"How good and how pleasant it would be/ Before God and man
To see the unification of all/
Africans"
Africa Unite- Bob Marley (Robert Nester Marley)
I've took a break from the alphabet challenge to rant. Mockers aren't going to be respected for pretending they don't have things they're dealing with.
I am not a peaceful person. I'm a respectful person. Respectful means that I will always give you room to reciprocate respect by making known to you my intentions, my upbringing, my sensibilities, and my personal direction.
Should for some reason decide to trample them underfoot, you and I will have a problem. Why would I take such a small thing as 'that' to heart?
Simple, really.
I'm offended not just for the people who share and make up my history as a person, I'm offended on the part of yours.
Only an idiot would think his family history starts with him. They don't need to be people of note to be a part of your origins. They were there before you. Good, bad, ugly...doesn't matter. That you don't mention them doesn't give you room to pretend your family name begins with you.
Fine...you may have gone to the courthouse to change your name...but your blood? That does not lie.
Why am I ranting on this course?
*sigh*
I come from a line I believe I can trace back to say...150 years, or so. All characters on both sides. From what I can see, we have all made the mistake of substituting the truth of ourselves for some convenient rubbish about 'this is the 21st century', 'what they did back then was diabolical and fetish', 'our history starts with independence', etc.
Fetish? Is your tradition fetish? Is your mother tongue fetish? Was your whole village made up of priests and priestesses?
I'm a christian, I believe in Jesus Christ and not in other men like myself. I have seen things and known that coincidence is the Western way of saying,"I don't recognise God, but I fear Him."
Culture conquest is so irritating to me because its first vehicle of war is 'enforced ignorance', followed by 'willful ignorance' of the leadership, then tidied up by the 'willful ignorance' of the masses.
I'd spit in anger, but it would seem like a commendation from me.
We think we are such beasts because we are African. So why does the rest of the world want a share of what we so willingly look down on?
We had astronomers on the Congo basin who read the stars accurately...obviously without a telescope. Where are they now?
We had the tale of Bayajidda, the itinerant knight who slew a serpent and married a queen then fathered the Arewa nations. We convince our children that such truths are not relevant. Yet from him to Oduduwa, we look at google as the final authority about 'our' heritage?
What do we do to mirror their efforts in 'preserving' the human heritage? Spitting rhymes from a fad that started in the late 70s by the Sugar Hill Gang, and the truth is the one man who first rapped on television screens was Muhammed Ali (formerly known as Cassius Clay).
We claim that we are fighting for 'democracy', meanwhile we ignore the political histories of our 250 people, condensing it into the presence of our 'traditional rulers'.
WTF?
In Yorkshire, there is a Nigerian child who only knows that his parents come from Nigeria. Maybe he knows something about his village that most likely is limited to its name.
This error in personal education is repeated across the world...and even in cities here in Nigeria.
If you're expecting me to comment about Big Brother, then let me not disappoint you. Big Brother is 'us'. You think it is a show? It's past that. It is the temperature of our societies and how they co-exist. Everyone is trying to screw the other person without any aim in mind besides 'scoring big'. Stupid? Immature? Immoral? Indecent?
Look in the mirror and you'll catch a glimpse of your society in yourself. Catch a glimpse of your society and you'll know the kind of Africa you will live in very soon.
The future is always the next minute, not next year, not month, next week, or the next day.
Why am I ranting and who offended me?
I did. I offended my land, my history, and my future.
How?
I too pretended that everything will work itself out without me.
So, why am I a nexus point of the histories of 2 large families within the greater picture called africa? Is it not to be a part of what is working?
Well, I did my part, but it is not enough.
If we will live in peace in our old age, we must spread the fire now.
How do I do this? Will I have the time? Isn't this like madness? Won't it be like I'm ranting over what I can't change?
If you're not a Bob Marley fan, still listen to his song 'Zimbabwe'.
Africa is no longer your right, my friend.
Africa is your duty, and your money/job/occupation will never be able to pay for what you failed to do...the price is steeper than that.
If you doubt me, search on google/wikipedia the last president of South Vietnam. He wanted things to sort themselves out without his 'involvement'. So things did...and removed him from the entire equation.
Value over cost. (Wish I knew how to say that in Latin).
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well -- Rene Descartes
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