THE AFRICAN MIND...TWO CENTURIES TOO LATE?

                                                                                                                       

One of my sons favourite rhymes is “Ring, a ring o’ roses…..”. The origin of this poem stems from 1665 when London was swept by the bubonic plague. Following this disaster was the great fire of London in 1666. In the 19^th century this great city was also plagued by cholera. All these calamities show that there was a time London was like a lot of areas in Africa and other third world countries, traffic clogged and polluted with poor sanitary methods.

First time we ever met God in Genesis, one of the initial things that we get to know about him was that His spirit was brooding (thinking, meditating). Then He said let there be light and light appeared after which heaven and earth were created out of a waterlogged inky soup of nothingness. He thought and out came an idea that led to the creation of the world. Little wonder that ideas are represented by light bulbs. When The Master of the Universe made us, his grand masterpiece, we were formed in his image to function like him.

From the era of the great crusades to the divvying up of Africa and some other parts of the world because of mineral resources and real estate (valuable concrete things), it was clear the leading powers of the world then, mainly Great Britain and France, were very interested in tangible resources. These nations got what they needed through firepower and force. That was a huge factor in the equation of world domination. The period of the cowboys and the conquistadores also depicted this, what made someone a big boy then was how big a ranch was and the number of cattle one had. This were major driving factors behind everything good, bad and ugly that came out of the wild, wild west back in the day.  Everything was driven by the material things that translated to wealth.

From the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution came on with the machine age changing the landscape of the world. The intangible knocked off the tangible from its perch and the first world countries started placing greater premium on ideas and thoughts. Intellectual property became hotter than the furnace of Vulcan. Great poets, writers, tinkerers and thinkers flourished like crocuses in the developed world like never before, igniting a revolution of revelations. Now you don’t need an army to rule or conquer the world, you just need ideas. Facebook that just finished its IPO, Google, and Microsoft are in very nook and cranny of the world without the clash of swords or a single shot from a gun, no sweat was broken. They empty the coffers of the nations of the globe making the originators of these brands richer than some countries. Men started living like the original prototype, we became like God using ideas and thoughts to dominate the earth. The city of London went from being a slum to a Mega Metropolis.

From time immemorial, the African’s reverence for his peers has always been based on how many cows he had, the number of yams in his barns, the number of wives and concubines acquired, and so on. It was all about the perceivable spawning “my Mercedes is bigger than your” and “I pass my neighbours” attitude. This is why in Nigeria we have a swollen senate that grabs everything in their path to buy a larger jeep or bigger houses or marry a third wife but cannot generate one idea to make their constituency better even to save their lives. It explains why most of our leaders are like inedible snails hiding in the shell of amassed things. They are useless to themselves and everybody. The world has moved on but we are still stuck in a rut.  Thieves and con-men are venerated so they have loads of dosh to spread around or a mansion built like a mausoleum. Even when ideas come up it is mostly how to steal, kill, and destroy negating the plan of the Originator of life. We are still far from the starting blocks, a great distance away from Gods original plan. And until we change, salvation will be farther than Pluto.

It is time to start celebrating ideas and thoughts in our continent if not, the future of Africa would remain in the shackles and manacles of slavery reminiscent of our fore-fathers who sold their tomorrow for trinkets and cowries. A captivity of the soul and mind that is even worse than the physical. It shows our nakedness to the world, brands us as cheap and will continue to make the continent serve at the feet of those who peddle ideas and brilliant thoughts.

We should provide a good environment for ideas to bloom like light sandy soil for palm trees. From our homes to our schools to the working place, IT MUST BECOME A PRIORITY!!!

A great Hebrew king looked at the beauty of the world and was awed but he knew that the visible world was a product of the invisible. He knew that it was good thinking that produces great products. The man got on his knees and worshipped, saying…………………………

 “O GOD, HOW WONDERFUL ARE THY WORKS, THY THOUGHTS ARE VERY DEEP”!!!

SIC VOLVERE PARCAS....

                                                                   

It is usually an exhilarating expedition taking a voyage down the literary seas of Greek mythology. You cannot help but be more amazed at the sights and sounds of their intelligence and imagination than Captain James cook was astounded by the beauty of the Hawaii.

Before the advent of the Greek civilization, it was impossible for earlier civilizations (Egyptian, Persian, etc) to conceive of the image of God so they created ugly monsters with different animal parts to depict their gods, veritable Frankensteins of confusion. The Greeks were the first, by having gods that had human attributes, to have any inkling that YAHWEH made us in his image even before the Holy Scriptures became rife. Uncannily enough they were somewhat aware that our King also suffered our infirmities by attributing human foibles to their gods but they could never discern that He could not be overcome by sin, He is holy beyond holiness. The Grecians practiced polytheism having gods for everything because they could not comprehend that God is everything, He is the EL-SHADDAI (The Many Breasted ONE), and He is everything in one and One in everything. Since Jehovah cannot be understood with ordinary mortal intelligence, they could not fathom that He was the God of war, love, sex, health, wine and all things.

From this rich stew of creativity come forth classic tales (which are juicier than well done prime sirloin) and everyday words like Zeus, Chaos, Uranus, Hermes, Atlas and so on. It is also from them that the Fates originated, three sisters who were said to control people’s destiny by spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life. These ladies gave birth to the Latin spin-off “SIC VOLVERE PARCAS” (SO SPIN THE FATES) found in Virgil’s Aeneid.

The Greeks said that our fortunes in life are determined by these sisters and we have no power to influence them whatsoever. We cannot help it because what is written is written. It is about our stars, the patterns tattooed on our palms from the beginning of time. Do I hear you concurring, we are predestined to become who we are and everything that happens to us is in accordance to what has been predestinated. Please save us the drivel!

Forgive me for bursting your bubble, there is nothing like that.  WE ARE THE FATES!! We determine what was, what is and what will be and that is by the CHOICES we make every single day. Life coach extraordinaire “Anthony Robbins” in his bestselling “Awaken the giant in you” said DECISION DETERMINES DESTINY!

From vanilla to coffee, lilac to orange, Ferrari to Porsche, life is full of options and it is those preferences irrespective of how inconsequential sometimes that ultimately determines how our fates turn out. Boarding an airline, taking a particular route which are usually no brainers have resulted in the life or death of some people.

Some women give more thought to picking Victoria secrets lingerie than they give to choosing a life partner and by doing so they spin the frail thread of the marriage, measure it to last for a while with the tape of battering and abuse and maybe after two years, she cuts it with the scissors of divorce. You chose your own fate my sister. It was your choice.

Maybe you have a thriving outfit but you never come through for your clients (like most Nigerians do) and they stop bringing you business until you shipwreck on the shores of bankruptcy, you carved out your own destiny my brother. It’s not the fates. You predetermined with your lack of integrity that you were going to have only a decade of financial success before everything would come tumbling down on your head.

If you have children and you don’t spend any time with them because of your high flying career, and you think giving them all the latest gizmo and bathing them with dollars without discipline is what makes you a great parent, then you’ve got it all twisted. If you end up with delinquents on your hands to tomorrow, it was as a result of your choice and your greed. You called the shots. You are the fates; you spun the threads, measured them and cut the destiny of your children with the scissors of carelessness, greed, drugs, alcohol, name it.

Truth is, this message confronts us every day but our nonchalance prevents us from seeing it even if it sinks its teeth into our posteriors like a rabid bulldog. We usually miss the point. For example, in the critically acclaimed “Devil’s Advocate” featuring, Al Pacino, Keanu Reaves and Charlize Theron., Keanu made a choice for a swanky life over the values he once held dear and like William Butler Yeats said, “things fell apart” for him.

We cry everyday about how terrible Nigeria and our leaders are but we chose the leaders. From the emancipation of America, the French revolution, the Bolsheviks uprising until the recent Arab spring, men got tired of their situation and decided to make a change. They knew that continuing to live under oppression is a choice. Their destiny was in their hands and they fought for it. For crying out loud, the oppressors are usually a minority. The black outs we suffer, the looting of our national coffers, the area boys littering the streets and harassing all and sundry. It is how we want it.  It is crystal clear to even a bat that we made the wrong choice last year, but we have a chance to make amends with our vote in 2015. Will we take the chance or watch it slip by as usual.  IT IS OUR CHOICE!  WE ARE THE FATES!

A great Hebrew leader knew this and when he was about to die following an impactful life, he called his people and gave them a choice. He said “choose you this day, whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the lord”. He knew their choice would determine their future and that was exactly what happened. They chose the wrong side of the coin and came under very harsh subjugation by their enemies for thousands of years.

Lot chose a lush land and wasted his generation; Abraham chose his slave girl out of impatience and started an enmity that still rages today within his household. Yeah, the consequences of our choices stretch like a sea of desert sand from one generation to another even to eternity. Amazing, isn’t it?

Making a choice is like initiating a never-ending nuclear reaction which can produce useful energy or cause destruction of gargantuan proportions accompanied by radioactive fallout which affects the people around you for years on end sometimes.

Esau chose pottage, Demas went for the world, Judas settled for 30 pieces of silver, and Samson embraced Delilah. WHAT WILL YOU CHOOSE?

The best way to choose is to choose The One Who Was, Who Is and Who is to come in our decisions. He is there to assist if we can only reach out for his help. Engage the help of the One who knows tomorrow, who can see the future.

TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AND HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATH……………………………………………….