AN IMAGE OF BLACK AFRICA

By Joshua Agbo

After Joseph Conrad wrote the "Heart of Darkness" in 1899, Chinua Achebe was the first to respond to him. The Anglo-American views of Africa were unavoidably the views of a culture that assumed itself superior – mentally, intellectually, perhaps, even spiritually. Achebe believed that as original and subtle a work as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – a novel that is deeply critical of colonialism on the one hand, and one that Achebe himself admired – reflects the Anglo-American racist views of Africa and as well determines how Africans are perceived in the context of international politics.

The "Heart of Darkness" is permanently painted as racist preconception that demeans both the black continent and its peoples, and to celebrate such a work of art that fundamentally dehumanises black people simply portends tacit support of those racist views. The inferiority of Africans is massively celebrated in Europe and the West, as the last Pan-Africanist leader was deposed of power in Zimbabwe yesterday. What was his crime? “He has been in power for too long,” they said. To heighten the tension, BBC has been reporting on the political drama in Zimbabwe for days on end but, there was no single report of such magnitude on the mud slide that claimed so many lives in Sierra Leone this year, or the flood that swept part of my Benue community, or even the tragedy that rocked the Islands of Barbuda, and Haiti to mention a few.

We saw the same conspiracy against Muammar Gaddifi of Libya, which led to his death on 20 October 2011. After his death, Libya is still not well. But how come there is no international pressure on Paul Biya of Cameroon, or Eyadema of Togo, as well as Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to resign? It’s okay to celebrate the ousting of Mugabe today, but it will not be okay when Zimbabweans begin to weep agonisingly tomorrow. Both Constantino Chiwenga and Emmerson Mnangagwa alias crocodile should protect their mineral resources against the capitalist hawks, because old brooms know all the corners. My final message to Zimbabweans is that there is nothing to celebrate yet, because when the devil makes his own political appointment(s), you don’t expect an angel. #NOT YET UHURU#