As lovely and cheery as that all is, I don't feel like doing any of that at this point, I'm still going to write something about Africa. Most of you know by this point I am a massive Africa geek and write mainly of Africa because it's juicy and I, for some reason understand it in comparison to the Middle East where I have absolutely no idea whats going on and for my final essays have this exact going through my head, *i'm going to replace two naughty word with something that sounds like it so I don't get a fiery email from my mother*."duck duck duck duckiting duck pits pits pits mother ducking duck...... is that the right Mohammend..... is that the al-whats it's pickle...... *stupid Yemen(or alternate middle eastern country).... ISLAM WHY YOU SO CONFUSING!! *cries/slams head on desk* oh dear god please let me do alright on this essay". Repeat.
Africa has been a lot on my mind lately, partly cause i'm taking classes on it and partly cause it's almost a year since I was, there and I'm starting to miss home number 4... or is it 5? at this point and partly because I was listening to Damian Marley's album, "Distant Relatives" where the map of Africa is on the cover. Having written multiple essays on Africa in the past 3 years of my degree I am starting to realize how important it is.
For economists and the world market, it provides many of the things we need to profit from and use as intermediate goods, it provides you with that overpriced heated carbon rock, you present to the "love of your life"( i'm not synical :P) at all, it provides pipes in your houses, oil for your cars, and part of your mobile phone, and that substance which keeps you alive and functioning in the mornings or helps you survive the last weeks of uni.
For women, it produces in the chief ingredient of that magical substance that gets us through our period, or when men are being shit, otherwise known as chocolate.
It shows you how little you need to be happy. It teaches you how to celebrate "unity in diversity", something that a lot of countries lack. It takes this term, " unity in diversity", and applies to to every aspect of the African lifestyle, wether it be culture, music, society.
It's a place where they handle each problem the people face, they face it with dignity and are filled with pride when they overcome it. It is the land of warmth, both climate wise and culturally. It is the land of responsibilities and the land of respect. It is a place that is in your bloodstream.
It is the birthplace of mankind. It is the land which shows you what you are suppose to be. It is the land that tests you. It is the land that shows you what your are capable of. It is the biggest melting pot in the world. It is the land where you cannot believe this is your life and makes you appreciate it.
It is the land of the people who fought against white domination. the land who fought against black domination. the land of the people who fought and cherished the ideas of democratic and free societies where all people can and will live in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal that many hoped and continue to hope to live for ,and achieve. But if need be it is an ideal for which they are prepared to die for.
Finally, it is the land that shows you what love is and what it is to be love, wether it be for the peoples, the landscapes, the lifestyles, the animals or the simplicity of it all.
This is obviously generalizing, some countries may or may not embrace all these elements but the large majority of them do and I am sure you could apply some of what I have said to other parts of the world but for me Africa is all of this.
There is a quote I quite like " where ever you go becomes a part of you somehow"Anita Desai. Everywhere you go in life you has a special place in you're heart, but there is something about Africa which makes it incredibly special and important to me.
I was saying to a friend of mine that I missed drinking chai and eating chapatti in a wooden shack and eating an avocado on the back of a motor bike on my way to work, to which he replied, " I had no idea you were so African." I suppose I guess I am kind of part African, we all are really, literally in the scientific sense but also, for those who have been there and had an elaborate love affair with the place we have picked up some Africa tendencies during our time their (positive ones I hope not raping virgins thinking thats how you will cure HIV).
To conclude, I will leave you with part of a speech from Thabo Mbeki, second president of post-Apartheid South Africa. He may be regarded as an idiot by ignoring the HIV pandemic sweeping the country, but his words hear our genius.
"I am an African!
I owe by being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land. My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightening, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope… The dramatic shapes of the [landscape] have… been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of our day.
At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito. A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say – I am an African!"
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