By Wesley Macheso:
On May 25, we celebrated Africa Day. This day is commemorated every year but very few of us understand the history behind it. But before we jump into that, there was something controversial that happened on this day in Malawi this year. One of the leading telecommunication companies posted a picture of people celebrating Africa Day, and this picture ruffled some feathers. In it were some black people in ‘African attire’ kneeling and standing around a throne on which a white man in a suit sat.
Of course, the photo can be explained. The man in the chair may be some big boss in the company and, in that case, him being on that throne may be normal. But the people taking the picture did not put much thought to it and they ignored other messages that it could send out there on a day like this. Africa is still very much struggling to unshackle itself from the chains of colonialism whose most vivid symbol is whiteness. As such, among sensitive audiences, putting a white man on the throne was tantamount to elevating Western dominance over Africa. And indeed, seen this way, the picture looked wrong and the company apparently took the post down after some thinking, I assume.
However, some interesting debates around the photo emerged on social media. There was another group of learned people who shot down the anti-colonial narrative, arguing that there was nothing wrong with the depiction. This group argued that being African does not mean being black. There are some white Africans just as there are black Europeans and Americans and, as such, we should not water down Africanness to blackness. Of course, these critics were right, but the gesture and positioning of racial identities on the photo did not do it justice considering the weight of history. Africans are still in a state of anxiety and trying to heal from the wounds of colonial violence. Understanding this, it is safe to be sensitive.
That aside, one wonders how many of us took time to consider the origin and meaning of Africa Day. Many are times we commemorate days without having meaningful discussions around such days. For those not in the know, Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which later evolved into the African Union (AU) that we have now. The day is also known as African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day. Supposedly this is the day we must celebrate how liberated we are and how united we have become since the official end of colonialism. But of course, we know that colonialism never ended.
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The question is; is African liberated? When we think about that, we will understand why some quarters were mad at that symbolic representation of the relationship between Africa and the West. But going back into the origins of Africa Day, one would laugh at us commemorating a Day that has no value to our conduct as African. Despite the calls for African unity as reflected in the naming of the mother organization, Africa has never been united and this is one of the reasons why we are still anxious about foreign domination. The biggest enemy of an African is a fellow African – be them black, white, or yellow. It is very difficult for an African to move freely within Africa than it is for us to navigate Europe, Asia, or America. African countries would rather trade with countries outside the continent instead of countries within. An African is more than willing to kill another African while bowing down to non-Africans. That’s just how rotten our minds are.
Maybe the next time we celebrate Africa Day, we need to ask ourselves pertinent questions instead of dwelling on trivia. What has freedom done to Africans? If we are not free from colonial domination, then what may be wrong? We need these debates on public podiums so that we shape a society that is intellectual and reflective. Africa, Africanness, and blackness are not enough to make us proud. There has to be some meaning behind these identities and any move towards finding that meaning is political. Can we please question those on the actual thrones in our countries what they have done for us? Otherwise, we are dancing to trivia.
