2020 was a dark year. As if humanity wasn’t traumatised enough by the fatalities from an evil virus, millions had to watch on their small screens a scene from a real-life horror movie, the senseless and brutal murder of George Floyd. A scene that ripped through the souls of the world and even more so, the souls of fellow blacks. African consciousness sparked to an all-time high.
But there seems to be hope. Technically, all of Africa is out of colonial rule. And I mean technically in its literal sense because beneath the technicality is a whole lot of complexity. Most African countries got their independence more than 50 years ago. Namibia happens to be the youngest in the house gaining independence in 1990 to become Africa’s youngest independent state from colonial rule. This paints a true and full reflection of the fact that the entire continent is out of the chains of colonialism. But are we really out? While racism will forever be an ugly and messy can of worms, our selfhood, and prospects of self-determination are within reach.
With African consciousness peeking after Floyd’s murder. Africans in their little corners were more than ever before standing up to who they are, what they wanted and what they hoped to be. Everyone with a unique approach on how to deal with the continent’s troubles. A million panacea on how to solve the continent’s woes, reverse the hurts of racism and colonialism and reignite black pride. As high as African consciousness has become, most Africans truly wish they were serving the continent. Most of us wish we were truly working to advance the dreams and aspirations of Africa’s people. But are we?
Reclaiming our purpose
When I ask the question, “My fellow African, who do you work for?”, I think a clarification of who an African is, might be in order. I can find no better way to clarify this than the words of the father of Ghana’s independence, ”I am not African because I was born in Africa, I am African because Africa was born in me”. If this speaks to you as an African, there’s probably no debating your Africanness. This clarification doesn’t answer our question but hopefully provides a segway into it.
As Africans, who we work for, is nowhere as important as whose interest we serve through our work. My grandfather, like most of his peers, was a farmer, and as far as that went, he worked for himself and for his family – his plus 17 kids who supported him on the farm and his three wives. The proceeds from his cocoa farm went to his children’s schooling and upkeep. But he got a formal job, when it seemed like the “in thing” to do. He became a truck driver for a major plantation. In that job, he transported truckloads of everything that needed to be shipped out of Cameroon from the South West province, it goes without saying whose interest the later job served.
Aligning our labour with our legacy
As African consciousness continues to rise, the question we should pause to ask is, does our work truly reflect the depth of our loyalty to our motherland, to the black race, and who do we really work for? Whose interest does our labour and hard work serve on a daily basis? Surely, our goal as conscious Africans should be to serve above all else the interest of Africa. Do our jobs allow us to serve the interests of Africa and the interests of our people?
Let’s start with the public sector. Many of us work for our governments as civil servants but it wouldn’t be entirely outrageous for someone to say that they work for the Government of Cameroon, but serve the interest of France. And indeed for most of Africa, this line is nuanced yet fairly applicable. Do our governments make it possible to work and serve the interests of our people? Please help me unpack this if you have had civil service experience, I haven’t.
Beyond independence: are we truly serving Africa?
The petrochemical industry is another interesting sector to look at. It is generally perceived in many African societies as one of the sectors that offers the most lucrative jobs. Ironically, a sector which provides guarantees for economic ‘growth’. We take up supposed good jobs with Shell, BP, Total and Eno, and we make a decent living for our families and it seems fair by all means. But whose interest do we serve? There are countless examples of how oil and gas exploration in Africa has devastated communities, leaving a trail of destruction on its way.
Water sources were compromised, farmlands turned into deadlands, fishing grounds poisoned. Everything that locals could actually depend on for a meaningful life is gone. But we make our money and we walk. We refuse to question for the sake of our peace of mind. But we know our income comes nowhere close to the billions that are taken out of Africa by the true beneficiaries of these projects – Dutch, Brits, French, or Italians. Our African consciousness challenges us to question these sectors even when it seems inconvenient to do so, we must ask ourselves the hard questions if we truly desire to serve Africa and its people.
Loyalty to Africa or foreign interests
The financial sector in Africa has expanded significantly in the last decade, with many truly African entities emerging in the space. But there are just as many non-African financial institutions that occupy a big share of the market. Many Africans depend on these institutions for loans in the hope of leapfrogging generational traps of poverty and destitution but ironically, often this gets served to them through unreasonable interest rates, and other kinds of financial schemes that keep us locked in a circle of debt and poverty. Even our rural farmers have in many cases found themselves trapped in such schemes. Interestingly, these schemes, while foreign-owned in some cases, are run by a fellow black brother/sister for a large part. Usually, we know when new rules, products and services are detrimental to our people, and what is our appetite for challenging those rules. Who do we serve, conform, get our pay and walk?
Then comes another lucrative sector, the ports authority. All kinds of rubbish get shipped from all over the world into African ports daily, – by rubbish, I do not mean second-hand goods – many African communities depend on them. I mean rubbish in the true sense of the word, plastic waste, and along with it all kinds of waste that powerful nations simply don’t have the headspace or physical space to deal with. These get sent to Africa, and these get into our countries because someone simply lets it happen. Recently, Senegal placed a hectic fine on a German ship carrying such rubbish to dump in Senegal, a 2 million Euros was paid and the ship sailed to the closest port to try its luck. This only happens because there’s a conviction that someone will let the rubbish in. So when we let such dirt into our countries, which pollutes our rivers and makes our people sick, simply because our pockets get lined, whose interest do we serve?
A call to conscious labour and service
Let me bring this closer to home before we wrap. For those in the global environmental space, they are often accused of serving the interest of the West. The fact remains that most major environmental organisations were created in the West. The demands these organisations make for the sake of the environment are perceived to be disadvantageous to Africa’s development. But what is development if it doesn’t benefit the people, if it doesn’t advance our quality of life? Demands that our governments quit dirty energy sources that pollute the air and make our people sick, demand that we disinvest from energy sources that devastate the environment.
They ask for our forest to be preserved, that our oceans be managed in a way that protects the communities who depend on it for a livelihood – to safeguard their interest over that of overseas fishing vessels. These kinds of foreign vessels, also called monster boats, have the capacity to take unreasonable amounts of fish out of the oceans a day, leaving local artisanal fishermen in despair. So whose interest do they really serve, by demanding a development path that truly protects nature and communities that depend on it?
Accusations of anti-development are best served by those who stand to lose the crumbs left behind by the multinationals that devastate our land. If demanding clean air for African communities, if asking that our rivers have life, if demanding that communities can live in a clean and safe environment is serving the interest of anyone but Africans then that’s an interest we should all be committed to serving.
So, it doesn’t matter which sector we are in, it only matters that we can ask ourselves a few hard and honest questions. We need to find the time to reflect on these questions and get clarity for ourselves. Until we truly start questioning whose interest we serve by our work, then can we embark on a journey to live our Africanness and make any meaning whatsoever of our African consciousness. If we do not know whose interest our hard work serves, then we might be serving the other or in denial. The Africa we dream of is only possible when we fully commit to serving Africa and its people above all else. Only then can we be in a position to make any judgments on those who have sought for years to exploit, loot and feed a few at the expense of the lot. Feeding a few at the expense of the lot is a colonial approach we all know too well.
Like my grandfather, most of us have choices, we can either take up employment that truly seeks to serve our families, communities and the people of Africa or act in total disregard of our own in a quest to meet the demands and pressures of a capitalist world. A route that leaves us oblivious to the needs of Africa and its people.
Our African consciousness is a waste of good words if it is not backed by action.