Will I live to see an era of African Enlightenment?

 In 1776, 13 North American British Colonies declared independence from the British Empire, the world superpower at the time. These 13 colonies became the United States of America, the world’s unipolar power since the end of the Second World War. 

13 years after the American Revolution, the French had a revolution of their own, a revolution that painted the fabric of the French Republic and its empire.

The beliefs that these two events established, in my opinion, are what distinguish these moments from the rest of history. Without the US Constitution's tenets of freedom, liberty, equality, and free expression, the American Revolution would not have been unique and the French Revolution would not have been what it was without its iconic “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité". Europe underwent a profound intellectual transformation during this period, known now as the "Era of Enlightenment."

The Era of Enlightenment laid down the values that run the modern world. Freedom, individualism, liberty, equality, even the free market- you name it- all from the tiny continent of peninsulas about two centuries ago.

Now I look at myself in 2023, living in Africa, indoctrinated with these values, values made in lands I have never set foot on, by people I have never met and I wonder “Where is my African Enlightenment?”, “What are values that will guide the African continent for the next two to three centuries?” and worst of all, “Will I live to see an era of African Enlightenment?!”

 MY QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED.

Africa despite its wealth in natural resources and diversity of people has failed to set principles that set it apart from the rest of the world. There are no distinct and universal African values, nothing close to the “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" of the French Revolution. It brings me great sadness that the continent that has it all, fails to have an ideological compass.

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There was a sense of great optimism in 1960s Africa, many modern-day African nations were gaining independence from their colonial masters and the future seemed bright.

I can imagine myself as the average Tanganyikan in 1961, gaining independence from the British must have been a momentous occasion and I too would believe that everything is possible. Our laws, borders, schools and even our God were brought to us by the white man. Before then, the people could only dream of what their countries might look like under the policies, laws, and governments of their own people; now, however, they were getting what they desired.

Their optimism was not left to wither. The Nkrumahs, Nyereres and Lumumbas set out to change a continent that has been a plundered, pillaged and drained for the past millennium. Ideas of African socialism, a United States of Africa, an apartheid-free South Africa and best of all, an Africa free of foreign oppression floated around all over the continent at the time and there was a lot to hope for.

Institutions like the Organization of African Unity and the First East African Community were established and these newly formed African nations and institutions banded together to liberate the African brothers and sisters still under oppressive colonial rule. Things were looking up. I could imagine the average Tanganyikan full of bliss and excitement telling himself, “What a time to be alive”.

Then, though, as Nigerian author Chinua Achebe put it, "things fall apart." Not everything went as many Africans had hoped. The Lumumbas, Machels, Nkrumahs and Obotes were either killed by foreign agents or ousted by their own militaries. Ideas like African socialism like Ujamaa in Tanzania became economic disasters, organisations like the East African Community collapsed and the United States of Africa never came to fruition.

The continent that was once full of hope became plagued with instability, corruption and genocide. That is the Africa that we have today, an Africa that has had all of its hope drained and taken away from it, an Africa that is a shell of what it could possibly be.

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But I pose multiple questions, 

“Didn’t Europe rise again after Rome fell?”

“Didn’t Europe have a renaissance?”

“Didn’t the people of Europe have a revival in the arts, sciences and philosophy?”

“Didn’t the people of Europe set out to explore the world?”

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“Africa fell but where is our renaissance?”
“Where is the revival of the arts, sciences, philosophy and all things African?”

“Where are the Africans that set out and explore the world?”

In the 21st Century, we are left with an Africa that is only seen as a pawn on the global stage, a continent left to be pitied by the rest of the world, a region pitifully dubbed "The Global South."

“Aren’t we as Africans tired of this?”

I believe all the problems we have as a continent right now are because of the lack of an ideological compass. 

We need an African Enlightenment now than ever before!

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It's a good thing we live in an era of rapid change. The continent has been bestowed with relative peace and economic success. African countries have among the fastest GDP growth rates in the world, and hundreds of thousands of people are emerging from poverty every minute.

This economic success has been accompanied by intellectual progress. More Africans are able to read and write than ever before, Africans are more aware of the world than ever and the greatest among us go out and seek knowledge from the greatest institutions of learning in the world.

These are fertile lands for revolution, they breed a generation that yearns for something different, a generation tired of the labels and titles bestowed upon their motherland and, most significantly, a generation yearning for truly African values.

As we set sail for the next few decades, we must sit together as a continent, as a people, and create our own set of ideals. Ideas that are unique and natural to the African condition.

We must set apart our differences, throw away useless conservatism and prepare ourselves for change. We must construct ideas that ensure peace in our homes, that ensure the best African talent is not robbed by foreign lands, that ensure the next trends originate from home, that make all Africans proclaim their home loud and proud, that put the iconic “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" to shame, that place the African continent at the top of the global order for centuries, if not millennia, to come.

Because if we do not act now, we will forever remain in mediocrity, forever perceived as a backwater, a dump site and a common whore for the whole world.

My fellow Africans, it is time for our era of Enlightenment!

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Back to the title of this piece, “Will I live to see an era of African Enlightenment?”

Well, I am still unsure about this question but like the Africans of the 1960s, I am full of hope for what is to come.

I might not witness the Era of African Enlightenment in my lifetime but I believe God has bestowed upon Africa all the catalysts for change and it is now up to the people to determine their fate.