In our present world, a thin line has been drawn between dichotomies of life: Jew and Arab, Tiv and Jukun, Capitalist and Socialist, Christian and Muslim, White and Black. We are strangers to one another and there is little or no room for trust.
Africa, our dear continent, is not left behind. The colonial masters have been partly blamed for the problems that have arisen in the last two centuries. Perhaps this is true! They barely interacted with the natives of each country they were occupying during the colonial era using `divide-and-rule` method called `indirect rule` in Nigeria and `Apartheid` in South Africa. Such was the Jacobian generation that capitalized on Africa’s short-term need for enlightenment trading her culture and illustrious sons for mere whisky! We could say that Africa herself could not be absolved of the blame but “How can a blind man find his way in the midst of thorns?” Africa was experiencing the dark ages with little or no form of enlightenment or ‘eye-opening’ Westernization and the slave trade was used as a selfish means of making money by the same would-be colonial masters that the natives were beginning to fear and respect.
With the able-bodied men gone, the old men were too weak to manage the soil and the women were too bereaved to find something better to do. Prior to this time the village system depended on the passion of the youth, pride of the middle-aged and the prejudice of the old but alas! This equation no longer balanced and when things fall apart, in the words of Chinua Achebe, the center cannot hold.
The land was now susceptible to predator attack by these would-be colonial masters and not before long Africa was a slave of these masters who had previously “traveled from the land of the gods”. These masters stripped the farmlands of the crops and made away with the resources of the land.
The good news was that Africa got the knowledge; the missionaries brought succour in the form of religion and enlightenment in the form of education. Education was the means by which the natives of the land could be free and they knew that. They were ready to attain this even if it meant their last drop of blood.
The early 20th century came and for the first time after slave trade was abolished some illustrious sons of Africa departed on a knowledge -seeking mission to the white man’s land as “foreign exchange earners”. These sons and daughters sent news home negating some beliefs that they had of the white man and first the first time there was a glimpse of light at the end of this dark tunnel. The words ‘freedom’ and ‘independence’ were heard in some quarters. Rebellion and uprisings sprang (Aba riot, 1929). The distrust for the white man and fear grew to deep hatred. The clamour for independence rose in the 50s and not before long each country was dying to get away from the hands of the white man that they have grown to hate and detest.
Not that these colonial masters were that vicious, some in fact most of them has good intentions, after all, the slave trade abolishment came from Great Britain, but there had been no good rapport between the colonial masters and the natives from the word ‘go’ (they preferred living on hills and elevated grounds above the natives but not among them - an act evident of a superiority complex, no less!) and the constant clamour for independence was making matters worse.
Independence came and went, the native who had no fertile ground to sow the seed of hatred for the former colonial masters found it in other tribal groups that had been grouped with them into the same country by the colonial masters. Some countries experienced civil wars less than a decade after independence, for example, Nigeria and many others experienced coups and counter-coups. Corruption was becoming the order of the day and accusing fingers were pointed by some Pan Africanists and musicians e.g. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Many people still remembered the Congo occurrence when Lulumba was killed and the MauMau uprising in Kenya. There are still forms of melee in Zimbabwe over white-ownership of lands.
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