Wednesday 31 December 2014

Africa 2015 – Freedom and restoration(s)

Freedom is human right. This right is inalienable. Freedom could, conceivably, mean different things to different people. In this epoch of febrile quest for freedom from the collapsing and collapsed “Berlin-states” of subjugation implanted in Africa, any African peoples who, for instance, wishes to chart a future based on the precepts of their forebears in the 12th century Contemporary Era (CE) or even way back, to, say, 8th century Before Contemporary Era (BCE), has the right to pursue this goal. Equally, any African peoples who believes that their aspirations lie in working through the immense challenges of the 21st century CE and projecting targets of creativity and transformations subsequently, must exercise this right.

As everyone knows, the “Berlin-states” that Europe created in Africa, in the aftermath of that infamous Berlin conference on conquest (November 1884-February 1885), cannot lead Africans to the reconstructive changes they deeply yearn for after the tragic history of centuries of occupation. Such change was and never is the mission of these states but instruments to expropriate and despoil Africa by the conquest.  As in Berlin, thankfully, states are not a gift from the gods but relationships painstakingly formulated and constructed by groups of human beings here on earth to pursue aspirations and interests envisioned by these same human beings.

Civilisation

To achieve the goal(s) of any of these stipulated paths does not therefore require anyone to embark on murdering someone else or have themselves murdered in the process. Since Nigeria’s launch of the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, fifteen million Africans have been murdered in genocides and other wars in Africa.

For the future survival of the African humanity, let no more die for the path to their envisaged civilisation or, in other words, howsoever this civilisation a people chooses is construed. It, surely, can be attained and sustained without committing a crime, particularly genocide – heinous crime against humanity.

(Sonny Rollins Trio, “The freedom suite” [personnel: Rollins, tenor saxophone; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Max Roach, drums; recorded: Riverside Records, New York, US, 7 March 1958])
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

No comments:

Post a Comment