Page 68 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 22

Leadership
Leadership

The Barrier to

World

Community

uman beings have sadly
achieved the impossi-
ble, we have divided
Hthe human race. I
struggle to make sense of history,
and wished to view it as progres-
sion. Yet, the reappearance of some
annoying human errors, makes
history bleak. Ironically, history
would have been different if we had
learned from history. Expressed
differently, recent history shows the
failure to learn from distant history.
Currently, we still have a chance to
learn the same old history lesson. I
am speaking of our grave mistake
in calling unity what in reality is our
separation. I am also speaking of
the dehumanizing effect identity
labels have on people. Amy Chua,
in Political Tribes, rightly points out,
“The tribal instinct is not just an in-
stinct to belong. It is also an instinct
to exclude.”

Uniting to Separate
The evidence is too overwhelming
to ignore, but still we prefer dwell-
ing in illusions. Human history
is crowded with provincial social
organizations, and cramped with the
recurrent bloodbaths that ensued
when such factions collide. Howev-
er, the historians, together with the
teachers and students of history,
have failed to grasp the essence.
We have all failed in the study of
history! If we accept the definition

68 | we tell the true afrikan story