In 2015, in my Magnum Opus, Africa Reunite or Perish, I posited that all colonial symbols that’ve, for many decades been glorified and treasured in various places, in particular in Africa, must fall quickly. I pointed my finger to Cecil Rhodes, David Livingstone, King Leopold, the butcherer of Congo, Vasco da Gams and other thugs plus ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, the stinking racist and many more moles who paved the way to the colonisation and rape of Africa. I went further suggesting that all places and streets named after our tormentors must be changed. I thought it’s a hypothesis that wouldn’t been acted upon in my lifetime. Hurrah! Here we are. Things are happening.
Now that the gloves are off after the death of George Floyd that infectiously provoked the awakening and opportune moment that’s hell-bent in seeking to decolonise and detoxify many places of the world including those in the countries that colonised us, it is an auspicious jiffy to keep the faggots burning. As the victims of such a perpetual battering, harrying, nerve-wracking and traumatizing regimen, Africans need to lead the way instead of just sitting back and let the blacks in diaspora and sympathizers to do so as if they’ve nothing to do with this sin.
In the US, people are pondering on attacking mount Rushmore in South Dakota where the colossal figurines of US’s four past presidents, namely George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) are chiseled on the rock. The US Today (May 24th, 2020) reported that the effigies of former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were removed in various places by protesters who want to see to it that America’s history is rewritten to suit the aspirations of all citizens. This is because the duo’s suspected to have had slaves. After the abolition of slave trade, ironically, its symbols weren’t deposed. As noted above, the recent death of Floyd by US cop Derek Chauvin seems to have infuriated ire and angst against criminals who participated in slavery. What started as normal police brutality seems to have set the tone for the decolonization of the world vis-à-vis colonial carryovers and cryptograms. Due to the dirty past of some famous personalities and the roles they played in debasing and ill-using others, it’s high and right time to see to it that such crosiers are claiming their rightful place in history regarding their atrocities and infamy.
In Britain, the statue of Robert Milligan, former slave trader, was brought down in order to “recognise the wishes of the community” as per the BBC (June 9th, 2020) that quoted the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as saying that anything linked to slavery “should be taken down.” Milligan wasn’t the only one on the receiving end. The statuette of former UK PM Winston Churchill’s sprayed with doodles.
Essentially, in the US, the major concern is slavery. To the contrary, in Africa, the major concern is about colonial leftovers be they cultural or political. This said, it is time for Africans to vigorously decolonise and detoxify their land by bringing down all colonial symbols that litter the continent. For, good students of history wonder to see how Africa’s treasured the effigies and names of the thieves who paved the way for its vandalisation such as Livingstone, Mungo Park, Henry Morton Stanley, Carl Peters and many more we still glorify for our traumatisation not to mention misleading future generations. We still treasure colonial names such as Bismarck, Victoria, George, Edward and many more as if we do not have names or our own heroes.
In South Africa, the figurine of Cecil Rhodes––a notorious burglar that named contemporary Zambia and Zimbabwe after himself––was brought down. It started at the University of Cape where students, thanks to being well educated, found it indispensable to demolish this symbol of colonialism. Thereafter, the University of Accra followed suit by pulling Gandhi’s figuring because he’s a stinking racist who used to pejoratively refer to Africans as kaffirs, which the apartheid in South Africa used to abuse and insult Africans.
We need to pull all stops and go further by decolonise our streets. Many African streets, especially in the capital cities still bear colonial names. Consider these names of the streets in the Zimbabwe Capital Harare which bears names such as Abercorn Street, Ambleside Crescent, Angus Road, Annan Road, Atkinson Drive, Auld Crescent, Baines, Banff, Bannister, Bates, Belvedere, Bodle, Bradfield, Brailsford, Brooks, Buckingham, Buxton, Byron, Caithness and many. My friends in Nairobi know of Hurlingam, Lavington, Adam’s, Wilson. Despite aggrandizing themselves that they are independent, some African countries such as Uganda, sometimes, sound as if they are British private estates. Uganda has Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), Lake Albert, Lake Edward and Lake George whose original names are known to all Ugandans who know their true history. To crown it all, Uganda still has Owen Falls not to mention Murchison Falls too. Why Murchison but not Amuru or Kabarega which is the suitable name of the said Falls? When it comes to littering places with colonial names, South Africa leads others in Africa. Most of its places have Boer names. This needs to be addressed for the country to fully and truly be independent.
There are other names that have no reciprocity in our city. In Dar we have, for example, Indira Gandhi Street not to mention India one. I tried to research the roads and streets of Delhi to find that there was not even a single road or street with an African name. if there has no reciprocity, why maintaining such names that our leaders gifted to their colleagues from foreign countries who became mean without reciprocating?
The wave of decolonising our places will soon venture into our bodies whereby people must start thinking why Africans have almost names from other cultures but no reciprocity. Under what cultural imperialism, Africans were made to believe that their names are satanic. Thus, they had to change their names. Historically, it is a slave that receives the name from his or her master. Apart from that, it is only through marriage wherein a woman receives her husband’s name as her surname to signify the transfer from her family to a new family.
In countries such as North Sudan and Somalia the situation is worse. You come across the person with all Arabic surnames as if he or she’s Arab simply because one is a Muslim. When it comes to Arabs, they maintain their family names such as As-Sagaaf, Gadhafi, Bahashwan, Takrit and many more while Africans were duped to believe that Arabic or European names are holy and religious names as oppose to African ‘heathen’ ones despite the fact that Africans had their organic religions, names and all moral ingredients any human society must have. There is nothing like that but cultural imperialism that we need to aggressively thwart in order to free our bodies and souls. For, by being baptized, as a people, we lost our true identity and took on an obnoxious and fake one.
In sum, considering the points above, it is time for Africa to cleanse itself by demolishing all colonial effigies and systems. Indeed, it is time for Africans to reclaim their identity and institutions colonialism felled. Culturally, Africa was ahead of others if we revisit olden civilisations such as those of Egypt (Nubian one), Zimbabwe, and many more.
Source: African Executive Magazine.
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