Page 94 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

Leadership

one which was flawed. I suppose,
at that point, you could not face
the possibility that ALL of your
labors were in vain after all. To fix
it, yours became the generation of
the NGO that sourced money from
overseas to come and change things
on the ground for your backward
relatives and countrymen who
couldn’t make it on their own. You
came to the rescue, building them
wells and schools to ‘civilize’ them
a little more. You found ways to government housing, numbed loans And you taught us to whisper and
house the street children and the you took to buy huge houses and not to ‘rock the boat’ but to leave
refugees from ‘war torn’ Afrikan your own pieces of land back from things as they were for fear of the
countries and because of that you the white man who was repatriating, consequences… instead of teaching
were able to sleep better at night… numbed by the prestige of the po- us to live boldly for the hope of the
while pocketing a fair bit of change sitions you were given – which were victorious outcome. We can clearly
and giving the white man greater given for the very purpose for which see now that most of your labor of
and renewed access to Afrika. You they were most effective: to silence love was not for love at all, but for
thought you were doing Afrika and you and to turn you into a weapon self-preservation and wealth accu-
your people good, but clearly, we are that silenced dissenters who did not mulation.
no better for your “labor of love”. have access to the same benefits
For while the foreign NGOs and the you enjoyed. Somehow, you found it And the fruit of your laxity and your
many foreign entities come to Afrika easier blaming them for being late to selfishness, of your unwillingness to
in the name of charity and steal the table that gave you the privileges fight – for those of you who chose
both our natural resources through you got… instead of understanding the route of comfort, luxury and
unfair trade policies and our people that the system you were building selfish gain – is the laxity, selfish-
through human trafficking, the sane is a pyramid and therefore can only ness, complacency and complicity
ones among us cannot find good house so many. that is displayed so loudly in the
grounds and reasons to stay in the next generations. People who lack
continent because the entire system Some of you agitated for political in ideology, lack in purpose and
is warped to favor the foreigners change, not so much out of love whose sole focus is the acquisition
and their local allies. of your country, but because you of things to surround themselves
realized that the only way to get with, no matter the cost. So, don’t
But you didn’t ask the most crucial your own head above the rest and sit there and talk badly about those
of questions: “Why are things like to breathe some air was for you to whose behavior you see as shocking
this? Where is the dream we were become a part of the system that and disappointing. Those in public
sold? Why is it not working? After makes decisions about how things office, those in private business who
all, we did all we were supposed are done. So, you pushed some go around exploiting and hurting
to…” For if you had taken the time dictators out of the way, only to be- others, those in farming who choose
to reflect, to consider, to ponder, come worse dictators yourselves… to poison their crops and custom-
you would have come to this all-nat- or to make way for your children or ers in order to escape with a profit
ural conclusion, “We need a better proteges to continue your legacies without understanding the curses
plan for Afrika, this thing we’ve of oppression and safeguard ‘your’ they bring on their own heads. This
been sold is a sham!” You would wealth. Some of you chose to look is your fruit. You have no high horse
then have become the next revo- on in horror and whisper in your to stand on. Don’t say to yourself
lutionaries for change – like your houses at night of the atrocities that that you taught them better, they
fathers and mothers before you. were going on, but you stopped at don’t learn by your words – they
You would have pushed, collectively, the whispering and your whispers learn from your actions, your choic-
for a different reality to be put in never translated into action… and es… from the way you lived your
place on the ground. But, some of so things continued to get worse life. You let this happen each time
you had been numbed by the free and worse and worse over time. you chose your comfort and safety

94 | we tell the true afrikan story