The Revolution.

 About 6 years ago while having lunch with a certain girl at a shopping mall back home in Lusaka city our conversation after hitting a myriad of topics somehow drifted to Africa. The human race is today faced with many puzzles: AIDS, life and death, outer space and so on, but one of the biggest puzzles is undoubtedly Africa. How can a people be so blessed with resources and yet live in such poverty? As far as i know the only major thing the English have as a natural resource is coal and yet they stand tall having the strongest currency in the world. We all know the African story: diamonds, emeralds, oil and the like, and yet a huge chunk of the population lives on less than a dollar per day. This irony disturbed the young lady and I so much and we tried to point out the possible causes: is it our leaders, is it the people themselves?

   Over the years I've been privileged to rub shoulders with many more intellectually enlightened ( I use the term enlightened in this passage in a relative way) African youths and one way or another, the African paradox finds its way into our discussions. I have my own philosophical theories as to how Africa alongside Asia and South America has found herself in the situation she is. I generally hold the opinion that West Europe conquered the world in the last 3 - 4 centuries and forcefully introduced their cultures, languages and the like on the rest of the world. I am Zambian but I speak English, South Americans speak Spanish and Portuguese and these are not our native languages. Along with the cultural changes brought on by European invasion came enforced changes in laws, ways of thinking, trading and other activities. Now I’m not one disgruntled individual pointing a finger at the west for all of the so called 3^rd world’s problems. What I’m trying to say is that the world we’re living in right now is based on the European system: Democracy, Judiciaries and other public institutions are all primarily based on the European system.

    In as much as the current living conditions of most of the 3^rd world population can be pointed to acts of irresponsibility or just pure miscalculation of the leadership, I have a concept I call Social adaptation, which is a general form of adaption by a group of people. In as much as an individual has his own mindset, a group of people can have a particular mind set that unites them. Let’s pick an example of Catholics: there are millions of Catholics around the world, each with his own likes, dislikes, favorites and worst’s and so on, but they ALL believe it is wrong to divorce. If we took the belief against divorce as a criteria we can in the abstract sense, join them into one individual. In the same way with the criteria being “not European” for the so-called 3^rd world, we can unite them into one entity (in fact, they are already united into one entity - the 3^rd world!)  What’s the relevance of this in our discussion? Let us take a moment to view a few concepts that govern the present world we are living in: degrees, diplomas, paper money, title deeds, and many others. All of these and many others are European concepts that have over the last couple of centuries been introduced into the rest of the world. I get a feeling someone will probably interject saying:”America is not Europe and it is the most powerful country in the world!”  Well I’m no historian but I know that White Americans who form the majority of the population in that country are originally British, Irish, White Canadians are originally French, so there you go! Whichever way you look at it, a failure to live by these and many more concepts in the present world that originated from the west whether you are African, Asian, or of whatever ethnic group, will lead to your ultimate downfall, you can be a gifted person with finances but if you don’t have what is called a certificate or a degree or a diploma, you won’t find anyone who will employ you. Your great grandfather may have had a piece of land that your family has been farming on for all the previous generations but if I come along having what they call title deeds to that land, your family history is worthless in that case.

   Don’t get me wrong, I in no way hold the slightest dislike for modern civilization, but rather sometimes even stand in awe of it: because of schools and universities I and many other individuals from the 3^rd world have reached a level of intellectual enlightment that we wouldn’t have reached without them.

   Now it’s no secret that the more a person is exposed to something, the more accustomed they become to it, the more you practice a sport, the better you get at it. It is also no secret that an individual will make changes that will make him most comfortable in the conditions he finds himself surrounded by at a given moment. If you go out with nothing but a t-shirt on and the temperature outside is -2 degrees, you’ll run back into your house and put on a coat, unless of course you’re a penguin that lives in Antarctica. The introduction of European and American civilization into the lives of Africans has had a steady pace and even to this very day continues but with the continued exposure of Africans to this system has come their gradual but steady adaption or enlightment if I may(again may I emphasize that I use the term enlightment in a relative way).

    The first major stage of African enlightment in relation to the scales set up by the West came in the 20th century. After years and years of learning from predominantly European teachers, Africans like Kwame Nkurumah, Kenneth Kaunda and many others stirred up fights for political independence and even with the strongest opposition and loss of life the west succumbed to the WILL of the newly enlightened African people which rejected any form of superiority of their European counterparts justifying their (Europeans’) political power over them on their own soil. As a result the whole of the 20^th century was characterized by European governments handing over political power to indigenous Africans.

     I strongly believe the world stands on the eve of the 2^nd major stage of the African enlightment. As l mentioned earlier, l have had the pleasure of meeting with many brilliant African young men and women most of this group knows that maybe our previous leaders committed a few sins in the way they ran national affairs which have gotten us to the position we find ourselves today as a continent. Whether those mistakes were intentional or unintentional doesn’t really matter now, the main concern is that they know that right now we stand at a specific point: a place where over 3 quarters of the population live on less than a dollar per day; a point where quality health care is a luxury for most of the population; a place where capable young men and women don’t receive education due to lack of places or funds. Yes, the picture is gloomy but this group also knows that for a continent that has an insurmountable quantity of natural resources, problems such as poverty and sickness are unacceptable. They know that a diamond the size of a pea nicely curved up and attached on a ring will cost more than a dirty diamond the size of an apple which has been picked straight out of a cave; they know that a 500gram packet of well baked cookies will probably cost more than 5 kilos of freshly picked unprocessed wheat. There’s a vengeance in the mind of the educated African youth, not against a race or creed, but against poverty, sickness and starvation as a symbol of their continent. They know that they have all it takes to change this situation. They know that lawyers, doctors, economists and engineers are not born, they are made by reading, learning and practicing. This is the group that stands waiting to take over the reigns of power their continents affairs. They have full respect for the leaders who fought for their political freedom, but stress the fact that a new day has arrived and there is absolutely no reason why the African continent should not translate it’s abundance of resources into an equally good quality of life for most of it’s people.

    I envision a revolution, maybe 40-50 years from now that will see the African continent no longer be labeled a haven for poverty and disease, but a haven for health and prosperity for it’s people. I don’t think there was ever a revolution that went without sacrifices: sacrifices of life, time, riches and prestige but I still hold a strong faith that even in the light of all these sacrifices, the revolution will still come.

                                                                                                                       By  Chalomba Chitanika.