Africa: families by force not by love

The fourth Commandment of the Bible demands from us that we should honour our parents, to love them is not mentioned. Jesus Christ himself stated that his family is not the one born into but the one born for. At the cross, he saw his mother Maria as the God-sent servant to have delivered him.

The life of Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures clearly show us what family is to each and everyone of us, a place of choice. We are born by parents, not of our choice and will, at a place, in time and circumstances beyond our control. We are raised by our parents and influenced by the way they educate us. Reflections on our circumstances, people we meet on the way, opportunities seen in others that have gone before us help us to find ourselves and the reason we were born for. It is in our hands finally whether or not we follow the instructions of others to continue the norms set by them or created by us.

To be free in the spirit and body a certain level of inner individual freedom must exist with a sound understanding of the implications free minds have and come with, most often standing alone among other people once loved ones or family-related ones. A higher level of life and understanding of it only can be achieved by letting people, feelings and thoughts once essential to our progress pass seen so clearly in Abraham asked to let his cousin, Lot go to establish his future away from him. Not having done it would have meant never have known Abraham, the father of many nations.

As we can never be more than him or even stand beside Jesus Christ, only to be his followers, we humans as we are to grow into our destiny set right before us we must wise up to choose from people around us that we want to be associated with from level to level. When we see our blood family fit for purpose to move alongside us into our set future so be it. When the family is our starting point in life but eventually pulling us down away from our destiny of greatness we must cut the ties that restrict our movements. Not by hate for the past and their ideas for us rather by the love we feel in us for ourselves and the understanding of the way we have to go and the conviction new helpers are needed to move forward.

On this vital path which helps any society to boost its development and outcome on all its levels rules and regulations are needed to form a lively framework in which free minds can grow from strength to strength. One of these conditions is economic freedom and progress.

Africans do not only have many children as it is tradition making them feel comfortable and the only functioning social system but the spirit behind forms large families and reliance upon members of the same bloodline. In poor societies, large families are the core of certainty and assistance while at the same time the core of personal disaster and restricted individual progress, the blueprint for a vicious circle of mental limitations and slavery, the "pulling down" effects.

A vicious circle can only be broken down by people separating themselves from the oppression inflicted on their destiny and/or by outsiders not being touched by the past of a nation once seen so impressively by Alexander the Great when he cut the knot of Gideon.