THE DISRESPECT FOR AFRICANS IS THEIR POVERTY

If you are a christian and you have your Bible with you, you can open with me to the book of Proverbs 10:15 and it says " The rich man's wealth is his strong city, the destruction of the poor is his poverty".This above biblical quotation undoubtedly resonates profoundly as to why an African and for that matter the African continent is viewed ignorminiously by the other so called wealthy nations. If you are poor and you cant sustain and maintain the little you have and therefore you are impelled to sullenly go to the doors of other countries and international financial institutions with your plate and cup in your hand begging for food and money, then who accords you even the slightest respect?

You listen to or read from the international media like BBC, CNN and their various websites, and there is no African country they mention in their news without a slap on that country's face as one of the poorest in the world, even when such remark is needless, pointless and unwarranted. I remeber few months ago I was reading from the BBC website and the writer obviously being a british was commenting on the fact that since the world cup fiesta was introduced about eight decades ago, now that its going to be staged in africa, the most poorest and diseased plagued continent. Obviously that was a needless comment, but the question is who respect you if you have the pleasure and the glee in begging? Its incomprehensible as well as reprehensible that a continent that has been abundantly and copiously blessed by God to be a blessing to her children and others is woefully and tragically wallowing in stinking poverty and excruciatingly being a laughng stock to the world. Most African countries including natural resources-soaked country like Ghana, Nigereia and the rest are described as heavily relying on the foreign aid for the sustainance of their economy. And this, to a large extent is due to the selfish, greedy and self-aggrandizement of the leaders, the whole continent has been reduced to squalors, squatters and paupers.

Worststill, reading from the book of Proverbs 22:7 The bible says " The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender".This scripture abundantly paint a picture that when African leaders are proudly going for their borrowing spree and swimming in their proclivity and propensity for loans, they are as a matter of fact doing nothing than subjecting and subjugating and portraying the continent as nothing less than spineless and pathetic beggers. You may not be a bible believer or abreast with elementary theology to come into terms with this stark assertion, but in every environment that we find ourselves it cannot be disputed or gainsaid that the giver is always confident and assertive than the poor. In the house or the area you live you see how the rich is perceived even if he has money but a dunderhead. Look at how your relatives who are rich are respected, worshipped and adulated. What about the poor counterparts who are always the receivers and always asking for tips; these ones invariably are the hewers of wood and the drawers of water in the family. And to all intents and purposes, what we see and experience internally or microcosmly has the same adverse and humiliating effects internationally or macrocosmly on the Africans who situation has forced them to find greener pastures else where due to the greedy, mismanagement and buccaneering exploits of the leaders.

Therefore, sincerely speaking, Africans are scattered conveniently or inconveniently every part of the world due to nothing but poverty that has bedeviled, ravaged and strangulated the continent and for that matter they have been compelled and impelled to travel to seek greener pastures abroad, be it schooling, working or otherwise. Though very industrious and vibrant in every avenue of pursuance, however, critically studying them one missing ingredient that is conspicously seen and crystally clear on their faces is self-confidence on the foreign land. Why? because consciously or unconscuosly you are a begging parasite on someone's land. Its an indisputable and ncontrovertible fact, the reckless and kleptocratic african leadership style has forced them to be beggers on someone's land whether sitting in the classroom or working.The most dilibitating ang excruciating of all is when after some of our these brother and sisters have completed their highest academic dreams and she or he is not willing to go back home due to the economic, religious, or politically precarious situation, he or she may be forced to lay hands on any work to survive. And psychological trauma and disturbing scenario is you witness an African with higher academic attainment doing a menial job and being supervised by unschooled white. You see, the reason is a begger and a receiver has no alterntive, neither has he any choice. A begger has no confidence and self-esteem and that is what africans exactly lack abroad. You may deny it but that is ostrich mentality.

Listen to me, are you the one who has the penchant and proclivity to collect and receive from people like the African leaders? Kill that parasitic intrinsic and innate habit of recieving from people just because they are willing to give to you. Have you come across this common biblical word that its more blessed to give than to receive? I always tell my friends that my greatest fear is to be in a situation that I have to ask for help from peolpe. Because Iam not prepare to be anyone's servant, or to be at the mercy of anyone. Receiving should never be your joy because it maks you a slave to the giver. Why is it that african continent, in spite of all the whopping natural resouces envelope around us yet we are not blessed. Because we are more interested in begging for our sustainance than harnessing the God-given natural resouces to be a blessing to ourselves and also be givers to other nation. Proverbs 11:24 says" there is someone who gives all the time and he becomes richer, and there is another person who never gives but receives and becomes very poor. This aforementioned bible quotation perfectly demonstrate the begging nightmarish experience of Africans and even individuals who have graduated in always receiving.. We wrongly think that when old computers are coming from America, and money is coming from Germany, and rice is coming from China, and old bicycles are coming from Japan etc it means we are blessed. Never, we are perpetually doomed and stamped in clutches of poverty, because that is a spiritual principles that is unconciously blessing nations and individuals who practise it. No wonder it is said the rich shall become more richer and the poor more poorer. Its amazing and mind-boggling how some nations like scandinavian countries and other Asian countries like Malayshia, koreans, singapore etc that have nothing nowhere near the natural- resources-soaked African nations, but have dynamically and profoundly revamped their ceonomy to the joy, pride, confidence and stability of their citizenry. But African leaders are still busy with their double-standard and mudslinging, backward-politics, and other truculent habits that have made the continent nothing than self-defeatist and self-indicted beggers.

Recently, I was reading about the scandinavian countries about their economic standing vis-avis other countries, and I realised to my utter bewilderment that all the four scandinavian countries are within the 15 richest countries in the world, with Norway the second richest after Switzerland. But of all the four scandinavian, apart from Norway that has oil, the rest have not much resources anywhere near the less resource Afrcan country, so one vehemently wonders why africa is struggling. As a matter of fact, there is no reason that an African has to travel for greener pasture, all things being equal. But the Book of Ecclesiastes 10:16 gives us the explanation that woe to the land whose leaders behave like children. If your leaders are fighting one another like day-care children how do you develope.? Whilst other leaders of the world are burning the mdnight oil and seeking to turn their economies around, Africa leader like the overthrown Mamod Tandja of Niger was majoring in ursurping the democratic principles that every country is enviably trying to uphold. Not forgetting other African leaders who are planning frantically and sophomorically to turn their thrones into monarchs like what Omar Bongo of Gabon has done, and that of Eyedema of Togo did and Yoweri Moseveni of Uganda is also planning to give the throne to his son as well as the killings and senseless imprisonment to entrench themselves like what Yahaya Jemmeh of Gambia and Omar Arbashir of sudan and other looters have flagrantly and frivolously use of power that have reduced, battered and shattered the african continent into beggers and medicants.

Generally speaking, there is no pride, joy and above all respect in becoming a receiver all the time, and therefore african leaders have to rise up and use our abundant resource judiciuosly to make africa a viable place for her children who have some confidence and respect in the face of the rest of the world. Why is the continent disparagingly and debasingly called third world? Did God create first, second and third world?. Not at all. It was given by the superiority complex shenanigans who after centuries of looting, milking, syphoning, scrambling for and above all sucking the continent of africa dry, now have the impudence, effrontry and timerity to humiliatingly label the continent as third world. It is not their fault but myopic and detracting african leaders. But dont forget this, that he who gives to you is your master or Lord and he can label you with any name.

God Bless Africa

EKOW WILSON-BAIDOO
( crusader without violence)