Hekima Review No. 32 (Dec 2004)

It was Basil Davidson who ironically saw Africa, and the effects of the white man’s quest to evangelize and civilize the Africans, as “The Black Man’s Burden”. A glance at the African continent from Cape to Cairo will easily reveal to any interested bystander that if contemporary Africa were any burden, which I suppose she is, she is not only primarily her burden but also the root cause of this burden. And, it makes a lot of sense to argue that, the Africans of our generation have lost the moral justification to point accusing fingers at anyone but themselves. Gone are the days when the blaming of the slavemasters, the colonialists, and the neocolonialists made some sense. By and large, whether we like to accept it or not,
today, we are the architects of our fortune or misfortune. And, the moment we started shouldering this odious responsibility ourselves, the better for everyone.