Page 124 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

to explode. Instead of stopping to see the futility in what we
have built as a people, it is as if we instead choose to increase
the speed of the construction work so that we do not have
to face the reality that what we are building is literally on the
verge of collapse. Afrikan ministers of finance are panicking
about the state of Afrika’s economies, which were – accord-
ing to them - vulnerable even before Covid-19, but no one
seems to want to do the obvious thing, which is to admit that
things are not working! Instead, they will persist on a course
of action that is evidently only adding to the downward spi-
ral for individuals, countries, the continent and the world as
a whole. Come on guys, really? We can do better than this.

Let us look at one deadly thing that governments in Afrika
may not be aware that they are sabotaging themselves by doing.
Jesus, in Matthew 18:21-35 told the Parable of the Unforgiv-
ing Servant, a cautionary tale against unforgiveness in general,
which contains a powerful message for anyone in such a posi-
tion. The story goes that (per our paraphrase) a particular ser-
vant’s master demanded repayment of a debt from him. The
amount was so huge that the servant literally had no hope at all
of being able to repay this debt. So the master commanded that
he and his wife and children be sold, together with all he had to
recover the money. The servant begged for mercy and the mas-
ter had compassion on him and forgave him the entire debt.

That same servant was owed a teeny, tiny amount of money in
comparison, by one of his fellow servants, and servant one went
and grabbed him by the throat and demanded that he pay him
back. Servant two begged him for mercy and asked for more
time, promising to pay it all back. Servant one did not grant
him mercy and instead threw him in prison until he should pay

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