Africa:The Excessive Romanticism of the Continent(please comment)

The Excessive Romanticism of the Continent    Every nation falls the first time And after falling many falls again Even today when we should learn We fall instead, we fail instead We falter at every step   Today we ponder and It is impossible to tell How Africa would have turned out With or without slavery and colonialism   "I have no future." That is what they think And who is to blame them When the people came at you Others of other ethnicity Coming for your head The fashion to blame slavery and colonialism Considering also the history of the continent Now I ask…for which of these you do Condemn our country people?   Like Rwanda , every nation falls the first time And after falling they will fall again Each has its fair share of historical-unavoida ble Even today when they should learn They fall instead, they fail instead Like Africa uncertain at every step   Look at the vision of one privileged right A right to kill or be killed Choose they say' or you fall. It is too much to take Considering the fate of other African Black peoples in other continents Who believe that the time to move on has long gone out of our hand   Look at the people's vision of the future The blacks still in Africa The staring faces born of fear The scorning laughs of other nation Looking at them involves a tremendously delay A setback toward sorrow For a continent that once caused The days of Massa slavery   I can write of the detail, burned, and dissolved, And broken off in poetic flight Lest we forget this is an accusing poetry Words that gets its energy from all the suppressed memory of ethnic racism in African history   The article below inspired this poetry   "Almost forty years after most African countries gained independence, the continent continues to have a striking resemblance to the Africa of the 18th and 19th century. Any wonder then that some commentators have insinuated that the continent was better off colonized. Indeed, in one country after another, the conditions are similar --similarities that are manifested in low quality of life. In virtually every country, the average African has been betrayed by the intellectual class, the military cadre, and by the civil society  (selling out to the oligarchy and to foreign agents). For Africa to advance, certain unorthodox steps have to be taken. The suggestions here can be improved upon. However, one must take into consideration the fact that for more than forty years, all types of paradigms and approaches have been rendered and tried to no avail. It is time to think and act unconventionally. Trepidation will not help. Fear will not help. Dithering will not help. And neither will the little-little things. It is time to be bold. It is time to think of our countries as ours, to think of our continent as ours -- as our personal domain." (Sabidde@gmail. com, Howard University , Washington DC ,)