Thursday 5 June 2008

No Cure for Colonial Mentality

By Hakeem Babalola
Matters Arising

A 10-yr-old Nigerian girl says, “If I have the chance to go to London, I won’t come back to this stupid country”. Another 12-yr-old boy quips, “Oyinbo are better than us”. Nigerian politicians die and bury people’s money in England and environs. My sister bleaches her skin and washes away her crown with different chemicals in her bid to straighten or curl her hair – her identity. Are we all victims as well as perpetrators of colonial mentality?click to read story

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have not written in English language perhaps close to two decades now,pardon my errors because its not my mother language.You got a lot of your opinions about colomentality wrong.The children you mentioned in your article have every reason to want to travel abroad.Nigeria has no future for them if you should know.what has the Nigeria government done for anyone if not to embezzle money.Here in Europe the government pays every child monthly for their day to day needs.We are paid house allowance,we have well equipped hospitals,good schools,steady power supply etc. What has Nigeria got to offer? I personally changed my name to to English name because of the need to integrate.Do you not know that there are African names that are hard to pronounce even amongst ourselves.Most Jewish guys that escaped the Nazi regime in Germany had their names changed as soon as they got to USA. Here in Austria many Yugoslavians changed their names for integration reason.
I am against bleaching.If the entire poor citizens want to depart from a country that has refused to better the lives of her citizens they should seek for better life elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

This picture is currently the topic of some debate on the Internet and I find it ludicrous that some people think that because a policeman is going arguably beyond the call of duty, it some how equates to being under a new colonial thumb. Do white Butlers serving in black households mean the same thing? Special Forces occasionally go beyond their R&R’s but that does not mean anything.



Personally, I feel that physical display of being under colonial rule as insinuated by the original author of this mail, pales into insignificance when compared to hard facts, for example: Africa is unable to feed itself, political instability, deficient energy industry and Nigeria having to import refined oil.

These are some of the real issues that have brought the Chinese to Africa, how about we deal with these issues instead of worrying about “umbrella, ella, ella”.

Anonymous said...

My take about the whole thing is deeper than the umbrella which I think is a symbol - of something deep. While it may be correct that it's possible for a white butler to serve Africans, my point is this: let Africa die of hunger if it cannot produce food or whatever.
Many years ago, one India leader said and I quote "Let India go naked until India can produce cotton". Today, India produces cotton for the rest of the world.
What does this teach us? Necessity is the mother of invention. Oyinbos are simply being dubious by pretending to aid Africa. It's an attempt, in my humble opinion, to keep Africa addicted to them.
If they really want to be sincere, let them stop the aids but instead teach Africa how to provide aids for itself. Whoever gives you fish instead of teaching you how to catch fish does not love you. Period