The Missing Point; Chapter 1 Part 5

Clipp was too weak now. He could not resist more struggles. He leaned against the wall, holding his broken arm while his thigh aches fiercely. His forehead had torn open and he could not stop the bleeding. He managed to pull the bullet out his thigh and strapped the wound with a cloth he was torn from his shirt. With his back thrusting the wall he sliced his weight down. He looked up and wandered his gaze desperately about the ceiling. He shuddered as he smelled the darkness that stank fear and terror. The underground room had no exit by any means. And the wound on his forehead had gotten wider, letting more blood run like a stream. He stuffed a piece of cloth he torn from his shirt to stop the bleeding. The pain in his thigh was getting worse and his arm was fierce enough to make all his muscles shiver in agony. Clipp was ready to die peacefully. He lost all hope and waited for his death. He changes his mind, however, as he saw Master pulled out of the mysterious exit. A set of fluorescent flickered and Clipp could not help but cover his eyes. He stared at Master desperately. Master was still holding his bleeding eye and his lips were still twisted with rage. Clipp conjured up a picture of himself, Master smashing him on the wall. It will soon become true if he continues sitting like a frightened rabbit. He ran his fingers on the floor. And to his surprise, he grabbed an iron. He threw it toward with all his energy. He succeeded on hitting Blue but nothing happened to Master. Clipp was on his feet before Master could see him. He started running as fast as his remaining energy could bear, looking for anything to help him get out. He saw a lifter but he was too weak to get to it. He fell down all of a sudden. He was hardly breathing. His wounds began to ache all at once. For a moment he wished he was dead. He changed his mind as he saw Master approach. Clipp wanted to die but he knew Master would not let him do so. At least not without splitting his brain on the floor. Clipp dragged himself on the floor. He started crawling as he saw Master loading his gun. He was on his feet at once, ignoring the aching thigh. He ducked to escape from a bullet. As Master approaches he threw himself and fell inside a door-less lifter. He pushed a button inside. And there he was, in a glass which curved like a ball. The lifter went up so fast. Clipp was free in the air inside, smashing harshly as the lifter exceeded its speed. He reached his destination, a good hope it was on earth. The lifter left him in a middle of a desert as it took its way down.

He wished he wasn't out. The sun was burning and Clipp was bare feet. His wound scald from the blazing sun. His blue jean was ripped away harshly. His white shirt torn in every direction. And he looked filthier with blood all over him. He looked around and he was in a middle of a desert. He decided to run forward as he remembered Master would be here shortly. There was nothing in the direction he was running toward. Well, there was nothing in any direction for that matter. He continued running, his thigh aches like hell. After a long desperate run for half an hour, he saw a car passing by. He shouted as loud as his remaining energy could bear. But it was in vain. The girl inside the car had pulled up her glass, easing herself from an air conditioning. As she pressed the engine she saw through her mirror, a man in dirty clothing waving his hand back there in the middle of the road. She reversed. As she reached Clipp she pulled the car aside and run to him. Her eyes were full of care.'' What happened to you?'' she demanded to know. Clipp could not talk. The pain was too much for his twenty-four-year-old body. The girl helped him through the car and they started off the road.

Click here to read Part 4                                                                               to be continued...

Yazar: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

The Missing Point; Chapter 1 Part 4

In that darkness, Master ran his fingers around a bubble-shaped device that looked like a drum and a series of fluorescents flickered to life. The light was so dazzling that it had immediately woken Clipp from his short-time death. He saw Master running toward him still pressing his right eye, his mouth twisted with rage. Master could have to bandage his wounds in the kitchen. The Kitchen- that was what Master wants to call the underground room. But he has more important concern than that. And that was the boy's escape. If Clipp gets out, then everything they had built might be at stake. And Master would probably be dead if Friend heard about that. There is no need of anyone to report to Friend, though. Master believes he is inside him as Friend had told him several times.

Clipp was too weak to run; so he yielded. But as he remembered Master would never allow him to live, especially when he knew Clipp is as pigheaded as his father and after the damage, he has done to him and his friend, Ivy, Clipp counted it an obligation to run. All of a sudden he started moving his head eagerly in search of anything to help him get out. But it was all in vain. Now he runs his fingers on the floor in an attempt to find something solid enough to take Master down at one hit. He gave up when a metal opened a wide wound on his hand. The floor was clustered with sharp objects. Another mystery of this underground world. Probably it was one of those metals spread intentionally in case of an occasion as this had happened.  Master was a few steps away when Clipp spotted a ladder glistening. It disappeared all of a sudden. Clipp locked his gaze on the spot and he saw it reappeared again. As it appears and disappears, Clipp decided to run to it. He was climbing right in the middle when Master presses a button and he was down. Such a hard fall it was that he had broken his left arm. Master took him from his neck and threw him away letting him smash on the wall. Clipp fell down twisting on the floor in pain and terror. He began to shake, to jerk in an uncontrollable spasm. A sudden pain overtook him as Master pulled out his gun and shoot him on his left thigh. Clipp has never been a weak boy. He would always fight to the last atom of his strength. A sudden force took control of him and there he was up in the air. He smashed Master's head on the metal-spread floor as he falls down. Master grabbed for his gun blindly, still in the ecstasy of the crash. He saw it beyond his reach. As he made a feeble gesture to take it Clipp kicked him on the ball, letting him twist on the floor in pain. As Clipp took the gun and headed for the ladder, he saw Blue running toward him, pointing a gun. Blue fired at him. Clipp ducked to escape the bullet. Hiding behind a long wooden box, he fired back. He moved to the ladder as he continued to fire on Blue. He pressed the device he has taken out of Master's pocket and the ladder descent. He fired one more time at Blue as he took his way to the room above.

Clipp slammed the heavy oblong-metal on the rectangle space that serves as an exit. He pushed some buttons on the oblong-metal and there two cylinders on every edge of the oblong metal started to curve with a robotic movement. The oblong-metal moved back and forth and left and right making a robotic buzz that made Clipp covered one of his ears with his right hand. Suddenly he uncovers it to hold his broken arm as it began to ache. After a few minutes of robotic hitches and some movements of metals, Clipp was surprised to saw the exit had vanished. It adjusted itself with the floor and Clipp could not tell where it had been before.

Click here to read Part 3                                                                         to be continued...

Yazar: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

The Missing Point; Chapter 1 Part 3

Master was out of the patient. ''Listen to me boy. I am not here to listen to your courtesies. Finish it off and tell me the god dammed location.

'' As you command'' said Clipp.

''I need another favor if you don't mind'' said Clipp looking up at Master like a little child looking at his giant father.

'' I'll ask stronghead here to open up your brain and send it to your father in his grave. 'You have eaten enough, now tell me where the damnable key is” said, Master. Clipp could feel the tightness around Master's mouth, the lust to possess what seems to be a treasure of a great expense. Clipp had a different concern, though.

‘‘Send Blue to get a glass of water for me and I swear I will tell you everything after I slaked my thirst'' he said.

Master was puzzled. He could not make a sense if this.

‘‘You said you will give me what I want if I gave you what you want. Is that what you what?-food?'' asked Master.

'' I'll tell you what I want as soon as I slaked my thirst'' said Clipp mischievously.

In the course of his stay here, Clipp had noticed that it takes thirteen minutes before someone could get to the kitchen which he thought was just behind the door. Few minutes after Blue was gone, Clipp started to shout with fury saying ''if I give you the key would it bring back my father? I've waited for this moment. I swear to avenge him. What do you get by killing people for some worldly pomp?'' shouted Clipp.

''Enough with it. What do you know about the death of innocents?'' Master shouted back.

Master could still see the face of that cruel man twisting a knife in his mother's stomach, laughing like a maniac, kicking Master's dead little sister.

"Do you know how many innocent people had died for nothing?'' he carried on. '' Your father got involved in something much bigger than him'' he said turning his face to a rectangular space on the wall which serves as a window. '' Besides that, your father shouldn't be alive after being here'' he said after a small pause. To that, he is telling the truth. Clipp could feel that. Master himself doesn't know all the secret that lay in this underground world. ''Everyone has his limit'' Friend would say when he speaks with Master over the phone. Master had never seen friend yet friend sees him where ever he is. At least that was what friend had told him. So Master calls him the almighty. '' I'll get you the key'' Master had promised. 

Now, as Master turned his back facing the place which looked like a window, Clipp grabbed the knife and the fork hitting away from the table in front of him.

It was so sudden that Master found it impossible to believe. Clipp had stabbed the knife through Master's right eye and had butchered Ivy's throat with the fork. Clipp went out of the Meeting Room. But that was only the beginning. Clipp found himself running through an endless darkness- dark as hell. His heart was pounding fast as ever. He was aware that if he keeps running it will push out of his breast. But he had to see the end of the darkness before Master could reach him. He did not see the end of the darkness, however, then he saw Master running toward him, holding his bleeding eye, a torchlight on his hand. A sudden blow hit Clipp so hard that it made him collapsed on the floor. He touched his forehead and felt some liquid running down. He runs his fingers around his chin and felt where his teeth supposed to have been. The pain was so fierce that he was no longer feeling anything. He could not tell whether he was alive or dead. The darkness swallowed him and for a moment he lost all sensation.

Click here to read Part 2                                                                           Click here to read Part 4

Yazar: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

The Missing Point; Chapter 1 Part 2

It was said that his father looked a mess when he was spotted dead in a stream. His skull was without content. One of his eyes was a trench, the other one nowhere to be found. The image haunted Clipp in his dreams for days. That was four years ago, though. Now his father is dead and he alive in an underground room. His limbs were tied and his mouth gaped while the murderer of his father stares at him with unmovable eyes. 'It shouldn't end like this thought Clipp. If he refuses to give info about the key, he is a dead man. Yet he knows nothing about it, nor did he hear his father talk about any key during his lifetime.

So he said'' If you give me what I want, you'll have wanted you to want.’’

‘‘Good'' said Master. ‘‘You are not as pigheaded as your old man. Now tell me, what is it you want?''

Clipp cleared his throat and began. '' First, untie me and then give me some food and a drink to wash it down.''

''Clever boy. It seems they never feed you in the library. Some books are to be tasted they said, others to be swallowed and a few to be chewed and digested. You ought to have eaten those few.'' said Master mischievously.

Blue laughed, Ivy Stronghead chortled. Ivy Stronghead always laughed at Master's jokes though he never finds it funny.

''Blue!'' shouted Master ''see to his demand''

Blue hurried to a door that opens to a large kitchen. In their secret meeting place, Master had made a kitchen and brought three servants to make it alive. The kitchen was two floors below the Meeting Room whereas the Meeting Room was five floors below an outhouse in a midst of a desert- invisible for the human eye. Master had made it invisible by burring it and then covered its surface with a mix of tar, soil, and coal; and on top of it, he spreads a dark color of sand- making it appeared like a rock. There was a set of patterns on its surface- a set of patterns which ancient symbol that can outsmart even the greatest of symbolism. But to get to the Meeting Room it must be solved. Master has always proud himself of this appeasable skill.

There inside the Meeting Room Blue brought a plate of rice, one fork, one knife and a plate of dessert. ''Wolf boy'' said Master '' and be quick about it. Clipp was startled when he saw the knife. He only needed a fork to cut Master’s throat and his friends’ thereafter. Blue the idiot has made it easy for him.

''And here is the juice'' said Blue extending a bottle of plum juice.

'' You are most kind, Mr. Blue'' blurted Clipp over the hot rice.

Click here to read Part 1                                                                        Click here to read Part 3

Yazar: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

The Missing Point: Chapter 1 Part 1

I'll put this metal through your heart' said Master looking down at Clipp, red with anger.

They had kidnapped him an hour ago when he was returning home. Clipp is a gentle youth not more than four-and-twenty. He has been studying in the library for the last three weeks. These men cut him off as he was coming out of the library. They had taken him to somewhere very strange that he could never have imagined existed in his hometown. They had been asking him about something which he doesn't understand;

‘‘Just tell us where your father keeps the key and maybe we will give you a chance to live'' they would say. Yet Clipp has no notion of where this key might be or even what means is. Even if he knew he would not tell. Pigheaded they call him. He never does what he doesn't feel like doing. Everyone in their family is like that. His father was killed because he didn't tell Master what he wanted to here. ''Alas, you could not know what is in my brain by opening it. You would have learned where the key is. It is in a place you would never know'' Clipp's father would say. He would close his eyes and say '' I can feel it. It is in a place you would never expect it to be.'' Master likes jokes but not of this kind. And now he knows this man will tell him naught. Pigheaded they call them. So he said '' sir, would you be so kind as to let us see whether we can find the location of the key by opening your brain?

Master has never hesitated to kill a man since the incident that happened on the second of March 1976.

Master was furious that he couldn't get the information by opening Clipp's father brain. Years later he started following his son.

Master's crew has been waiting since eleven AM and now it's 12 at night still no sign of the boy. They sent one of their men to check on him. Clipp was inside lost in a book. They waited for another hour. Their eyes were fixed on the entrance. Ivy Stronghead hesitated as he saw the boy. Clipp was on the phone giggling with delight. Ivy cast a long glance at Clipp. He failed to come up with something that will convince Clipp to get into the car without any inappropriate practice. So they drove toward him, jerked him in and disappeared off the road.

They waited in the Meeting Room for the master to come. Clipp was tied and gaped yet he was calm an unperturbed. ‘‘You don't have to die so young. You must have a dream as I am seeing you in the library trying to eat all of the books in a few days.'' said Master after his unexpected entrance to the Meeting Room. He pointed the gun toward Clipp's forehead when the boy laughed at his joke. '' I'll split up your brain and see how much is alike to your father's.

Clipp shuddered his mouth a hard line. He cast a hateful glance at Master. A whisper inside him told him to get up and rip up the man's throat. The whisper, however, has forgotten how he was strapped from head to toe.

Click here to read Prologue...                                                  read Part 2 by clicking here....

Yazar: Bilal Rabiu Kolo

The Missing Point; Prologue

To eat,

to drink,

to sleep,

to die...

That was what my grandfather went through and everyone before him.

And me now.

And the people that will come after me.

I feel happy some times.

And sometimes quite the opposite.

I hate,

I love...

Time I cannot stop.

Darkness has covered the sky now.

Light will pierce the dawn and it will be what we call morning.

It will rain when the time comes.

And it will snow in the same manner.

I will be gone one day.

But before I go I will find the missing point.

Read part 1 by click here.

Yazar: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

Spy

It was the worst day of my life. I do not wish to narrate this story and I have kept it inside me for a long time until now for I cannot stand it any longer. It was summer and the sun was scolding. I saw a girl lying, deadly wounded. Naturally, I rush her to the hospital and I followed her treatment until she was on her feet back again. After that, I learn that she was a foreigner and that she was here by accident. She didn’t have a place to stay so I help her and become her cash cow. I help her learn the language and admitted her to university and she learns the native culture. As the time pass by I learn to trust her and that was the biggest mistake I made. 20 years later she told me why she was with me and I was shocked.

I abandoned the country I live in and everything that has to do with people. I lived under the ecstasy of that for many years. The last day I saw her she was very calm and happy. She invited me for dinner in a restaurant and after the meal was finished she looks into my eyes and said: “Do not make this mistake again” she said do not trust anyone again. “I was here for twenty years to watch you and I have today living with a victory as the most successful spy the world has ever seen.”

By: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

Inner peace

Dread of the uncertain overtook me in the absence of my love

I wailed and squeaked like a dyeing animal in the mouth of a dog

Dead be the living heart of the treacherous monk

He that crucified the living side of my heart

My heart knew the pit was long and damp

And its muds mislead the step of men

Yet the moisture has attracted the overheated man

Thus he dived to rejoice in the delusive camp

The vigorous duelist has drunk from the goblet of venom

Of certain, the why for this crazed happening is a matter of great awe

But the more puzzling is the repetition of the same woe

O, vigorous duelist why forsake the duel after all the rue

What successes a night is always a morning

And a persistent evil ends with mourning

Thus the law was chiseled on a stone everlasting

That you may hike a clear hiking

By: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

Life as I understand it

Life is both difficult and easy. Is our choice to make either way? I believe a human being has the potential to create a beautiful life for themselves. First we start planning. We draw our map and level it. Once we have a plan it will be easy to know where we are going. This map, however should include some very precise spots. You have to think and find exactly what you want in life. When that is precise then start working on it.

A person is born with a clean slate. The environment in which they grow up starts to shape their life. It helps builds up their personalities. Every characteristic is being gained over time. You find you self, doing something wrong but when you see what you did was not accepted in the society you bound to repeat it again. That was now build in your personal characteristics. As you grow up, you come across circumstances which pushes you to be extrovert or introvert. You just become a quiet person when others are talking. There is nothing that can stop you from talking but fear of being criticized. In the case of extroverts, they don’t listen to that thing inside calling them to avoid being criticized. All these are personalities gained over time.

These personalities are now part of you what remains is using them to you advantage.

By: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

A Dream of a Battle as the Death Approaches

It was a reckoning day- a day of the death. People were lined up in their armored uniforms, swords in hands. The camp took the odor of muds and the sky was darkening. The camp was surrounded with strong blocks and secured end to end. There was a mop of the army that an eye could never see its end.  At the extreme end of the camp was where the women, children and the wounded stay, terrified. Now people were pouring out of that mansion in large numbers as you could never see their end.

I was at the gate swinging my sword when I saw a huge man, completely armored, jumped to release the weight of his sword on my head. I was swift enough to have met every one of his strong blows. But now I got confused. I cannot endure his strokes anymore.

For whatever reason, my fellow comrades have gathered to watch the duel. And they were discouraging me. Saying that I couldn’t face this man- he was too strong.

I was there still fighting, terrified and utterly frightened. It was the fear of death. And now I have no more energy to carry on. A huge blow hit me and sent me tumbling in the mud with my face on the ground. The fear had now intensified; I was afraid to the last atom of my soul. It was the fear of death. I wasn’t prepared to die. I yielded to the power of guilt. I was going to meet the God now. But I was never ready, and that frightens me. As I was well aware that I was about to take one last stroke that would send me to my death, all my thought was about repenting for the injustice I did to myself in the course of my life. But a repentance is never accepted when you are on the brink of death. I closed my eyes for one last time and a completely absolute fear is with me. Death was the last thought. And there I woke up in my bed but still in the battle camp. Whenever I closed my eyes again I go to the battlefield. But except now I was not lying waiting for the last stroke. My fellow comrades helped me to my feet and walked me to my bedroom. But to their surprise, I was anxious to go back and fight that man. I was thinking I could do it all over again. 

By: Bilal Rabiu KOLO

The Missing Pearl in the Life of a Beautiful Girl

There was this beautiful girl who lived in a village. She was the most beautiful girl to have ever lived in that village. She was so beautiful that everybody in that village and even people from the nearest villages want her hand in marriage. Because of her beauty, she attracts interests from both the rich and the poor, the kings and princes, the ugly and the handsome, the businessmen and the local workers, but the interesting thing about her is that she always denies everybody.

Whoever proposes to her, she will go like “No, thank you.”

One day, a handsome poor young man in her village proposed to marry her. She looked at him from head to toe and said: “No, thank you.”

This poor young man felt sad and was disheartened by the looks and the answer she gave him.

He thought that maybe she said no because he wasn’t that rich and that he decided to move from that village to the nearest village with the aim of working hard and becoming rich. Having the thought that, he will be rich, come back to the village and propose to this beautiful girl again.

After years of hard work, this handsome poor young man came back to his old village as rich as he aimed to be and asked about the beautiful girl and where she lives. He was directed to her house. Without waste of time, he went straight to the house. He knocked at the door but there was no answer.

He knocked for the second and after the third time, there comes a very short, dirty, and ugly old man opening the door and right after the ugly old man follows the beautiful girl.

This handsome young man was astonished and kept looking at her with a strange face. The first question he asked her was, ‘Who is this ugly man?’ and she answered: ‘My husband’. She made him more surprised and astonished.

But he continued with his questions ‘Why him?’ after all, you are beautiful and you could have married any kind of man you wanted, rich and handsome.

The beautiful girl said to the young handsome man: I will answer your question but before I answer you, I want us to play a game and after the game, I will tell you why I had to marry this ugly man.

So the beautiful girl took this handsome young man to a big garden full of wonderful and beautiful flowers. She said to him, I want you to go into this garden of flowers and get me the most beautiful flower you could find. But the rule of the game is, if you bypass a flower without picking it, you can’t come back for it again.

Meaning you can only pick from the ones in front of you and you can’t come for the ones you have already left. So, it was agreed, and the handsome young guy went into the garden of flowers and started the search for the most beautiful flower he could find for the girl.

The first flower he saw was beautiful and smells good! He wanted to pick that for her but something came into his mind, that, what of if he moves a little bit further maybe he could find more beautiful ones for her.

So he kept on bypassing all the flowers thinking that the deeper he goes into the garden the more there is a chance for him finding the most beautiful flower for her ignoring all the other ones. He continued moving until he got to the end of the garden where the flowers at the end were all dead flowers and not even nice to look at.

He wanted to come back and pick from the previous beautiful flowers but then he remembered the rule of the game which was, there is no going back.

So at that point, he couldn’t afford coming back empty handed so he decided to pick from the dead flowers and he brought it to her. She asked him why the dead flower when there were a whole lot of beautiful ones.

He said: yes I could have picked from all these beautiful flowers the first time I entered the garden but I thought the more I move the more I have the chance of finding the best for you. But before I realized, I was at the end of the garden where there were only the dead flowers and according to the rule, I can’t pick from the ones I already left. So my only option was to pick from the dead ones for you.

Then the beautiful girl said to him, in fact, this is the answer to the question you asked me about my husband. Actually, I know that I am beautiful but I always thought that I will be finding someone better than the people who proposed to me so I kept saying no to everyone. It got to a certain point where I had no other option than to choose from the ugly ones because no one was interested in me again, thinking that my answer will always be a no to them.

THE END

Now it’s your turn…..tell us what you’ve learned from the story in the comment box. Have you ever experience anything of that sort in your life? Let’s learn from each other’s experience.

By: Yaqoub Ali

PATRIOTISM: A solution for Africa’s development. Part 2

Ok! Then what’s Patriotism? 

Patriotism is the love of country; devotion to the welfare of one’s compatriot; the virtues and actions of a person who loves and zealously supports and defends their country; the passion which inspires one to serve one’s country; the desire to compete with other nations. But let me chip rise a red flag here, when I talk about patriotism I don’t mean chauvinism.

There is a difference between patriotism and chauvinism. Patriotism is about the love of one’s country with the respect for others to do the same for their country but chauvinism leads to racism. With the definition I gave about patriotism, the question is, as an African how patriotic are you? Just give a sincere answer to yourself now!

Most people will agree with me that, patriotism in Africans and Africa is, if not zero then I think it’s getting closer to zero. Honestly, I met with a lot of Africans who are very patriotic but being under societal criticisms and ridicules, they are gradually giving up the idea.

To be honestly, people who are patriotic are not afraid, they do not fear to stand up against any oppressor or any leadership who they see swaying from the reason they brought him where he is even if they voted for him. Patriotic people are perseverant and stand their ground whenever they are face with problems politically or economically and try everything they can to find solutions to their problems. Patriotic people think about the future of their children and the next generations, so their decisions and plans are made to cover the future.

Throughout history, there are hundreds examples of patriotic people and with their patriotism, they lifted their countries from ashes to glory. It was patriotism in 1775-1783 that helped Americans to gain their Independence from the British. It was patriotism that help Germany to recovery from the economic crises after the World War 2, when the citizens agree and eagerly worked after a pay cut in their salaries. It was patriotism in 2016 that lead the Turks to stand against the attempted coup that was meant to topple a democratically elected president. It was patriotism in 2017 that lead the Romanian people to stand against their own elected government when the government intended to approve a law that will give way to corruption in the country.

All these people were ready to sacrifice everything they have to protect what they believed in. they were ready to give up their sleep and stand in the cold nights to defend what is rightly for them and to have a secure future for the next generation. That’s what patriotism installs into people, the need to give up all you have for that you believe in.

How can we be patriotic? Or simply, how can we love our country?

It’s simple……it starts with education, more education and more reading about our countries and Africa. We didn’t just come into being from nowhere. Some people had to sacrifice everything they had to secure everything we are enjoying today. We never met any of the Prophets but how come do we love them that much? It’s about education.

We were taught about them ad we also read about them in such a way that, they become part of us. And most of the time, everything we do is straight from what we learn about them and has an influence on us. The more you read and learn about something, the more it becomes part of you.

We need to read more about African history and the people who sacrificed themselves for us to get to where we are today. The more we read about our history, the more we get closer to the missing part of us that disconnected us from each. And with time, we will reconcile with our past and help create the Africa that once attracted a lot of people to herself.

So what about the leaders at the top who are not patriotic, how can we be patriotic to someone who is not patriotic, how can we make them patriotic? I believe that everything starts with the people, if we can create a house of patriotic people, it will later turn into a community or society of patriots then we become a nation full of patriotic people. It is at this level that we will see some patriotic leaders because the people we choose to represent us will be from us with the same values and believes then we will see the reflection of it in the leaders or in the government institutions.

With the power of our votes, we reject anyone who doesn’t recognize our values and believes. We change anyone who we choose to represent us and later deviate from our course. Just don’t forget that everything starts with us and that we can make progress whenever we choose to. The power is in our hands. I want to end with a quote from the late MP Tony Benn of the Labor Party (UK), he said: “I think progress is being made by two flames that has always been burning in the human heart. The flame of anger against injustice and the flame of hope that you can build a better world.” LET’S KEEP THE FLAMES BURNING!

You can reach part 1 by clicking here.

By: Yaqoub Ali

PATRIOTISM: A solution for Africa’s development. Part 1

            I would like to begin with one of my favorite quotes which is: “History happens twice because people don’t listen at the first time.” In Africa, I think Africans are already experiencing the repetition of history for the second time as we are still under direct or indirect influence of the descendants of the early intruders or as they are referred to in Africa as the whites or the Westerners who through trade and under the disguise of missionary works looted the continent.

Our parents and grandparents didn’t listen for the first time when the intruders came and the repercussion of not listening is what we are seeing in Africa now (Modern colonization). I hope this current generation of Africans will not just listen but will be ready to also read in other to prevent the repetition of history for the third time in the near future.

Actually between the late 1950’s and the whole of 1960’s, there were celebrations of independence, liberation and emancipation from the colonial powers almost throughout the African continent, at the same sending messages to others that ‘YES’ we are free, we did it and any other country or continent under colonial domination can do the same. And I remember what Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana said in his famous independence speech, he said: “We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world! That new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.” 6^th March 1957. So inspiring, isn’t it? But I wish Kwame Nkrumah is here to see that the black man has not been able to manage his own affairs.

Since the independence of various African nations back in the 1960’s till date Africa has been under enormous dominations again and inhumane propaganda to make sure that Africa remains the way it is now and will not be able to compete with the intruders (western world) or any other continent at any level. No matter how hard Africa tries, it is still being labeled as either “undeveloped”, “less developed” or “developing” whichever one you choose and I bet you they will continue to label Africa as “undeveloped”, “less developed” or “developing” until we go back to what Nkrumah said and that’s start managing our own affairs.

Just imagine from our educational system, economic policies to the political and social structures is under the direct or indirect influence of the same foreign intruders who at once do not recognize anyone from Africa with the word freedom and human right, and when they had the complete control over Africa, they deliberately destroyed everything just to satisfy their selfish interests. Malcolm X once said: “You have to realize that up until about 1959, Africa was dominated by the colonial powers. And by the colonial powers of Europe having complete control over Africa, they projected Africa always in a negative light – jungles, savages, cannibals, nothing civilized.”

These misconceptions and many other wrong ideas about Africa are still widely held in the so called modern world, often in very prestigious places. The social scientist Samuel Huntington at Harvard University, serve as a telling example of the reflexive and unreflected ways in which many well-educated Western-educated people think. In his book published in 1996, The clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, he sees Africa as a set of weaker civilizations. He and many influential writers and officials are predisposed to think Africa as irrelevant.

Now the game is, when they have something to gain from Africa, they call it the richest continent on earth and after looting it and the people, they say it’s the most corrupted continent on earth. Sometimes ago, the Former British Prime Minister David Cameron had the nerve to call Nigeria a “Fantastically corrupt” when all the corrupt leaders we have in Africa either have bank accounts and assets in Britain or in some other western countries. Maybe he forgot that the corruption in Africa is another source of income for the British government and the west since those “fantastically corrupt” leaders pay taxes for having assets in Britain and in the western countries.

We can’t deny the fact that Africa is really sick and needs a doctor, at the same time, it is being led by clueless leaders who are in one way or the other more interested in their own gains than the development of their own people and the continent at large. Again there is no doubt that the development of Africans and the continent Africa depends on the efforts of Africans and Africans alone not some self-serving aid workers or the insatiable West.

Furthermore, Africans need to understand that development never comes from outside, it comes from inside which means, it starts from within Africa and within the African people. Again not with IMF, not with the World Bank or with the foreign aids, it starts with the people.

The reason why I am saying this is that, just imagine a sick person whose doctor happens to be his rival or enemy. Instead of giving this sick person the right prescription for his sickness, the doctor being in the position of a rival or an enemy will definitely give him a wrong prescription which will either worsen the sickness or be the cause of his death. Africans are looking for solutions from people who are not interested in the development of Africa and its people. And because we force them to help us do what we can do for ourselves, they have no other option than to give us the prescriptions that will even make us more undeveloped and poor. Whiles the prescription they always give to us makes us poorer, on the hand, it serves their own interests.

Nobody can refute the fact that Africa is the richest continent on earth. Because it is said that, “the richness of a nation lays in the land, what is in the land and the people that work on the land.” There is no doubt that there is indeed richness in Africa. Unfortunately, the dwellers of Africa are not as rich as the land. Richness not in money or accumulated wealth but rather in character and attitude.

Africans have problems with the way they carry themselves and in the state of their minds. It’s either Africans don’t care or don’t know how to show resistance when we are face with oppressions and injustices, because we are afraid and fears is the oppressor’s weapon.

Again, it’s either we don’t care or don’t know how to be perseverant when we are in difficult situations. Our eyes, hands and minds are always open to help and aid from outside which in turn makes us vulnerable in the eyes of the provider. These make us lazy and take away our abilities to think, create and provide for ourselves.

Furthermore, Africans are too individualistic and egocentric, we always think about ourselves and do not care about each other, and we don’t care about the future of youth and the brilliant children of Africa. That’s why you see almost all the policies and plans that are made by most governments and politicians are short term, because they are interested in themselves and the next election not about the people.

Also, Africans don’t like reading anything about themselves and the world, when we became far away from our own history and culture, we became far away from our own selves. They say if you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book because we will never read it. These and many others are the reasons why we call for Patriotism or a Patriotic Africa.

Read Part 2 by clicking here. 

Yazar: Yaqoub Ali

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