Lost Identity
Fela Kuti, a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist; musician; composer; pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre and human rights activist, once talked about the indigenous African wisdom of how Africans developed laterine when the bucket system, where people defecates into a big bucket and later pour it away in the night, was still in use across the Europe. The laterine is what is known as a shithole in Nigeria.
Long , long , long , long time ago
African man we no dey carry shit
We dey shit inside big big hole
For Yoruba - land na " Shalangago
For Igbo- land na " Onunu- insi"
For Hausa- land na " Salga "
For Gaa - land na " Tiafi "
For Ashanti - land na " Yarni "
For Ethiopia- land na " Sagara - be "
For Kagyu - land na " Cho - Cho "
For Bemba- land na " Chimbuzi "
For Tunga- land na " Echibuzi "
Long , long , long , long time ago
African man we no dey carry shit
We dey shit inside big big hole
Long time ago!
Long , long , long , long time ago
Long , long , long , long time ago
Before them come force us away as slaves
During the time them come force us away...
Na European man , na him dey carry shit
Na for them culture to carry shit
During the time them come colonize us
Them come teach us to carry shit
Long , long , long , long time ago
African man we no dey carry shit
Na European man teach us to carry shit
culled from Fela Kuti I.T.T. lyrics
There is this saying that people without the knowledge of their past are doomed. This is not far from the reality in Africa, we don't really know who we are. Any student of history should know that Africans are very intelligent people.
Africans were once politically free, economically independent and their social patterns were truly their own. All these seem not to be in existence today, simply because we lost our identity. We abandoned our culture, sold our heritage and despised our language. Sad!
According to a quote credited to the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohammed bin Rashid All Maktoum, "each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It's no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you have to run faster than others to survive". Africa needs to wake up from her slumber, rediscover her identity and compete as a whole.