Memories of my American tour left me with series of questions that are simultaneously so broad and complicated, It is not that i have not been aware of the fact that, the core values of the west was built on how much they survived in trampling on the other. That the humanness of the west flourish on the basis of how much they can methodically examine in detail, the constitution of the other, explaining and interpreting the imperfection of the other without any sense of self and implication. That our history is written and shaped to favour the orientation at which the future is dreamt of by the powerful west. I mean an aspired future where the past can be totally erased and pretend some things never happened.
While in Latin America i realised that some people live today in a 'deracinated' world where they do everything they could to retain their roots, enforce 'black' consciousness on their citizens, even when majority of them are white, they call such consciousness 'Afro Brazilian', 'Afro Cuban', 'Afro Colombian' etc. And this consciouness is today becoming the landmark at which their nation flourish, brewing great sense of architectural aesthetics rooted in their beliefs, a kind of economic well being and market embedded on their cultural values, which makes every bank owning a cultural department, every corner you go there is a cultural center or a museum.
There are museums almost everywhere, to contantly remind them of who they are and how written history is filled with lies, almost every month has its own special important national celebration of one ORISHA (deity) to the other, which led to the millions of tourist popping in yearly, and adding to their economy and national GDP, merely by celebrating their own beliefs which the world largely refer to as CARNIVALS today, this awareness also led to the reason why many great soccer players are hailing from this region, Capoeira has become a world phenomenon, Salsa, Samba, Tango and just name them, they are all embedded on their sincere cultural values... AND THIS PEOPLE ARE THE DECEDENTS OF SLAVES, CAPTURED AND DERACINATED BY THE POWERFUL WEST....
AFRICA - Synergy of LIES.
Talking of the other side of the atlantic, there lived a bunch of people who i call the 'Loyal followers', they think they know so much about who they are, they were never deracinated, they never lost their roots, so they feel very relaxed, they accept all the lies they were being told by their loyal masters. They told them, "You will be called Africans," they replied "yes sir", they told them, "Your beliefs are so naive, how can you stoop so low to believe woods and all these ephemeral antiquities, your religion will be christianity to save you from barbarity," they replied "Ok sir", so they said "bring all those woods and tin and ceramics you believe in, we shall go dump them in our civilised dust bins called museums in paris, london, switzerland, italy, spain, new york, chicago, and other white cities, so we can show our kids how backward you guys are," they replied "that is so kind of you", they told them, you are not civilised so let us show you the way, they replied "we are very grateful".
So they begin to draw imaginary lines in the dirts for them, and told them "we shall call that borders", handed to them all a small booklet they call international passport, "it is not really your I.D but it shall stand as what we recognise you with when you cross your boundary, and when you want to cross to see your brothers across the line you shall go apply for a visa and pay so much money, don't ask what for..." but they didn't tell them it will be more complicated than that - "after all they will always be grateful to us, whatever we do". And surely they are grateful, they host township fiesta when they get a VISA (Validating Instrument Strictly for Africans) to finally go see where all their riches, memory and the civilised dust bins where their devalued values are dumped...
They continue to feed them with serious and expensive lies, and when a lie is that expensive, you can never imagine any fool investing so much in a mere lie. but this lies are so much important in order to cover some major suicidal truths, no one will let a toothpick go close the his eyes. However if lies suppress truth for twenty years, truth is a stubborn smoke, it shall surely surface one day. Fifty to sixty years ago, some stubborn black thinkers rose up to their masters and, they jab them a little, backed it with a smile and collect some of their things from them, the masters didn't fight much because they are wise, he feel so much confidence that their invested lies will never go off record and history, so they left them with books and documentary films rooted in lies, and they also left them with propositions of who they think will rule them better, now this Africans think they got 'their' continent, they think they are in control, they celebrate independence as if their collective life is any better, and now they think their ex-masters has suddenly turned so nice over night, they made them best friends and mentors, they run to them for counseling, they look up to them as role models, they admire them so much that they want to look just like them.
Now let's talk about the global warriors, slave masters or colonial masters, depending on what context we are looking at it from, maybe we should generally refer to them as "Magicians of the earth" capable of making lies look so real, they are aware of their body odor that requires they take their bath every now and then, they are quite aware that if these 'deracinated' lots and their 'loyal followers' that they steal so much from, if they ever get to 'meet' on an unaffected ground or in the absence of the 'Magicians of the earth', it will be disastrous, they don't mind a Fela kuti making noise with his very entertaining 'Afro'beat, they don't mind Sankara throwing his clenched fist in the air in cheap anger, they don't mind steve biko's rage leading him to 'write what he like' or any other for that matter, cos their lies are like heavens for them.
Africa and Latin America. Two sects located on the southern hemisphere, suddenly became not only very far from each other, but highly expensive to connect in today's world, the closest people in all ramification; Culturally, economically, historically and contemporary belief system. What other truth can clean up the lie of telling a man that his 'god' is false, because its not a white 'God'? They drew the world map, whether it is accurate or another lie, how can we tell? but take a close look at the world map, and tell me who is in the center of it? Ok take a really close look at the world map, there, yes right there, the atlantic or what do they call it, that's a huge gap between America and Europe, which my intuition tells me, is the exact point where a huge ocean separates us, if you check out the globe, you will notice that the distance between Australia and America is not much at all if you go "anti clockwise", so how come it takes a whole day to fly to australia? Latin America and Africa are both on the southern hemisphere, how come there is no direct flight linking both? is it that Africa and its diaspora are not in good terms? how come everything must pass through Europe? Well, i'm still soliloquising, but my head is filled with too much lies that i don't know what to believe in no more.
