The largest empires that the
world has ever known are, in order of size, the British, Mongol, Russian, Spanish,
Umayyad, Yuan, Qing, French, Abbasid and Portugese empires.
There were a number of other
large and notable empires in world history such as the Roman, Ottoman, Greek,
Babylonian, Persian and Mughal empires.
The post-World War 1 Soviet
empire was massive and powerful and it was followed by the establishment of the
post-World War 1 American empire which was equally formidable and which matched
it in all ramifications.
The race for supremacy between
the two continued after the defeat of Hitler, Nazi Germany and the Axis powers
in World War 11 in 1945 and this resulted in the establishment of an
unpredictable and frightful bi-polar world, a dangerous cold war and a tense
balance of power between them.
The American empire eventually
prevailed and it extended its awesome power and
influence over the affairs and nations of the world to an even greater level
and extent after the collapse of communism and the fall of the Soviet Union and
Soviet empire in 1990.
This resulted in the
establishment of a unipolar world and the emergence of the United States of
America as the most powerful and influential nation and the greatest military
power that the world has ever known or seen in the history of humanity.
One is constrained to ask, where
is Africa in all this? Have we ever had large empires? Have we ever made a
difference on the world stage? What is our contribution to human development
and world history? Consider the following.
Though relatively small when
compared to others, sub-saharan Africa has had its own fair share of empires in
the past such as the Songhai, Ashanti, Oyo, Abyssinian, Benin, Bornu and Sokoto
empires. However it is a historical fact that no sub-saharan African power or
empire has EVER extended its borders beyond the African continent.
Instead, for thousands of years
and indeed up until today, sub-saharan Africa has been the greatest source of
raw materials, mineral resouces and commodities for the development of
non-African nations and empires and the world in general.
Principal amongst those raw
materials, mineral resources and commodities were slaves. And the savage and
illicit trade in black flesh brought immense wealth and power to both the
eastern and western hemispheres of the world.
It was on the backs, sweat,
blood, tears and labour of those black African slaves and the sheer cruelty and
unfathomable wickedness that was infilcted on them that many of those great
non-African empires were built.
As a matter of fact slavery was to
later become the bedrock and foundatiom of modern-day capitalism in 18th and
19th century Europe.
It brought immense and
unparalleled wealth to Great Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and many other
western Eurpean countries just as it had done to the Mongols, the Ottomites,
the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians and others in the past.
For thousands of years slavery
has been Africa’s greatest “contribution” to the world and it constituted a
large part of our practice, heritage and tradition. Worse of all is the fact
that virtually all the slaves that were sold to non-Africans were sold to them
by their own African colleagues and leaders.
We were ready to kill our
brightest and our best and sell them off into slavery and bondage for profit
and for gain. One is constrained to ask, has anything changed? Is this not
still the case today?
The implications and
ramifications of this evil, self-destructive, peculiar and strange disposition
and this sorry state of affairs, for the African people themselves itself, is
dire and pitiful.
The fundamental questions that
needs to be answered are as follows: if this mentality persists and if it
refuses to change or be tempered by enlightenment, religious faith or
education, where lies the hope for the future of Africa and what will be her
ultimate fate? Can we afford to continue to wallow in self-pity, failure, shame
and mediocrity?
Must we build our nations and
institutions on the accursed foundation of savagery, barbarity, injustice,
tyranny, wickedness, corruption, double-speak, lies, deceit, double-standards,
cheating, lying, ignorance, hypocrisy, greed and self-hate? Where will this
take us?
O African, are you comfortable
with being described as the “dark continent” and the “dustbin of the world?”
Are you satisfied with the way
the world views and perceives us? Are you comfortable with what our men and
women are subjected to in places like Libya, Italy, Dubai and indeed all over
the world? Do you know that slavery is alive and well in some of these places?
Do you know what many of our
people are forced and compelled to do in foreign lands just to survive and make
ends meet?
When will you get it right? When
will you rise up, free yourself from the shackles of mental and physical
slavery and achieve your full potentials on the world stage?
When will you become the great
men and women that God ordained you to be?
Africa, O Africa, my heart bleeds
for you!
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