African Ignorance And Nationalism Movement: Inherent Lessons For Present Generation 

So, quickly it is pertinent to identify and also highlight some of the lies and negative impressions that Africans had that made them to play second fiddle before the renaissance that swept through the African continent in the late 50s and early 60s that marked the political independence of many African states.

1. Africans thought that the European adventurers, explorers, slave merchants and colonial administrators who came to Africa never had toes.

It was so because they lived in gated, secluded GRAs so Africans including their messengers never got to their private partners.

They always saw them well dressed with shoes that covered their toes.

So, Africans thought they were toeless.

2. Africans thought that the whites were immortal because they never saw any of them die.

Whenever anyone of sick, they flew them to their home countries and when they died they buried them there.

Whenever their African friends and servants asked about such persons, they created the impression that they were fine and doing very well in their home countries not knowing they were dead.

3. Africans never knew that there were poor, hungry, miserable and even made people in Europe.

Those who were in Africa that had mental health issues (madness) were quickly ferried home so Africans never knew that they had mad people.

But all that changed when Africans went to school abroad and the Second World War (WW2) when Africans were recruited to fight.

African soldiers saw dead bodies. They saw mad people. They saw destitute. They saw unimaginable things with their eyes.

African soldiers who were wowed by white women to have sex with them realized that the women very cold and they were not as sweet as black women.

Thiong’o wa Ngugi author of the award winning novel ‘WEEP NOT CHILD’ alluded to the above fact about the sweetness of black women when compared with cold, smelling and almost tasteless white women in his famous work.

Ngugi who was named John during baptism by the missionaries decided to change his borrowed name to a native Kenyan name Thiong’o wa in protest against western colonialism.

African scholars and soldiers discovered that it was natural resources from Africa that were used to run the European economy during the European Industrial Revolution and others.

The above then led to renaissance and the pan African Nationalist Movements.

African leaders like Sir Herbert Macaulay and Ernest Sisei Ikoli and later Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello; the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Joseph Tarka, High Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal, Ahmed Ahidjo of Cameroon, Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar, Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Modibo Keita of Mali, Hamani Diori of Niger, Hubert Maga and Sourou-Magan Apithy of Benin Republic etc were some of the African Nationalists who championed the struggle for the independence of African countries mostly in the late 50s and early 60s.

LESSONS

1. Africans should realize their self-worth and self-esteem and stop playing second fiddle.

2. African countries should begin to look inward in the area of socio-economic development instead of looking for aids from the west.

African states should adopt DEPENDENCY Economic Theory as against enslaving and exploitative Modernization theory that encourage and promote western dominance.

3. African countries should jettison western educational curriculums that are not science and technology base but mostly focused on grooming graduates who can only read and write and also graduate religious Interpreters and glorified clerks who masquerade as administrators.

4. African countries should begin to harness the enormous natural resources in the continent instead of allowing others to mine and harness it and then turn around to throw crumbs and peanuts to African leaders.

5. Africans should preserve and strengthen their rich traditions and cultural heritages which are lacking in Europe and other areas.

6. African states need Benevolent Dictators and not greedy, corrupt and very incompetent leaders who are masquerading as Democrats.