How do you tell a story that is both yours and not yours to tell? A story about the great warriors of the past, of men and women of valour who fought the good fight for the advancement of their communities. Names like King Jaja of Opobo, Queen Amina of Zazzau, Mandela of South Africa and the many others who the annals of history were unable to capture come to mind.
How do I talk about the future of Africa when the larger population of Africans do not believe in it? I do not blame them anyway, for I too, lose my beliefs sometimes especially in the face of the recent #EndSARS saga which lead to the Lekki tool gate massacre that is still shrouded in mystery. The current realities of daily kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, ethnic and religious crises also add to the mix, dashing ones hope for a better Nigeria. Once upon a time, these were unheard of, my neighborhood back then in Taraba comes to mind. It had people drawn from across the country, from different religions and we all lived in harmony embracing our diversity and respecting each other’s views, but today? People are kidnapped from their homes, communities are demarcated along the lines of religious, ethnic and even political affiliations in some instances. The disparity and hate is gradually becoming a norm so much so that I wonder what kind of country —if at all there will still be a country— my children will find themselves in when they are born. These and many more make one unable to imagine what the future holds.
Knowing little to nothing about our history has also not helped, for it is commonly said that “you cannot know where you’re going to if you don’t know where you’re coming from.” As I lie on my bed, musing about my future, that of my children, my country and Africa as a whole, all I can see at first is just the bleak reality which made me reflect on how my life has turned out thus far. Growing up, my one sole aim in life was to become a medical doctor to assist as many people as possible through the medical profession, children were my obsession so I naturally wanted to become a pediatric specialist but life happened along the way and I found myself studying Biology, I hated every second of it initially until our introduction to biogenetic engineering! I was swallowed up in the world of DNA sequencing and loved it so much that I began to envision myself in my white lab coat spending hours in the laboratory viewing samples and creating biological magic, then, life happened again after school when I realized my new field of interest —genetic engineering— had no known career path within the country and I had to choose between going abroad —which I neither had the resources nor willingness for— and trailing another path which could provide both satisfaction and cash. I choose the latter and tailoring came into the mix. Then came the surge of suicide and depression in the country and I was drawn to getting trained on caregiving channeled towards trauma healing.
Remembering this trajectory I’ve been through, my focus shifts back to Africa, how our culture is getting eroded with every passing day, how a lot of us can’t even speak our indigenous languages talk more of writing in them, how we’ve adopted foreign ways of dressing and choose foreign forms of entertainment over the local one. However, upon closer observation, I realize that my thoughts aren’t wholly accurate because there are still Africans albeit a minute number, who still see value in Africa and being African. I’m I among those few? Maybe and maybe not, it all depends on the perspective from which you look at it. So, what then is the future of Africa?
For me, the future of Africa is in the silent whispers of dissatisfaction that is gradually picking up voice all over the continent, it is in that official who is daily choosing developing his community over enriching himself, it is in that uniformed personnel who is dedicated to his duties and doesn’t use his position to intermediate civilians, it is in that little child who doesn’t pass his elders without greeting them, it is in that hawker who does not litter the environment, it is in that bike man who does not charge you double the price just because you’re a stranger who speaks a different language from him, it is in that friend who encourages you daily, it is in that stranger who notices you’re stranded and offers you help, it is in every individual doing their little quota and changing the narrative in their immediate environment. The future of Africa I see is like a diamond yet to be polished, which just like my career journey, doesn’t look glamorous and inviting at first sight but upon consistent cleaning and polishing reveals the sparkling diamond beneath the gore. For us to come to this point of satisfaction in ourselves as Africans and in our continent, we have to beautify ourselves individually by doing our own little quota of that which is needed in the various communities where we are so that collectively, like the little grains of sand that make the mighty ocean, our little efforts merged together become so enormous, creating the desired positive changes we seek. Making the Africa we desire become the Africa we live in and are happy to birth our children in. As it is said in Swahili, twaweza.
PPBlessing 