Page 47 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 7

COMMUNITY
the world, because they have to
change if things are ever going
to get better.
We are not thriving current-
ly as a people in Afrika and
in the world. No, we are just
existing and barely making it
from moment to moment and
from day to day, in a series of
mindless routines that maintain
momentum but only succeed in
painting a thin veneer of pre-
tense over the reality of failed
lives and failed societies. Not
simply because of a lack of
money and not because of the
Covid economic shut-down, no,
even the people who have mon-
ey are barely making it. They
are stressed out and unhappy
people because they have
figured out that money may buy
them some stuff, but the satis-
faction they are seeking in life
isn’t found on any supermarket
shelf or in a car showroom.
They have figured out that their
money will not fulfill them as
people nor turn their children
into geniuses, or make their
homes genuinely joyous, no
matter how many times they go
to KFC or how many toys they
buy or how much they earn or
‘misappropriate’ (i.e. steal) in
order to do what they think will
make them satisfied in life. In
fact the lock down has forced
them to come face to face with
the fact that the lives they are
leading are superficial at best,
and phony at worst.
I recently read an article from
2019 that talked about the
Afrikan CEO of a well-known
and respected growing Afrikan
company. The author of the
article talked about this CEO –
who is quite celebrated in the
media and corporate circles –
as being mean to their employ-
ees, withholding their pay and
www.msingiafrikamagazine.com
causing them all out misery, all
the while portraying the image
of a ‘successful’ brand in the
eyes of their ‘peers’ and the
world. You see what I mean,
the lives of many are as fake as
steel toes mixed with mud, but
people persist in them instead
of stopping to take stock. But
their governments are equally
guilty and they’re not stopping
their charades, so the people
follow suit. Let me tell you, this
is dumb as a frog in a hot pot of
water. We must strip ourselves
of the vanities of living that we
have decided are cool just be-
cause we saw them in some su-
per-fake movie from Hollywood
and get back to the basics.
For your physical body, you
need air, water, food, clothing,
shoes (sometimes) and safe
shelter so you don’t get ex-
posed to the elements. You do
not need billions in the bank,
four cars, one house on every
continent and a shoe collection
like Imelda Marcos’. Those are
vanities. For your soul you need
a heart of compassion and love,
one that is forgiving. You need
to consider others’ needs and
their state and sometimes you
need to sacrifice your own com-
fort so that someone else can
get the basics of life or even
something that you wanted for
yourself. Those are necessities.
You don’t need the approval of
others, or to be invited to con-
ferences where they call you
the top x under x or y over y, or
the richest whatever in what-
ever. In short, you need to stop
being selfish and self-centered
and become a genuine real per-
son who returns to the basics
of love instead of lordship over
others. This is what will save
your life in the days ahead and
beyond that. This is what will
help you see and know what is
heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika
real and what isn’t and help you
build a future for the community,
country or world that you’re in.
Below are some practical ideas
which, while not being the
entirety of the matter, could
certainly get the ball rolling in
helping to restore our human-
ity and identity as people and
brothers:
Overcome Greed and
Complacency
Years ago a former colleague of
mine told me about a company
that was blatantly exploiting
their customers through the
charges that they were levying
on certain products. It cost them
next to nothing to provide these
products but they said to them-
selves, “Well, we can get away
with it, so why not?” They still
do so to date. Needless to say,
this company is quick to run
to the media to proclaim their
greatness when their periodic
results are announced. No one
cares to look below the surface
to see how they made their
money, and literally everyone
I know continues to use their
products all the while complain-
ing about the poor quality and
high cost. Not that there aren’t
other halfway decent suppli-
ers in the market, it’s just that
it’s deemed more ‘convenient’
to use these exploiters and
so they are sustained by their
greed and their customers’
complacency. The company is
unrelenting in its application of
its charges and continues to
apply them, despite knowing
that if it lowered costs, custom-
ers from lower income groups
would actually have an easier
time of it and be able to gen-
uinely do more, both on the
company’s platform and with
the money saved from reduced
charges.
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