Page 94 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

not as keen. About six decades on, Afrika still struggles against
the quagmire of the socio-economic and political wasteland
that is neocolonialism, having failed utterly or refused utterly
to rid itself of the shackles of external control and dependency.

Afrika at sixty
If a sixty-year-old man came up to you not knowing the fun-
damentals of bathing, dressing, feeding himself and looking
after his environment, you might say that such a man suffered
from some form of retardation; some kind of slowness or
hindrance to his ability to perform basic functions. You may
look to physical hindrances, such as his physical and men-
tal state or social hindrances, such as being raised in an en-
vironment that may have prevented him from learning the
basics about self-care, such as an extremely privileged up-
bringing or one that prevented males from learning certain
skills which were said to be culturally ‘reserved’ for women.

Were you to apply this analogy to the continent of Afrika,
what would you find? The continent has entered or is enter-
ing into its sixtieth year following the ‘end’ of colonialism.
That would make the continent the equivalent of a retire-
ment age male and would suggest that these countries and
the continent as a whole have acquired certain wisdom, skill
and graces that are becoming of one so mature. Meaning that
more than just a basic understanding of their environment
i.e. within the nations individually, within the continent as a
whole and within the global space should be existent, yes?

Such as, knowing that it was either never colonized or that it
was colonized by country x, which also colonized countries a,
b and c in Afrika and d, e and f in other parts of the world.

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