Page 20 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 2

ISSUE TWO | SEPT/OCT

find around, without the fear of him I was using a camera and not which money from internet fraud
the owner making trouble with a phone, his face changed and is ferried across borders? Your
me. In fact, allowing you to do he immediately said no. I am like guess is as good as mine. For
so, especially while coming back how is that? He didn’t answer, the very people we call to help us
from school was a kind of reward but muttered and said that since deal with terrorism, created the
for going to school. Afterward, it’s a shopping mall, that even the menace. And those we call to help
such elderly owners, would sit you mall security would not allow me with money laundering, have their
down, and then give you timely to use a camera but they would economies resting on the very
advice about staying in class and allow the use of the phone. I was proceeds of that same corruption.
make sure you understood that pissed off and instantly lost the Who then is fooling who?
you are the hope of the Afrikan creative drive to even try it with a
future. Old age and being an elder phone. I was more pissed off at the We don’t like ourselves as
was glorious and sweet back then. hypocrisy on which the entire story Afrikans
It was always sweet to hear such is rested, than of not taking photos Anybody can say whatever they
words from men we adored as of those beautiful flowers. Today’s like or assume whatever they
wise, not backward or outdated. technology doesn’t make much want to assume, but its clear
difference between photography by that the governments of Afrikan
Back in the day, taking photos phone or photography by camera. nations and even Afrikan citizens
on the street, in the garden, In my head, I knew what the issue themselves hide their disdain
supermarkets (no shopping was. The fear of terrorism. How for other Afrikan citizens in their
malls then) was really cool and mindless and foolish that sounds. nations and then call it national
seen as a way of bringing people Why? If I was a terrorist, for security. We have learnt to be used
together. We enjoyed our black example, and I wanted to conduct by foreign powers to criminalise
and white photos, monochrome secret surveillance of that mall, is it the very things that make for our
TV and when colored photos and not much more convenient for me common unity as Afrikans.
TV started coming, it was a joy to use a smart phone that can do
that the future had come to us. almost as much as a computer can The health of Afrika
Little did we know that, the future do, rather than use a camera? And Afrikan medicine is not witchcraft,
brought with itself the demise of also phones are more secretive as the world has narrated, and
our common unity. For what we than cameras. Someone probably as Afrikans themselves have
have now is the criminalization sold that narrative that camera accepted. For to call it witchcraft
of the very things that held the photography in a shopping mall will be to call God a wizard who
Afrikan people together. For in this allows terrorism to thrive and my graciously put man’s healing in his
day, to discipline a child (even by Afrikan brothers swallowed the green food. See Genesis 1:29-30,
the parents) is called child abuse nonsense. At least for me, it does Ezekiel 7:12 and Revelation 22:2.
because some people somewhere not make sense. And this list goes The Afrika I grew up in as a child
outside of Afrika said so and on and on and we are not stopping was mindful of eating lifestyles,
Afrikans believed it. To walk into to ask ourselves, how did we get healthy diet, love, brotherhood,
a compound to get fruits is now here? community. And when sickness or
considered trespassing on private disease show up, grandpa knew
property. To take photos of the very We have become so programmed what leaves, roots, tree bark and
street and neighborhood where now that, the sight of a Somali seeds to boil for the sick to take
you grew up is now considered carrying a bag makes us think of in or apply and sickness would
terrorism or at best you are terrorism. The site of a Nigerian go away. We have to re-direct our
interrogated by some unthinking driving a fine car on the street minds back to the paths that work.
security guard and asked all makes us think of internet How long shall we lose our people
manner of senseless questions. fraud. I am just using these two to diseases and all the other “evils”
As a photographer myself, I can as examples. Somewhere we created by the same people we
speak from experience of how have learnt to tag our Afrikan bow to?
much spontaneous creativity is brothers with tags that are not How did we get here? How long
killed by such harassment. I was accurate, based on nationality, till we realize that we have walked
at a shopping mall in Nairobi a few simply because some Somalis or away from the true Afrika that
weeks ago with my wife. We saw Nigerians have shifted away from loves to love?
this florist’s shop with beautiful the truth of who they really are Think about it. Shalom.
flowers. I wanted to take some and who God called them. But
photos, so we asked the florist if the question is this, who created Note: Child discipline doesn’t
I could. He said yes with this ease the terrorist group Al-shabbab, necessarily have to be physically
on his face. But the moment I told or who owns the banks through harmful.
20 HEALING - RESTORING - REBIRTHING - AFRICA