(A continuation of Systemic Oppression in Kenya)
I Just finished reading a blog by one of my close friends, and she must have fed from my exact thoughts. Or maybe, I am not the only one dreaming, we all are dreamers, perhaps! You may find some, most of, or even all of the comments I’m about to make highly offensive. Against your faith, your beliefs, against your damn country.
Years ago, I’m not so keen on history so forgive me if I don’t quote the details, a white man came to the shores of Africa, by coincidence (note, by coincidence, not purposefully). During this time, I’m made to believe, there were already people attaining doctoral degrees at Cambridge. Here in Africa, the Luhyas were still battling for wild fruits and white ants, walking across Congo forest or wherever they came from. Point here is, history tells us that we were about 2000 years behind the real world by the time we were ‘discovered’. This is the first white concept.
Later, this white guy goes and returns with their countrymen and decides to colonize us. I still don’t understand the meaning of the word, perhaps because I don’t fully comprehend its scope. You just discovered a people living so peacefully and migrating without need for any pale skinned intervention, but saw the need to ‘civilize’ them.
Fast forward, that’s how we became civilized. Wait and see if you still would want to be civilized. The whites introduced the concept of borders. Initially, my loyal friends would occasionally move from west Africa to the shores of Lake Victoria. But now, with borders, we were divided first. Decades later, we still boast of independence. This world literally means not being able to depend on anyone. I wonder if we are independent. From who? We still receive grants and support from the white supremacists like we are orphaned. All these years, we still have been bound by the invincible chain of borders.
African countries have all the resources we need to develop by ourselves. From petroleum to gold and diamonds, the recently discovered Tanzanite, titanium, tea; you name them. but you know what? we export them, no, they export it for us, in exchange for our independence, our sustainability. Again, who bewitched us?
Look at the Americas, the European countries, the uprising Chinese and even Russian countries, what stands out? They all are monotonous in terms of diversity. All are English, all are Chinese, all are Russians. Why is there a need for different borders, not even out of the country, in the country itself? Look at us, we further segregate ourselves by identifying through our ethnicities. While voting, you want to be identified as being from this clan. Then end up voting a “mtu wetu”. Don’t you see you are being held down by this white concept?
Many years after the white men left, they still made sure that their long-lasting effects of colonialism stayed. They made sure that they concealed these invincible chains deep in the roots of our faith. Now, this is a sensitive matter, but I’ll still dare touch it. Allow me present religion as a white concept. I may not know much about the Muslim religion so ill base my arguments on Christian faith. When Ludwig Kraph came to Kenya, as a missionary, himself together with others translated the bible to “unite us”. Ill confidently replace the words “unite us” with “lure us”.
Did we need God? No, we did have our deities. But then again, this is not the argument here. Look at this, they learnt our language and translated the bible for us, to help us. All this while, they were learning engineering concepts, business concepts and other academic concepts in their countries but never saw the need to translate these to us. No, black people need God.
What if God, is as white concept? We did have our beliefs. They bashed our religion, introduced us to a new religion that we now more than ever, hold dearly to ourselves than the whites do. Sometimes I begin to think, if heaven was a factual thing, they would hide it from us like they hid academic resources and continue to hide them.
Not so surprisingly, in the year 2020, Kenyans still will prioritize religion ahead of education. If I’m lying, why are churches open and schools closed? Aren’t these both areas of social gathering, with teachers being preachers in churches? Well, I’m not the government to make decisions. I touched a nerve of the Christians, I know. Before you quote the scriptures on me, listen to what Chuka Okadigbo says “ If you are emotionally attached to your tribe, religion, or political leaning to the point that truth and justice become secondary considerations, your education is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability to mankind”
We have been duped to believe in the white concept’s invincible chains in the disguise of religion. And we will continue to trail behind while clinging onto our God instead. What if civilization was eating wild berries and walling long distances across Africa? What if civilization was the communal way that our ancestors used to live. What if, in fact, your current knowledge of civilization as it is, is a white concept?
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