Black Man: Do you love yourself?

What’s that Bob Marley song called? oh yes…”Redemption Song”. If you know the words, sing along….

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our mind. Wo! have no fear for atomic energy, cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time. How long shall they kill our prophets, While we stand aside and look? Yes, some say its just a part of it: Weve got to fulfil de book. Wont you help to sing Dese songs of freedom? cause all I ever had: Redemption songs” ….(my afro brotha’s & sista’s…please redeem yourselves, if you wish)

Why I am bringing up Bob Marley and these songs of freedom? because I was at a barbecue this weekend and the topic of Africa came up. Specifically, it was about how primitive, backward and under-developed Africa is (or is not….depending on which side you were on).

So, one person, whom I’ll refer to as “this fellow” was arguing that Africans have invented nothing and have produced nothing. We are totally dependent on the mzungu for most of what we do and for most of what we have. Now of course, you can’t make a statement like this and not expect the “wailers” to come out fighting on behalf of “their” continent (and they sure did. oh yes they did.)

waaaaaaaa! bbbb.. but the Egyptians invented mathematics and they are Africans, no matter what they say.

waaaaaaaa! bbbbbb….you sell-out! why do you hate yourself”? (& on and on they went until it got to a point where no one was listening to anyone and it just degenerated into a verbal screaming crescendo)

It is indisputable that Africa is poor, backward, primitive, poverty stricken and under-developed. The evidence was on “this fellows” side, but the “wailers” couldn’t handle this stark reality and they got all bent out of shape and started wailing about the “black” Egyptians & their mathematical inventions (it’s the same reaction that followed the Kenya Airways crash: never assign fault or criticism, just rally behind your country & tell each other what a wonderful airline Kenya Airways is, despite what the evidence suggests (2 fatal plane crashes in the span of 7 years, when you have a fleet of only 30 planes, with a 23 year old co-pilot at the helm who may have ignored what traffic controllers told him)

That was a digression and I want to get back to my main point here.

So, “this fellow” who made the statement that Africans have invented nothing is thinking about moving back to Kenya/the land of no inventions. So, then, the question becomes, if you believe that the continent of Africa is so lacking in it’s ability to create anything of value, why would you then move back there? I never got the chance to ask this question so I will “invent” my own answer.

The reason you’d leave a job in America behind to go and work in Kenya is largely, if not entirely motivated by your owneconomic self-interest. i.e. you make an assessment that your economic & career opportunities will be better in Kenya, inspite of it’s backwardness and poverty.

Now, if you make the above assessment (that you will return to the continent of “no inventions” to earn a living) then you are also acknowledging that you, yourself will not invent anything (since you are also an African and by proxy, you are incapable of inventing). You will simply sell your goods and services (that have been produced in the west) to the 100 million other East Africans, earn a good living (because that’s a lot of people) and live happily ever after.

However, I believe, a better proposition is to think like the Indians. Many of India’s new billionaires went to school in the west and worked there for a few years, but at some point, they too decided, that it was in their economic self interest to return to their native land and try to earn a living. However, the Indians did not for once believe that their poor third world country was incapable of competing with the west. They went back to India, confronted all the third world problems they had to confront, dealt with them and built first word companies that are now competing and in some cases even beating their western counter-parts.

Since I was unable to make this point in the middle of all the screamers and wailers, I will state it here: You have to acknowledge Africa’s total lack of progress (the evidence is indisputable) but take that lack of progress on, like the Indians, otherwise, you’ll never make any progress!

The wailers could not bring themselves to acknowledge Africa’s under-development and “this fellow” could not bring himself to acknowledge that progress could be made despite Africa’s current under-development.

I’m listening to Robert Kiyosaki as I write this (I must say, he’s a fantastic bullshitter storyteller)

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