Wait a minute: Think again!

their rubbish that has distorted our economic systems. Is it any wonder that South Africa has refused taking in these vehicles?
Why don’t we open the pages of special tribes like the Dinkas and Murleis in South Sudan, San in Botswana, Korekore (Dande) in Zimbabwe without tearing or smudging them? The colonising method of Africa by Europe was brutal and has led to change but not development.
More than 50 years of development partners in Africa made us graduates of more dependence as permanent and peripheral spectators to true economic developments experienced in other regions like Asia and South America.
Do we really want what has happened to us to be repeated by our next generations? Let us learn the history of these societies right; they may have all we want to achieve self sufficiency and save human race from dangers of a third world war or deadly climate change.
Africa, once again is lucky to have some tribes that have lived for generations without being spoiled by the external wave of the so called civilisation. These tribes have covered the same distance of existence in their own way as us, without the western medicines, tarred roads, televisions, internet etc.
They got all the excitement of life like any of us if not better. Do you not think that it is time we take our hats off and salute such people, before we talk to them about this borrowed size-less jacket called civilisation?
Yes civilisation, which we understand too well from our teachers and text books as leading to the creation of capital that has been perfectly translated into our fierce competition for exporting our valuable natural resources, cheaply, in return for substandard and second-hand products, and of course new military hard ware.
Mountains of containers full of imported second-hand clothes, cars and machinery are diverted from the rubbish dumps and delivered to us for our consumption, at a price as good as free!
In fact we should be paid for being so efficient in disposing of their rubbish which has distorted our economic systems. Is it any wonder that South Africa has refused taking in these vehicles?
Mind you, this is the civilisation created by accident in Europe by sea pirates and the emerging middle class who overthrew feudalism in the name of capitalism with its greed and quest for only profit at the expense of glory.
Once capitalism took over the reigns of political power from feudalism, it also managed religion which was wrongly used as the main vanguard for its expansion. If the feudal system, guided by inherent passion for honour, respect and glory had colonised Africa there probably would have been more decency and less or no corruption.
On the contrary, capitalism has inherent class contradictions, justified by a plethora of laws, with the attendant and vicious propensity to devour everything and anything in its wake, in the name of profit. A classic example of this is the financial crisis, started in the United States of America, which was corruption of the highest order.
This class, instead of sending itself to jail or hell, the same system shamelessly robbed from the poor and has bolstered this class through a web of legal cushions back into existence accumulating even more profits, swallowing small fish in the process.
The sea pirate merely changed his clothes and not his antics. He may not be going out at sea but he is now in the bankers’ board room busy manipulating capitalism.
Is it not that all the worst features of capitalism have plunged Africa into a begging continent with insatiable leadership reproducing itself, desirous of more begging and pocketing the loot in private jets for shopping in Paris, London, Beijing, New York etc? They all seem to have declared, “When it comes to good life, we can represent the poor!”
Look at the violent survival of rioting workers, uncertain changes of governments, robbing of natural resources from all regions and the destabilizing hunger and disease. Climate change is imposed on us and it is pushing hard to make this world uninhabitable and human activity is regarded as the main cause. Without stretching our imagination, the reason for all this is not anything beyond the guided capitalism.
Africa, let us ask ourselves a few questions before we rush to dismantle lives of the Dinkas and Murleis in South Sudan, San in Botswana, Korekore (Dande) in Zimbabwe and many others which may be the answer to most of our problems. I am aware that the task to learn more about these tribes may be compromised by so many factors including lack of peace. In extreme cases there are guns from various sources into these areas. This distorts the information gathered from these areas.
Additionally, many hands are at play in these areas and some of them may not be so clean. It appears the same hands fueling the conflicts seem to be reluctant to achieve peace: it is a question of running with the hare and hunting with the fox. More arms are poured into some of these areas in order to stop the wars. Strange!
In spite of these problems, life will have to go on. There is need to acknowledge that we need to mount a special programme to know more about the respective areas. Some tribes have been in existence since the time of Jesus and may have largely remained the same over many centuries but surviving parallel to capitalism and communism. Sadly some of these tribes are sitting on wealth hence we need them more than they need us.
These societies have assumed abilities to use their environments to manage nature to their best advantage. Where we think they are damaging to nature, let us study to see if really that is the case from what they say about it. For example, some of them burn the veldt during the dry season and the reason given is that they expect new grass to feed their cattle. Is this the only reason, if I may ask?
I do not think so. How about the killing of pests like ticks that are dangerous to the livestock as these areas have no dipping tanks? Additionally, they do not plunder resources: they harvest resources.
Development paths followed by many African countries over the last century were largely experiments by the West and have not created viable economies, hence the dependence on the Western economies is increasing instead of lessening through a permanent structure of manipulated capitalism.
Many more prescriptions are still being churned from the West and other places, even to this day. At the same time new military hardware is always available for African leaders to defend vital oil pipelines and roads that carry timber and minerals to the coast and then Europe.
By now African countries should have learnt enough and be willing at least to advise each other on a few ideas which do not fail their people.
In the same breadth, would it not be fair therefore that the approach should be to enhance what is already on the ground among these people and us? There may be a chance of meeting developed countries somehow and somewhere around the corner with our brand of development because our present path is not working.
A few years ago we were proud to be among the Third World countries growing our own food, manufacturing some cotton clothes, shoes, plastic products, assembling vehicles but now we barely qualify to be in the Fourth World category.
Every morning we are satisfied to eat breakfast of imported cereals using substandard utensils, put on our second hand clothes and drive our second hand cars that are tired of negotiating our pot holes on our barely tarred roads.
Surely spare time to think about how we are developing before we switch on those second hand machines every morning before calling the doctor about a strange ailment. Wait a minute and think again. Think again!
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