“Set Me Loose” – The Sorry State of Africa

Metaphorically speaking, when the colonial masters were leaving they were not worried as much because they knew they had done well transferring their way of life to the incoming African ruling class (symbolised by a tie). The African ruling class did not know that was simply a trap- indirectly a rope to hang themselves and their nations to a slow death. Even when we go back in time before this, history makes us know it was the past African elites’ uncontrolled taste for foreign goods that led to the decline of their own local production and slavery.

Today Africa keeps suffocating under high-interest debt which keeps piling up and clearly unsustainable but cannot wean itself off counterproductive colonial tethers. African countries though politically independent remain largely colonised by the Western system and culture. The educational system of the countries are westernised and ritualized, that is what encourages wastage of resources on degrees that end up as mere decorations for perceived respect for many instead of shaping it to meet the vital needs for economic growth. We need to be practical to make meaningful progress. It is not bad to copy some good practices from other cultures but it is bad when we refuse to think for ourselves. Africa has a rich culture with abundance of knowledge systems that remain valuable but ignored. Inferring from one, we can start putting our people first before materialism. This excessive culture of materialism which is short-sighted is what has led us into entering many lopsided agreements. Always falling short in prioritising our people’s welfare. Every nations greatest asset is its people. Let’s start seeing through our own lenses for once rather than others. We need a shift in mindset. One cannot be more western than the westerner. We now value ourselves by how westernised we are, confusing being westernised to being civilized.

Past prosperous African kingdoms depended on what they could produce locally. Today we produce nothing with all our education and largely depend on importing from other nations. Why won’t our countries wallow in economic hardships? Africa has been intentionally devalued to remain at the bottom through the neo-colonial structures it is operating in. It needs to get out of this design. They own the game and make the rules, we cannot play and win. We cannot keep on doing the same things we have been doing for decades after independence and expect change. This has only produced high rates of poverty, unemployment and external debt. African youth cannot find opportunities in their own countries and are constantly seeking greener pastures elsewhere. There’s nothing rosy ahead on this road we are on. This is only a system that benefits other nations and their neo-colonial agencies such as the sick political system we have. No wonder we keep ending up at the IMF which only makes us worst than before.

The way we even do our politics leaves much room for improvement. People only enter politics to enrich themselves. There is rampant corruption and gross impunity. What we are practicing is not a rule of the people but of the powerful, who only protect their political and personal interests instead of the electorates. They embrace Western standards for their political establishment when their nations are not on the same level and actually impoverished.

I believe we can be more innovative than blindly copying systems that are obviously not working for us. One can take what is good in another culture and leave the bad. Same applies with our own culture as well. We need to forge a new path as a people for collective prosperity starting with our educational system and counterproductive neo-colonial systems. Critical thinking with unity of purpose will easily offset this balance of domination sucking the life out of our continent.

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