Page 60 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 7

MY AFRIKA
to the days of the beginning of
life here in Afrika. It is both an- sise the fact that human beings
cient and modern and it is use-
ful for learning life and living. irredeemably, and we should do
Healing Afrika
Afrika is definitely sick and in
need of healing. But her sick-
ness is not that of the lab-creat- human beings have yet to learn
ed diseases that are dumped in
our land, but the disease of the
mind and the pride of our hearts
which are stopping us from
knowing and understanding that
to disconnect from the natural
laws of existence, which God
gave to Afrika in abundance, is
to disconnect from life itself. Af- of things, who is really in need
rika must be healed from these
mind diseases and be restored
back to her place as life giver.
However, to heal Afrika we must
also remember that is not ac-
tually Afrika the land mass that
we want to heal but the minds
of the people called Afrika. To
give light to this reality, see
what Anselm Adodo wrote on
his Facebook post about heal-
ing the earth:
"Not long ago, I got an invitation
to deliver a lecture at a pro-
posed workshop titled ‘HEAL-
ING THE EARTH’. The idea of
the workshop came from the
fact that human beings have
selfishly and greedily exploited
the earth’s resources in such
a way that human existence is
in jeopardy. Already, hundreds
of thousands of plants and
animals are said to be extinct,
while the ozone layer has been
severely affected, and the earth
has become warmer than is
60 | heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika
normal. I was asked to empha-
have damaged the earth almost
what we can to ‘save’ mother
earth, to heal and make her
whole again. As I reflected on
my topic, it dawned on me that
the lessons of history due to our
sheer arrogance.
In the first place, what gave us
the audacity to think that we
can heal the earth? If the earth
needs healing, who is the doc-
tor? Looking at the natural order
of healing, the earth or human-
ity? The earth is not in need of
healing. It is humanity who is
sick and needs healing. And we
have no other healer than moth-
er earth. Was our estrangement
from the earth not the cause
of our sickness? Rather than
seeking to ‘heal the earth’, we
should rather learn to live in
harmony with THE HEALING
EARTH.
The mess in which inhumanity
finds itself today was caused
by a wrong understanding of
knowledge and its role in hu-
man development. According to
David Orr, we were led astray
by the myth that with enough
knowledge and technology
(computers, digital machines,
satellites, buttons, etc), we can
rule the earth and control it.
But the complexity of the earth
and its life systems can never
be completely mastered and
controlled. We can never mas-
ter the complex functioning of
atoms, protons, eons, bacteria,
pathogens, viruses and electric-
ity. With the help of technology,
we have abused the earth and
populated it with over six billion
greedy individuals -you and me.
What needs to be managed is
not the earth, but human de-
sires, economics, politics and
communities.
The word humility is derived
from the Latin humus, which
means earth, ground, earthli-
ness, humanness. To be human
is to be humble, and see our-
selves as part of, not the centre
of, creation. To be human is to
be healed by the healing earth.
This is our challenge in the 21st
century."
Is my dream possible?
Yes and a bigger yes. It is
possible. I don’t know how to
sell this dream to you to help
you take a stand for something
that will certainly benefit Afrika,
but like every dreamer, I believe
that I and my immediate fami-
ly are willing and ready to live
out this dream, until someone
somewhere connects to it and
gives it further wings to fly. But
I will also use this medium to
make an appeal to all Afrikans.
Stop fighting the white man or
the sons of those who created a
divided Afrika through colonial-
ism, neo-colonialism, and the
many other exploitations going
on. The fight has not worked
for sixty or so years, because
we keep fighting what we do
not understand, using hate and
trying to pay evil back for evil. It
has not worked and it will never
work. I remember a Chinese
war proverb which says "he
who must win in a war must first
master peace". Why is that? In
HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY