AFRICA’S UNSAVOURY ROMANCE WITH FOREIGN AID

Picture Courtesy: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/aid/food_en.htm



AFRICA’S UNSAVOURY ROMANCE WITH FOREIGN AID

Food aid,
Financial or economic aid
Grants
Loans and others.
Has Africa really been aided?
Has aid made a difference?


Aid given to Africa
Has been cosmetic so far
For centuries Africa has struggled
Africa has been saddled with
Poverty
Disease
Hunger
Civil strife
Among other happenings with colourful names.


In Africa’s time of need,
The world comes to our aid
With beautifully packaged words
Calling them pledges, a form of aid on paper.
For a short while,
This illusion of help seems to work
Food aid, feeds the hungry immediately
Financial and economic aid
Gives budgetary support,
Props up economies and
Makes funds available for all sorts of projects.
Grants, these monies come with strings attached,
Not surprising, Africa’s a slippery place to walk
With pockets lined with gold.
Too many shady characters trolling the continent.
Financial aid, this aid helps one
Meet a budget or target.


The world really has been kind to Africa,
But has their purported kindness been
Shown freely and without selfish interests?
A power invests in the security apparatus of
An African country to prevent terrorists
From making home there.
They fear these terrorists might come crashing
Airplanes into their high-rises and walk the streets of their
Cities with bombs underneath their jackets.
Is this really aid?


When hunger threatens Africa,
The world ships to Africa,
Grain that has spent years in storage facilities.
It is better than nothing anyway,
Thumbs up to them for free food,
But is this food really free?
Is the world unaware of the perennial droughts
And other problems saddling the African farmer?
If the world really wanted to eradicate hunger,
I say bring in long term solutions rather
Than sacks of grain and sugar.
A wise man once said,
Do not give that hungry man fish, if
You really want to help him, teach him how to fish.
That way, when you’re no more, he will never go hungry.
Food aid to Africa has been aesthetic,
A public show put on to score cheap moral points.
Does the world ever really envision Africa without famine
Poverty hunger and disease?


Civil strife and upheaval rear its ugly head,
The world sits behind their television sets
And watch brothers distressing like in a feature film.
Horrific tales of rape and decapitations,
Arms, legs and heads become trophies.
The world tarries for months and years,
When the carnage reaches a point where words
Such as genocide and ethnic cleansing are applicable,
Then the world wakes from slumber and puts
Boots on the ground in the place of distress.
The world puts on a public show,
Arrest warrants for rebels and those accused of
War crimes are dispatched at lightening speed.


A manhunt and millions of dollars
In reward monies are offered amidst much fanfare.
Is this really aid to Africa?
What are peace-keeping missions?
A war does not start overnight, it begins with
Discontent, demonstration among others.
Can’t the world act when the dislike and hate
Are still festering?
Why come festooned in fatigues and armour
When the carnage is at a crescendo?
Is this really aid?


Listen!! Africa,
Listen!! and be wise,
The world is not your friend
You have no friends in the west
Neither do you have friends in Asia,
Beware the wolves in sheep clothing
The vultures are circling,
They only come to pillage and plunder,
If you have oil, you will get wolves as friends
If you have gold, they will treat you like a bride
But if you only have disease, poverty and war,
The world will come when death and savagery
Have outpaced the innocent,
When young girls have been raped,
When young boys have lived by the barrel of the gun
The world will only come when half the population
Of a country has been wiped out,
They will come with huge bags of forensics
And spend billions in investigations and manhunts,
Could the world not have put these monies to better use?
Do you think the chronic African problems are an enigma to the west?


Africa!! stop acting like a toddler,
Go back to the pyramids of Egypt,
Seek an ear with the pharaoh,
Travel to Ghana, sit down with Nkrumah,
Go back to South Africa, seek audience with Madiba.
Go to Timbuktu and rediscover the lost tomes,
Give Jomo a call, he would be happy to receive you,
Awake Africa, stop looking west.
Begin looking within,
Look within yourself and learn from history,
Enlighten yourself on the Black star of Africa.
Emancipate yourself!!!
Oh Africa!! Emancipate yourself,
You’ve allowed yourself to be enslaved mentally,
Now the world calls you backward and savage.


You have allowed greed and selfishness into your house,
You have dined with thieves and snakes,
Now the world calls you a broken home.
When they get a whiff of oil,
You become their treasure trove,
When you tell them of your deposits of gold,
They forget the savages and mosquitoes bearing malaria
And come after you with sugary tongues,
They pillage pilfer and tie you down with binding
Agreements and crooked international law.
You have no friends in the world Africa,
You stand alone without cover,
The world feeds off you and calls you an ally
But make no mistake, you are neither a friend nor an ally,
You are unequal in the eyes of the west.
Be wise, oh Africa be wise,
Rid yourself of the cancer and live free again.
Slavery has long been abolished but you!! Africa!!!
Have always been a slave, the west your master.


Instead of being neighbours, become brothers,
Make friends with one another
After all, Africa is our mother.
The west comes to divide and conquer,
Become a fortress by seeking the interests of one another
Live for each other, unify the land
Stop the bickering, stop the war,
You’ve done this for centuries,
And you’ve gone round in circles for centuries.
Emancipate!!! Oh Africa emancipate,
In your eyes, you live among friends
Among equals,
But in their eyes, you’ve always been a slave
To them, you will always be a slave.
Abolish squabbling African nations,
Bring back home the lost generation,
Let us build and become one nation,
Unite the land
Live free devoid of terror.
Rise!!!! Oh star of Africa
You’ve been sullied
You’ve been muddied
For far too long.
Take leave of the pits of mud,
Step forth and embrace your crown of glory,
Africa!!!! You’ve always been royalty.