The (second) challenge for Africa ... the corrupt leadership

The second thing Wangari Maathai points out is that all the extra fast changes I discussed last time had one thing in common: condemning the traditional african cultures and explaining them as being primitive, demonic and old-fashioned.

Miss Maathai describes in detail the extent to which the colonial government went to erase traditional cultures from african people. She herself was re-named six times in her life depending on whether she went to catholic, protestant or any other kind of school. She lost her name and her identity six times at the will of strangers, a fate she shares with the rest of her countrypeople. What she knew as a child was that her culture is bad and she wants to be modern… She could not check out these facts, since african cultures are oral cultures and no books on them exist. With her grandmother died the last person in her family who knew what were the customs of the old days… The young Wangari found herself to be without any roots, any knowledge of who she is and where she comes from. Such an identity-loss leaves people empty and, most of all, insecure. People with no roots have one wish only in life: to feel safe. So getting a lot of money and gaining wealth becomes their outmost priority. It does not matter how egoistic they must be in their pursuit of richdom, since they do not feel connected to any other people.

There comes your explanation for the leaders of Africa, stashing billions of american dollars in foreign accounts and driving around towns with 25 cars lined one after the other while their poor citizens hunger… The leaders may be educated, rich and smart, but are just as rootless as the poorest of the poor! And there comes the explanation for the habit of cheating on fellow countrymen, no matter how much harm this does them, in the most egoistic and unethic manner. No question exists in Dar es Salaam ‘is what I am doing right?’, the only norm seems to be ‘I want to profit’. A very, very sad trend for people who used to live in solidary, egalitarian societies, where the community well-being came first.