Posts
But here in Africa, parents aren't custodians/guardians, they are owners. In this continent, a man gives birth to children, gives them names, brands them with hideous marks and then puts them to work like farm animals. He sits back and counts them like chickens and like God, he feels satisfied with his work. He can treat them however he likes, because they and their mother are his property for life. In fact, they don't have rights. They are not humans and can never be humans without his permission. You can be sure that such children will grow up with a restricted view of life. They will lack wide imagination and their dreams and aspirations would be limited to their owner's farm and house. It's like buying a horse from a nearby local breeder. If not well secured, it will return to the farm where it was bred. Remember White Fang in Jack London's hit novel? He kept returning to his (mother's) owner even after he had been sold. It's a similar case with a number of African youths who have chosen not to move along with the world and instead remain in their owners farm simply because the homing magnet is very strong. It's all well and good to farm, produce food and run the nation's economy from the village, but if you remain in that little comfort zone of yours, you will learn nothing new. Your only aim would be to cultivate your owner's land and then inherit it after he dies and then your children will tow the same line. Meanwhile, you're locked out from the rest of the world and you have no idea that there are much better and more effective farm machinery than the hoe and the cutlass. Your ancestors used the hoe, cutlass and sharpening stone. You have used the same tools to work for your owner and after his death, you used them to work for yourself and your children will eventually inherit them after you die. Those tools would only be replaced when they are broken or lost, no new and better ones would be forged because you lack the education/exposure that will fuel and enrich your imagination.
This whole phenomenon is the basic structure of many African societies which has followed a lot of them into the 21st century and has gone as high as the Federal level. Nigeria is one such example. In this country, there is no development because both the government and the people keep repeating old actions day after day and expecting progress all the while. That's actually the definition of madness. We really need to see a psychiatrist! If we must stop crawling and fly like other nations, we must ignore the constant beep of the homing signal and go in search of knowledge/exposure. Because your ancestors did it that way doesn't mean you should also do it that same way. There's a reason why your ancestors lived in the Stone Age while you're living in the Information Age. We must be ready to learn, unlearn and relearn with ease. From our past, we must 'Absorb what is useful, discard what is not and add what is uniquely your own.' - Bruce Lee.
