Of Racism and Sh*t Holes: Africa Deserves Better!

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Africa has been receiving blows left right and center these past days. From the almost L we could have received if one of our sisters hadn’t held it down to Donald Trumps ‘sh*t hole’ remarks. All this whilst H&M released an advert that was widely viewed as racist around the world which torched a storm leading to several incidents in their outlets around South Africa. Out of all this mess of unfortunate events, there is one thing that stands out. Africa and people of African descent are not viewed as equals. Period!

It has been 200 years since the most inhumane treatment ever, the slave trade, was supposedly abolished. It’s key to note that people of African descent were at the receiving end of this atrocity. However, the acts continue. Late last year there was a brief outroar of the slave trade in Libya involving Africans of the negroid line and this was a major indicator of the situation on the ground. The persecution of the black person has not and will not likely stop any sooner.

We hide behind treaties and equality celebrations when in actual fact the racist practices are not stopping at all. African- Americans continue to be slaughtered by law enforcement officials in the United States and their protests against these acts of injustice are viewed as a threat to the stability of the union. Let us, therefore, be honest with each other, racism in other open forms might have stopped but some acts are still alive and they need to be addressed.

It’s not just the other races that display racism against black people but our own kind has also turned against us. It as interesting to note that in the twar between the American lady and her South African opponent, the American Twitter user used references that were aimed and reducing Africa to what Mr Trump called it. A ‘sh*t hole’! Now, as a group of people who quickly turn to their ‘Motherland’ when they want to connect with their ethnicity, it is quite surprising that African-Americans do not need much persuasion to trash it. That form of self-hate is the reason why racism and the prejudice against Africans might not stop.

 

These acts are not just limited to white people only but these Chinese businessmen whose acts have been well documented in Zambia and Tanzania. Have we been relegated to the race and the continent that is the Fourth Estate where all other races are our paymasters and we have to do their bidding? Are our resources and beautiful landscape the only things they we have to offer? Should our diverse and amazing cultures take a backseat as we are fed foreign ones all in the name of not being called backward? Are we really backward? According to whose standards? After all, we are the birthplace of civilization!

These questions need answers. Help us answer them below!

 

Kirkpatrick Chidamba

Kirkpatrick Chidamba

Free Thinker. Loud. Another inhabitant of Terra Firma. I am not your favourite person. Neither do I plan to be. But you will know my opinion. In fact, you will love it.

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