The cry of the African hero

Agbogidi became the African hero not because of the many people he had killed but because he defended African authenticity in the love of neighbour, hospitality and communal co-existence. Many years after his exit to the ancestral home, he was commissioned by the African ancestors to visit the modern Africa and see how the Africans […]

Agbogidi became the African hero not because of the many people he had killed but because he defended African authenticity in the love of neighbour, hospitality and communal co-existence. Many years after his exit to the ancestral home, he was commissioned by the African ancestors to visit the modern Africa and see how the Africans were faring. On arrival, it was difficult for him to identify Africa. Things had changed over the years with the coming of technology and religious proliferation. African traditional leadership had given way to a new system of government which he misunderstood as “demon-crazy”. The actions of some political leaders to him, was something close to the madness of the demons. The African Hero was totally confused when he visited Gambia shortly after the breaking news on CNN on December 13, 2015: “Gambian President Yahya Jammeh had declared his Muslim-majority country an Islamic republic, saying the move marks a break with colonial past.”  The African Hero thought that “a break with colonial past” was not enough reason to declare Gambia an Islamic republic. 
He left Gambia and moved on to South Africa where he met a real “break with colonial past”. Thabo Mbeki, as Vice president of South Africa under the Presidency of Nelson Mandela had presented a speech, “I Am an African” on behalf of the African National Congress in Cape Town on May 8, 1996, on the occasion of the passing of the new Constitution of South Africa. The speech defined the political mood of the moment in post-Apartheid South Africa. In “The flawed visionary of New African, a profile of Thabo Mbeki, The Guardian January 9, 1999”, David Beresford had affirmed that the speech enhanced Mbeki’s reputation as a political orator, in which respect he had been likened to Martin Luther King Junior.
The African hero rejoiced at the expressions of Thabo Mbeki: “I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys; the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.” The African hero was glad that the stories of ancient Africa had been put into poetry and novels. He celebrated the poem, “Africa my Africa by David Diop (July 1927-1960).  He listened to the first four lines: “Africa my Africa; Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs; Africa of whom my grandmother sings; on the banks of the distant river” and then move on to the last four lines: “That is your Africa springing up anew; springing up patiently, obstinately. Whose fruit bit by bit acquires the bitter taste of liberty”! Here is a break with colonial past. “On July 9, 1927, David Mandessi Diop was born in Bordeaux, France, to a Cameroonian mother and a Senegalese father. Although he grew up in France and lived most of his life there, Diop spent significant time living and teaching in Africa, which helped reinforce his opposition to European society. Consequently, many of his poems discuss his empathy with Africa and the movement for independence from French Colonialists (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/david-diop).
The African hero moved on to Guinea. There he found religious harmony in Camara Laye’s novel: “l’enfant noir” (1954), translated by James Kirkup as “the dark child” and later “the African Child”. In The African Child, Laye describes life, growing up as an African child in Guinea, West Africa. Deeply nostalgic, the book is an autobiography portraying a vision of Islamic and ancient African community in the pre-colonial era, a time when tradition engendered mutual understanding and respect for all (http://www.africabookclub.com/p.415). The peaceful co-existence between Islam, Christianity and African Traditional Religion in Guinea till date reveals that you can be a true Muslim and still be an authentic African. This is confirmed by Robert Cardinal Sarah. He reported how both Christians and Muslims welcomed Pope John Paul II to Guinea 1992 (Robert Cardinal Sarah, God or Nothing, Ignatius press, 2015, Page 72).  Cardinal Sarah says: “The Islam in Guinea is spiritual, devoted to rather moving practices. I am not afraid to say that the Islam in my country is a fraternal, peaceful religion. The possibility of conversion exists, and the newly baptized are not obliged to hide, as in other countries” (Cardinal Sarah, p. 139).
The African hero proceeded to other parts of Africa with deep concern about the future of the African youths. In East Africa, he encountered Ngugi wa Thiong’o whose novel, “Weep Not, Child” was first published in 1964 in Kenya under the name James Ngugi and first English novel to be published by an East African. He discovered that in Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and other countries, the ancestral stories that could help the youths to break with the colonial past had been put into movies and home videos. He was impressed with the documented African literature and the history of the departed heroes, heroine, Kings and Queens.
He was amazed at the wisdom of African youths like Panashe Chigumadzi, a storyteller from Johannesburg, South Africa who was born in 1991. Panashe is very concerned about the liberated African and worried about the many years of narratives that perceived Africa culture as inferior. She feels that the notions that the Blacks are criminal, irrational and that Africans act according to their ethnic identity must be corrected through media honesty. She says that power is taken and not given. The Africa hero was encouraged by the perception of the young Panashe that we need new narratives that could help us redefine what it means to be African.
The hope of the African hero was enkindled when he discovered Taleni Shimhopileni, a Namibian young lady who believes that African nations must be trained and educated to protect their language and culture. Taleni wondered who is writing the stories that we teach our children and illustrated with the proverb that, “Until the Lion learns to write; the story will always glorify the hunter”. She recommends that we protect our African identity in our various schools; nurture African literature and teach ourselves who we are. The African hero discovered that the youths are still full of talents like the Nigerian Chimanmanda Adichie who believes in the Africa authenticity and warns against the danger of a single story. 
Why then did the hero cry? The African hero cried that the true heroes and heroines of African had given up leadership to some hungry and greedy office holders who are misleading the people and destroying the future of the youths. He cried that some African leaders travel abroad to seek solutions to the very problems they claimed to have the key to demystify. The Africa hero cried that some modern African leaders have put in place a systematic structure to destroy the youths using religion to feed on the blood of innocent people. We must wipe the tears of the African ancestors by breaking away from the mentality of “African neo-colonialism” where some African leaders are wolves to fellow Africans!
Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua ([email protected])