I know of people who wanted to go "back to their roots" but became disappointed when they were rejected by "their people" or their culture wasn't as great as they thought it would be. Who's fault is that? Very few black people grew up in a "true black culture", many of us have been hybridized by globalisation. Even people who grew up in a black society have Eurocentric influences in their education & way of life. Virtually, no black society in the world today has no European or Asian influence... the very clothes we wear are a Western creation. But borrowing cultures is not always a bad thing, exposure to European ways has improved our way of life to an extent & it's up to us to weed out what we don't want from this adopted, foreign way of life. The European way of life is a jumbling of many cultures worldwide & Europeans keep what works best for them. Hoarding whatever works from other lands & making it distinctly for themselves. So they are at the cutting edge of everything because of this policy. And because of this policy, modernising Africa almost seems like Europeanising African cultures.
The first firearm was made in China but Europe has made it theirs. Coffee from Ethiopia, chickens from southeast Asia & maize from South America all helped the European economy. If I propose a similar policy to Africans, I might be even accused of being unAfrican. But why aren't we making our own firearms, trains & automotive vehicles? The natural progression from our disillusionment with our people is simply improving things for our people in a meaningful way. Where there is no agricultural culture, introduce it. Where there is no rainwater harvesting culture, introduce it. We need to make ourselves what we want to be. If you feel there is need for a Disneyland in Windhoek, you need to make it there because it won't happen by wishing for it to be there. We need to dream of what our lands could be & actively make our lands into our utopia. A dream without work towards making it a reality remains a simple fantasy. If surviving being a footnote in history means we need to adapt & modernise, it should be so. A Rwandan software company, Malian arms company & Be in aircraft company that expands across Africa should not be seen as unAfrican or "trying to be white", we're already using foreign technology that spies on us & tech companies that get money from us. Why can't we build our own?
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