I was talking with someone an age ago and as usually
discussions turned to Nigeria. Personally, I do not like to discuss Nigeria and
her issues. I believe she is a country with a lot of character, sometimes
amusing, other times depressing. The people who do number ones and number twos
on the street, the grabbing hands when you walk though the market, and the
angry shouts from frustrated drivers on the road. But most
importantly Nigeria has a lot of strength; most countries have not gone through
half of what she has gone through and survived. But in the midst of it all
we’re still standing.
Ok now, see I am talking a lot without even saying
the thought that popped up in my mind. Can you imagine how Nigeria would have
been without the influence of colonisation? Well no offence, the
influence of the colonisation has been, well useful in some ways. At least I
got to study outside the country. But who is to say that these things would not
have happened if one man did not decide to see what existed in the rest of the
world.
I am fine with seeing the rest of the world, I
think it is actually fun, but deciding to enforce your ways on what you see is
a little bit...well I don’t know, I just don’t like it. Who is to say that we
would not be civilised now if our colonial friends did not come over to say hi
when they did? We obviously had our own types of medicines which sometimes
still work better than those of the modern world. Yes more people died then
than now, but that also happened in the ‘antique modern areas’. I think we
would have eventually developed even though it was at our own pace.
Do you think we would have Nigerian politics like
it is? I never or at least I avoid talking about politics, Nigerian politics,
it often depresses me. Anyways considering politics, we may not have it the way
it is if there was no colonial anything. But if we think deeper, we’ll probably
realise that there would be no Nigeria. Clearly the geographical area would
still exist with life, unless it was blown up by some ‘aged nuclear explosive’.
However Lord Fredrick Luggard (hope I spelt right) would not have done any
amalgamation, consequently I would not know my very interesting eastern
flatmate. We may only associate with each other based on language only, and
believe me with the number of languages and ethnic groups we have.....
I know many people believe that the colonial peeps
brought Christianity into Africa, but can we remember the Ethiopian that Philip
went to gist with? I am not going to dwell on the religious aspect sha.
Our clothes, well I do not think the exposive
dressing we have now is a result of the outside western cultures. Actually if I
am right in what I have seen over the years the very traditional attires are
not exactly total cover ups. So who is to say that the tube gowns and half tops
are not the original moods of our dressing? They say fashion is reoccurring;
well maybe our own fashion is reoccurring in the way the world dresses. Trust
the youth mess ups would still be happening, as in confirm, it won’t change at
all.
I cannot say that we would have cars and stuff, but
I still strongly believe that we would have found easier ways to do our own
things no matter how long it takes or took us. We are very smart people, if you
do not believe me, ask the people that have had to pay because they
unfortunately were people fondly referred to as ‘maga’.
It is hard to argue and bring out the good of colonialism.
If we look at the mentality of majority of Nigerians one would find inferiority
when it comes to our uncoloured counterparts. It happens in the office
environment when the white man is allowed entrance through the exit door, in our
secondary schools when the teacher punishes others for not turning in their
assignments and then turns a blind eye to the uncoloured students. On the flip
side, discrimination based on my black and beautiful colour still happens.
Would not call myself a victim (don’t like the word) but I faced prejudice too,
to my face, in front of me, and guess why? Cause I am a Nigerian, imagine, how
many of them can use proudly as a prefix to their nationality and it would
sound classy? Say it out loud if you want to know how it feels ‘Proudly
Nigerian’.
My only and greatest issue with colonialism, the
only reason I would like to see history without colonialism is the background
mentality it has impacted in my country. We have so many scars to be proud of,
many values, many triumphs and trials to rejoice in. But we let these men who
have probably forgotten the events of the last century, lord over us, even when
they did not plan to. Who said we were made to be followers? Even though Esau
was destined to serve his brother, if we check we’ll see that he still made it,
he was rich o, as in very rich. Yes he worked hard, and probably suffered, but
so did Jacob. So why do we think we can only survive with the follow-follow
mentality. A wise man often says ‘It does not have to be white to be right’.
But I think most of us believe that ‘It is not right unless it is white’.
In the midst of my annoyance, I am grateful for
those around me that refuse to be intimidated by the fact that they do not have
the ability to turn red with emotion or burn under the intensity of the sun. Do
not get me wrong, I am not racist, I do not hate white or uncoloured people, I
have wonderful friends that are not remotely African, who cannot even look
African even if they tried. My beef is with those who refuse to let go of
colonialism. It’s a thing of the past, and as much as I would like it, we
cannot remove it from our past. Life is not about what happened or what was
done in your past, but about how you make the best of your future.
So we should stop blaming the colos and what they
did but we should deal with our own personal colos.
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