Chapter 5
I laid still on Isadora’s bed; she had insisted I sleep on her bed that night. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea but she assured me it was very okay by her. The AC was on, same with the ceiling fan. Both at their lowest temperature and speed, creating a not too cold or hot atmosphere in the room. Isadora laid on her back, staring at the ceiling fan rotating slowly. I shift my attention to the air condition humming, taking in its humming sound.
“So what do you think?”, Isadora broke the silence.
“About what?”, I asked her.
“About life in general?”, Isadora replied removing her gaze from the ceiling fan.
“Life is more complicated than you think”, I angled my head to her side of the bed.
“Do you believe in any religion?”, Isadora sat a bit upright.
“Religion?”, I asked to be sure I heard her right.
“Yes”, Came her reply.
“No, in don’t believe in any”, I answered her resolutely.
“Why?”, Isadora pressed further.
“Because religion created many of the problems mankind is facing today”, I explained.
“Really?”, Isadora sat upright.
“You see, many doctrines practiced in many religion of the world were introduced by man and not our creator. Some religion portrays God as a white man, Devil as a black man with tail and horns on his forehead. Some religion teaches its followers and practitioners to forcefully convert nonbelievers or practitioners of such religion. While others tells its practitioners not to have anything to do with those who do not share same faith with. And the worst? Each of these religion claims to be one worshipping the true God while others are worshipping the Devil”, Isadora was nodding as I was speaking.
“You seem to understand these religion more than I do. But from my observation and experience, I can boldly tell you that these religions are mere tools of politics or another arm of politics used solely for mind controlling”, Isadora folded her arm across her chest.
“Exactly…”, I chirped in, “…the rate at which they control minds using that tool called religion is mind blowing”.
“I see, but why would they do such?”, Isadora asked.
“Let’s take Africa as our case study. In African countries, you will find more religious centers than factories or companies that provide jobs and employment opportunities for its citizens. Where common sense is needed, Africans will gladly employ prayers. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying praying is meaningless or doesn’t have positive effect. I believe in prayer than religion. What I mean is that, Africans abuse prayer same way they abuse God. There was a case where a church building was on fire, rather than find a way to put out the fire; Worshippers and pastors decided to embark on a prayer war”, Isadora chuckled.
“You mean, some persons are still that gullible to the point of using prayer to fight physical fire?”, It was my turn to chuckle.
“The prayed for the fire to put out itself, that God should put out the fire for them. And the end result? The building burnt down into ashes”, Isadora could not hold her laughter this time.
“Given that, coincidentally it rained. They would have claimed that God put out the fire for them”, Isadora shook her head in dismay.
“Exactly, that’s the problem with us Africans. Rather than do things for ourselves, we’ll fold our hands and wait for the God of Israel to do it for us. Even Israel that we claim have the God, make use of their God given sense to do things for themselves, they built technologies to defend their selves from their enemies. But in Africa, we call on the God of Israel to fight our physical battles for us; whereas, he already gave us the knowledge, but we refuse to use it”, I smiled sadly.
“Then our leadership sphere?”, Isadora began.
“Talking about leaders, I am afraid to say that Africa no longer have leaders. We have used our hands to kill our true leaders, leaders who had us and our wellbeing at heart and gave miscreants the mantle of leadership. The likes of Gaddafi, Thomas Sankara, Robert Mugabe, Gwameh Nkrumah, Idi-Amin, Paul Kagame, Kenule Saro-Wiwa, Sunday Igboho and many of their kinds are the types of leaders Africa needs. I am not saying these men were saint, they also had their flaws; but atleast they knew what leadership entailed and kept to it. If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was to be alive and witnessed the black race especially Africans in such a mess, people he fought for, killing themselves for crumps from Western table; he’ll be ashamed of being a black man. We Africans have this mentality of ‘pull someone more successful than you down’, rather than go to them and learn the secret behind their success”, Isadora shook her head at my words.
“However sad it may sound, it’s the bitter truth you just said. Even those who are successful wouldn’t let others to be more successful than them. They always want to be the most successful in the society, and as such finds it hard to aid others who want to work hard and climb the ladder of success”, Isadora chirped in, “…But why is it that some of our good leaders are seen as bad leaders by the West?”, Isadora continued.
“That’s because they didn’t play to their tunes”, I replied.
“Explain more, I quite don’t understand”, Isadora requested.
“Captain Thomas Sankara once said; ‘He that feeds you controls you’. In other words, he meant that anyone who you are dependent on for your survival becomes your god and dictates how you should lead your life. And of course, this will be in accordance to his directive. If you should try to formulate your own policy and lead life acquainted to you but not his, he will try everything within his power to destroy you. Guess what?”, I asked Isadora.
“You will forced to pick one of the two options; either give up on your policy and survive or embark on it and be ready to face your doom”, Isadora replied while I nodded.
“Exactly! Now, why do we hear the Western media speaking up against and painting the likes of Idi-Amin, Gaddafi and Mugabe in a bad light? That’s because they never wanted to dwell under the shadow of the west. Why was Thomas Sankara killed? That’s because he never wanted his country to depend on them. Compare Libya today to the Libya of Gaddafi, compare Burkina Faso of today to the Burkina Faso of Thomas Sankara, Compare Nigeria today to the Nigeria of Yara’dua and Goodluck. What do you observe?”, I stared at Isadora.
“Colossal failure of a once great and promising states”, Isadora replied soberly.
“One day, just one day. Africans will wake up and realize the mistakes they have made so far”, I concluded as Isadora cuddled me to sleep.