By Theresa Ugwuanyi
I have asked myself this question a great number of times..
Is every whiteman a racist? white here refers to anything not black! So how come whites who live among blacks do so comfortably without being discriminated against but the reverse is the case with the blacks living among whites?
In Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, these whites choose the best part of the lands and erect very high fences for their homes but back in their country, most of their houses are not even fenced. i may sound like a racist in this note but am not!!
Why is there so much insecurity in the minds of these whites who live among us? or who have blacks living around them in their country? let me explain a little why i may come across as a racist in this note.
A particular white actress by the name Jennifer Aniston was asked on how she plans on helping the environment to maintain its green nature. She repplied: ” I take a three minute shower..here’s why.I found out that every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything they need for a whole day!”
Now that is crap! which part of Africa is she referring to? Is Africa the most primitive and deprived continent? Is Africa the scum of the earth?
It has often been said that Africans are notoriously religious; that religion is the womb of African cultures…this means that Africans are not especially materialistic. Ancient Africans knew the spiritual world and lived it, especially in morality and ethics, which they inherited in accordance with their tradition mostly ancestors..
Our problems started with the arrival of the whites because by the 19th century, the growing interest of Europe and the United States in Africa, as seen in the arrival of empire buiders, hunters, philantropists,explorers,traders, missionaries and others from these countries gave impetus to new foreign influence and missionary activities in Africa.
The christianity presented to Africans was very much coloured by colonial bias. Virtually every sect and denomination in Europe and America found market in Africa, and this gave rise to different church structures and traditions in africa with each of them struggling to possess the African soul..
What is the hope for a continent fast losing its leaders to corruption, a mad grip on power and lack of good morals and ethics for our youth to look up to?
Do u blame the whites who exploit our natural resources and treat us like servants in our own land. Our leaders fall ill just like the white leaders. The whites get treated in their own countries, but the blacks seek the whites for their own cure. When we have national problems in our lands, we seek white man solutions. Can the colonial mentality ever leave the mind of the blacks? just like the superiority mentality never leaving the mind of the whites.
Our hospitals are not good enough till a white man is employed. Our Universities are not good enough as long as there are not white schools. We have no source of power till the whites come to fix it for us. Our oils are exploited by the whites. Our banks are been wished away for white investors. Th list goes on and on.
Give it your own thoughts. Is Africa the scum of the earth?
Africans are not the scum of the earth although there are many out there who would want nothing more than to see us this way.
I have to give credit to Africans for their resilience for everything they have been through, the average African will still stand strong in the face of uncertainty, Its engrained in our DNA. Awareness is key; the awareness to know who your enemy is, but the west is very careful how they go about it. We need to stop the cycle of Aid acceptance. The Aid giver holds the power over the Aid receiver and so Africa’s future generations will look back and say “well they gave us and helped us so they must be better than us”.
We Africans, especially Nigerians have a lot to moan about when it comes to the past. But with such a high percentage of corrupt and violent individuals representing the worst of humanity, tackling them at home has got to be one step to take. And prevent ‘whites’ having a clear reference for why we are labelled as bad.