Page 214 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

sion compound is like the compound of every Nigerian and the
reception area is like the sitting room. Samuel asked them how
many of them would allow their kid brothers or children to
make such a mess in their sitting room. No one answered, but
the message had been passed all the same. The guy was really
ashamed of himself. The entire gist and complaining died im-
mediately. We finished what we came for, said bye to them and
left. But do you know that, even by the time that we left, the guy
who made that mess on the floor, for all his embarrassment, still
refused to clean it and also did not apologize for what he did.

We bet you those guys, from the way they talked and the way
they carried themselves, there were all businessmen who came
to Kenya for purposes of trade, and you could expect that they
were rich, but lacking responsible minds to deal with minor
issues that are the true pillars of who we are as a people. Mind
you, this is not just about Nigeria alone, we have seen guys with
fine cars eating sugar cane and throwing the pulp right on the
clean road in Nairobi. It looks like a minor issue, but has this not
been the issue with Afrika; a continent of highly skilled intellec-
tuals and business moguls but with minds that are not renewed
sufficiently to take responsibility for a new Afrikan narrative.
Always complaining and looking for greener pastures but nev-
er stopping to create their own new reality. That has to stop!

Let us secure the Afrikan heritage

So, while there are lots of things to detoxify the Afrikan mind-
set of, and while we work towards doing that, can we simply
begin to live out the reality of the very heritage we still have
left from our forefathers that make us claim to others and
to ourselves that we so want to return to their days? We do
not need the permission of any Afrikan government to love

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