One nation which should not have been in existence in this day and age is Israel. The Sacred Scriptures gives us accounts of how this nation, which once went into bondage in Egypt for the best parts of four hundred years, once became a military powerhouse in the center of the East. Accounts continue to tell how it was humbled by God for disobedience and put under bondage, serving as slaves in a number of nations.
Then in modern history, the whole of the Jewish people were almost annihilated while they were in the Diaspora and during the Second World War. And even when they finally got home, the British did not make things easier for them either. Locking the Jewish returnees in concentration camps in Canaan and instigating the Arabs not to accept their new neighbours, the new state was doomed to become still-born. But it stood firm against its enemies.
With very little experience in military matters, this new and weak nation stood up and won wars against her better equipped, better trained and well-resourced neighbours, who did all they could to wipe Israel off the face of the map. Suddenly, Israel became a world super power and among leaders in almost every department of life: administration, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, medicals and health, invention and military warfare, and others.
Does this Israel story ring a bell elsewhere? Maybe it should, because at a number of times in world history, a certain race had the best naval force, the best universities, the best administration, and the wealthiest in the world. There was the Nubian Empire of Kush, 2000 BC, with great economic power; Carthage, a trading and sea-faring giant which rivalled the Rome Empire, 900 BC; Nok, 900 BC-200 AD, a master metal worker and had a complex judicial system before the modern one evolved, located in Nigeria; Askum, 300 AD, an economic and military powerhouse which was the first empire to adopt Christianity (modern day Ethiopia Orthodox Church) and was located in modern day Ethiopia and Eritea; Ghana, which was tops in gold and salt trading; Mali, known for wealth and power and had Sankore university, and also had the richest man who ever lived, Mansa Kankan Musa, its Emperor; Songhai, with economic power and a sophisticated bureaucratic system; Great Zimbabwe, an economic and trading powerhouse, very rich in cattle and precious metals, located in modern day, Zimbabwe.
These are just a few of the well administered kingdoms and empires of Africa before colonisation. Unfortunately, for some reasons, when these empires and kingdoms fell, the resolve of their people also fell and so there was no continuity. The Europeans and Arabs exploited this and succeeded in breaking us apart and keeping us in separate ways. So, as the Jewish people were on countless times pushed into the pits of hell in slavery, Africans were enslaved by the Whites and the Arabs; even to this day Africans are sold in some Arab countries. The Jewish people were treated as non-humans, used as guinea pigs in concentration camps, and today, Africans are sold and killed for body parts to medical facilities in North Africa and the Arab world.
One thing that made Israel what it is now is the unity among the Jewish people, and the upholding of nationalistic tendencies to consider Israel first in all things.
These are not found in Black Africans, who have been indoctrinated to be in great denial of the other African as someone worth considering as human, and coupled with a high sense of greed, to mention a few.
Africans have been made to consider anything non-African as superior, and so even after independence, former French colonies have signed an agreement to offer France a total of $500 billion a year, while they continue to wallow in poverty. And when an African envoy drew the world’s attention to this act of racism, she was thrown out of office by Africans. Today, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former AU Ambassador to the USA, is an African heroine. She is the new star shining in the dark African sky.
When it mattered most, in the early sixties, twenty-seven independent African nations met to consider forming a union under one rule. Each and every one of them accepted the concept, but it was the implementation that broke the idea into pieces. Seven of them, including Ghana, chose a command economy with a socialist approach, and twenty chose a market economy with a capitalist approach. They all went their separate ways, blaming the other for the collapse of the talks.
Since then, most international agreements African nations go into seem to favour the non-Africans more, with some pocket change for our leadership or those who sign. And China stepped in and dangled good loans at us, but unknowingly, in the small prints it says if we fail to repay, it was going to colonise us. As at today, the re-colonialisation of Africa has begun, with Zambia the first nation to be going.
The Chinese descended on our continent, and with a mind set to render us poorer and incapable of handling our own affairs, they attacked our serene and rich eco-system and rendered our lands infertile and our water bodies poisonous to drink from. Soon, deserts are sprouting out in our evergreen forests, which, if unchecked, the Sahara will expand to meet the Kalahari.
Slavery and colonialism are marks of racism, but before the Chinese can even colonise us, they have started exhibiting very strong racial tendencies against Black Africans, comparing us to animals in art exhibitions and openly calling us animals in our own countries. Then recently driving out Black Africans from their homes in China and preventing some from entering hospitals and restaurants.
In all these, it looked like the destiny of the modern day African is on a leash in the hands of non-Africans. As we continue distancing ourselves from each other within our nations and among African nations, we handed over our all to races who look upon us as clueless people who must be told when to eat, when to sleep, and when to wake up. It looks like we are forever dependent on the Whites, the Asians and the Chinese.
Africa, once a conglomeration of powerful empires and kingdoms, very rich and very dependent, but now a slave who does not even own land in his ancestral home, and very much dependant on the Whites and Asians.
Then the Covid-19 set in, and for the first time in this generation, all Africans got shut down from the West and the East. Slowly, we have come to realise that after all, we can survive without help from any super power nation.
Africans, who are regarded as among the most backward humans, have well managed this pandemic in a way that the civilised world could not even dream of. And, as if this is not enough, the backward Black African has started producing medications to fight this pandemic, while the civilised world is at sea as to how to get a solution, and the powerful WHO has decided not to acknowledge this drug, because it is from Africa. Some unsung Black Africa has manufactured a very cheap, but highly efficient test kit, and the beat goes on.
Covid-19 is telling us that we have all it takes to bring back those glory days of the powerful Black African kingdoms and empires, and gain the utmost respect from other races.
Africa can be the new Israel if we realise that we can survive without much help from outside, and that they depend on us to survive, and not the other way round. We can be the new Israel if we accept who we are and seek to bring the best out of us; we can be the new Israel if we accept the other African as our own sibling and unite to fight for a common goal. We can be the new Israel if we discard our selfish interests and become nationalistic and strive for our collective interests. Yes, we can be the new Israel if we surrender our lives to God and do His bidding.
Is this Covid-19 pandemic telling another thing? That are we another of God’s favoured? Looking at statistics, while this pandemic is ravaging the world, it has been quite slow in Africa. It reminds us of that first Passover night in Egypt, when Death ravage the rich and sophisticated neighbourhoods of the Egyptians, but killed next to nothing in the poor slums of the Jewish neighbourhood. From February 14, 2020, when the Covid-19 first set foot in Africa and in Egypt, as at 1:00 pm onWednesday May 6, 2020, the COVID-19 Visualizer App indicated that Africa had 46,666 cases, made up of 31,294 active cases, 1,898 deaths and 13,474 recoveries registering 4.07% fatality and 28.87% recoveries. The global total figures, as at the period under review, stood at 3,669,627, with cases made up of 2,237,084 active ones, 259,362 deaths and 1,256,236 recoveries, with 6.91% fatality and 33.48% recoveries.
Meanwhile, as at the same period under review, the USA recorded 1,238,083 cases with 72,285 deaths; Canada recorded 62,046 cases with 4,043 deaths; Brazil recorded 116,299 cases with 7,966 deaths; Great Britain recorded 194,990 cases with 29,427 deaths; Italy recorded 213,013 cases with 29,315 deaths; Spain recorded 253,682 cases with 25,857 deaths; France recorded 170,551 cases with 25,531 deaths and China officially recorded 82,883 cases with 4,633 deaths. And these are nations with some of the best health and medical facilities in the world.
Lord God of Hosts must certainly be doing battle for us, but we must not relax and think we have arrived. We must get to work and make manifest the good talents God has put in us, so that we stand up and stand out and lead the world to His glory. The Lord is not done with us yet, for we can be the new Israel; we can go back to pick up the things God intended us to be during those glorious days of our once powerful empires and kingdom. God is forming a new Africa, a new Israel. It is now time for Africa, but must we have realised this the hard way?
Hon Daniel Dugan
The post COVID-19 matters and the bright side of darkness (2) – Is Africa the new Israel? appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS