My African Dream
Posted: Monday, February 02, 2009
by Michael Gaffley
flatlinetochange
I am a son of Mother Africa, the cradle of civilization. Africa as its name indeed suggests is the birthplace, the land free from cold and horror. Africans just love the sunny skies and braaivleis (barbecue). Africa is the second largest continent. My dad told me about the pre-eminence of the African Dream long before I started reading about the American Dream. Africa is still a dream destination for aspiring international travelers. Africa is still my dream, my escape and my refuge in a pristine environment surrounded by the sounds, sights and aroma of mother nature.
Hollywood movies and the media still portray a much skewed and negative view of Africa. The people of Africa are often ridiculed. This continent is currently known for its human crises, problems, conflict and the subsequent suffering of its peoples. This continent is known for famine caused by drought and other natural disasters. Most of the harm done to Africa has been done by people, people who were not born in Africa but who wanted what Africa had.
The West, notably the Europeans brought the racial plant to Africa where it soon became naturalized and exploited in well orchestrated social conditions. They sliced, diced and divided Africa at will without ever consulting any African country. Europeans literally changed both landscape and map of Africa to suit their exploits. There was an international struggle for dominion over Africa. Europeans were besotted with the inferiority, superiority paradigm and Africa has suffered much because of this implanted notion of the inferiority of black peoples. The inferiority mantra gave Europeans a cover for exploiting Africa and its peoples, most notably of which were the enslavement of Africans and the colonization of Africa. The second class citizenship that they gave to the Blacks gave them political power to dominate the majority. Their negative depiction of Africans duped the world into believing that Africans were primitive, barbaric savages. Africa was the continent that had to be saved and Africans had to become civilized and regenerated. What a grand scheme to hide their greed and need for Africa's mineral wealth. They were not only interested in the mineral wealth of Africa but also in its human capital. Hence a lucrative slave trade that ripped more than 20 million men from their families ensued. They would work on plantations and mines in the Americas and the Caribbean. Later the bulk of the slaves were needed for American plantation expansion and economic growth.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Great article. I realize the beauty Africa has to offer, but Africa has so many problems.It's extremely sad, because Africa's problem are NOT Africa's fault; Europeans and the West took resources from Africa for many centuries and thats why it's just a povery stricken continent today. The world needs to give back to Africa what it took and make things right.I appreciate your comment
I am glad I saw this. I don’t know how Africa will ever recover from the damage done to it but I truly believe that just like the African sun, Africa will gloriously rise again. But first Africans have to get over their indoctrinated inferiority complex, take responsibility for continuing to abuse the land and it's people, and get to work restoring Africa to it's greatness. I am excited that dawn is here.Loved the artilce and welcome to Searchwarp. Africa is still my dream, my escape and my refuge in a pristine environment surrounded by the sounds, sights and aroma of mother nature too. Now I feel homesick.Christine, thank you for your kind comments. I do speaking engagements and tell people our story.I am also in the process of publishing my first book. My memoirs of apartheid
Came back to rate the article... :-)Thanks appreciated. Hope you will want to buy my book when publsihedLet me know when the book is out.
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