“Because The Lord Heard I Am Not Loved”: Leah, Africa And COVID-19

The world is in real trouble. The world is witnessing an unprecedented challenge that technology almost appears useless. The invisibility and “invincibility” of the COVID-19 have frustrated many nations of the world. We are fighting an invisible enemy that equally appears invincible. In response, all nations of the world are involved in the crusade against the invisible and nearly invincible virus.

The virus has thrown dissipated the unabashed hope we had in technology. We are spiralling around a virus that transcends above all boundaries – religious, economic, social, and political. Nations are distressed. Every nation is minding their own business. Countries in the Western world are minding their own business. Countries in the East are minding their own business. Countries in Africa, where I come from, are also minding their own business. In sum, the nations of the world are reinventing Darwin’s theory about the survival of the fittest.

As nations of the world are minding their own business, it is almost as if we are speaking the self-centered and egoistic language of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” But in the whirlwind of all this, nations of the world are compelled to manufacture and invent their own solutions. For once, many countries that the imperialist West had labelled as the Third World are taking matters into their own hands and broadening the frontiers of inventions. Many years ago, when I was a student of Gaddafi's Third Universal Theory, one of the things we learned from Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi was that, “necessity legalises whatever is prohibited.”

For many years, it was forbidden to even say Africans have invented something. This was to the extent that the imperialist west developed all forms of theories to rubbish anything of worth coming from Africa. One of such theories was the Hamitic Hypothesis: which argues that anything of worth in Africa originated from outside the continent. With this theory, the great Egyptian and Nubian civilisations were accredited to non-Africans. This explained why Cheikh Anta Diop, Molefi Kete Asante, and Martin Bernal (to mention just a few) took the centre stage to challenge Eurocentrism.

Centuries of slavery and colonisation contributed to the making of Africans and the colonised people to think of themselves as “good for nothing people!” We have been programmed through our education to look to the West for our salvation. We are told through the histories we read that our redemption from the problems the West plunged us in is in the hands of the West. The histories we read in our schools focused so much on the intrusion of the Europeans in Africa.

This is to the extent that most Africans can hardly go around our histories or even go behind them to uncover what our great ancestors did. In many cases, we are so trapped in the web of Eurocentric episteme that we are compelled to always make recourse to western narratives about us. It was this frustration that led Valentine Mudimbe in his book, The Invention of Africa, to refer to the predicament of the African scholar as the “colonial library”. The colonial library is so superimposing that most of us students of Africa cannot even write a sentence about ourselves without making recourse to western Eurocentric writers.

The West did enormous harm to Africa. They visited epistemic, linguistic, and religious violence on Africa. When they were in Africa, they reinvented the logic of colonisation – the changing of the language of the colonised people. Indeed, the Greeks began with the Hellenization – which enforced the compulsory use of the Greek language in the colonies of the Greeks.

Through this method, all Africans were compelled to speak colonial languages. The result of that is that we are demarcated and balkanised on linguistic bases and grids: Anglophone Africa, Lusophone Africa, and Francophone Africa! The harm is that since language is the vehicle and storehouse for the transmission and storage of culture, as we Africans depend on colonised languages, we give patency to the Western world to reinvent and reincarnate their cultural dominance on us. We have lost track and touch with our roots as Africans. As I think, reflect and act in foreign languages, we tend to behave and live under the shadow of Europeans.

After years of speaking western languages, we are still considered not to have any proficiency in their languages. Consequently, when African students are to study in any of these imperialist countries, we are compelled to prove our proficiency in their languages, by writing language exams! It is also sad that after centuries of speaking European languages, we are still unable to develop our own versions of the imperialist languages or even discard them. The major challenge is that when an African speaks the imperialist language in ways that contradict the perceived standard of speaking that language, he or she is ridiculed. But let the same African make a mistake in speaking his or her language, she is applauded; no eyebrows are raised. This is what the years of colonisation have done to us. When I first visited England, an African friend thought he was doing me any good, by telling me to take a course in the accent of the English. I felt insulted and almost exorcised him of Eurocentric demons! Certainly, most Africans have become shamelessly in seeking to speak with a European accent. This is shameful and insult to God, the creator (Acts 17:26).

In the face of COVID-19, nations of the world are locked in a battle that is forcing nations to reinforce their respective independence. Americans are reinventing their independence, by seeking to resuscitate their industries which they outsourced to Asia. The British and the French are doing the same. For we Africans, we are beginning to understand the logic that we need to prove to ourselves – not to the imperialist west, that we are capable of managing our own destiny. Different countries in Africa have reinvented their age-long creativity in inventing test kits and ventilators to fight the battle against the COVID-19. We are challenging ourselves and straining our cerebral abilities to survive in a world that has been pushed to the false precipice of collapse.

Even as we battle our way out, the Eurocentric minded persons still have the temerity to think we are not up to the task. They think our inventions are nothing short of mimicking and aping. They think our inventions will amount to nothing! But the Lord is speaking for Africa and the so-named Third World countries. I have been watching BBC news since I moved to England. The news you hear about Africa on the mainstream BBC channel is when there are violence and deaths on the continent. No Western media is reporting the breakthroughs Africans have made in fighting the virus. Of course, we are not interested in whether they report our achievements or not. What we are interested in is that we are making inroads in the fight against the virus. Their demons predicted that we Africans are going to die like helpless ants. But good enough, our scientists and religious experts have bridged gaps in incorporating the mundane and the esoteric in the fight against the virus. The Lord will speak for Africa! Saleh!

Many years ago, the imperialist world devised all forms of demonic tricks to derail and imperil the rise of Africa. It is either they discredited the revolutionary works of Africans, like Cheikh Anta Diop or they killed scholars like Walter Rodney. But the Lord will speak for Africa. Amid the COVID-19, we are beginning to see the evolution of a world that must change. We are beginning to see a world where the myth about the invincibility of the West is being deconstructed. We are beginning to see a world where internationalism and the rules of geopolitical relations must change. We are beginning to see a world where many will ask the question, "Can anything good come from Africa?" "Can the subaltern speak?"

As I ponder over what is happening, I am reminded of the story of Leah, recorded in the book of Genesis. Based on the cultural hubris of the ancient Israelites, Laban gave her first daughter, Leah to Jacob. This was against the fact that Jacob loved Rachel, Leah’s younger sister. Jacob did not mind working for fourteen years to get Rachel. But even when they were married and Leah had more children, while Rachel remained childless, Jacob still did not love Leah. Some of the names of Leah’s children are so sad and emotionally wrenching that they resonate with Africa. She named her first son Reuben with the consolation that, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.” But that did not happen. Jacob still did not love her. She had her second son and named him Simeon because she said, "The LORD heard that I am not loved." Still, she was not loved. She had her third son and named him Levi because she said, "Now, at last, my husband will become attached to me." Still, Jacob did not love her.

In all of this, Rachel remained congenially barren, according to divine fiat. And yet, Jacob still did not love Leah. If you have an experience of a gentleman or a lady trashing your love for him or her, you will understand the plight of Leah. But Leah’s plight is the locus classica of Africa. Our labour (through centuries of enslavement) built the western world, and yet we are not loved. Our fertile lands, supply them with food and yet we are not loved. Most of our top scientists contribute to their inventions, and yet we are not loved. Our resources are continually pillaged to support their economy and yet we are not loved.

We contribute to spreading their so-called civilisation as we continue to speak their language, and yet we are not loved. When we write, we use their theories for us to be accepted, and yet we are not loved. When we are to get citizenship in their countries, we are to show (through writing exams in some cases) that we have internalised their culture and fit for their environment, and yet we are not loved. We are inventing our own ventilators and test kits against COVID-19 and yet we are not loved. Our children born in their world to support their ageing population are not even loved!

But Leah did something that Africa must do now. When she had her fourth son, she named him Judah, because she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” She refocused her attention from anthropocentrism to theo-centrism. Africa, we have tried to do everything possible to please the west. We feed them with our best brains. We feed them with our resources. We feed them by buying their weapons to kill ourselves (under their instigation). We conduce to the way they corrupt us. And yet, like Leah, we are not loved. This is the time for us to praise the LORD, for our redemption is in sight. Leah stopped seeking to receive the attention of her estranged, egoistic and thoughtless husband. Instead, she decided to turn her attention to God. Africa, this is the time for us to praise the LORD and also know that our scientists, technologists, philosophers, artists, musicians, and princes shall come out of the continent and we shall soon stretch out our hands to the Triune God (Psalm 68:31).

This is the time for Africa to break free from all forms of bondage – epistemic and praxes. This is the time! The Lord is speaking and He will not be quiet. The Lord is redeeming Africa. I can see Africa breaking free from all Eurocentric enslavement. We were physically enslaved which cascaded into mental enslavement. But the Lord is speaking for Africa. I spent much of last night at about 12 midnight to 3 AM praying for Africa. The Lord will not keep quiet. This is because His compassion is always directed towards the oppressed and those men have reduced to the status as the scum of the earth. At this point, I want to encourage the bridging of the gaps to strengthen our spiritual and physical fortress against any neo-colonisation.

The Lord has spoken, Africa is free. Jesus Christ is our redeemer. Amen.

Satyagraha

Charles Prempeh ([email protected]), African University College of Communications, Accra