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27.08.2015 Feature Article

The Lost Of African Values And Morals: Reason For Africa’s Underdevelopment - Part 2The Lost Of African Values And Morals: Reason For Africa’s Underdevelopment - Part 2

The Lost Of African Values And Morals: Reason For Africas Underdevelopment - Part 2The Lost Of African Values And Morals: Reason For Africas Underdevelopment - Part 2
27.08.2015 LISTEN

Abu Ibrahim Azebre

In the past, Africans live and enjoy luxurious land, full of every kind of natural resources requires of humankind for consumption, and use. Apparently, the supreme bliss on Africa became envious to external dwellers of the continent. Hence, the outsiders began to manipulate their way into the African continent through colonization and missionary works. The tricks adopted by the foreigners worked perfectly for them, as the comfortable African became gullible and naïve. This was the end for the comfort of the African man. Africans became Xenocentric and deculturation became prominent. This was where the real cultural degradation set in and the values of Africans started lagging behind gradually.

One of the most painful thing is that, our beautiful African lady was deceived in the mirror that her hair is short, her skin is dark, and the African butter is not good for the skin and it is these that make her unattractive unless she bleach her skin with the chemical pomade, and invent the whiteman’s hair to cover her head. It really hurts me when recounting how our African Queens and prides are being engulfed with the deceits of the whites. So the African woman has now taken a second image which is not fit her compare to her naturally gifted dark skin and short hair. Some are now suffering from various kinds of skin cancer, burns and other disturbing diseases caused by the chemical pomades and skin products.

The secondhand-clothering has made our beautiful and chaste African ladies dressless and prostitutes. Anytime our women wear such dresses, they look like vultures ready to devour rotten meat. They take the shape and appearance of the white woman making them fake and phony. Our women forget that if you take the appearance of someone else, you become like an imposter and if it were in the field of writing, I would say copyright, or in the field of law, impersonation and is totally against the natural law and ethics of human living. This has made African ladies harlots, and now lesbians. Our ladies appear like bats and butterflies when they wear certain dresses, appearing unattractive for marriage. The dressings of our men make them look horrible and appear like chimpanzees.

Our belief system was such that, we obey elders, obey our ancestral spirits, and worship the Almighty Supernatural Being called God. These foreigners succeeded in deceiving us to worship their god called Jesus. My problem is ‘was Jesus a whiteman?’ and who says God is a whiteman? Indeed, their intention was to make themselves superior over African by using a whiteman’s image to represent God. In fact, God is neither black nor white. No one on earth can claim to know the color of God. When even, God appeared to Moses in mount Sinah, He appeared in form of fire flame, but not human. So why should Africans now believe in God as a whiteman called Jesus? We know God to be an invisible Supreme Spirit and not a visible whiteman. I pray Africans would come back to their senses one day.

Another value which is fading out of Africa is Africa traditional medicine which played very vital role in the health and productivity of African populations. There was not a single disease or ailment in the continent that cannot be cured by traditional healers and medicine men. Medicines were not obtained from anything apart from natural plants and parts of animals. I remember growing up in my fatther’s village; emergencies like snake bites, dog bites, scorpion, broken/fractured bones, and cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) were just a minute cure for traditional healers and medicine practitioners. They were using natural substances such as tree leaves, seeds, tree back, roots, tree fluids, and stems for medicine. Animal parts such as droppings, bones, bone marrow, animal fat, urine, milk, and skin were used for curing all kinds of diseases.

Today, the African have been made to believe that, these things are not good, unhygienic, and unscientific. But, I do not know how scientific the chemical medicines we consume today are? The medicines today are chemical compounds which have negative consequences for the body. What we can get from this so-called scientific drugs are frequent heart attacks, cancers, stomach ulcers, and strange diseases which we cannot find cure, all due to the accumulation of chemical compounds in the body. This is nothing scientific than to consume organic medicines in their natural state.

Our extended family system has collapsed into nuclear family making things difficult for the orphan child and the aged. In fact, the extended family was s fantastic social welfare system which Africans were blessed with. Our orphans disable persons, widows and old-age peoples were adequately taken care of by the extended family system. But the tricky work of the whiteman spoil the soup for the less privilege in society. Today, the same hypocrites who champion the destruction of the welfare system are making noise about African governments to provide adequate welfare and security protection for the poor, needy, children and old-age persons.

In the next part of this article, I look at how colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism got our envied chieftaincy, kinship, leadership, including the lost of Africa traditional democracy, rule of law, and justice systems destroyed and how the foreigners manipulated the very enviable leaders to adopt their way of life. Unfortunately, the gullible leaders were deceived with toffee, mirror, secondhand-clothes, and sandals and in return, we were rubbed off our gold, diamond, timber, and many resources.

The Writer is a Community Development Professional (CDP) and specialises in issues that affects the development of local communities.

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