The African Romantic: Who is to blame for the African Condition?
The African Romantic, as the name implies, refers to a person who romanticises Africa and idolizes everything connected to it. To him, Africa can do no wrong and he believes that any problem Africa has is a result of white supremacy. It does not matter if Africans pick up weapons to commit genocide against their fellow Africans. It is always the white man’s fault. Africa was a blissful, civilised, egalitarian, peaceful, and educated paradise before the evil white man came. There certainly were no human sacrifices, inter tribal wars and hatred or misogyny in pre colonial Africa. Love is blind and thus he is blind to the flaws of the people on the African continent.
The African romantic is usually born in the diaspora, if not, he is the child of wealthy African parents. Either way, he has spent his life living in relative abundance. Thus he is the kind of person who gets offended when he sees depictions of kwashiorkor ridden African children in western media. Since all he knows are the exotic places in Africa, he can not recognise the Africa that he sees on television. He does not know that the kwashiorkor ridden child with flies around its mouth is a more accurate depiction of Africa than Banana Island or Victoria Garden City. This is no surprise as he can not relate to the fact that almost half of the African people live below the poverty line and the other half are not faring much better.
Because of his privileged position, the African romantic has a larger megaphone than the average African. He is highly educated and can start a blog or write books. He uses this power to craft a narrative that casts white supremacy as the ultimate enemy. He is therefore complicit in the failure of the African continent to find solutions to its problems because as long as the enemy is out wards, we would fail to look in the mirror and see our own flaws. As long as we can point the finger at someone else, we will continue to live the way we do.
Sadly, African romanticism is even more harmful. It ironically leads to the same logical conclusions as white supremacy. Moral responsibility is a human attribute. Thus, in relieving the African of moral responsibility for his own actions, the African romantic debases the African people. He is reducing them to the level of base animals and elevating the white man. The romantic unwittingly robs Africans of their dignity. One only needs to look at the recent Disney tragedy to fully grasp this concept.
Near a Disney world hotel, a young child died after he was pulled by an alligator into a lagoon. Nobody blamed the alligator. Everybody understands that alligators will eat babies if they find the chance. They do not know any better. They are merely responding to their biology and environment. Because moral responsibility is solely a human attribute, they bear no moral responsibility for their actions. Instead, the blame was put on the guardians of the child or the owner of the alligator. They are human beings. They bear moral responsibility. The African romantic is basically making the same argument when he claims that the corruption practiced by an African is not the African’s fault but the result of white supremacy — Africans are merely responding to their biology and environment; white people should have known better.
This truth is repulsive to many because Africa is the victim in this story and it is usually socially unacceptable to blame the victim for their demise. However, we must make exceptions. When a victim is heading down the path of self destruction and actively mortgaging their future, refusing to speak the truth and place blame on the victim is not an act of love. Africa is simultaneously the victim and the culprit in this story.
This is not to say that white supremacy bears no moral responsibility for the African condition. White supremacy has indeed exploited the African people and her resources. It deliberately created unstable states and thus has contributed to the African situation. White supremacy must be blamed and condemned at every turn. But when Africans pick up weapons to commit genocide against their fellow Africans, those Africans must take full moral responsibility. When an African chooses to bow to corruption and swindle his fellow country men, we can not put all the blame on white supremacy. The African is not an animal. He must not merely respond to his biology and environment. He knows better and must do better.
