This has been a
long standing issue that has bugged my mind for some time now, I was thinking
to myself to deliver it as a talk, maybe on a TEDx platform, but on a second
thought while wait till then, when I can just use this medium with the large
number of readership we keep recording on a weekly basis. So I decided to use
this medium to speak to our subconscious minds today on this subject matter.
Why do you think
America is the greatest nation on earth? Have you ever asked yourself this
question? I am not here to actually debate whether they are the greatest nation
on earth or not, but over the years one thing America has succeeded in doing is
sell to us how great their nation is, through Hollywood and we all have bought
into this. It is the same way Ferrari, Cadillac, Bugatti, Lamborghini and the
rest of their kind have sold us into believing that their cars are the most
expensive cars in the world and an exclusive item for the super rich in the society.
Each time you watch a Hollywood movie, they are either telling you of their patriotic
nature in the case of Olympus has Fallen,
Pearl Harbour, Starship Troopers etc or they are telling you how technologically
good and advanced they are as we see in movies like Robot, Riddick, Independence Day, Transporter,
James Bond (though James Bond is centered
more on Britain) etc. They know how to use their Mass
Media effectively to communicate their superiority over other nations, but how
do we tell our story as Africans? The opposite of what the Western world do, what
we have to our narrative is simple: a race ravaged by diseases, war, and hatred for one another, a race where corruption never ceases to breathe the
air of liberty and our leaders will like to remain in power as long as it takes
and die there if possible (I am not saying none of these does not exist). All
we do is tell stories of how we were slaves over and over again as if these are
the only stories to tell about us. To make it worse we allow the Western Media
to tell our stories for us and each time they are to shoot a movie about
Africa, most of the time, they just pick on ill of her society and propagate to
the world: Hotel Rwanda, Sometimes in April, Blood and Oil, Beast of No Nation and the list is endless. What baffles me is that
we have added more fuel to these flames as all we as Africans tell of our
stories is everything short of the positive. In Nigeria where I come from every
two weeks we release new movies and the stories most of these movies tell are
stories of ritual practices, wickedness in high places, how funny our people
can be such that we can’t be taken serious and we think these things have no
effect on the way the committee of nations view us? Of course it does. When you
meet an average Nigerian to tell you his narrative, the first thing he tells
you is how recession has ravaged his country and blames government for every
single thing even for his lazy attitude. We focus so much on the problems that
we forget the many blessings we have being endowed with, the brains, the
historic feats and what have you. If indeed we were that cursed, how comes the Ivory Mask of the ancient Benin Kingdom still lie in a Museum somewhere in the West? If
we were that cursed, why have they have granted citizenship to every African
who has distinguished themselves in their various fields of endeavour: Phillip
Emegwali, Djimon Gaston Hounsou, Idris Elba, Jelani Aliyu, Seal Olumide,
Yinka Shonibare, Ade Adepitan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bart Nnaji
the list is endless, sports and entertainment is not left out. If we are so
cursed how comes we are blessed with the likes of Professor Isa
Hussaini Marte whose wonderful discovery is
doing a lot in the quest to finding cure for cancer?
How comes we are blessed with the likes of Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie, Cobhams Emmanuel Asuquo, Kevin “K. O.” Olusola, Kevin
Okafor, Alex ‘Boye, Tony Elumelu, Aliko Dangote, Mike
Adenuga, Adebayo Ogunlesi, Adewumi
Adesina? To mention a few who are out there flying the African continental flag
so high. We are blessed with numerous resources yet we are so poor in the
management of our resources that we have to keep signing MOUs every now and
then to get expatriates to come manage our resources for us while our youths
wallow in the grief of unemployment. It is hard time we begin to tell our story
the way only us can tell! They have no clue how resilient we are as a people,
how beautiful we are as a people, how smart we are. There is more to this
country call Nigeria and continent than what we portray through Big Brother.
The Clarion Call
I want to use this
medium to plead to everyone reading this post to take action! Here is what I want
you to do:
1. Make a video clip telling your own side
of the beautiful African Story
2.
Post on Youtube, Instagram or any
of the social media platforms using the following hash tags: #myAfricanstory #mynarrative
#myAfricamystory
3. Tag a friend
4. Do not forget to share this post!
Do not break this
chain and see how we will change our narrative as people. It is time we tell
our own story!
Alvin
Photo Credit: Culture Whiz
Comments
Post a Comment