One of the common misinterpretations of the struggle for Africa’s liberation from colonialism is the oft-repeated narrative that some countries—such as my own, Tanzania—gained independence without shedding blood. With due respect, there is no such thing. Conquest itself is costly and regaining freedom is profoundly expensive.
Moreover, the price of lost freedom cannot be measured solely in the blood of fallen brethren. Humanity’s refusal to uphold values intrinsic to dignity, respect and civilisation. To be reduced to the chattels of fellow human beings is the ultimate dehumanisation—akin to being the living dead.
In Africa, we have lived through all those phases. We were enslaved, colonised, discriminated against, disrespected and our very humanity was questioned, despite overwhelming scientific and spiritual evidence that we are the cradle of humankind. We are often disregarded due to our inferior consumption—something that, with due respect, is of our own making.
Admittedly, Africa may be the birthplace of civilisation, learning, education and medicine. Africa had universities long before Europe awoke. Yet that legacy benefits neither Africa nor humanity meaningfully today. One key issue is that Africans have allowed others to narrate our story in the modern global community. Africa is a land of barely evolved brutes, with no past or history!
But if Africans had no past, how did they get here? Africans and Europeans do not have separate existential timelines—we are all Homo sapiens, or wise man,” although even that title reflects a tragic loss of meaning. Indeed, all evidence points to our ancestors being wiser and more grounded than we are today.
Language alone testifies to this. Modern humans did not invent language—we inherited it. We are beneficiaries of phonetic codes, rules and sounds crafted for intelligent communication—none of which we created ourselves. In fact, attempts to manufacture “new languages” in modern times have almost universally failed.
Take English, the global lingua franca: it is little more than a bastardised amalgamation of Greek and Latin. Kiswahili, by contrast, is much richer—a dynamic fusion of vocabularies formed when men and women of different cultures met to communicate effectively. But I digress.
Africa has a problem—one of which is a tendency to shun dialogue in favour of violence to resolve internal disputes. Honestly, I don’t know where this malaise stems from. Perhaps it is a lingering burden of long-term subjugation. Africans today exhibit a tragic inclination to resolve internal issues through conflict and oppression.
Meanwhile, the continent remains stereotyped as a region of ignorance, disease, and poverty—even as more knowledgeable individuals from around the world now southwards to Africa in search of opportunity. Ironically, they sometimes become the catalysts of our internal conflicts, using soft-power tactics to manipulate the elite while exploiting the continent’s resources.
Africa must awaken and shed this brutish image—of people too quick to shed the blood of those they disagree with. As we fight, the world watches. Recently declassified CIA documents contain praise for Mwalimu Nyerere’s role as a peacemaker in the Great Lakes Region.
Yet who openly praised him while he was alive? He was mocked as a utopian dreamer, clinging to discredited socialism. Now we know: in secret, even the Americans admired him—yet were unwilling to acknowledge openly that he was far more intelligent than some of their own leaders at the time.
Africans, we must wake up. From Cape to Cairo, Mogadishu to Conakry—Africa is one. If we continue to believe that our differences are irreconcilable, the day is not far when the men, women and children of this beautiful land will once again be reduced to hewers of wood and drawers of water for others.
Munyaga’s contact is munyaga@gmail.com
