FlashBack (2007)
Of course, reading back, I wince my teeth at some of the little blunders I made, or over-generalizations, and doses of naiveté - that 2 years experience on the ground has made me aware of.
Still, despite the fact that back then I was barely 19 (with a less experienced view of life), the bottom line message here is that each one must do something for the development of our nation. We must transcend ourselves, and seek to serve and have an impact on our people's lives.
This letter was addressed to my counterparts/friends in the Diaspora, from middle-income/high-income backgrounds, calling them to action. Calling us all to use the blessings and opportunities bestowed upon us to help those less fortunate.
At the end of the note, I opened the table to discussions, and reminded everyone It'd be interesting to look back to it a couple of years later. Four years later, what are your thoughts?
Read on, and comment now...
I wrote this note 4 years ago, as a
sophomore at JHU...I mentioned it'd be interesting to look back to it a
couple of years later...
Of course, reading back, I wince my teeth at some of the little blunders I made, or over-generalizations, and doses of naiveté - that 2 years experience on the ground has made me aware of.
Still, despite the fact that back then I was barely 19 (with a less experienced view of life), the bottom line message here is that each one must do something for the development of our nation. We must transcend ourselves, and seek to serve and have an impact on our people's lives.
This letter was addressed to my counterparts/friends in the Diaspora, from middle-income/high-income backgrounds, calling them to action. Calling us all to use the blessings and opportunities bestowed upon us to help those less fortunate.
At the end of the note, I opened the table to discussions, and reminded everyone It'd be interesting to look back to it a couple of years later. Four years later, what are your thoughts?
Read on, and comment now...
_____________________________________
AFRICA MY AFRICA
Letter to the African Diaspora
There's a ubiquitous "Afro-pessimism" reigning amongst African communities around the world. Africans justify their pessimism by saying: “the government is corrupt”, “the system is rotten”, “we can’t change the way things are. It’s life, and life is not fair.” All these might be legitimate reasons, but to avert our eyes from the injustices our people are facing is to make us accomplices to the system.
We are the African Diaspora. We all come from somewhat modest families, we have been brought up by (a) loving parent(s), in warm homes with three meals a day (plus snacks in between meals!); we were given an excellent education and were ingrained a solid sense of morality. We have been given all these gifts and blessings for FREE, so how shall we utilize them today?
There are two options: the first is to use those gifts solely for our self-satisfaction i.e. live in an imaginary bubble, peaceful and pleasant lives, go shopping for Guccis and Praddas, try to impress our friends, live a life of inebriation and self-sufficiency. Or, the other option is to aim at helping people live at least half the way we did; not even, help them survive on the daily basis with basic needs such as water, food, good health and a home. And if we seriously cannot do that, we could just SPEAK about their sufferings to others, who might be able to help them.
So, which option will you choose? Option 1 or option 2? Well, you actually have another option: to live a pleasant life while at the same time using your talents to help others. With all the opportunities and talents we have, we have a duty to help out, in whatever way we can, the wretched and the oppressed.
It is usually said “A single death is a tragedy; a million death is a statistic”. Right now we feel sorry for the thousands of people dying everyday of AIDS, wars, malnutrition, starvation, cholera, etc., and although they are our people, they are not “one of us.” They are not a friend, a sister, a mother, a brother, a father, a cousin, or anyone we feel attached to. Because we feel detached to them, we rationalize their agony.
But this attitude of neglecting people’s misery and justifying it is dangerous… it’s the same attitude Europeans had towards slavery and the atrocities of colonialism, they rationalized it and averted their eyes from it, but then, like Aime Cesaire said, the boomerang effect came back to them in the form of Hitler and Mussolini.
So let me tell you a little bit about this great man called THOMAS SANKARA, the president of Burkina Faso from 1984 to 1987 (when he was assassinated by his friend Blaise Compaore, during a coup). If you don’t know him you should google his name and learn about him. He is one of the Fathers of Africa and should be a role model to us all. Sankara was a young man of integrity who unselfishly devoted himself to his people and his nation.
He increased the level of literacy in his country; planted trees to decrease deforestation in the Sahel region; advocated the nonproliferation of arms although he was a soldier; refused to pay his country’s debt to the West because, as he explained, it’s the colonialists who indebted them in the first place. He advocated African Pride, African Authenticity; denounced the preceding government’s corruption with his famous phrase “Malheurs a ceux qui baillonent leurs peuples”/ “Cursed be those who oppress the people.” He used simple and concrete methods to eradicate misery in his country and brought a moral dimension to the corrupted African politics. He ruled Burkina Faso for only four years, but his legacy is still present and celebrated today. His integrity, hard work and devotion to Africa should be an example for us to follow.
You would say, “I am a college student, I can’t really do anything for Africa right now, but I’m planning to go back and help after I graduate and get some money.” Sure, we might not be able to remove the corrupt governments from our bedroom desks or feed the poor from our mini-kitchens; but look around you, this is the U.S.A, the country of opportunities; opportunities increased tenfold on college campuses. Look around you… there are international organizations seeking for projects to conduct in Africa, seeking for a cause to advocate: Amnesty International, Engineers Without Borders, Doctors without Borders, African Student Associations, School Sponsored Researches, Book drives...
I’m sure you have been active in at least one of these organizations, and that’s great because we need to plead the cause of Africa. Let the world know about the atrocities happening out there, bring light to the obscure crimes happening in the continent, educate people, denounce corruption, child soldiers, blood diamonds. The assailants can no longer have impunity for all the harms they are causing; we got to Spread the Word.
I’m urging you to read about our great leaders, most of whom were always portrayed by the West to be rebels or even terrorists, to name a few: Thomas Sankara, Nkwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Cheikh Anta Diop, Julius Nyere, Francis Lumumba, Ruben Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Leopold Senghor. All these names you know, yet know nothing about. Find some time and research on them: Read their biographies, listen to their speeches, because, trust me, the more we learn about our great leaders the more hope we have for our continent.
We need to feed ourselves with HOPE for Africa. Twenty years ago Sankara said “oser inventer l’avenir”/ “dare to invent the future”; today Obama is urging us to have “the audacity of hope”. All these messages of Hope are what will keep us moving forward.
Africa today is filled with debauched and mendacious leaders, but that’s not the fate of our continent. We are not cursed, and misery is not an intrinsic value we possess. We, the younger generation must start, if we haven’t yet, envisioning Africa’s future, building Africa in our minds. Building the orphanages, hospitals, healthcare and houses, roads, stadiums, hotels, ... Just start imagining it! How you are going to use your business skills or engineering techniques; how you will find the cure of AIDS or malaria; help improve technology and establish fast speed internet; how you will build the infrastructure, educate the population, and use whatever skills you have to build a stable and peaceful Africa.
We are usually filled with a revolutionary boost after watching a dramatic movie, or a vivid documentary, or a great presentation about Africa. Yet, the boost is so ephemeral, a couple of days later, we are back to our normal lives, like nothing happened. This has happened to me so many times, and so today I decided to put it into words: my thoughts, my despair and my hope for Africa.
I’m sharing it with you because I know we all care about our motherland; we sincerely want things to change, we can’t stand seeing people killing each other, and forlorn children dying of hunger, anymore; we can’t tolerate the mismanagement of our resources or witness the avaricious minority squander money while the rest of the population is drained in poverty… We are truly fed up!
So what should we do now? First: We must learn more about our continent, its history, its culture, its leaders and its socio-economic crisis; then we must use our talents and raise awareness in our various communities, because people need to be told what's happening back there, and that we desperately need help. Finally: we must get rid of the "Afro-pessimism" we have towards the future of Africa, and have the audacity to HOPE... for a better future.
Thank you for your time,
Sincerely,
Olivia Mukam
*Please leave a comment and share your thoughts on what you hope for Africa and what you envision to do for Africa.
This will be a great forum to look back to a couple years from now.
* Link to Sankara’s speech at the AU summit in 1987. He was so ambitious, eloquent and candid:
There's a ubiquitous "Afro-pessimism" reigning amongst African communities around the world. Africans justify their pessimism by saying: “the government is corrupt”, “the system is rotten”, “we can’t change the way things are. It’s life, and life is not fair.” All these might be legitimate reasons, but to avert our eyes from the injustices our people are facing is to make us accomplices to the system.
We are the African Diaspora. We all come from somewhat modest families, we have been brought up by (a) loving parent(s), in warm homes with three meals a day (plus snacks in between meals!); we were given an excellent education and were ingrained a solid sense of morality. We have been given all these gifts and blessings for FREE, so how shall we utilize them today?
There are two options: the first is to use those gifts solely for our self-satisfaction i.e. live in an imaginary bubble, peaceful and pleasant lives, go shopping for Guccis and Praddas, try to impress our friends, live a life of inebriation and self-sufficiency. Or, the other option is to aim at helping people live at least half the way we did; not even, help them survive on the daily basis with basic needs such as water, food, good health and a home. And if we seriously cannot do that, we could just SPEAK about their sufferings to others, who might be able to help them.
So, which option will you choose? Option 1 or option 2? Well, you actually have another option: to live a pleasant life while at the same time using your talents to help others. With all the opportunities and talents we have, we have a duty to help out, in whatever way we can, the wretched and the oppressed.
It is usually said “A single death is a tragedy; a million death is a statistic”. Right now we feel sorry for the thousands of people dying everyday of AIDS, wars, malnutrition, starvation, cholera, etc., and although they are our people, they are not “one of us.” They are not a friend, a sister, a mother, a brother, a father, a cousin, or anyone we feel attached to. Because we feel detached to them, we rationalize their agony.
But this attitude of neglecting people’s misery and justifying it is dangerous… it’s the same attitude Europeans had towards slavery and the atrocities of colonialism, they rationalized it and averted their eyes from it, but then, like Aime Cesaire said, the boomerang effect came back to them in the form of Hitler and Mussolini.
So let me tell you a little bit about this great man called THOMAS SANKARA, the president of Burkina Faso from 1984 to 1987 (when he was assassinated by his friend Blaise Compaore, during a coup). If you don’t know him you should google his name and learn about him. He is one of the Fathers of Africa and should be a role model to us all. Sankara was a young man of integrity who unselfishly devoted himself to his people and his nation.
He increased the level of literacy in his country; planted trees to decrease deforestation in the Sahel region; advocated the nonproliferation of arms although he was a soldier; refused to pay his country’s debt to the West because, as he explained, it’s the colonialists who indebted them in the first place. He advocated African Pride, African Authenticity; denounced the preceding government’s corruption with his famous phrase “Malheurs a ceux qui baillonent leurs peuples”/ “Cursed be those who oppress the people.” He used simple and concrete methods to eradicate misery in his country and brought a moral dimension to the corrupted African politics. He ruled Burkina Faso for only four years, but his legacy is still present and celebrated today. His integrity, hard work and devotion to Africa should be an example for us to follow.
You would say, “I am a college student, I can’t really do anything for Africa right now, but I’m planning to go back and help after I graduate and get some money.” Sure, we might not be able to remove the corrupt governments from our bedroom desks or feed the poor from our mini-kitchens; but look around you, this is the U.S.A, the country of opportunities; opportunities increased tenfold on college campuses. Look around you… there are international organizations seeking for projects to conduct in Africa, seeking for a cause to advocate: Amnesty International, Engineers Without Borders, Doctors without Borders, African Student Associations, School Sponsored Researches, Book drives...
I’m sure you have been active in at least one of these organizations, and that’s great because we need to plead the cause of Africa. Let the world know about the atrocities happening out there, bring light to the obscure crimes happening in the continent, educate people, denounce corruption, child soldiers, blood diamonds. The assailants can no longer have impunity for all the harms they are causing; we got to Spread the Word.
I’m urging you to read about our great leaders, most of whom were always portrayed by the West to be rebels or even terrorists, to name a few: Thomas Sankara, Nkwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Cheikh Anta Diop, Julius Nyere, Francis Lumumba, Ruben Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, Leopold Senghor. All these names you know, yet know nothing about. Find some time and research on them: Read their biographies, listen to their speeches, because, trust me, the more we learn about our great leaders the more hope we have for our continent.
We need to feed ourselves with HOPE for Africa. Twenty years ago Sankara said “oser inventer l’avenir”/ “dare to invent the future”; today Obama is urging us to have “the audacity of hope”. All these messages of Hope are what will keep us moving forward.
Africa today is filled with debauched and mendacious leaders, but that’s not the fate of our continent. We are not cursed, and misery is not an intrinsic value we possess. We, the younger generation must start, if we haven’t yet, envisioning Africa’s future, building Africa in our minds. Building the orphanages, hospitals, healthcare and houses, roads, stadiums, hotels, ... Just start imagining it! How you are going to use your business skills or engineering techniques; how you will find the cure of AIDS or malaria; help improve technology and establish fast speed internet; how you will build the infrastructure, educate the population, and use whatever skills you have to build a stable and peaceful Africa.
We are usually filled with a revolutionary boost after watching a dramatic movie, or a vivid documentary, or a great presentation about Africa. Yet, the boost is so ephemeral, a couple of days later, we are back to our normal lives, like nothing happened. This has happened to me so many times, and so today I decided to put it into words: my thoughts, my despair and my hope for Africa.
I’m sharing it with you because I know we all care about our motherland; we sincerely want things to change, we can’t stand seeing people killing each other, and forlorn children dying of hunger, anymore; we can’t tolerate the mismanagement of our resources or witness the avaricious minority squander money while the rest of the population is drained in poverty… We are truly fed up!
So what should we do now? First: We must learn more about our continent, its history, its culture, its leaders and its socio-economic crisis; then we must use our talents and raise awareness in our various communities, because people need to be told what's happening back there, and that we desperately need help. Finally: we must get rid of the "Afro-pessimism" we have towards the future of Africa, and have the audacity to HOPE... for a better future.
Thank you for your time,
Sincerely,
Olivia Mukam
*Please leave a comment and share your thoughts on what you hope for Africa and what you envision to do for Africa.
This will be a great forum to look back to a couple years from now.
* Link to Sankara’s speech at the AU summit in 1987. He was so ambitious, eloquent and candid:
WOW this is really great. Although I can gladly say I have eventually found my way back to my senses, my 19 yrs old college self was definitely not reflecting in this light. What more could anyone possibly have to add? You've covered it all. Everyday, here in the U.S I come across gifted, interlligent young africans. THe challenge is inspiring them to invest back into the continent. To add to what you said, Chinua Achebe is comming out with his auto biography. I'm really looking forward to it.
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