Our Problems Go Beyond Colonization And Slavery: We Are Victims Of An Ethical Dilemma Of Our Own Creation

By

Hamilton Odunze

hodunze@yahoo.com  or hodunze@ccbnig.org

When a fêted scholar like Chinua Achebe says something, it is merely natural that the rest of us pay attention and respect. To embellish or remove from the insightful observation of such an intellectual is something I will not encourage anybody to do, just for the heck of it. However, from time to time, one feels compelled to share an opinion. Having said the above, I respectfully want to discuss an issue raised by our esteemed scholar far away in Jamaica a few weeks ago and published by Vanguard Newspapers.

The occasion was the ongoing 200^th anniversary of the end of the transatlantic slave trade of Africans to the Caribbean. Achebe said: “we have not been lucky with the leadership we have had since independence … no one else suffered the huge compulsory movement of people and the destruction of the continent that followed it. It is that destruction that we are seeing in Darfur, Somalia and Nigeria…” Chinua Achebe is right. Anybody with a good sense of history knows that the unabated destruction we are seeing in Africa today has some elements of Western influence engraved in them. We are victims of one of the most horrendous crimes in human history by way of colonization and slavery.

Yet, Africans are divided as to how we have been affected by slavery and colonization. Many believe that these events bunged the pace of African civilization. I credit this point of view with brilliant scholastic values. But history has shown that many great civilizations were at one time or another colonized. Therefore, the problem in Africa may not be directly linked to these horrendous crimes. The problem may be with the nature of African independence. Stay with me as I make the supporting argument.

Take Nigeria for instance. Our fight for independence was not spirited enough to warrant the need for a common purpose within the elements of survival and nation building. With profound apologies to those who struggled for our freedom, independence came on a round table over coffee and lunch. Right from then on, those who would later rule Nigeria were instantly separated from those they would rule. There was no common ground for the masses and their leaders. This trend has survived in today’s Nigeria. In fighting for our independence, we did not sacrifice enough for our freedom; therefore, we lack any basis for patriotism. To a large extent, this lack of patriotism is the difference between nations who fought and died for freedom and those whose freedom came over coffee and lunch like ours. For instance, America fought a long and hard war with the British for their freedom. Consequently, they were united by the need to survive, regardless of their differences. South Africa is on the right track today because the nature of its independence was rough and bloody. 

So far, I am arguing that our path to independence should have been violent, even bloody. Colonization and slavery, bad as they may have been, are not at the root of Africa’s problem. However, regardless of which side of the argument you are on, one question stands out: Is it really pragmatic to discuss Africa’s and Nigeria’s problem in the context of colonization and slavery? As a Nigerian who anguishes over the situation of things in our country, I fear that not pointing out the dangers in continuing to blame the West for our woes is wrong. Since Chinua Achebe’s insightful observations, I have labored to link the extent of destruction going on in Nigeria with colonization and slavery. I could not find the moral courage to join in blaming America, Europe and France for our woes. For one reason, it is unprogressive because it makes excuses for what we have failed to do for ourselves. Second, it makes excuses for the perpetuation of the abuse and destruction which has been going on unabated in Africa. One thing is clear: these abuses and destructions are malicious acts of people committing against their own. Therefore, blaming the West for our problems is a futile academic exercise not consistent with the realities of our existence in Nigeria.

The realities of life in Nigeria are grim, as many as 99% of Nigerians live with less than $1 a day in the midst of affluence. Our infrastructure is under colossal decay. In case we have forgotten, let us go down memory lane in order of profundity: as close as 1982, Nigerians were enjoying a booming economy. Our hospitals were among the best in the world. We had world-class education. Again, how do we explain this retrogression in terms of colonization and slavery?  If anything, the effect of colonization should have been more apparent then than now.

I am not trying to weaken the effects of colonization and slavery, but given the world around us and the impact that Nigerians have made, we should have been half-way down the road to self realization. Like Nigeria, many African nations have been liberated for more than 40 years now. Can somebody please hoot me when do we take a step in the right direction? Our problems in Africa and Nigeria go beyond colonization and slavery.

Many Nigerians believe the West perpetuated our problems by intentionally creating a montage nation called Nigeria. For instance, they argue that the nature of Nigeria’s diversity is not manageable under a national umbrella. In a world where many nations crave the kind of diversity we have, it is preposterous to argue that this same condition is our weakness. If anything, Nigeria’s obscured strength is its diversity.   

My honest conclusion is that we are victims of an ethical dilemma of our own creation manifested in the kinds of leadership we have gotten in the past 40 years.

Hamilton Odunze ©2007

hodunze@yahoo.com  or hodunze@ccbnig.org.

Boston, MA