FEATURE ARTICLE
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FEATURE ARTICLE |
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Oliver Mbamara, Esq.,
Oliver@Expressionsofsoul.com
New York, USA
The Second Coming: An African explanation
n the face of today's global economy and socio-political structure, African countries are expected to catch up with the trend of things in the western world. However, many African nations are still struggling to know themselves many years after independence. Many have tried several styles of western politics from Parliamentarian to Presidential, and even from military to democratic, yet they are still to determine what system is actually good for them.
It is easy to criticize these African nations and some other third world countries that seem to be lagging behind in setting up an acceptable democratic rule, or maintaining a political system devoid of sit-tight leaders and dictatorial tendencies. However, an awareness and consideration of the political and cultural background of the early African political societies and the influence of such structures and governance on today's Africa might help us understand why it has not been easy for these African States to fully inculcate modern day western trends of politics, economy, and society. This is not an excuse but an explanation.
In a subsequent piece I will discuss a few details of some early African socio-political structures. Meanwhile, as a prelude, let us reflect on how the conflicts of culture and collision of concepts all began, and why today African states find themselves struggling to install and practice the tenets of democracy in their society with all the contradictions in it portends.
We lived like a people, different but well,
Until they came from across the seas
With guns and rums, they bought their way.
We give them lands to discharge their cargoes,
It was a mile but they took some more.
We let them in to trade with us,
But they took the market and fixed the prices,
And then they lured us with religious tenets.
It was only a while and they became our masters,
Conquering our people, our land and culture.
And those of us that dared resist their incursion
Met their end or suffered as indigenous scapegoats.
And then they came with doctrines to share our land
"Spheres of influence" and "effective occupation,"
Of conquered lands and controlled hunter lands.
And then they drew a map of the African continent,
Merging arbitrary boundaries and diverse cultures.
And when they came back from the Berlin Conference
The balkanization of Africa had taken place
And Africa was never to be it self again ever after
THE FIRST COLONIZATION
But that was just the first colonization.
And when we have learned their ways of life,
We begged them to let us be our own masters.
Though unhappy they gave in to our 'independence,'
But not before we became a confused continent.
They have taught us concepts of indirect rule,
They have shown us how to dived and rule,
And they have assimilated a good crop of us,
To become tools and stooges of imperialism.
So when they let us rule we fought ourselves,
For half in us have been sown western tenets,
Christianity and Islam have come to stay.
And to the background we have thrown our culture
Thinking our forefathers were barbaric idolaters.
So with no written history we lost our roots,
And rather fought ourselves and killed our kind.
So when our leaders tasted power they refused to go,
Believing leadership to be an insurance of security,
For the leader, his people, tribe, culture, or religion.
And the led continues to struggle against such reign.
THE SECOND COMING
And little wonder then that the west came again,
UNO, NATO, Commonwealth, and the European Union.
We only worry when they choose terrains that benefit them,
And forget to acknowledge that we make efforts to adapt,
But rather sing their slogan - Democracy for all Africans,
When indeed it is just their second coming.
Oliver Mbamara, Esq., is an Administrative Law Judge with the State of New York.