Page 30 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 8

COMMUNITY

that if you take a country like the United States of America. a little melodramatic, that they are
Democratic Republic of Congo, Am I being realistic? Yes, I am midwives and a midwife is neither
which is larger than the entire being realistic. Why? Look at coun- the father, nor the mother, nor
Western Europe, you will discover tries without resources. Germany the child but his or her duty is to
that her resources are estimated was bombed to the ground in 1945. ensure that the child is safely deliv-
to be in the neighborhood of 34 Within a generation, Germany is ered and that the mother is safe for
trillion US dollars, conservatively. probably the 4th largest economy in further delivery and that the father
And yet, as we speak now, it is one the world. They rebuilt their coun- is also joyous to participate in the
of the poorest nations on earth. try. Look at Japan, the 3rd largest creation of that which is delivered.
You go to a country such as Niger, economy in the world, bombed to Many leaders forget that that is their
which produces uranium, that ura- the ground, the only country ever to role and when they are given the
nium is consumed by the French, have been victimized by a nuclear honor and privilege of serving, they
the same in Mauritania, the same device in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. think that they are demigods to be
in Burkina Faso. You go to a little They built themselves. Look at worshiped. In our own little country
country like Belgium, and Belgium South Korea, involved in a fratricid- Kenya or any other country, when
is a little country, which colonized al war with their cousins in North one is appointed in public office as
the Democratic Republic of Congo. Korea. Look at where they are a councilor or an MCA, suddenly
If you want to see how Congo technologically and otherwise. Look he thinks he’s very important, he is
should be, go to Belgium. Because at little Singapore. One can go on a minister, he thinks he is very im-
90% of the wealth that they have is and on, but there is no wisdom in portant he can’t even open the door
Congolese. The same with France, doing that. Wisdom only lies in the of his car and if she is a lady she
if you took away the wealth that the recognition that it is our disunity can’t even carry her handbag and
French have taken from her former that undermines our abilities. Look the presidents when they are going
colonies in Afrika, France would at our Diaspora now. The Afrikan to any place, they arrive with pomp
become a third world country. And Diaspora is anything between 200 and circumstance. What Nyerere
one could go on and on. Look at and 300 million. Their combined used to call in Kiswahili, “Wanaan-
the resources, the natural resourc- income is perhaps larger than the za kubeba mikia wa nyama.” (They
es, the Grand Inga Dam in the GDP of the continent of Afrika. start to animal tails) Fly whisks. And
Democratic Republic of Congo can I want to conclude answering that they arrive kwa mbwembwe na vin-
provide electricity for the entire question by telling you that there gora (with showing off and sirens),
continent of Afrika. The solar pow- are possibilities, even in the midst in other words, they confuse them-
er that can be generated in Namibia of our apparent gloom, there is selves and I think that that is the
and in Saharawi can also light the glimmer and this glimmer comes problem and we too we who are led
entire Afrika. Look at the rivers from Afrikan countries. We have are also part of the problem. When
that we have, both navigable and lamented for so long, but we must people are elected into office we
non-navigable. Look at the parks, now stop lamenting. We must lift suddenly think that they are wise.
the savannah, the arable land that ourselves by our bootstraps. We We suddenly think that they have
we can, Muammar al Gaddafi may can and we must and we will. the monopoly of knowledge and
have had his many problems, but wisdom. We suddenly think that
he demonstrated to the world that ONE OF THE IDEALS YOU they are infallible. We suddenly
you can green the desert. You can DEAL WITH IN YOUR MEN- treat them as if they are demigods.
green the desert. Look at the power TORSHIP PROGRAMS IS SER- And they begin to believe that they
resources in the Grand Ethiopian VANT LEADERSHIP. WHAT IS are infallible. They begin to be-
Renaissance Dam, Afrika is now at SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND lieve that they are demigods. They
the very best, our combined GDP DO YOU THINK THIS IS THE begin to think that they cannot be
could be in the neighborhood of SOLUTION TO THE LEADER- contradicted. But there have been
3-4 trillion, which is just about the SHIP PROBLEMS WE HAVE IN exemplary leaders in Afrika who
GDP of Russia or Spain or Brazil. AFRIKA? have demonstrated that you can be
Yet, I believe, if we had marshaled It can be said of many Afrikan a servant.
and deployed our resources, both countries the men and women we You know, Carter G. Woodson,
natural and human, we would be entrust with leadership, sooner that great American, writing in
in the neighborhood of 20 trillion rather than later, forget that they 1933 in his book ‘Mis-Education
dollars, at the same level with the are servants. If you allow me to be of the Negro’, says, and I’ll not

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