African woman can save continent

A debate on the difference between an animal and a human being caught my attention recently.

One argued: “Animals don't think.” “But how can we be sure they do not think?” asked another.

The compromise outline on the difference between animals and human beings was stated thus: “Animals respond instinctively; they do not suspend their drives for another day. Human beings on the other hand rationally suspend their needs and desires with an objective of gratifying them at an appropriate time.”

Human beings exploit the fact of nature that animals act instinctively to gratify their immediate desires to tame them for economic gain.

It is a disaster that Africans should allow themselves to play “animal” in the global economic set up.

We must draw lessons from past experience in powering cotton plantations so as not to allow technology to enslave us once more.

When the Western economies relied on sugarcane and cotton to drive their economic might, the African person found himself a beast of burden.

Africans were shipped in their millions to power plantation economies in South and North America while Europe reaped the benefits of finished products.

The negative effects of this trade four centuries ago between four continents on people of African descent are yet to comprehensively get analysed and documented.

The news about the yet to be officially released United Nations report on how technology is fuelling wars in the Congo and other central Africans states is unnerving.

The story of slave trade implicates African elites of the day, who were hell bent on making short term gains by assisting foreigners to plunder the continent.

The tragedy is that once the traders were done with capturing slaves they would in turn enslave the sons, and daughters of the kings.

Over 20 countries (among them East African states) have been mentioned in the plunder of the Congo.

African elites are at it again; assisting outsiders to plunder what is valuable to Africans for short term gain.

Elites of any society are not necessarily politicians.

Our elites are at best “bewitched!”
The spell cast on us over four centuries ago is still blinding us.

The first strategy ought to be to analyse the “spell,” identify its soft spots; and unleash African “sankomas” on it.

The second strategy is to figure out a way to reach out to African elites and wake them up before the second wave of slavery annihilates the continent.

If we do not act in good time, the talk of African unity, East African Community and regionalism will amount to nothing but opening borders for legalised regional plunder.

If we opt to “think” and suspend our instinctive drive to unfettered wealth accumulation; we can transform our quest for regionalism to check the plunder of African resources.

Congo, Southern Sudan, Ethiopia and possibly Somalia should join the East African Community not to simply ship plundered resources overseas, but to exploit them for the benefit of Africans.

Unity in this sense should be utilised to gain strength and ward-off the “spell” cast on African people.

The best bet to save Africa is the African woman (not the “bling bling” city type).

Special focus ought to be put on the African woman's role to inspire her children to better manage resources and think long term.

Over four centuries of brutality, mis-education and mischaracterisation of the African woman has led to purposeless offspring ready to sell their birthright.

The pride of the African woman to be African and to protect that which is African must urgently be resuscitated.

Shikwati is the director Inter Region Economic Network [email protected].

The 7th Africa Resource Bank 2009 Resolutions on Governance and Prosperity in Africa http://www.irenkenya.com/downloads/events/ARB%202009%20Report.pdf

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