing to do with our local dishes. Ask any child to write an essay on my best food and it will be “… the food I like best is rice and stew.” You know what is funny about this? The average Ghanaian thinks rice is the “Whiteman’s” food and so by associating himself with this food he is enhancing his social status. But for your information, rice is an indigenous staple crop! And that thing about being “bush”, you remember those days in the boarding schools when eating even kenkey with your fingers earned you the insult “bush boy” and of course some lashes? Yes, “bush” meaning uncivilized or backward. That’s the way we see our way of eating.
Language…the least said about it the better. Ei, if you can’t express yourself in the “Whiteman's” language better not open your mouth in public. How many times have we not made fun of people who couldn’t express themselves in the “Whiteman's” language? If you’re not lucky, your first name becomes the grammatical error you made. You hear parents boastfully say that as for my child he speaks only English. On the other hand, if one is unable to express himself in any of our local languages it is no big deal, after all, “…that’s not my language.” But is the “Whiteman’s” language your language?
Our religion has also been so debased that very few people want be associated with it. After the Europeans have knocked it down with ignominious tags like satanic, fetish, animist and polytheistic and left it for dead, the “educated” African has taken it upon himself to cut off its head probably taking a cue from the saying that if you kill a snake, cut off its head. Just check out the Nigerian and Ghanaian movies being screened on our TVs and you will get what I’m driving at. It’s always Christianity versus “traditional religion” and of course the former always emerges victorious. Not to mention the fact that God and his angels are always “white” and Satan black. Have you ever seen a black angel or even the picture of an angel painted black?
Man, get serious! No one who not only accepts his inferiority and hero-worships others but also depend on them for his livelihood ever earned the respect of that people. How did you regard colleagues who copied your work in school? Tell me how you regard people who though can fend for themselves have made it their profession to beg for their livelihood?
san-kofa
AFRICAN, LOVE THYSELF!
“Love your neighbour as yourself”. So says the cardinal doctrine of the world’s major religions. This of course also means love yourself as you would your neighbour.
It is my contention that this was/is based on the assumption that as a normal human being one would naturally love himself. The African however is an exception. In whatever way possible, he has tried to be anything but African. The bleaching and straightening of hair I need not belabour you with. From food, shelter, clothing and language to sports and entertainment, the African has discarded his for the “civilized” Western ones. Even the form of marriage must be the Western one, I mean “wedding” or it is no marriage!
You know what? When I hear people proudly profess how hospitable we are, I just smile. Is not said that charity begins at home? Are we hospitable to ourselves? I do not think so. For if that were true, where from these PhDs (Pull him Down) degrees that a vast majority of us possess.
That this is a deviation from the norm means something must be wrong. Specifically, the African has been indoctrinated with stories that make him despise himself. The African from cradle to grave is not only told stories like Satan is “black” and God is “white”, but he is also sent to the Caucasian’s place of worship to receive the “holy spirit” and made to shun the African’s place of worship to keep away from the “evil spirit”. With such stories, is not practically impossible for the African to love himself. After all, whoever loves Satan or anything in his image?
The absence of the African’s love for himself has resulted in the consequent degradation of himself all in attempt to be like the Caucasian who he perceives to be God-like. Malcolm X’s experience in his autobiography is typical of most Africans. He notes, “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation when I endured all that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair.” But if the African is to progress, he must first love himself simply because without love for himself he can never do anything worthwhile for himself.
Love for ourselves means having a strong affection or tender feelings for ourselves. Love for ourselves stems from the fact that we like other races have some good qualities that need to be held in high esteem. If nothing at all, we were created in the image of God and this makes us unique.
Let no one deceive you! The African has everything deserving love. As forcefully expressed by Samuel Ringgold Ward, “… I have often been called a nigger, and some have tried to make me believe it; and the only consolation that has been offered me for being called a nigger was that when I die and go to heaven, I shall be white. But if I cannot go to heaven as black as God made me, let me go down to hell and dwell with the Devil forever.”
It is high time we realise that love of God is love of mankind and the love of mankind starts with one’s self. Anyone who claims to love God but does not love his neighbour is a liar. But anyone who claims to love his neighbour but does not love himself is the biggest liar who ever walked the face of the earth.
san-kofa
AFRICAN, KNOW THYSELF!
“If you know not who you are, your vision in life becomes blurred and you are therefore unable to chart the right course for the fulfilment of your mission in life.”
I am in perfect agreement with this forceful assertion made several decades ago by one of the foremost pan-African thinkers, Marcus Mosiah Garvey. A cursory glance at Africans (“blacks”) both at home and abroad makes it abundantly clear that the African without knowledge of his history and culture has imbibed wholesale Eurocentric views like the inferiority of the African to the Caucasian (“white”) and everything Caucasian hence attempts by the African just to be like the Caucasian. Need I remind you of our secondary school days when woe betides any “bush boy” who dared eat any of our local dishes with his fingers? Being “civilized” meant eating with cutlery!
Knowledge as the Bible affirms is power and the lack of it makes a people perish. Even the slave master recognized this. A statement made by one United States of America
Well, chattel slavery may be over but the inordinate ambition of some to keep the African in perpetual servitude in order to continue the exploitation of our human and natural resources still lingers on. And in pursuit of this agenda, our history and culture has been distorted to make us despise our heritage. For instance, one Professor John Burgess, the founder of Columbia University graduate school of Political Science defined the African race as “ … a race of men which has never created any civilization of any kind.” Richard Burton, an explorer also noted, “The study of the Negro (African) is the study of man’s rudimentary mind. He would appear rather a degeneracy from the civilized man than a savage rising to the first step, were it not for his total incapacity for improvement …”
Sadly, the inherited colonial educational system and the Western controlled media still perpetuate this superior/inferior race philosophy. How many “educated” Africans know African contribution in the arts, business and sciences? But I bet you know that the “Father of History” is Herodotus and the “Father of Medicine” Hippocrates. No wonder an “educated” African can confidently say that the most stupid Caucasian can make a balloon but this the most intelligent African cannot do. The African’s religion has also been called derogatory names which neither reflects what the practioners believe in or even practice. You have heard it referred to as “ancestor worship” but they “forgot” to add that it is this same practice that is referred to in Christianity as “sainthood”. The end result is that the educated African produced is nothing but a brainwashed African who not only admires and seeks to imitate the Caucasian but also relies on them for his basic needs.
But no race of people ever progressed without knowing who they truly were. This therefore calls for the African empowering himself with the true knowledge of his history and culture. The importance of history as succinctly expressed by Dr. Henrik Clarke is that it not only tells a people what they have been and where they have been, what they are and where they are but most importantly it tells them what they still must be and where they still must go. The importance of culture on the other hand is that because it tells a people about their beliefs and practices, it gives them an insight into their thought patterns and behaviour and this thereby helps them in formulating policies that suit them.
Let us once and for all end in the words of Malcolm X the “… crime, the lie that has been told to generations of black men and white men both. Little innocent black children, born of parents who believed that their race had no history. Little black children seeing, before they could talk, that, their parents considered themselves inferior. Innocent black children – growing up, living out their lives, dying of old age - and all of their lives ashamed of being black.”
It is only armed with a true knowledge of our history and culture can we assume our rightful position as an equal in the comity of nations.
san-kofa
AFRICAN, THINK FOR THYSELF!
"He who fails or refuses to think for him/herself leaves his destiny in the hands of those who do the thinking for him."
The call for the African to think for him/herself sounds quite insulting since it presupposes that he does not think and therefore is a fool. Far from it! We are not fools because we are capable of rational thinking. What it rather means is that the African has left the most crucial determinant in the success or otherwise of his life in the hands of others. People who I might add have demonstrated to us time and again through their words and actions that they have not the least interest in our welfare.
So the question is why we have relegated this all-important function to others. Have we ever bothered to ask ourselves why God gave each and every one of us the capacity and capability to think? If God in His infinite wisdom felt that others doing the thinking for us would be okay, would He have bothered to give us all brains in the first place?
Now why do I even say the African is not thinking for him/herself? Simple. Just look around you and you will find that the opinions that we have formed about ourselves and others particularly the Caucasians and the consequent decisions we have drawn based on these opinions were not done independently. These have been shaped by Eurocentric views of the African and his customs fed to us formally through their schools and churches and informally through movies, newspapers and magazines. So for instance, the Caucasians through movies and "My book of Bible Stories" have made the African believe that God is "white" and Satan is "black". However, a "small" thinking on the part of the African would have revealed the falsity in this account. Do they not claim that all the heavenly hosts are "white"? If so, then is Satan who was an archangel also not "white"? Or did he become "black" just after rebelling against God?
Again, we also harp on the Eurocentric tune that they introduced education in Africa . But the mere fact that in the ancient West African empires there existed prestigious universities like that of Sankore and Jenne before the advent of the Europeans should have exposed this naked lie yet we have accepted this line, hook and sinker.
Thinking involves using the mind in an active intelligent way to form connected ideas and reflecting on them to solve one's problems or improve upon existing solutions. This also involves casting one's mind forward i.e. anticipate an event or situation and also recalling and reconsidering things in the past. Honestly, can we say we have been engaged in any of these activities? Is it then surprising that we have become mere spectators in the scientific and technological advancements the world is experiencing in spite of the fact that we have universities of science and technology? Again, is it any wonder that we have come to rely on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (I.M.F) "experts" to come up with solutions to our problem in spite of the numerous economic dons in our institutions of higher learning?
Well, any right thinking person should be able to come up with solutions to his basic problems simply because most of these problems are man-made and what man has done, man can undo.
One of the causes that I have identified for our inability to think for ourselves is our laziness. Believe it or not, we are a bunch of mentally lazy people. Laziness as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is unwilling to work; doing little work or showing or causing a lack of energy or activity. Mentally, that is what we are: unwilling to think; doing little thinking or showing or causing a lack of mental energy or activity.
What then is the cause of this failure (or is it refusal) to think for ourselves? I am of the view that centuries of the Caucasians providing us with "superior" goods to satisfy our wants and needs is one factor. Having already been brainwashed into believing that Caucasian products are superior to ours, they by extension are mentally superior to us. We have therefore surrendered this job of thinking to them since we have somehow imbibed this notion that no matter how hard we try we can not match them so why not forget about it. After all, they would come with the "best" solutions.
However, the irony of this view is that when you ask the African if toe-to-toe the average Caucasian is wiser than he is the answer is an emphatic NO. You probe him further as to why then he is unable to do what the Caucasian is doing for him/herself i.e. the provision of his wants and needs, then comes the flimsiest of all excuses: we don't have the machines. Look, we better get certain facts straight! Machines are not manna that fall from heaven from which we have been excluded. People, people we claim to be equal to in the endowments of both body and mind, invented them. They did so by thinking, using the active intelligence of their minds. So we better put on our thinking caps and start doing likewise.
The formal educational system cannot escape blame either for our failure to exercise our mental faculties. This is so because the education being provided us does not allow students to come up with their own creative ideas. What rather happens is that students are made to absorb and reproduce (chew and pour) what they have been taught. The end result being that we have students graduating from our institutions of higher learning who can spew out everything in their fat textbooks but cannot come up with simple practical solutions to problems related to their field of study they are confronted with. What kinds of graduates are we producing? Probably Bob Marley was right when he said we were graduating thieves and murderers. After all, are they not the ones we entrust leadership positions with, and do they not end up licking our coffers dry or fomenting civil strife by refusing to leave office when their terms end?
Now more than ever is time to start some mental exercises for believe it or not we possess the mental capacity to do for ourselves what the Caucasians and the Mongoloids are doing for themselves. Only the person of absolute faithlessness in God can doubt this. For do the scriptures not say that God created all men equal? But just as God does not control a man's will power so does He not control what we use our brains for. All the time we spend on devising ways of bringing our fellows down could be channelled into how we can lift ourselves from this doldrums. In this regard, the ingenuity used in turning human meat into beef and mutton (if what they say about witches is true) could be used in coming up with practical scientific and technological innovations that would help improve our lives.
African, think for thyself or you remain a perpetual slave to the other races.
san-kofa
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