There is a common place fatal allure that is virtually becoming part of
the African psyche; that all root causes of the ills of African can be
retraced to the West. Each day Liberal or Marxist do-gooders and Pan
Africanists remind us how much the West should be doing; where it has done
wrong; what it ought to be doing; how with this and that amount of aid we
could eradicate this and that problem; how still colonialism or
neo-colonialism still is the biggest thing undermining Africa's enormous
potentials. And with all this comes a smug of fatalism from pesso-democrats
and doom mongers that Africa is just failure reincarnate in it's
comprehensive sense.
    But hey are we missing out on something here? Why is it that only
Africans are still whingeing about colonialism when other continents who were
brutally plundered by the White have put their shoulders to the wheel and are
in positions to hold angles with the West? I don't see Chinese, Japanese,
Asians, Latin American countries and or other colonised spots make a
habit/culture of pointing fingers at the West whenever something goes amiss
in their continents. These peoples have literally put their shoulders to
wheel and put their houses in order after the chaotic aftermath of
colonialism. You don't see them every day with their begging bowls any time
there is a catastrophe or social chaos as we witness every day in Africa. In
fact as I write, there is strong desire on the part ASEAN countries to create
their own Fund to stand up for their own interests which might not
necessarily reconcile with other vested interest on the global stage. These
peoples have literally turned tragedy into a blessing in disguise. Literacy
on the rise; poverty dwindling; real incomes on the rise; the e-economy in a
position to challenge the West; science and technology creating new and
unbridled opportunities for what used to be the landed peasants. In a word or
a line, Asia is the epitome of how hard work, taking responsibilities of
one's destiny seriously, patriotism and the dividends they yield.
    It is time Africans take a neat leaf out the Asian story and learn that
our seemingly intractable problems' solutions is to stop looking up to the
West for either recrimination and wholesale aid for problems which are now
largely our own making. The charge and or argument that colonialism and
neo-colonialism being the primary/chief source of all Africa's woes belongs
to the 20th century especially the 1960s, 70s and 80s and no longer
convincing or makes any sense in today's realities which suggest otherwise.
The Nkrumahian and old Left Pan Africanist analysis of yesteryears makes
sense then but now only makes a very absurd and convenient excuse for our
failures and only offers succour to our corrupt and brutal leaderships in
their childish and asinine claims that we are still under the duress of the
colonial master hence our woes. 21st century Pan Africanism must look beyond
this narrow parochialism and accept that modern Africa's problems are largely
and inherently African in design and it will only prolongate our woes as we
keep looking to the West for recriminations and solutions. It is time we take
our responsibilities for much of the failure in Africa. The problem in Africa
today is not some white supremacists in say Brussels or Seattle but tyrants
like the Jammehs, Mugabes, Foday Sankohs and the rest of whole bunch who in
their insatiable lust for personal growth will do anything to cling to the
power.
    Africans must learn to close that chapter of seeing all our problems in
the light of colonial plundering but must look into new horizons and
perspectives that have better solutions. We must remember that there is no
far better remedying and rewarding ethos than self sacrifice and
responsibility. It is virtually the foundation of all successful nations and
civilisations in history. Most of you who will have the chance to read this
are successful today in the West regardless of the pernicious and stultifying
racist slurs and institutionalised racism each of you has to battle with
against all odds in order to reach where you are today in your respective
chosen endeavours not because of aid packages and recriminating the West of
this and that. But because you sacrificed so much and took your destinies as
your primary responsibilities. Working long hours without whingeing,
overcoming all forms of racist obstacles and subtle overtures in
institutions, putting up with ungodly conditions, loneliness and homesickness
to name just a few from my little experience. Why isn't that same self
sacrifice and responsibility being the order of the socio-political and
economic outlooks of our homelands? Why would it take us another century to
learn this simple truth?
    To be sure the effects of colonialism still lives amongst but so does it
amongst Asians and Latinos or East Europeans. But they have picked up the
pieces and learn that no-one could do for them what they ought to be doing
for themselves. If at any rate colonialists exist in Africa, then they are
not white supremacists of yesteryears but tyrants like the Jammehs, Sankohs,
Mugabes, Kabilas et al. This is the simple truth bereft of the empty of the
old Romanticised Marxist Pan Africanist story of Africa where honey and milk
filled the collectivised lands until White marauders set their feet on our
shores.  I am just sick of hearing people blame the West for every wrong that
goes on in Africa.
The sooner we get this in our heads the better for us.
Hamjatta Kanteh

hkanteh

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