UNCOVERING THE UNSEEN FACE OF AFRICA Coming summer I will present a research paper on how to improve Africa education, making it globally competitive and also valuing the African culture while meeting the needs of the people. I am excited to do this, since this is a unique opportunity for me to reveal the reality about Africa to British academic fraternal. This will be an extension of many private discussions, personal convictions and in-depth research that I have engaged in the last decade. There is need to challenge the ‘western’ pre-conceived biased ideologies about Africa. More so, remind the African children that they have the power, abilities and opportunities TO BE themselves and should aim to explore their potential, while still being authentic with their identity. Often, I am angered by constant negative media coverage of Africa and the voices of prominent politicians, charity leaders and academics, portraying Africa as the land of diseases, poverty, death and ignorance. I am also disheartened by the minority Africans who use the situation to advance themselves, while assisting in enhancing this harmful picture of our lovely continent. Nonetheless, there are many wonderful sides of Africa which remain untold. As the Nigerian scholar Chimamanda Ngozi argued, there is danger in hearing a single story and making conclusions. Therefore, I feel obligated to tell my positive side of Africa and I invite African brothers, sisters and friends to keep telling them as well. It is one way that we can challenge and overcome these unconstructive biases projected towards our motherland and our identity. I have been following closely the ideologies of past and recent African writers and leaders, which were very enlightening. After exploring the ideas and writings of Africans like Chinua Achembe ‘Things fall apart’, ‘Education of self-reliance’ by Mwalimu Nyerere, ‘Facing mount Kenya ‘ by Jomo Kenyatta and ‘Long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela among others. I have come to realise their ideologies were wise and profound. The ideas of people like Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Haille Selasi and Nelson Mandela were to have a United Africa, that is sovereign, educated, united, progressive economically, which faces its challenges fearlessly. No wonder the creation of African Union which has developed overtime, despite facing unique problems like wars, diseases, poverty, ethnic divisions, prejudices and deprive identities. Africa in last decade has been the most growing economy around the world according to IMF report (2014). African countries like Angola, Kenya and Ethiopian have moved from being third world classification to mid-economies. Moreover, Africa is rich of fantastic culture which includes music, dressing, values, religion etc. The African land would be likened to garden of Eden ( full of milk and honey), but in African terms it is full of diamonds, gold, great agriculture cash crops like cocoa, coffee, tea , fruits and many other food crops. The African wildlife cannot be compared to any other continent. The people are so loving and accepting. Having lived in Britain for a decade and travelled to many countries, there are none welcoming and loving people anywhere in the world like the African people. I believe the rate of depression is lower in Africa due to the social structure. Another untold story is that over 55% of African population are not poor and have access to good education, caring stable families, good health and social care. The African governments systems have changed over time and they have put in place institutions and policies to protect their people, which included drawing of African charter. Having grown up in Africa, I have great memories which I cherish all my life. I do worry sometimes if my children will be able to have similar happy childhood in UK like I had in Kenya. I recall eating ten mangoes at ago, growing fresh vegetables in our farm, picking coffee and playing freely in the village farms every afternoon after school in my early school years. The discipline in my schools is to be emulated and the Christian faith upbringing within my community was outstanding. I enjoyed the social events like attending to several weddings on Saturdays, without even the need for invitations. These among other great memories like having friends over in our home and chatting till the wee hours of the night are the memorable sweet part of African phenomenon. On reflection, I feel privileged to have grown up surrounded by scholars, thinkers, leaders and religious figures within my social setting who have made significant contribution with their work beyond Africa. Indeed these great sides are not portrayed; hence uninformed people think that all Africans live in huts, without electricity, water, hospitals or vehicles. They have no idea that there are just a few regions with such issues. Indeed, there are plans to improve them, but sometimes they are challenged by the social cultural conflict of specific communities. However, majority of Africans live in safe and stable places, where their livelihoods are modest. Although Africa is advancing quickly, my worry is that we might lose our true African values and identity. As a swahili saying states ‘mwacha mila ni mtumwa’ meaning-the person who loose cultural values, s/he looses identity and becomes a slave. Hence, I warn as Africa becomes globally competitive it should also to reserve its identity. Moreover, before African government accept new ideologies, business dealings and affiliations, they need to analyse the repercussions. Undeniably, our African founding fathers had one common goal to unite us and to maintain our African identity, so we should guard it. At the same time we should explore our culture with pride but also adopt ideologies that can help us move forward without losing our morality, discipline and faith. In addition, as we uphold our identity we should also fight against bias and division. I hope one day all the negative media coverage will be challenged and removed. The charities that want to support the poor in our midst; they should do so without dehumanising us, by using horrible stories and pictures of poor African kids in the media. They should wash our dirty linen in private and not damage our image. Our current leaders seem to have a vision for our continent, let us support them. All true Africans should also tell their beautiful stories and extinguish the misconceptions and misrepresentations of the continent. We should promote great education that supports our progression, creativity and cultural identity. Together we can do it, but divided we fall. I am proudly African. Evelyn Corrado ev-onlincounselling
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 05:53:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015