It’s time to embrace our African and human greatness

I READ your articles about learning from Australia, UK taxis, youth drinking away pocket money and our Bafana coach saying we need to stand behind our national team. All I thought was: “Hurt people, hurt people”.

We have been hurt by slavery, colonialism, apartheid and globalisation/Westernisation of the African mind. We have been brainwashed to think that we have no history and are worthless. Today this impacts on every aspect of our lives. Worthless people see others’ lives (especially those who look like them) as worthless. Give a worthless person a car and it becomes a weapon to kill the self and others.

A worthless bus or taxi driver is a mass murderer just waiting to happen. HIV-infected, worthless people pass it on to others looking like they do. Crime against a worthless person is easier, for they deserve no respect. Worthless people learn from how they are treated by the ruling power and copy that example. If the ruling power gets away with crime, why not speed or steal? If the controlling power rapes, so too will its worthless people. Exploitation of the farmworkers is a remnant of slavery, but justified by economics and our sense of worthlessness.

Worthless kids take tik, drugs and alcohol to escape the worthlessness within the context of their daily existence as descendants of the slaves or the worthless of society. The high standards set by globalisation are now imposed on the African reality vs the American dream. The “Yes, we can” scam. Like in the US, with mass murders and shootings by civilians following the example of US troops representing them internationally.

The Western standard is now imposed on South Africans, too, and worthless kids learn about their rights, without learning how great masses of people fought for those rights (not just ANC members). So they have no respect for worthless elders, because elders are worthless like themselves.

So how do we regain our worth? What does it mean to us that Africa is the cradle of civilisation? Modern man spread from here to the rest of the planet. The Bushman is the direct link to that early humanity. Timbuktu is where the first university was. The pyramids of Egypt are a pinnacle of African societal development.

Writing, reading, talking, art, science, mathematics – all began in Africa. Every human being can be traced back to Africa. Most of the world’s wealth is stolen from Africa. We enriched and enrich the world spiritually, educationally and financially (they still steal our mineral wealth).

Great men and women are from here. From our first resistance fighter Goree, who was kidnapped in the 1400s and taken to England refusing to learn more than “Take Goree Home”, to Autshumoa, aka Herry Die Strandloper, first to be imprisoned on Robben Island, to Nelson Mandela to Neville Alexander to Kratoa, aka Eva. Here we fought the Portuguese Viceroy A’lmeida as Khoi Khoi and won on Salt River beach in 1510. Here, a mixed people of Khoi, Dutch and slaves created Afrikaans, a creole language.

These are just a few examples of some of the greatness that we come from. In fact, we can take credit for all people’s creations and accolades, for they are all from here, from Africa. To see solutions, we need to take back our worth, our equality, our humanity.

Let’s stop looking outward for solutions. Let’s embrace our African and human greatness.