Africa’s Fusion and Fission

Sports

When one of the foremost West African Reggae artiste, Evi Edna Ogholi sang about the multitude of languages in her country Nigeria, it was seen as some exaggeration, but the fact is that in Africa, ethnic diversity can hardly be justified. Is our very nature not partly responsible for the tensions that seem never ending? Sometimes I really wonder if democracy can have a strong foothold on the African soil in its entirety. Interestingly amidst this diversity, there is also huge commonality here and there, which builds up that Africanness that lumps us together in a mighty blob. With the vast improvement in air and land travel over the decades, the movement of people has been facilitated in a large way. Of course, the internet and other communication technology have made our world really very small. In the last three decades, there has been quite a lot of growth in various ways and sometimes you might want to compare countries in each region and even across the regions. In West Africa, we have Big brother Nigeria which continues to take the lead in many things. She has contributed so much to peace building. Despite its long period of Military rule, it has emerged as a country to reckon with. If I remember well, over some ten years ago, it boldly announced that it should no more be placed in the category of developing countries, but those classed as developed. It even started making overtures in weaving some economic bloc with other strong Islamic countries. Well, I do not know how far that went but she has continued to hold her own in world affairs. Nigeria’s sheer size and population is not funny at all. For a very long time, Nigeria and Ghana had sibling rivalries especially in the 70s and 80s but it seems Nigeria has for long maintained a comfortable lead. Despite, the stigma placed on her, as one of the countries whose citizens are too smart to joke with, their zealousness and raw undauntedness is worthy of admiration. In the case of Sierra Leone, it looks like she is a bit comfortable with the rather mediocre stage it has put herself. I say so because if you check out all the countries around it, she perhaps has more potential to bail itself out of the poverty quagmire, but somehow refuses to budge. I hope you see what I mean. Tell me if our size was like Nigeria or Ghana, do we really stay as one country? Well, all hope is not yet lost, our leaders still have great plans of skyscraper magnitudes and there are the resources to achieve them and as a people we can stay patient till death do us give up! Oh I have not mentioned Liberia yet, yes they are our blood brother together with Conakry, Guinea. We all drink from the Mano River Basin with our cousin Ivory Coast. Across Africa, poverty smells and manifests itself in diverse ways. One area of consolation is communication and transportation. A common feature is what we in Sierra Leone call Poda-poda. This supposedly cheap transportation is found across the continent. The difference in the poda-podas across the continent does not necessarily lie in the make of the vans but in their state and condition that exposes how deep their poverty has reached. In Sierra Leone, you have the doors of some of the pda-podas falling off while the vehicle is actually in motion. Sometimes, the apprentice has to literally hold on to the door to prevent it from falling. Oh I almost forgot, I think in Liberia, they call it Mammy wagon, in Kenya Matato, In Ghana they call it Tro-Tro. In Sierra Leone when they buy the second hand vans, they remove all the comfortable cushion chairs except the one in the front where the driver and two passengers seat. The rest are replaced with iron that is not properly fitted and often times do tear people’s clothes and even wound commuters. Sometime ago, the police was shouting on air that all poda-podas were to revert to board and cushion seats. We are waiting to see. Do you also remember the police saying poda-podas with right hand steering should cease to run effective October 2012. Well we are waiting for 3012 perhaps! Oh what a nation of lawless and non-compliant people! Even as I write, some of our so-called cities do not even have taxis. But let us go back to the poda-podas. Let us compare the poda-podas in Accra and Freetown. In Freetown they are rickety and decrepit and so dangerous to commuters. This is as acerbated by the narrow streets in many areas and the reckless driving witnessed on our streets. In Accra, the poda-poda owners do not remove the comfortable seats; they leave them for the passengers to ride in comfort. Do you see the difference? Over there they have integrity, they respect themselves, and they will not do things that demean themselves. They of course do not import right hand drive vehicles into their country when they know they are on right hand traffic. Over here, we do not care a hoot. We firmly maintain that dog-eat-dog mentality and kind of guard it religiously. Why are we like this? Take taxis in Accra. You pick up the drop in, negotiate and you are on your way in comfort. The drivers are not hell bent on reducing you to nothing, as if they are doing you a favour. In Freetown, our youths are all over the streets changing virtually any sort of currency. In Accra they most times will ask you to go to the bureau. Why is it that we do not value what we have? The kind of shoddy way we do so many things, beats one’s imagination. We prefer to behave like old men who live on remembrance and not like youths who live on hope. When do we grow up? Come on we cannot keep testing the depth of the river with our two feet. Do you know that Ghana long ago abandoned their brand of krio and are now more prone to speaking English or their mother tongues? Yes, the poor taxi man there will manage to speak English even to his dog. Here the taxi man will want to throw invectives all over the place and of course Krio comes in handy. Tell me ous tem we go lan? By Ben Cambayma

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