AM NOT MAD AT TRUMP FOR CALLING AFRICA A SHITHOLE
(Originally published on Facebook on the 16th of January 2018)
Earlier today i posted about not being mad at Trump for calling Africa and the coloured world a shithole. Since then i have seen various other posts where in people are offended that some Africans like myself embrace the insults. As a result i felt compelled to write this post in order to share some of my thoughts by way of elaborating on my my not being mad.
I do understand the rage of some people regarding others acceptance of the ranting insults of Mr Trump. Unfortunately, am one of those. I acknowledge all the good things about Africa that these guys put forward especially those contained in a video i just watched on a friends wall. I accept all he cited so far and there is even more to the list. But again, that was some over 200 yrs ago before the corruption of colonialism. This said, i must give my views with regards to acknowledging that we in a shithole here in the third world.
One question i ask myself is, what did we (our African politicians after independence) do with the budding civilization bequeathed to us by our forefathers? I guess we all already know the answer to this. This of course is the point where the rain started beating us (Confer Achebe). When our new found leaders after colonization didn’t ensure the sustainability of the civilization legated to us, then they began to turn this beautiful continent of ours into a shithole that has just been emitting filth in the name of Corruption, dictatorship, poverty, nepotism, tribalism and all the negative “isms” you can think of. Once our leaders decided to sell their consciences in order to buy power, wealth and control to the detriment of their continent, then they willingly began to forge the shitholes we have today in Africa.
We may say Trump called Africa and the rest of the colored world a shithole because he is a bigot and a racist. Yes, he may be all these things but the question we are inadvertently failing to ask ourselves is; are our nations shitholes or not? Have our politicians abandoned the the path of a blossoming civilization led down by our ancestors to fade away into the corrupt western models of what we now see as civilization? The answers to this a sweeping "Yes".
After over sixty years of independence, where are we? What have we to show for? Corruption, famine, dilapidated infrastructure, embezzlement, inexistent health care, a kwashiorkor educational system that is built on propagating instituted ignorance on those of the margin?
Divide and rule? Mass graves? Squander mania? Impunity? Unaccountability? Political ill will? Bribery? “Man know man” politicians? Scams and forgery? Illegal immigration? White collar triads? Mephestofilian necromancy? Self proclaimed modern age prophets and prophetesses? Etc etc.
Permit me take this example that just seems fitting to the educational system. About a month ago there has been this buzz and hype about PB Hev laptops in Cemeroun and the resultant "32=500". How does one explain this outrageous slap on the face of the intelligence of young students? Worse, an accredited professor goes on air and tries to justify this sham ( this only made me seem to question my own certificates having been taught by some of these guys in the faculty)
what is the take home from this, isnt this an example of a shithole where a professor deliberately tries to unteach in order to consolidate instituted ignorance? Of course we know why he will afford such outrageous largess to vomit such shit on national television...
( topic for another time)
The truth is bitter but like they say, we need to hear it. Personally, I wouldn't judge Mr. Trump from a racist standpoint since I can't claim to fully understand the dynamics of racism in America. On the contrary, I will judge his utterances on the basis of their veracity vis a vis the prevailing realities in my country.
Here is a nation wherein so called elected representatives have no regard whatsoever towards the betterment of the condition of the nation. They’ve remained stock to the Ngoa Ekelle University of Yaoundé 1 mentality, a system that cannibalizes its own children like the Grendel monster in the “Beowulf” epic. Wouldn’t it be a shit infested kinda leadership that is unruffled by the cries of the destitute as seen in the Anglophone Crisis since 2017? Wouldn't it be shit if genuine dialogue has not been given a chance yet. Oh yeah, what are the results of that, death, abductions, ghost-towns, liquidations and vaporizations on a daily basis.
Isn't it a stock pile of shit that on the 1st of October 2017, while youths, grand mothers and children were being shot on the streets of Bamenda, Buea, Kumbo, Kumba etc for recognition of reunification, constipated elites are busy marching in Douala and Yaoundé in celebration of the same unification. My friends, it's only a shithole that one sees through these events. No matter how we try to paint it like the obfuscated political scientists during Sunday panel debates, the only thing that filters out is shit. Shit that doesn't seem to stink in the nostrils of intellectuals who are stuck to textbook definitions of republican values, pseudo-scholars whose research zeal has been bloated by political appointments motivated by stringed motions of support to a shit infested geriatric regime of diapered grandfathers and “mbamba” polit-bureau mafia. A njangi association that buys votes in favour of crumbs from his excellency’s bountiful table of portfolio-less ministerial appointments.
Six decades after independence, what do we have to show for, solemnly I tell you, nothing. Take a look at South Korea, Malaysia, Dubai, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and the rest, 25 years ago we were almost if not on the same pedestal. Today, we beg for aid from them. DISGRACE!! Have we asked ourselves why? What do they have in terms of natural and human resources that we don’t have double or even triple here? In fact, most of these countries were ravaged by decades of horrifying civil wars and on top of it the effects of the Cold War. What war have we fought especially in 'Cameroun' to still be where we at in this age? Simply, we are here because we have representatives who have deliberately out of ill-will and “bad belle” to maintain the continent and the nations in the dark ages. This is the bitter truth we must come to terms with. Until those who hold the reigns of power ask the pertinent questions and formulate the right hypothesis, my dear friends, in the next 100 years we will be in the same place, the same stinking shithole if not worse. It might even graduate into a shit factory if we are not careful.
By and large, if you tell me: “hey my man, you’ve got a big head and an extremely large forehead!!” What i will do won’t be to insult you back. On the contrary i will formulate a research question and build your so called insult into a hypothesis then make my findings to either confirm or discard your hypothesis. I will look into a mirror to find out if your declarations hold some water. If yes, then i start trying out solutions, surgery, and what have you.This place is sick, it stinks and we must acknowledge it, we must come to terms with it my friends. When we do, its only then we can forge a path towards quailing the pungent stench that it emits.
