When I was in London By Femi Akomolafe

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When I was young and growing up in my village, this Uncle resurfaced after many years of absence.

He told us tales of his stowing away on a merchant ship only to be discovered and given a job as the Cook’s assistant.

His tales of journeys to cities were incomprehensible, but they impressed our impressionable minds, just like the tales in the Bible.

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It became irksome that our Uncle couldn’t begin a statement without punctuating it: “When I was in London.”

Of course, that became his nickname.

I was reminded of this story when I saw how some Africans discuss their US stays in public, as though their sojourn in foreign lands is a stamp of approval that validates their arguments.

Why do African intellectuals continue their worship and mimicry of the colonial masters? Why has it been impossible for them to emulate their Chinese and Iranian counterparts, reconnect our societies with our past, and create genuine Africans whose minds are firmed in African philosophies and traditions?

I have written in several of my posts that, in my opinion, educated Africans are the worst enemies of Africa!

Our well-certificated intellectuals do not contribute to feeding the continent. They seem unconcerned that after six decades of self-government, we still rely on our former colonial masters to feed, clothe, and house ourselves! It troubles them not that we did not make all the gadgets and tools they employ in their unproductive “analyses” of our continent.

The truth is that their only contribution is their noise value. They dominate the media with issues irrelevant to our continent’s development and progress!

All their waking hours are consumed by spewing bombastic nonsense over the fine points of imposed imported religion and politics, which I described in my books as the true albatrosses that are dragging our continent back!

I find it a shame that Africans who spent some time away from the motherland failed to develop any empathy or sympathy for the abysmal conditions they still see on our streets. They have lived in societies where water and electricity flow uninterrupted 24/7. They have lived in places where internet connectivity is so blazingly fast you will think that you are imagining things. From their experience, they know that in none of these societies are people consumed with only politics and religion. Yet, that is all that we see and hear them do.

So, why are our African scholars and intellectuals doing it to us?

How do we introduce our African scholars to Frantz Fanon, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Chancellor Williams, and Cheikh Anta Diop? How do we make well-credentialed, educated people listen to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s and Thomas Sankara’s messages?

Ideas, anyone?

©️ Fẹ̀mi Akọ̀mọ̀‌làfẹ̀
(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, Polemicist, Satirist, and Social Commentator.)

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