Reflections of an Afrikan
One of the most beautiful and hilarious movies I have ever watched, is the movie called “The gods must be crazy”. I watched that movie a long time ago and the lessons from it never left me. I particularly love the simplicity, innocence and the realness of man in unity with nature. See a short summary below:
“The Gods Must Be Crazy” is a 1980 South African comedy film written and directed by Jamie Uys.
Financed only from local sources, it is the most commercially successful release in the history of South Africa’s film industry. Set in Botswana, it follows the story of Xi, a San of the Kalahari Desert (played by Namibian San farmer N!xau ?Toma) whose tribe has no knowledge of the world beyond, Andrew Steyn (Marius Weyers), a biologist who analyzes manure samples for his PhD dissertation, and Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo), a newly hired village school teacher.
Plot
Xi and his San tribe of Ju’/Hoansi bushmen are living happily in the Kalahari Desert. One day, a glass Coca-Cola bottle is carelessly thrown out of an airplane and falls to Earth unbroken. Initially, Xi’s people assume this strange artifact is a “present” from the gods just as they believe plants and animals are and find many uses for it. Unlike other bounties, however, there is only one glass bottle , which causes conflict within the tribe. Consequently, Xi confers with elders and agrees to make a pilgrimage to the edge of the world and dispose of the supposedly cursed thing.” (copied from wikipedia)
There are lots of lessons from this movie but I want to point out something from the way of life of this tribe depicted in the movie. I speak of “Nakedness” and the beauty of simplicity that comes with it.
Naked and not ashamed
To be naked and not ashamed doesn’t just mean openness, simplicity, realness; it means much more. It means a state of nothingness. Yes. Nothingness. When a man becomes naked and when he comes to a state of nothingness in himself and he is not ashamed of it, then he has conquered self, fear, and death while still alive. The Lord Jesus said “…for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” Meaning He, Jesus, had nothing that belongs to Satan. The reason our world is so messed up the way it is right now is because men have made it their life’s mandate to have too many of the things that belong to Satan. Man has forgotten how to live simply. Surprisingly, simplicity of living goes side by side with being naked and not ashamed and therefore a life of peace. Man loves complexity and the pride it brings when such complexity is supposedly unraveled. But nothing can take away the joy and peace that comes from living simple and knowing that there is a life and a treasure after death. Nothing can.
The false sense of competition
Afrika is known for original wisdom and knowledge passed down from ancient dwellers of this continent. True knowledge passed down from men who had beautiful walks of faith with God. The knowledge of nature and the healing powers of plants, clean air with richness that gladdens the soul, the life giving energy found in natural water, uncontaminated by the mad exploitation of oil and gas, which as history will prove, has become a curse instead of a blessing. For we know that the many global wars which have killed more people than can be accounted for, were created by the greedy heart of man for oil. Afrika’s true knowledge and wisdom have – over time – been exchanged for the false knowledge whose sources are nothing but the mind that wants to exploit, rule over others and then claim that there is no God. Any knowledge that takes a man away from the reality of who God is, is nothing but a curse. I am particularly drawn to a scene in the movie where Xi was given money by the new white village teacher. Obviously, Xi didn’t know what money was. He clearly hesitated at first, refraining from collecting the money and then went ahead to throw it away.
I figured his simple mind could not understand why he should be crazy about some only God knows what paper called money. Money and the pursuit of it didn’t make sense to him. Afrika has been made to believe that without the outside world or the falsehood called money, economy and the rest of the instruments of control, she won’t be on the same level as the ‘first world’ nations. My thought is this, who really cares about the nonsense idea of a first world nation, a third world nation and the mad pursuit for relevance in between. God didn’t institute that, greedy man did.
Simplicity over complexity
I love the way God deals with men. His ways are always found in the things He does and commands men to do. The Lord Jesus walked on this earth as Man and also as God. Scripture says, He is the bodily expression of God on earth in the days of His flesh. I have often wondered why Jesus took the lifestyle of a pauper over the lifestyle of a wealthy man? For if He mirrored correctly who God is on earth and God that we are shown in scriptures certainly lives in pure light and abundance, then why did Jesus live the way He did? My meditation is that, he lived in such way so that man can understand that life does not consist of that which fades away with time, nor is man meant to live by bread (anything God provides) alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This is the way of simplicity. I submit to you that, the only reason a man will rejoice at such lifestyle of simplicity is because he has found treasures stored up in heavenly realities. So he lives out his life of nakedness right here and is not ashamed of it. Such has been caught up with that which is unseen and which is eternal. And such will live forever.
Let Afrika rise
Let Afrika rise is not a remark, it is a command. For when God determined in His heart to bring to the physical, He gave the words “let there be”. We have seen the evil and the complexity that could come out of the life of a people that have chosen to walk away from their true heritage as people of God, wisdom and true knowledge, and who have chosen the path of the pursuit of worldliness and the false sense of hope, comfort and convenience it brings.
The empty bottle of wealth
Did you notice that the movie “The gods must be crazy” started with a careless pilot throwing an empty bottle of coca cola from a flying plane? Who does such a thing really? Anyway, the simple mind of the bushman certainly thought it was a blessing from the gods, but when the empty bottle started causing disunity, division, fear, intimidation and complexity in the community, they had no choice but to do away with the accursed empty bottle of lies. Does this scenario paint any picture in your mind as an Afrikan? If it doesn’t, then slavery is still here. For if we don’t know that the “empty bottle” thrown carelessly from the sky created Afrikan disunity, mistrust, Afrikan-to-Afrikan blackmail, compromises, pursuit of false and temporary wealth, then we seriously need a head check.
My question is this, how long will Afrikans accept the lies, limitations and false knowledge that she is feeding herself with? How long till Afrikans know that the cure to HIV, cancer, ebola and all the terrible deceases, which were created by the same people trying to “cure” them, are right in some plants in grandmother’s farm? The global attacks on holistic doctors is proof of this. How long will it take for Afrikans to know that the world of medicine, big pharma, is a business and not a health centre? How long till we know that we Afrikans are just competing and fighting over an empty bottle thrown at us by some “careful” big brother hiding his ugly face in the cloud? How long till we know that we are Afrikans of the lineage of kings and emperors and not some aid-seeking and money laundering fanatics. Afrkans must now begin to question everything. For he who has a question, always finds someone with answers. Am I saying that technology is bad or that it’s better to live in the Kalahari desert like the bushman? Not at all. All I’m saying is this, Afrika must awake to the true reality of things. The grandchildren of those that enslaved Afrika are the very same people we run to for “help” or let me say “debt”, when the effects of what their grandparents did to Afrika becomes unbearable.
I recently saw a cut out from an old newspaper and what was written in it is this statement
“I have travelled across the length and breadth of Africa and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people with such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture. For if the Africans think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation” LORD MACAULAY’S ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT ON 2ND FEB, 1835.
Is the above statement not what we have been battling all these years? We cannot continue to live like this, for all what we need for our true emancipation is right here with us. We just need to look and see.
We are Afrikans and we are God’s.
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