Wakanda Forever - Africans Dreaming (ZZzzz)

Wakanda Forever - Nothing to Go Back to.

Let's take a moment and reflect, Wakanda is real and it's forever. First and foremost, the death of Okonkwo will forever haunt Africans. The illiterate will be haunted even if they don't know about his tragic death. Why are some of our African kings coronated by the representatives of the colonial masters? Okay, African kings were abducted and shipped to Europe to be humiliated, and others simply vanished. Assassinations continued to the modern world, for instance, the assissination of 20th-Century African leaders such as Malcohm X, Thomas Sankara, , Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Dr Martin Luther King, and the list goes on. These were great leaders that I don't think we will ever have anytime soon. They were a great hope of Great Africa. These deaths have changed the course of an African's life anywhere in the world. Ethiopians fought and won the Battle of Adwa. At that time the spirit of Mother Africa arose. Will we ever experience such glorious military victories and have kingdoms such as that of Mansa Musa or Egyptian mummies? Or we will from now on be a Wakanda Forever?

African's susceptibility to foreign values such as those from the West is astonishing. The African way is mortally wounded. However, let me not confuse being colonised with appearance. Looking and having professional mannerisms  has nothing to do with being colonised. Or accepting and rejecting new societal values. Oh yeah, I forgot we love rebels (Creators of chaos). The destroyers of what is without thinking about what was or what is to be. Cancel culture is anti-African progress. I'm not saying that we should not change with civilisation but we must be careful like the guys in the Middle-east. Look at the way we conduct our politics with zero honour and dignity, and an absolute lack of civility. Look at the conduct of our politicians at party leadership election conferences, in parliament, etc. I agree! Politicians usually bend rules, but to some extent, we should have redlines (Mostly moral). For instance, village politicians should have the most sympathy but that's not the case. Who's safeguarding the African way?

The path back to our basics and traditional values is  blurry. Like how grass grows back when a path is no longer used, this is a metaphor for how the road back to the original African values like ubuntu, family, ancestors,governance, etc, is blurring to a point of invisibility. It hurts a little when I hear Africans say the traditional authority is useless and should seize to exist. This is foretelling that the remnant traditional system and practices we still have won't last that long. I remember at one funeral, we were asked to stand up upon the arrival of Chief. There's something about standing up when your local chief is about to deliver a speech or enter a room. There's something about this act that is not what Westerners may see as being wrong and oppressive. To me, as an African, it is not oppressive. To some extent, this is similar to the conflict between liberal values and the hijab. Apart from other reasons, the Taliban fought for decades to preserve their ages-old culture and customs (I'm not condoning the means to the end). Why do we as Africans easily give these up? Russians have it in their National Anthem that "Ancestor-given wisdom of the people!". With our history written by colonisers do we have an eternal need to correct it based on what our grannies told us? Remember that "History is written by the victors not the defeated." Like they say, "Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter."

We are born not knowing but we should not die not knowing. Giving talk time to our grannies is the last hope for the survival of African knowledge, wisdom, and customs. We need to proudly carry this knowledge and customs with intelligence and confidence, and hand it over to the next generations. The African wisdom of ages! We should violently refuse to be told to throw away this knowledge and customs. Ancient wisdom is more valuable than gifts of gold. Most African idioms and quotes are not online, including our surnames, which is why Google does not give any results when we search for them. The poetic surnames, a.k.a clan names that link our identity as Africans. Sadly, very soon, there won't be anything. Our surnames will be dead and lost forever like 95% of human history. Big up to the Zulu and Tswana nations for keeping going the tradition of knowing where one comes from in terms of clan names. How many generations will be take for this knowledge to be depleted by 50% (Current knwoledge)?

It's a mess, I don't even know who's my great-grandmother's grandfather. Hating our ancestors and their way of doing things, i.e., customs is one of the reasons why I say we have nothing to go back to and we rather live in Wakanda forever. Because during the December holidays instead of having deep identity conversations with our grannies, we spend the entire holiday drinking and humping instead of dealing with serious matters. The thing about us knowing what to go back to is that we need a non-changing point of reference like religion or culture, but strongly religion. Religions define in a way a person's being and what it essentially means to be a person of a certain identity. The identity lacks in the West because they killed their God(s). Africans are being encouraged to do the same. Identity is what binds the human soul, mind and body. In a world where you can identify as a stone, there won't be any unity. Nature does not negotiate and will hit a reset button on us.

Ubuntu, Politics, African, Economic Culture, and Zero Pride. 

Western politics and capitalism seems to have no societal morals. Given who we follow, I'm sad to say this but politicians from the East seem to be more principled, most especially the Chinese and the Middle-eastern guys. As Africans, we have just been adopting other people's political and economic systems? Africans currently have do not have religious, political, or economic system that works, they are all imports. Are these imported systems compatible with Ubuntu and African traditional governance systems? If not, we are doomed. Is it the reason why we seem to be lacking a social fabric? The problem is, we seem not to realize it when we are employing self-defeating tactics. What will be the basis of African unity that politicians talk about?

Politics, culture and religion are inseparable. Remember the age of nation-states like Britain. In today's world, look at the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia is mainly an Orthodox Christianity country, they embraces their culture, and the politics are those of a strong man leader. The Afghans fought with all they had until the US army and its culture exporters were defeated. The Russians are doing the same in Ukraine at the moment, fighting against Western unipolar domination. Unfortunately for us Africans, there seems to be nothing left to fight for and nothing to go back to. Maybe I'm wrong, remember, this is made-man talk.

Maybe one of the reasons why we have nothing to go back to is that we have been enjoying dead feasts for a very long time. Look! Every aspect of an African's life is hugely dependent on other races; His food, his clothing (Let's me not get started on this one) his car, his phone, his guns, his music, his TV, and all other conveniences of modern life. The African is not making/building anything. For instance, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is food insecure but most of that country's land is arable and it has the second largest rainforest. People who don't make their own food are bound to be slaves. African humanism needs to rise and it needs Africans to be hungry and say no to USAID (Dambisa Moyo calls it Dead Aid). Africa must grow organically. Although, it is a very hard process that requires sacrifices and hard-headedness, but it is necessary. Let's all stop searching for vibranium and start confronting our daily struggles head-on.

So what is my African dream in this Wakanda forever? My dream is to see Africans suffering and capturing most of the value in that lifestyle, at least 90% of the value. And lastly, to see Africans fight against the killing of their Gods.