The Dark Continent

Home of different manifested cultures, land of prosperity and integrity, and a continent which is among a few of the richest in the world despite its ample resources. The motherland of fifty three beautiful countries magnified by its warm heart caring and most of all loving people with million smiles, Africa. 

 

How lovely this continent is, born and raised in one of its magnificent countries in the southern region, Zimbabwe, which at a certain time was nicknamed ‘the bread basket of Africa’. This is one major aspect which just makes me feel so proud of it and mainly its achievements attained by most of its countries even though the achievements are on a minor scale. On the contrary it simply shows that we still have a long way to go in terms of development, especially in the fields of  education, healthcare and poverty alleviation  in our beloved but not so magnificent Africa

Some may ask why Africa was called the ‘dark continent? Is it because of the complexion of the majority of the people who live in it or simply because of the colour of its soil, but neither both of them are true? Initially it was named so by early European explorers because they thought it was unnoticed meaning it had nothing of their interests at that time, of which they totally had no idea of because of its numerous delicate resources which are too many to specify, and also that it was mysterious in some way to them around the 19^th century, post slavery time.                                                                                                                          But however the idea of Africa being ‘dark’ could be that because of its backwardness at that time in terms of development and civilization. Which in a way, we Africans may find somehow insulting.

It was then named Africa which some believe to have been derived from a Latin word ‘aprica’ meaning sunny or a Greek word ‘aprike’ which means not cold hence the weather of the continent which does not  experience severe cold temperatures like in Europe.

We are facing many despicable and frightening problems in Africa today and one of the major ones is wars. Most of them are ravaging some of our beloved countries only to realize the mass destructions after the war, and destroying an enormous amount of human lives. To a certain extent we sometimes wonder if some people can ever learn from our own history of civil wars, uprisings and coups. Looking behind the stories of the conflicts, it’s all because some people mainly leaders of our nations, never want to understand one another or they have too much pride and want to embrace an everlasting reign.

Africa still has a long way for it to be developed. Not fully developed but just to be developed, whereby its countries have progressive economies and advanced technological infrastructures. Since most of the countries are pre-industrial and mostly agrarian we have to improve to more of a post-industrial society where the service sector produces more wealth than industrial or manufacturing sector.

Almost all the African countries are poverty stricken and I am not saying Africa is the only continent facing this delinquent situation. Over three billion people in the whole world live in poverty that is with inadequate shelter have no safe water, have few or no health services and of all have no education. But as African citizens we have to get out of our comfort zones and do something about it. It is a major problem and has to be dealt with in no spec of time. Imagine if all the money being used for wars could instead be used to resolve the problem of poverty, it word be a magnificent idea albeit controversial.

Our other problem in most African countries is of dependence and reliance. We rely mainly on donors and most of these donors are typically the same nations which colonized our African states back in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Somehow being too dependent on these donors also brings a form of colonialism in a hidden way. Some of our raw materials are still being taken away from us and later sold to us in form of finished goods, which is more or less the same as buying our own products. Where are we going to end up and how will we develop by being too dependent on the western countries?

The best means to improve our economies and reduce the problem of poverty at a maximum point we can and being independent, is to firstly improve our education sector, as I believe acquiring some knowledge can help our nations solve these problems and also move a step forward towards civilization.                                                                                             Africa has so many raw materials and resources that only if we could trade among ourselves in Africa we could reach a favourable standard of living.