Page 63 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 18

Re-Education
Leadership

Africans Reclaiming Africa

Abel Merawi, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

frica is truly a great greatness we once enjoyed. phetic vision that can transport us
continent; it is a land into a future of affluence.
inconceivably rich with Before I rush into the central issue,
Amaterial and human let me contextualize the meanings I Africa can return to its greatness;
wealth. This is the land where the wish to communicate in the word, still be the land of humanity that
paragons of spirituality once lived in ‘reclaim’. The word basically means it once was. We can still be great,
abundance. These words must never taking back something, and this but only when we reclaim Africa.
be confused with empty rhetoric, as thing is our land with its resources, Reclaiming the ‘spirit’ of Africa is
they speak of a simple tangible fact. our citizens, and basically our his- the igniting force that creates the
We Africans are not just the origin tory and shared destiny as Africans. strength for physically reclaiming
of human beings, but also the origin The other meaning of ‘reclaim’ has Africa. The spirit and mental atti-
of civilization. The elements that to do with abandoning a wrong tude Africans have towards them-
made us pinnacles of civilization are course of life so as to adopt a righ- selves has truly been corrupting and
still here in Africa, but we forgot our teous path. Verily, this is the huge self-loathing for too long. It is also
greatness when we imported cheap task ahead of us; we must cease the cause for the reverence with
foreign ideals. We have been the trying to measure what is African which we regard western life. To un-
co-conspirators in the greatest trage- using western standards, and seek derstand the weight of such debili-
dy that made Africa poor. The story the virtuous path that is authen- tating metal captivity, let us ponder
and history of Africa continues to tically African. To reclaim is also how colonization of the majority
be narrated by outsiders, while we to transform the waste into value. was possible by the minority, and let
persist in echoing this imported nar- Internal and external forces, which I us examine the unique factor that
rative that functions to shackle and will address soon, have squandered made the Holocaust and Apartheid
oppress our minds. Thus, we must the riches of Africa, and so we must a reality.
reclaim Africa by decolonizing our rebuild our continent with a pro- Sheer force may capture and enslave
minds, before we can return to the

WWW.MSINGIAFRIKAMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 18 | DECEMBER 2021 63