Is Africa the Problem? or the Problem Africans?

[Atabong]

This question I ask myself every day. Can there be any reasonable explanation to why we Africans are so poor, so backward, so underprivileged, so left behind? So beggarly and so looked upon as bull****? Some one said to me: look if our people had not colonized you guys you’d still be going around naked and killing each other with spears.

First the Western people were here exploring and exploiting, dragging us in chains out to the plantations in the West. They created an outcry then change the method. They bring religion, divide us, and create wars, poverty, disease, ignorance, hunger and starvation and so nowadays we have neocolonialism. Our People no longer have to be carried away bare feet and in chains but flee to the West to do slave labour. Are our leaders so dumb, so inhuman, really do Black African Leaders think at all, let alone have a ‘conscience’?

The Chinese and Asians are slowly but surely seeping in too. Does black Africa have any way to protect itself from these invaders? We are gradually seeing our lands, forests, property etc bought over with the same money that is taken from our land and the proceeds pushed back to the invaders by our own leaders.

Sub Saharan Africa Economies are the worst on the planet, does it mean we cannot manufacture and consume our own products? Why do we have to starve and die in a land oozing with oil and diamonds? in fact the big powers don't even need to wage a war to get in. We pass around town and find shelved bottled water imported from Holland, France etc

We read and watch Western and foreign media, googgle out 'Sub Saharan Africa' on the Internet and we’re dumfounded with what we see. In the West, the only thing most people know of Africa is on their outright racist news channels, big billboards showing fleshless black men and women overpowered by disease, houseflies hovering over starving children. Even black people living in the West are demoralized. No body knows what to do, isn’t it time for us as Africans to portray the good we have?

Really, is Africa the Problem or the Problem Africans? Can some one say something

[Smartass]

Africa is doing poorly according to whom?
If you read history you may free yourself of the feeling of despair and frustration at the fate of Africa
Civilisations rise and fall, when the Chinese and Japanese had well planned cities with roads and sewage disposal methods the Europeans lived in cramped buildings and emptied their chamber pots on to the streets, it was not genius or planning that led them to change but calamity in the from of the plague and cholera.
When Pythagoras was seeking mathematical knowledge in Timbuktu the worlds centre of learning (in the Mali kingdom) the Europeans were fighting tribal wars When the pharaohs who were black (check out the pictures on Prof, Manu Ampim site) he Europeans were hunter gatherers.
My point is Kingdoms rise and wane. Who would have thought the sun would ever set on the British Empire or the USSR would crumble or the dollar would weaken or that there would be another currency to counter the dollar?

Do not despair its just our place in time in the vicissitudes of life we have had our highs these are our lows

[mwolovi]

That's a very good point . You should start a blog about that at kenya imagine. Your brainstorming way is effective.
But remember, It will take one complete century to turn africa around.
We can try with east africa as a start, that is Kenya ,Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi as federal states of united east africa. This depends on the east africans themselves. We have to change the way we allow politicians to run our countries. That should be the first step.for example creation of new districts is a waste of peoples time and tax payers money. New districts do not develope an area, It is just an opportunity for politicians to benefit themselves at the expense of the wanachi.

[Telvin]

The truth is that Africa is troubled. Africans are moving from Africa to the West and Asia (except for a few countries), we have way higher incidence of certain diseases that are preventable, our political systems are chaotic, corruption rules, slums are bigger than ever, violence (best example: Darfur-while Africans watch, yet we will come to condemn the west ati for not doing anything. Didn't we watch Rwanda too? over 90% of African countries still rely heavily on foreign aid etc. There are so many examples I can give to show that all is not well. These ills overshadow progress eg. improving Kenyan economy etc.
With that said, I believe Africans are the problem. Our problems start at the top with poor and corrupt (financially/morally) leaders. We also don't work hard enough to improve our situation. We don't want to invest in research, infrastructure etc. and that is why we cannot develop. Sure civillizations rise and fall, but this current African civillization can only be on top again if Western and Asian empires fall but not because we have advanced! This is true unless we want to work hard to get out of the current situation.

[Atabong]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Smartass

Africa is doing poorly according to whom?
If you read history you may free yourself of the feeling of despair and frustration at the fate of Africa

But Research has shown that Africa is by far the World's poorest continent, and it is, on average, poorer than it was 25years ago(Wikipedia)
NBER News calls this an Economic Tragedy and says the first culprit has been the lack of investment. That since 1975 the investment rate has declined to 8.5 percent for the entire continent compared to the investment rates for the average-performing OECD economy of between 20 and 25 percent, and for East Asian Economies of 30 percent.
Chief Emeka Anyoaku, a former Secretary General of the Common Wealth a few weeks back bemoaned the fact that, far from growing, Africa’s Economy has shrunken drastically, with Sub Saharan Africa accounting for just 1-5 percent, in terms of International trade.
WorldMonitor.info paints a very bleak picture with no room for any prospects whatsover and also states that Sub-Saharan Africa has fallen so far behind the rest of the world economically that a serious 'brain drain', or exodus of the most highly educated people, to the affluent West has made it difficult for the region to retain people especially critical to its development

Civilisations rise and fall, when the Chinese and Japanese had well planned cities with roads and sewage disposal methods the Europeans lived in cramped buildings and emptied their chamber pots on to the streets, it was not genius or planning that led them to change but calamity in the from of the plague and cholera.

I'm still to see an African University ranked amongst the World's top 200, records of our people showing some great traits, philosophers, thinkers, Prophets of God, Black Scientists, Black Popes etc. Could any such records all have been burnt or looted? Is it too late to start compiling and safeguarding our own records? Does it help to just generalise the fact that civilization started in Africa? But Egyptians of today don't identify themselves as Africans. Libyans call black Africans slaves. I'm I getting something wrong? What really went wrong?

My point is Kingdoms rise and wane. Who would have thought the sun would ever set on the British Empire or the USSR would crumble or the dollar would weaken or that there would be another currency to counter the dollar?

Has the British Empire really crumbled? I don’t think so, I think it's jsut a matter of changing from the power of the gun to the power og the pen. I don't see any records of an African language amongst the world's popular languages. The USD is still largely the world's reserve currency.

Do not despair its just our place in time in the vicissitudes of life we have had our highs these are our lows

Thank you for the encouragement but It’s hard not to wallow in despair. I'm not ashamed of being black African, yet I must admit that I'm a little embarrassed at times; and I’m sure this is the same for any right thinking black African. Those who are truly desperate are they who are caught up in the million churches and mosques that have sprung up here and there after every block in Africa. Even if there is a God I’m sure He’d not expect our people to be living in destitution yet praising or come kissing His feet every now and then.

[Atabong]

Originally Posted by Telvin

I believe Africans are the problem

I do agree with you And I also think Africa is the Problem too. Let me explain:
You meet your black brother or sister elsewhere out of Africa and the first question he/she asks is; where are you from in Africa, you meet a non-black and he/she asks the same question where are you from in Africa? The difference is that the white guy or lady will further ask, how about the situation of AIDS or this and that war or pestilence.
The Historical nature of Black Africa has imposed upon us a daunting stigma of differences used by the white people as a means to secure their diverse interests. The European powers imposed upon the face of Africa boundaries where there were non, unfortunately these boundaries have stuck in the minds of our people. These boundaries account for today’s wars and misery. Is there any way to reverse this trend? Some western evolutionists have nonchalantly sated that Western civilization is of a higher material order to African civilization, what does this mean?
The intention of these ‘colonial powers was to create ethnic strife and misunderstanding while they exploit.

[bible_reader]

I would attribute africa failures to just one single vice."Lies"
I think most developed countries have the majority of rulers governing by truth.Truth is the single most foundation of accountability.Lies lead to corruption and greed.Just ask yourself how many times in a day do you lie about something and measure it with your success?

[Atabong]

Originally Posted by bible_reader

I would attribute africa failures to just one single vice."Lies"
I think most developed countries have the majority of rulers governing by truth.Truth is the single most foundation of accountability.Lies lead to corruption and greed.Just ask yourself how many times in a day do you lie about something and measure it with your success?

To state that developed countries are developed because these rulers are governing by truth is to pervert facts. They tell intelligent lies, that's the difference. Politics is all about tricks and intrigues, about telling false truths and securing your interests. For example to say let's plug out Sadam because he is massacring his own people in cold blood is not to tell a lie at all but to say he is the only one doing so is to tell a fat lie. To say let’s spread religion in Africa because we want to save their souls is a fat lie also.
Actually it depends on how you define truth; there are true lies as well.

[Atabong]

We can now see very clearly for our selves how the Africa created by Westerners is the problem. This ‘daunting stigma of differences’ has now brought our naivety to the surface. Our figurehead leaders are a disgrace to humanity.

[froggy]

^^40 years after westerners pulled out, the Kenyan state is imploding solely because of tribal rivalry, hatred and mistrust. How are westerners to blame for that? We conduct shoddy elections, kill each other, ruin our economy and precipitate a civil war, then half of us die: which westerner is to blame for that?