I was having a conversation with a good friend, Apolline Adiju who lives in Sweden. We talked about poverty in Africa, especially in the way we eat. Mind you, in Africa, if a person eats with a piece of meat, they are regarded as a rich person. If he eats with fish, he belongs to the middle class. If he eats with an egg, he belongs to the lower class. And if he eats with nothing, he is poor.
Isn’t that ridiculous? Because we have all these things in excess. I often the word – Africa is rich. Africa is blessed. Africa is full of milk and honey.
”We often say that Africa is very rich every time but the proof of the facts is very questionable.” – Bruno Kongawoin.
In reality, a very large part of Africa is poor indeed. Even very, very poor. I delve into the cause of poverty in Africa despite having all the natural resources that are enough to make them compete with nations like America, China, Germany and many more developed nations.
Bruno said the poverty is above all “Intellectual“. It is this intellectual poverty that makes a country like Niger, perhaps the world’s largest producer of uranium, sorely lacking an energy industry.
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This is rampant in Africa. A country like Nigeria exports raw materials like crude oil to other countries still, her citizens buy it expensive while the importing nation sells it cheaper to her citizens.
”It is this intellectual poverty that causes some African countries to export logs and to import furniture made from wood waste at a cost of gold.” – Bruno Kongawoin.
It is this intellectual poverty that pushes some Africans to the extreme of hostility or maintains a certain inferiority complex. Africans feel inferior when it comes to using their own products.
The evil of ignorance is so deep that today we Africans have become the first defenders of our alienation. From kindergarten, we are taught dogmatism and not to ask questions. A good student is the one who recites his lessons better.
We are therefore subjected to the thought of others. A lecturer will fail you if you don’t give him the answer according to his material or what he taught you in class. This is also common in our religious beliefs. Something I would save for another day.
”For if you have all the riches of the world in your hands and you are intellectually limited, you will remain poor.” – Bruno Kongawoin.
Africa Wake Up!
