We have used history in this discourse mainly as a guide to signpost the point of the fall of Africans from spiritual grace and as a tool for intellectual exploration and analysis of the reasons for the fall. This writer does not claim to be an historian and will plead with experts in history to please put their professional swords back in the sheaths. Please forgive my errors, in case, if in the course of the analyses I broke all the rules in the rulebook of history. I will like to confess I am an ordinary user of history and will never knowingly abuse history. History should attract the attention of any seeker eager to understand the origin and nature of humankind. The very beginning of humanity may remain in obscurity but there are ample materials since records began to give a seeker enough information from which to draw relevant conclusions for his/her own use as each of us navigate the many pitfalls in the journey of life.
What Sam Keen said about history in his book, Fire in the Belly when he writes, “History offers us the chance to take responsibility and change what we previously considered our fate.”, guided my historical exploration. My primary concern is about how best to draw out the essential lessons that history is supposed to teach in order to help readers and seekers of truth to come to a better understanding of the nature of the problems facing Africa. I am also concerned about the quickest method by which to remove the blindfold that the sins of ignorance and forgetfulness have placed over the eyes of Africans all these years. However and more importantly, the effort of this work is to bring to the remembrance of all Africans the gory essentials of Africa’s past and to help each other to draw out and pick up the pertinent lessons we needed to learn from this shameful history. As Santayana once said and quoted above, unless we can remember the past, we run the risk of repeating the same mistake again and of missing the opportunity to make some progress.
However, if the hypothesis of this essay holds true then we can conclude that the class of humanity across the globe that are holding and occupying leadership status of our world are indeed the depraved of the human race – the scoundrels, the low lifers and the bloodthirsty miserable species. Now we are being told “an achiever is a person successfully driven to attain wealth and power above all else; and such people are clearly suited to running everything.” Can that be true? How can the possession of a special aptitude for material accumulation of money and property be the sole yardstick for the measurement of human success and achievement? Does the human ability to create great wealth synonymous with human excellence or great virtues? It is necessary now to answer some of the questions we raised in the introduction. What is leadership and who is a leader?
Leadership in the ‘civilized’ or make-believe world is about power – how to capture or seize power; and how to use or abuse power by an individual within a commune or society. It is about the legitimacy of power – about the question of who has the right to exercise power in a community. This is the bedrock of all conflicts in every society and the terrain of political scientists and politicians. Leadership is squarely at the centre of political life and the tussle for power has been with humankind since the burst of consciousness. The desire to own and to exercise raw power is one of the instinctive natural tendencies of the unenlightened humankind living in darkness. Niccollo Machiavelli and other protagonists of power are keen to argue that the possession of power by an individual – prince or king – will ultimately enhance safety of life and provide innumerable life choices and life chances for the power holder. They even argue that it is in the interest of peace and progress for a society to have a strong person or a tyrant holding the rein of political power as an absolute ruler, notwithstanding the manner and method adopted in acquiring the power.
However, the history of the world does not support this fictitious assertion. We know that when the ambitious people captured power after using any of the callous and despicable strategies recommended by Niccollo Machiavelli and others, to keep the power under their belt often entails another more serious dastardly protective measures and vigilance. This is the expected consequence since an adage says he who kills by the sword does not allow anyone to carry a sword behind him. There are always similar ambitious people like the current holder of power who would not resist the temptation to seize power at the slightest opportunity. The unnecessary turbulence that accompanies a power holder before and after capturing power is not a situation that any sensible human being should consciously desire. Nevertheless, it is obvious as day and night that only the senseless and the psychopath will hunger and thirst after power. It is like the case of the adage of the chicken that jumps on a thin line-rope, the continuous pendulum-like swinging of the thin rope can never give peace of mind to the chicken as it ceaselessly tries to keep and maintain its balance. This is the life of all power holders of our world.
Now modern political and economic practices demand ruthless competition as a necessary condition for attaining leadership positions or for selecting, electing and appointing political and economic leaders. Through this conventionally acknowledged and supposedly justifiable competitive processes, legitimacy is handed to all those who emerged as victors and they therefore have absolute rights to occupy the elevated political or economic thrones of their societies. The society in which they emerged as winners automatically adjudged them as the super-qualified persons to enjoy kingly privileges over and above all their contemporaries. The society would also find them worthy to exercise the constitutional rights as private or public office holders, to wield absolute power over law and order; and to exercise absolute control on public policies, public finance and the implementation of socio-economic projects and programmes.
As occupiers of the economic and political thrones of their countries and coupled with their innate self-centred traits, these so-called leaders would pragmatically institute lacklustre checks and balances to deter abuse of power held by themselves or held on their behalf. They would commandeer important political and economic offices for themselves, their friends and their own flesh and blood; and they would offer to themselves juicy material perquisites and obscene, over the top salaries. For example, these hoodlums turned kings and queens or political leaders would gladly encourage national debates on setting a minimum wage for low-income workers but would keep a treacherous and deadly silence on the moral or ethical need to set a ceiling on maximum wage for the fat cats in the polity.
The group of people that emerged, as the winners in the competitive processes, are the ones society calls the elites or leaders. A leader by the elitist theory is supposed to be the best and under this neo-Liberal belief, only the best should have the right to rule. However, it is the definition of what/who is best or the criterion for identification of what/who is best that often leads to problem. How do you measure what is best in another human being? Is it the physical endowment – beauty, brain or brawn? Is it the moral endowment – virtues, excellence, a civilised taste, the love of justice, or an impeccable character? Is it the possession of a blueblood – born into nobility, royalty or wealth? Is it personal material achievement based on the most crooked skill of accumulation of fortune, property, money, etc.? From these leading questions, it is becoming obvious that the ‘best’ will have as many interpretations as the number of people defining the concept of what is best.
Judging by the state of Africa today, it is glaring that the eminent personalities grazing the political and economic landscape of Africa are definitely not the best materials of Africa. The relevant evidences of gross incompetence, senselessness, stupidity and utter ignorance amongst the so-called leaders of Africa are shockingly disheartening. A cross-sectional survey of the social and political institutions in Africa left nothing much to be desired when critical attention is focused on the group of scallywags who are claiming the leadership positions in these institutions. Although, the military thugs or prodigal sons and the politicians or political gangsters have convincingly demonstrated that no other class of elites in Africa have the right to contest the supreme leadership crown of Dishonourable Africans. Yet, they are less worried about the irreparable consequences of their disastrous partnership. Even when the unorthodox diarchy of power relations between these two groups have successfully ruined the social values, mores and cultures of Africans and have forestalled any hope of economic prosperity in Africa in the foreseeable future, still they are less bothered.
However, since the military thugs and the political gangsters are bereft of commonsense, they are yet to see either the human carnage they have perpetrated or the economic damage they have caused in Africa. Hence, it is very difficult at this stage to expect repentance and restitution from these lots for all the losses they have caused Africa. These two sets of clowns are still very cocksure of their inalienable rights until eternity comes to continue with their pauperisation programme of Africa. However, this is where they are wrong because they lacked knowledge of the divine timetable of programmes set up from the foundations of the world for spiritual intervention on behalf of Africa. This writer will advise all the enlightened souls to leave the buffoons of Africa alone. Let them be since the spirit of truth shall soon put them to shame at the time appointed.
We must not lose sight of the roles of other African leaders in the other sectors of the economy. How have these other African leaders performed in education, in the press, in other various professional bodies – law, accountancy, banking, insurance, finance, business, commerce, industry, manufacturing, architecture, construction, engineering, medicine, civil service, etc.? What type of contributions can be associated with these other categories of African elites that have helped in the development or underdevelopment of Africa? Perhaps, these illustrious elites of Africa will pretend that they were unaware of the evil practices going on all around them, under their noses and with their signatures. These elites might also claim that these shameful political events and calculated economic sabotage that have wrecked and ruined Africa were totally outside their official and intellectual jurisdiction. Therefore, they might claim the recorded foolishness was totally beyond their erudite interventions. However, the truth of the matter is, our professionals and scholars were terribly short-changed in the course of their training and education.
Historians have amply demonstrated that the Colonial Administration deliberately exposed these erudite men and women of Africa to a seriously watered down form of education. Consequently, they have been exhibiting the classic case of those who passed through school but whom school never passed through. This is why our educated elites have all the phoney pretensions of the men and women of letters or of scholarship but in all honesty, these are shams. The African educated elites have not been recreated in the fire of true knowledge. They are still the unbaked or half-baked, the uncooked or half-cooked and popularly called the half-educated. Every enlightened soul can easily see the shallowness of the pretences of the African educated illiterates. Their superfluous claims to education are hollow for it is a lie and they know it too. As a result, this is the singular reason why the African educated elites have failed to yield the bountiful fruits of knowledge, excellence, virtues and creativity expected of them. It is a simple law of nature that whatever you sow is what you will harvest and harvest bountifully too. It is a fact that the colonial lords sowed seeds of ignorance all over Africa and the continent since has reaped a bountiful harvest of dunces and ignoramuses.
Am I being rude? Not really but I am sincerely full of moral outrage at this particular revealed insight into the woes of Africa. I am very unhappy that our elders and my contemporaries have failed to discover this moral truth about the situation of Africa all along. May be they did discover but were too frightened to lose their privileged positions in the society if they raised the issue as an agenda item. There is nothing to say at this stage than to advise all Africans to strive, through the cultivation of proper knowledge, in order to put this ignominious history behind us. We must individually and collectively seek a rebirth in education. And after attaining a true rebirth in knowledge, we must carefully begin the task of uprooting the seeds, the creepers, and the shrubs of lies and the cutting down of the trees of ignorance disguised as education that were planted in Africa. Furthermore, this writer will like to invite all the sons and daughters of Africa who have seen the light of enlightenment to begin today the articulation of fresh ideas on how best to prepare the people for the great sowing and planting of the seed of truth and knowledge in Africa. I truly believe that our successes in planting the true seed of knowledge, in painstakingly watering it and in carefully watching over it as it grows on the soil of Africa shall definitely yield the bountiful fruits of true knowledge.
It is necessary to emphasise that only the fruit of true knowledge has the power to sharpen the senses, to awaken the mind, and to quicken the rebirth of the soul. The predictable signs that will manifest in the life of every African when the seeds of true knowledge have taken root in Africa are the following: an unprecedented outburst of creativity in all spheres of human endeavour; an unquenchable desire for political, economic and social freedom; a sacred respect for all creations based on a divine understanding of the principle of equality; and an uncompromising desire for political harmony that is rooted on justice and on the principle of ‘loving one’s neighbours as oneself’.
As an excited farmer would feel when he has just taken delivery of a proven high-yielding seeds and could not wait to see the seeds planted in his carefully prepared farmland, this writer is also feeling the same way. Every enlightened African should be eager to plant the seed of true knowledge in every field of Africa because we are confident it is a highly recommended, high-yielding and lie-resistant proven seed with a natural capacity to produce bountiful harvests in tens, hundreds, thousands and millions of re-born Africans. This is the mission we shall recommend to the awakened Africans and our farms are the newly rebuilt, spiritually modified, divinely cleansed and exceptionally fertile hearts of African men and women.
It is difficult at this stage to resist moving away from the analysis of the physical, political, sociological and psychological facts around us into a higher level of analysis of the spiritual reality of humanity. It is very easy for the unenlightened to devote so much attention, energy and effort to the review and analysis of history and contemporary events while looking for the wherefore and whereto of human failures without realising that what they are seeing and analysing are mere symptoms of a deeper reality. This writer considers such intellectual exercise a wasteful endeavour because it cannot edify or heal humanity except to buttress the pedigree of such analyst as a member of the intellectual class. This writer will count his labour wasted if it is driven solely by the need to be recognised as one of the ‘bright boys’. The abridged story on leadership we are narrating is a true story. This story is not a fiction designed to entertain readers but to heal all hearers and readers from the sin of ignorance – the mother of stupidity and foolishness. This heavenly-sent story touched each of us more deeply than we could ever imagine.
However, the history of our world has convincingly showed that there is a pattern, logic, and a purpose in the seemingly unconnected events, circumstances and phenomena that are ceaselessly taking place on earth. It should not surprise anyone if the non-reflecting people find it difficult to see a pattern in the history of the world as such. This writer believes that there is no accident or mere chance event or coincidental occurrence or action in the history of the world. I tend to strongly believe that every circumstance in life mysteriously inter-linked with one another and purposefully directed to one particular goal. The goal in question is the birth of utopia on planet earth – the establishment of the kingdom of god on earth. Simply, it is a divine drive towards the birth of perfection of life on earth.
While reviewing both the oral and written history of humanity, it has been an uphill task for all analysts to make sense of the recorded chaos, mayhem and absurdities on earth. It is difficult for many brilliant people to see any sense in the design of our universe, in the creation of humankind, or in the creation of other forms of life. We must not blame these intelligent people because until heaven opens up the eyes of humankind to see and the senses to understand, humankind is the most stupid of all creations. The animals might look and act daft to us but they have not lost the instincts that connect them to the creator of life. The animals live according to the eternal programmes designed for them. As for humankind and because of our inflated ego that tends to believe it knows everything, we have since lost touch with our designer and creator many ages ago. It is obvious that our spiritual link with the creator seems to have disconnected a long time ago. The inbuilt receptor present in every living thing that makes it possible to receive information from the creator has gone dead in most humankind. For a very long time, humankind has been alone, carelessly and foolishly groping in darkness.
We can compare the case of humankind with the story of an astronaut sent to the moon by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America. Sooner after the astronaut landed on the moon, he lost the radio communication contact with the Space Control Centre on earth. He tried to make contact with earth without any success. The Control Centre could see the astronaut but he (astronaut) could not see or hear them. The Centre watched with pity and sadness as their colleague ran from one pit hole into another while performing many stupid functions and silly activities that could put his life at risk and jeopardise all the elaborate hard work that had gone into the design, planning, and preparation of the moon mission. The solution to the problem is simple; the control centre must send another astronaut to rescue their stranded colleague before he puts his life and the whole moon mission into danger.
This is the true story of humankind. Heaven that created us could see us as we flounder and suffer. Heaven has never desisted from sending messages to us but our spiritual receptor is defective and so it could not pick up the messages. As a result, from time to time heaven has sent teachers and spiritual masters to us to teach and to show us how we can repair our spiritual receptors so that we can be linked up with heaven again. From every generation in the past that had the opportunity to receive any of the teachers sent by heaven all the peoples that listened and hearkened to the teaching of the teachers were rescued from the perpetual mayhem on earth. Moreover, as each person saw the light that came from the message of love and understood the purpose and the meaning of life, each person became a light to his/her family, friends, neighbours, nation, and race as well as the world at large. Unfortunately and to the dismay of heaven, the latter generations that followed after the death of the teachers often turned the heavenly sent teachers into idols of worship.
It is important for us to recognise that heaven is not partial in its ways. When we look at the history of the age that is passing bye, Africa would seem to have been completely forgotten or neglected. We have read about the stories of several teachers that appeared in the Middle East, in India, in China, and in Greece. It seems that these parts of the world had greater favours of heaven more than the Africa region. This is not true since the timetable of programmes designed by heaven for the redemption of humankind is forever steadfast and the ways of heaven are forever just. Moreover, one might suggest that since those who are more seriously sick would require a priority attention and prompt services from the physicians, these parts of the world might have been in more deadly danger than Africa during this period.
All students of history would have recognised that the history of civilization of the world tend to move in a progressive fashion across the races. Among the important landmarks in the history of the world, is a period of a global phenomenon of spiritual awakening and enlightenment that historians have christened as the Axial Age. This is the period between 800 – 200 BCE when heaven revealed most of the teachings that are still making waves today to the world. I do not think that Heaven neglected Africa in this heavenly feast. Unfortunately, we have no written records of the work of our spiritual teachers. However, the several deities in Africa are testimonies of some revealed fundamental truth that point to some body of knowledge of life. The ceremonies and festivals of ancestral worship amongst Africans, I believe, were telltale symbols of the remains of some fundamental revelations. These cultural ceremonies are full of deep-rooted knowledge and of sacred teachings that pertain to the meaning of life. Every African is invited to take a second and a third look again at those ceremonies and festivals that the so-called elites of Africa seem to take for granted or even ridiculed.
Once more spiritual teachers from other parts of the world that left records of their teachings testified to the universality of the truth of life revealed to them. Although, the human nature and the personality of the teacher might have played a part in the way they relayed these teachings to the people. In addition, the culture of the people that received the message might have interfered with the interpretation given to the universal truth about the creator of heaven and earth and about the nature and purpose of the created. Yet, this writer sincerely believes that all the revealed knowledge found everywhere in the world have some seeds of truth in them but does not believe that we should take any of them as absolute truth.
It is therefore the duty of every seeker to piece together the various segments of these revelations from the various teachers of spiritual life in order to have a complete and unadulterated picture of the truth of life. Africans have no reason anymore to be subservient to any other race in the world. Most of the teachings we mentioned categorically revealed that every life is equal to every other life; and that every creation is composed of same properties of energy or power or force of life. Therefore, no life is of less importance to any other. It is from this fundamental truth that all enlightened souls understand the sacred need to accord equal respect to every life regardless of whether it is a great or small creation.
All enlightened souls understand intuitively the role of heaven in the creation of true leaders. Leaders created by heaven are the ones the scriptures call the light of the world or the salt of the earth. Through their exemplary lives, these heavenly created leaders naturally become pathfinders of new values, beliefs, and goals for the world. The divine intention of these leaders is always to build the mind, to edify the spirit and to lead humankind onto higher level of existence. The heavenly created leaders are neither aggressive, ambitious, greedy, ostentatious, exhibitionistic, power loving nor power-crazy. On the contrary, they are naturally humble – preferring to work quietly behind the scene, refusing to draw attention to themselves or their works, creatively intelligent and deliberately against any acquisition, display and ownership of earthly economic or political power.
The history of the world, as is now being discovered by enlightened thinkers and writers, is an unending saga billed to run forever. It has its moments of tragedy as well as its moments of comedy. However, like any well-written play the story of life must have its several acts and infinite scenes – it must have its exciting ups and depressing downs, its triumphant successes and disastrous failures, its many moments of joys and moments of sadness, and it must have its many other forms of life’s dualities as well. The revelations that have appeared here and there across the globe are pointing to a likely perpetual reoccurrence of the story of life. If this is true, what are its implications for Africa and the world in general?
In the spiritual age that is gradually unfolding, there are some teachers that heaven has gladly sent to earth. These teachers started appearing on planet earth from the 14th century. They have revealed to the world new gospels as they demolished the lies of the old gospels. The truth and knowledge of their revelations have contributed immensely to the present stage of human development. The gospels of Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), of Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), of Galilei Galileo (1564-1642), of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), of Thomas Paine (1737-1809), of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-65), of John Stuart Mill (1806-73), of Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76), of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), of John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-) to mention just a few, did irreparable damages to the conventional wisdom or foolishness of their days.
These true gospels have helped in the healing of intellectual and spiritual blindness of tens, hundreds, thousands and millions of seekers of truth in the world. These gospels have cured the collective malignant diseases of spiritual, cultural and intellectual ignorance that have held humanity to ransom for so long. These gospels have exposed the foolishness of every ancient superstition and have driven away the accompanying fears in the lives of true seekers of the truth of life. Through these gospels, humanity is able once again to secure a space of spiritual and physical freedom earlier denied it by the tripartite political establishments of government, religion and mammon created and sustained by great lies from the ignoble stables of the so-called leaders.
Every seeker of the truth of existence regardless of sex, race and culture who listened attentively or read sincerely the unfolding revelations from these gospels found enlightenment, rebirth, freedom, love and peace. In particular, freedom to live according to the specific unique design of the person concerned and not according to the ‘philosophy of men’ in religious cloaks. Each seeker of the truth of life found that his/her inherited and endemic fears of obnoxious traditions and customs, of the oppressive religious creeds and dogmas of priests, of the non-forgiven jealous Gods, of the temptation-setting and trapping wicked Satan, and of the other such foolish fears were miraculously expunged. Indeed, it was truly a case of knowing the truth and the truth of life setting every seeker free, just as one of the old teachers said it would.
This is the tradition that heaven has consistently used since humankind was created. The creator of humankind, as the controller of NASA mentioned above, understands the limit of human comprehension and nature. Therefore, contrary to popular religious propaganda, it is the duty of heaven to keep humanity safe from avoidable harms and self-destruction. Heaven understands the depth of our stupidities and the extent to which our foolishness, if allowed to go on unchecked, can ruin this perfect edifice of our universe. It is therefore a duty of love for heaven to keep us safe and away from danger until humanity learns the lesson, it ought to learn, before it can grow and mature into perfection. In this regard, the timetable of heaven with respect to our training programmes has been progressing in a perfect order.
The journey of life to which Heaven created each of us to perform is a foolproof plan. There is nothing so far that had happened, that is happening or that will happen that is outside this heavenly ordained plan. This is why each of the divine teachers that came before now had spent ample time to correct a host of misinformation about the nature of heaven, the nature of humanity and the nature of the universe. Although a host of these teachings have been codified into religious ‘holy books’ and other cultural artefacts, unfortunately this codification has led to grave distortions, gross misinformation and legendary mythologies that are far away from the sacred fundamental truth that these blessed teachers gave to the world.
Fortunately, the truth of life that is unfolding to our generation is daily confirming that we are individually a part of the history of the world. Serious scientists and seekers who refused to subject their thinking to a narrow conservative ideas are proving the truth of immortality and of the reoccurrence of life day by day in researches and revelations. For example, ancient Africans knew the truth of reincarnation as a proven reality and they creatively wove this knowledge into the culture of most indigenous African societies. Unfortunately, most modern Africans are rejecting this truth because of their contact with foreign religious fables. However, the wise men and women of the world, because of their inquisitive nature, will not take some of the eyebrow-raising revelations coming out in books lightly. They will naturally be fascinated to learn more and to understand more of what the fools call science fictions. These unconventional scientists are revealing that the soul of man is one of the three distinct components that make up the physical phenomenon called human being while the other two components are the body and the mind.
The soul as mentioned by several ancient sages is the core or the nucleus of life while the body is the garment that gives the soul a physical form or shape. The mind is a network of special cells and nerves collectively called the brain. Since the soul is a non-physical substance, it does not respond to any of the physical measurement of science presently in use. The American Heritage Dictionary (third edition) defines soul as the “animating and vital principle in human beings, credited with faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.” However, since the beginning of the 20th century, the young science of psychology and other allied behavioural disciplines have made remarkable progress in unravelling some important facts about the enigma called the soul. The report of researches and other inspiring books emanating from this particular area of science should attract the attention of every seeker of the truth of life.
Without an understanding of what the truth of life is, humankind cannot make progress further than the current mayhem of war and bloodshed. The collective ignorance about the reoccurrence and the repetition of life is behind the foolishness called modern civilization. The conventional belief that was sold to the world by Jewish priests and later over flogged by western religious philosophers and lately by bigoted fundamentalists tends to see life of mankind on planet earth as a one-stop affair. This philosophy of slave owners is the greatest error of religious faith that the sellers of ignorance have bequeathed to the world.
Since life is a one-stop affair, then we can easily understand why the upwardly mobile ambitious people placed so much effort on the need to be successful as quickly as possible and in the perverted sense promoted by lovers of power. Today, the most important commandment handed to every aspiring youth is: accumulate monetary and material wealth as much as you can, as quickly as you can, and by any means as you can. The modern prophets of mammon are saying, since monetary and material wealth is central to life then if any person cannot cultivate and accumulate wealth in high amount that can put the word ‘greed’ to shame then that fellow should count him/herself a loser or a failure in life.
Under this climate of conventional global foolishness, created and promoted by London and New York, is it still a wonder why the fools of the world would go to any extent to secure the most essential commodity of life as propounded by the gurus of our world? The desire to be successful in monetary and material terms is the singular motivation that gives meaning to the life of every modern man. To be rich and famous are the twin goals that keep every aspiring youth awake and focus and the only purpose that keeps many fools alive. The gurus of our world, because of a lack of true knowledge, have completely turned a divine advice upside-down. Yeshua [Jesus] says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [food, drink, clothing] shall be added to you.” Today, the London and New York gurus say to their slobbering followers all over the world, “Seek first the kingdom of mammon and its wickedness, and all these things (political power, material properties, grand positions of honour and fame, etc.,) shall be added to you.” The complete philosophy of life of the modern man is a perversion of reality and a negation of the truth of life.
Therefore, fellow Africans if you are still insisting that there is nothing wrong with our world and the values guiding our behaviours are appropriate, may we ask why would any sane person put so much faith in material acquisition as the sole purpose of life? How can the end purpose of this beautiful edifice called the universe and this magnificent piece of physiological machine called man be solely to be rich and famous? How can any man with sense and a living soul look back at the end of seventy odd years on earth and declare in all truthfulness that his achievements in life are the empires forcefully and bloodily acquired/established? How can any sane person be proud to count as an achievement the number of palaces, castles and houses built with blood and stolen wealth; the number of women sexually conquered and abused; and the number of illegitimate children fathered and forgotten? How can any compassionate human being with a sound mind sleep easy with multi-million dollars stashed away in the bank while millions of his/her generation have no food or shelter? In addition, who else but a psychopath would find joy in the number of lives cruelly wrecked or ruthlessly snuffed out in the cause of personal ambition for earthly power and vainglory? Please let us think deeply about these issues and consider how these sickening perversions can be truly and sincerely the purpose of life?
Unless we get the answers right with respect to the purpose of life, the need to reconstruct our world on new values and cultures will not be easy to fathom. Presently, we have built our world on the foundation of values supplied by mammon. To my mind, the present global arrangement of politics, economics and societies cannot be the best humanity can do. However, the inability for most people to look at our world objectively with clear unambiguous eyes from the perspective of love and charity has made the idea of revaluation and reconstruction of global values extremely difficult. It is imperative for Africans to accept the truth that values, beliefs and cultures are intellectual products made or manufactured by the human minds. Our world has created useful values and cultures out of money. Unfortunately, these values and cultures created by humankinds have turned into a suffocating god and an albatross idol on our necks. Mammon has gobbled all the pre-existing idols and gods in our world. As at now Mammon is the pre-eminent idol or god of our generation.
The history of god has shown that each generation creates its own god. We have mentioned briefly in an essay titled The African Hypocrites how each culture creates its own god. In effect, our generation is the inheritor of an awesome powerful god ever created by humankinds. This god has given the world a universal value and a unified global culture that is looking unstoppable day by day as it erodes and demolishes every indigenous values and cultures on its way. Every awakened African needs to step back from the maddening crowd of worshippers and ask a simple question, where is god mammon leading humanity? Is it into paradise on earth or into hell on earth? Looking at the way our world is presently configured there is more than enough evidence to suggest that for most people in the world the final destination is hell on earth. We need to stop the momentum of this god. Humanity has the power to stop mammon because it is our creation. The simplest way to stop mammon and its priests is to revaluate and reconstruct new values and new cultures for our world. Are awakened Africans ready to consider this Herculean task? Are we prepared to sacrifice and chuck out the present illusion called modernisation?
(To be continued)
