I have incessantly written on this column that Africa is the most insulted continent, something that saddens me.
And truly, as a backward continent, Africa is the butt of insults by the rest of the civilised world.
These insults have been codified in stereotypes, myths, misinterpretations and gross misunderstanding of the continent.
This is surprising considering that the continent accommodates 1.1 billion people and is endowed with natural resources like minerals and oil that fuels the industrialised western world.
What is the plausible explanation for our wretchedness then?
Is it the lack of leadership as the late Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe noted in his book The Trouble with Nigeria?
Is it not employing our own afro-centric approach to address our woes that would require us to implement issues differently?
Whenever the question of why we are backward is raised all the answers that have been given like lack of quality leadership ,colonization or being cut off from advancements like industrialisation and renaissance all fell short of pin pointing why we are so wretched.
I even feel it is high time African Union established a wing to understand clearly who we are and how we fit in with the rest of the civilised world if we are to forge ahead.
As a people we usually refrain from asking hard questions on why we are so backwards or why we are readily mocked racially by the rest of the world.
The lack of understanding why we are who we are has left a void for a myriad of interpretations by African intellectuals who are usually in league with white liberals to stifle debate and defensively lash out at critics like a hen whose chicks are being attacked by a bird of prey.
As I have noted above white liberals and their African sidekicks are wary of any racist book about Africa without debating the accusation.
And while I agree that almost every book written about Africa today is awash in the red ink of racism, bigotry and prejudice, I would love the apologists to debate the accusations at length.
We need to understand that it is not only white critics who take a swipe at Africa but Africans themselves who write about the continent as if they are snooty expatriates from on high.
Usually they subconsciously paint the continent as a hopeless one filled with filth, savagery and broken people pretending to be humans.
While we should not stop them from doing this, we need honest analysis that must also address racism.
This should not be done by anybody else but Africans themselves since failure to do this has usually left avuncular white liberals who tend to cry louder than the bereaved.
My message to this arrogant and misguided ilk that has influenced African intellectuals (since they quote them at length) is that we ought to move past being an over-defensive lot and debate issues unflinchingly.
To do this we need to ask hard questions like why are things the way they are. Our African intellectuals like the late Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thion’go have on several occasions played the role of being apologists by playing the same old refrain of: “Can’t you see, we are human beings like you?”
I am afraid these high priests of apologists have stifled debate and are scared of lashing out at those that ask questions about our humanity and our competence in the global world.
Some other once wretched souls like Hispanics; Asians who were not long ago lumped with us have shaken the negative images and are now in the race with the West.
Instead of accusing our critics of racism, we should start asking tough questions about ourselves and hold our looter-leaders accountable? Yelling racism keeps at bay the answers to our issues. It drives away accountability of ourselves.
It also diverts attention from the myriad of problems that beset our continent, a number of them home-grown.
I have no kind words for our leaders and intellectuals who are a product of western education that has created the worst calibre of leaders that has ever ruled much of Black Africa.
It has taught them the key tenets of selfishness since many lack compassion and understanding of their societies which they erroneously interpret through the western paradigm.
This brigade keeps on harping on the white man’s contribution to our plight oblivious to the cruel truth that this role has been historically well documented.
How can the white man become a convenient foil for the greed, ineptitude and evil of our leaders when most African countries are half a century old as sovereign states!
Baying at the white man as our intellectuals and their white liberals have been doing is stupid when we know that our academic Pharisees and leaders are singularly responsible for genetically coding in our leaders a lack of introspection, an allergy to accepting responsibility and a disdain for the word, credibility.
Democracy has combined with the new Christianity to become a force more deadly than AIDS in oppressing our people.
African intellectuals are at war with the West. They are human beings and they are not going to stop telling white folks that. They write obsessively about the otherness that is Africa.
It is tempting to romanticize Africa as our writers have done and turn a blind eye to black-made squalor that is there for the whole world to see.
Many African writers have written for dictators, and continue to share wine and break bread with thieves mimicking democracy. When it suits their purposes, they ignore, with powerful words, atrocities committed by their friends and relatives.
What our people hanker for is the simple pleasures of clean water, good roads and safe communities.
You don’t need to deafen our ears by baying at our former colonial masters who left our countries many years ago.
It is time we started looking inwardly to find solutions to our accursed lot. China and Japan have done it.