IT’S OUR TIME

It’s 12.15 am and as I drive into the garage from a night out, I hear to young men busily arguing about Africa’s potential to win World Cup Trophy. So before I offload my half drunken self onto my mattress and before the effects of the last tequila (or was it vodka with no chasers) I had kicks in, I take a minute to wander in my thoughts.

AFRICA, that’s the first thing that comes into my mind, how far we have come. For a very long time I have been one of the advocates who has lambasted Africans for being lazy and failing to achieve much over the years.

Through the years, I have wondered why our politicians have failed to rid themselves of corruption and why our governments continue to structure their budgets with over 60 percent dependency on donor support.

I have failed to see the logic in how we can crank the engine of growth if in the 21st century we remain the world’s leading exporter of raw materials. I mean, how sensible is it to export red clay (bauxite) and then turn around and purchase aluminium along with aluminium related products (mobile phones, automobiles, etc) for ten times the price at which we sold the raw material used to produce these goods.

Well tonight, I am taking a breather; I am changing my bird’s eye view of the DARK CONTINENT. After years of criticizing the land mass from which I hail from and which I love so much, I believe it’s about time I paid my respects to the motherland.

1550 to 1850, Yes! That is how long the African slave trade lasted for. 300 years of oppression and severe human rights deprivation. 300 years of physical, mental, sexual and emotional abuse. 300 years of gradually building the African mental psyche to rebel against each other and to depend wholly on the western world.

So if after all this and in less than 60 years since the first African nation received independence, we are hosting a grand event such as the FIFA 2010 WORLD CUP, then I believe it is time we pat each other on the back.

Before you go off disagreeing with me, take a break while I navigate you through the last few years of some African achievements worth celebrating.

Not too long ago we managed to put a black man into the white house. Less than four years ago, you would be a laughing stock for ever suggesting such a thing. But we did it. How we move on from there is a whole different situation but for now let us celebrate a milestone achievement.

Some people say what good can come from a continent of apes. Well maybe we might be dark and not so pleasant looking but if you can bury a man for 27 years in a dungeon that takes less than 20 paces to trace its perimeter (only for telling black people to go on strike) and that man comes back to tell his followers to forgive you and to love you. Then I believe the African man bears the greatest asset for world development, Love. That is the legacy of Nelson Mandela.

Now let us delve a bit into the realms of science where the African mind is believed not to have a place. Did you know that Ghana’s Professor Allotey was the man who formulated the technique used to determine matter in outer space known as the the Allotey formalism? Yes! We have an African name as a formula. So much for the slave masters who sought to drain us of our mental capabilities. So before you go round saying what is Africa doing when the White man is putting people into space, know that it is the African man that is helping keep him there.

20 years ago South Africa was run by apartheid. Today, it is being run by its third successive black president. They said the nation will collapse after it went to the “dogs”, this afternoon it hosted 36 nations and brought the whole world to a stand still.

What can I say but hold high the Ghana Flag, blow into my vuvuzela and in the words of Sexy Shakira yell

“Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
It’s TIME FOR AFRICA”