Power Issue 2012 Jo Lee - JO LEE Magazine

THE POWER OF MOMENTUM
African Renaissance And Momentum
By David C. Wesonga
Nairobi – Kenya
Work Of Art By Laurence Longueville
Geneva – Switzerland
There is this jigger-infested tale
that is oft told of the royal birth of
festering in Africa. In the ’60s and
’70s, a young missionary arrived in the
Kenyan kingdom of Wanga, and spent
her missionary years not just preaching
the word of God, but also teaching
young kids about hygiene. Then, the
kingdom was full of jiggers, and no one
dared stop them, because, according
to the rich tale, they had come to the
court of the Wanga King from the
court of the Buganda King, ferried by
a royal courtier who had fallen from
grace. So, the origin being royal, the
right of entry was thus also royal!
But who talks of royal problems in the
21st century? Think – someone seated
on a plane, coming all the way from
Washington, D.C. to teach us hygiene?
Americans have conquered space, gone
to Mars, and chained together time
and travel. You could leave Asia on
Saturday and get to America on Friday
of the same week, and if asked say, “I
left tomorrow.” But wait a minute;
it was not always like this! That is
momentum!
Long ago, Africa ruled the world,
and history will tell you of the great
civilization that was Carthage in
Tunisia. It was brought down in 146
BC and slavery took its toll. The
Punic Wars of 264 to 146 BC crippled
Carthage, but not before Hannibal
had led armies to Rome, not in nuclear
armed planes, but on elephants! Yes,
Africa ruled Rome for 15 years!
Think Egypt. Senegalese scholar Cheik
Anta Diop has demonstrated in his
book African Origins of Civilization
that ancient Egyptians were indeed
black Africans! The people who built
the pyramids with such precision and
mathematical ingenuity rivaled only by
the space shuttle were Africans! Think
of the city-states that straddled the Nile
valley – Thebes and Memphis. Think
of Africa scholars and philosophers
similar to Greek poets Euripides and
Aristophane. The great African Library
at Alexandria, razed down by Julius
Caesar in 48 BC, was the greatest
repository of knowledge. But pray,
where were the so-called super powers
then?
Africa, aided only by itself, had
momentum until the well-told lie took
off, overran logic, and became truth.
However, momentum to the negative
is rarely reversible. The African
renaissance has the power to thrust
forward, but not until we heed Chinua
Achebe’s words, that the trouble with
Africa is simply and squarely a question
of poor leadership, and, I might add,
well-told lies. Political hygiene will do
well, even solve some of the problems,
and we do not need missionaries to tell
us that! Some little hygiene, personal
too, might erode a lot of the gains – a
small jigger problem if you ask me.
JL
Jo Lee Power 2012 71