Africa, what is your worth?
I live in a world where countries boast of what
they have in population, landmass, weapons, wealth, natural resources, standard
of living condition, all in a bit to stay distinct in a competitive world.
I hail from a continent where not
so much matters but selfishness, a people so fine but ugly in the face of
poverty when that is all they see, a land my father says flows with milk and
honey only that we never get a taste of it. A continent endowed with the
richest resources but the same reason our untimely death.
I hail from Africa!
My Africa is a place where
children are born into poverty, live life on poor diet and die poor in the same
land where some others eat and waste good food.
My Africa is where those who want
to attend schools are deprived of good schools where other children are flown
abroad to the best and most expensive schools.
My Africa is the land where our
voted representatives become the same enemies we voted them against. Our backs
are at the mercy of their horsewhips placed in the hands of our brothers to get
us off the road, so they could thread on it. Then they make our source of
wealth their personal incomes, squander our funds and lay crumbs on the ground
for us to fight till death.
Africa has lost more lives than
all other continents, yet these unreasonable few claim they lead a people; the
same people whose blood flow on the streets, the same children who die of
starvation, the same people with no Medicare, the same people who are 100 years
behind civilization.
Africa, I have found your worth
lies in diamond, silver, oil, gold, and everything worth money. It has never
been human lives; it has never been an assured future.
The next time you’re asked if you once
led the African community, you need be ashamed of yourselves considering the
blood you have spilled and allowed spilled when all you cared about was money.
- Adebanji Koiki
