Sunday, September 03, 2006

A Call to Arms

Corruption, greed, inefficiency, neglect, political irresponsibility—these are African realities but we must remember that they are not all that defines the continent or its people. I observe many people who will quickly denounce their country yet hang on to identification with it. Their nationality or place of origin will come second to their name when asked who they are yet, in the same breath they will let out a condemning supercilious cry, “Africans!” What is pathetic is for us to think we stand above it all when this position itself mirrors the same denial and irresponsibility that several of our less-than-acceptable leaders exercise.

What happened to taking responsibility for what is ours? In a short opinion piece in Kenya’s Nation newspaper, Revolution Belongs to the Youth, Benjamin Mogaka Obegi puts it well: “If we complain that Kenya has failed us, we equally take the blame for failing to grasp the fragments of revolution and turning the history clock to our advantage.”

Check out Parselelo Kantai’s article “Death of the Kenya Dream?” on African Bullets and Honey.