Jeronimo Kateya
Paraphrasing one of his earliest eloquent speeches, Kenyan Pan Africanist, PLO Lumumba, philosophically questioned the unquestioned question: What would have happened if Mwalimu was to rise up and see the dealings of the African current state of affairs? What would have happened if Kwame Nkrumah was to rise up just to consciously perceive the contradictions to his vision? These are some of the valid philosophical questions relevant as yesterday as far as mother Africa is concerned. Will it be till eternity that Africans are destined to be at the hands of the West in their administrations? It cannot be mythical that Africans are unable to govern themselves. This must be refuted. Are the African leaders really suffering from inferiority complex, dependency syndrome and schizophrenia that the development in Africa is at slow pace? What causes the slow pace? Where is our intellectual certitude and epistemological fortitude in becoming a self-reliant continent since 1963? Where are our extensively trainedAfrican engineers that we still have non Africans nearly dominating in all walks of life?
Where are we impartingng our knowledge into so that we liberate ourselves from the yoke of 21st century of economic colonialism? Why escalation of abject poverty if the contrary is not a verifiable fact? For how long will we continue bowing to the West and lately to the East? Why are many of the African leaders still not believing in themselves that dependency syndrome exists and that it can be eliminated in Africa? If we do away with the isms that impede and humper our thinking ability and progress, man-made poverty will remain a stumbling block and engulf the poor. Why stealing and hiding acquisition of the goods to the advantage of the West? Why depending too much on the West, and nowadays, on the East? Why? These are, but some of the painful critical questions African leaders should meticulously integrate in their examination of conscience.
Time has come that we are no longer infants and toddlers in our contemporary civilization. Dependency syndrome will not liberate us from abject poverty. It is time contemporary African leaders revisit and implement the vision of the earliest Pan Africanists. We are sinking in the deep trench of debt. Where are the African progressive minds? When will we be debt free? Are the fellow African intellectuals not perceiving this? What African innovation and architectural developments can we acclaim truly and proudly as attributed to African technologists and scientists since 1963? Where are the new innovative African Isaack Newtons, Pythagoreans, the African Armstrongs, etc.? Where are the African scientists?
What is that which we do not have in mother African geography that cannot be exploited at the best advantage of Africans? Why importing too much of the acquisition of the goods as if we cannot do it in Africa? We have sufficient raw materials. Why auctioning the African land of our ancestors to the highest foreign bidders? Are there some, if not all, African leaders who are only good at formulating policies, counter impacts and how to mitigate issues theoretically? Are we really so in dogmatic slumber? Where is implementation on agriculture to counter the hungry, technology to counter the problem of teaching and learning at the remotest rural areas? What is the purpose of post academic life if not to unleash our potentials to the poor through genuine service delivery centered around agape? Where do we invest our knowledge and experience in the real practical lives of our people to ensure transformation of complete poverty to real prosperity? Why systematic organized crime of stealing and hiding the African resources and acquisition outside mother Africa meant to feed Africans? We are the coauthors of our own misfortune.
We are told in the fifth and seventh Decalogue, not to kill and steal. Are the African leaders not duty bound to adhere to this? Is the author of the Decalogue so foolish? Stealing systematically from the poor and powerless is a crime against humanity. What is wrong, and where have we gone wrong as African leaders? Where are our leadership qualities? Since 2002, Namibia has been speaking of rural electrification and network coverage. For how long will it take us, not only in Namibia, but Africa as a whole, to close the chapter of network coverageamong others?
Why is it that we have African perennial rivers, yet we still depend on other countries to feed us? Where are the scientists and engineers to innovate ways to feed an African child with tilapia, tigerfish and catfish? We only need value addition. Why are our African minerals really exploited by the Westand, lately, by the East? Where are the authentic custodians of our African marine resources? Are there some techniques that are perhaps not academically rendered to the African chemists, physicists, astronomers etc., making Africans to continue relying on the West and the East? Where is economic inculturation to update the living standards of fellow Africans? Our fellow ancient Pan Africanists exclaimed, “Away with Bantu education system”. Steve Biko would have asked this philosophic question: “What have we done after the elimination of Bantu education System?”
Is it ethically correct if we are to deeply rationalise it for the elites to have their children study abroad? A simple calculus can help manifest the amount annually spent by an individual international student of an elite in comparison to the student of the poor family. Are these not the resources painfully generated by taxpayers meant for the poor to sustain “international students”? These are some of the uncomfortable questions we should pose and reflect for transformation of the leadership style of some of our African leaders. Where are the custodians of justice who ensure justice? We should ensure that Africans have faith in their education system..
Conversely, Robert Mugabe and Muammar Gaddafi were right in their own rationality when their ideologies were a paradigm shift toward the advocacy for self-reliance, self-support and self-dependence. Africa cannot continue to rely on the West and the East until Jesus’ Parousia. They cannot be undermined in post modernistic society. Africa is truly a wealthy continent, able to feed the whole world. Another uncomfortable question for African leaders is aboutwhy poverty continues to strike Africans. Why is the West still here and there, controlling and making strict decisions? The mental enslavement which was decided in 1884 in Berlin must be countered with African supreme logical conquest and with tactical sophistication in order to economically remain independent.
On the other side of Africa, Malagasy Republic found innovative discovery of the herbal medicinal concoction to effectively treat and cure the Covid-19 virus when it broke out. Why was this finding not supported? Only 37 African member states of AU supported this self-evident truth of African herbal discovery. Where is the application of African de-colonial consciousness and African patriotism?
For how long will Africa be undermined? We are not children of a lesser God. So, the disease of dependence syndrome must be championed against and spearheaded indefatigably by scholars, young African post-modernist philosophers, leading intellectuals and young African genius Albert Einsteins of our contemporary time, to consequently ensure Africa is self-reliant, self-supportive and self-sustainable. This should not be done; it must be done. This can be actualised because potentiality is empirically perceivable.
Jeronimo Nghilunanye Kateya is an African contemporary post-modernistic philosopher and theologian from Oupale waKateya village. He writes in his own capacity; thus, views expressed are personally his. He can be reached at: RepublicofNamibia21March1990@gmail.com.