Africa's Development And Mental Slavery Pt1

Just recently, a friend of mine was in Ghana on a visit. He has been living in Europe for sometime now, and thought it somehow appropriate to return home after all these years. He couldn't believe how Ghana had transformed, when he returned after his three weeks stay. He told me that the country, which he left behind so many years ago is no longer there. Everything has changed, he said. The country is moving forward. Ghana has become more like Europe, he added. I guess that the tarred transportation roads didn't escape his attention. Quite frankly, I didn't ask if whether or not he was happy that our country was developing more and more towards the West. Because I knew for certain that he was obviously pleased. He was full of appraisal of the previous government's exterior developments in the country. He concluded his story by telling me that Ghana has developed for sure. Former President Kufour has done Ghana good, he said.

Strange as it may be, the majority of Africans seem to equate development to Westernization. To some Africans, the definition of progress is when an African country is in the process of trading its Africanism for all things Western. Some confuse skyscrapers in an African country with development. The over-saturation of Western manufactured goods in our African markets are seen as progress. The many Western manufactured cars congesting our transportation roads are seen as success. In fact, most Africans wish that Africa was like Europe, Asia or America. See, there could never be a talk of any development without the talk of creation. In other words, the process of development is directed linked to the creation of something. Simply because; one has to create first before one could develop whatever one has created. It's simple as that.

During slavery or better yet the colonization of Africa, the African was taught to be dependent. The African was taught to rely on the White-man for almost everything. The White-man's education system miss-educated the African. The African was also taught to see himself as less, and the White-man as more. The African was brainwashed to see the White-man as God, and he the African as the devil. The African was bamboozled that God is love, and the devil must be hated upon. Therefore, with the devil labeled black by the White-man, the miss-educated African being black couldn't help but to associate himself psychologically to the devil. According to the White-man, black is dark and evil, which means that God must be good and white. See, it's commonly known and accepted that we humans love what's considered good, and hate what's considered evil.

Therefore, with the devil associated to hate and all things black by the White-man, the miss-educated African couldn't help but to see himself as evil in need of hate. Hence, his self hatred-his lack of self love. Undoubtedly, Africans need to develop their very own. But first, Africans need to create their own in order to develop on their own even further. But the question is; what have we created thus far, which could be developed upon to serve our own means? Because mind you; we cannot develop ourselves on the creation of the White-man. We cannot keep buying things from the White-man to develop ourselves. And we cannot develop ourselves by asking the White-man to build this for us, or tar that road for us. In short, we cannot develop ourselves on a slave mentality. It just doesn't work like that. Development means doing things of yourself, by yourself and for yourself, or am I wrong?