Recently I had a long thread about what people wished for christmas on my facebook profile. The largest; probably up to 80% wanted phones or laptops. Just about 5% needed money for business or equipments.
The rest had some need that was too vague to quantify. Take not that I stay in South Africa but my audience is mostly Nigerian.
The next day we had a thread where I asked for skills, virtual or physical. Simply tell us what you can “GIVE.” The thread could not be as much as 20% of those who responded to what do you “WISH FOR.”
It was a sort of experiment. While reading the wish responses, I had this theory that Nigeria has more of TAKERS than GIVERs. That theory was confirmed. I really hope someone distributes laptops and phones soon but I fear, what exactly happens after we get them?
Majority of those on the thread on the first day were not on the thread the next. It says a lot about who we are. Yes its a small sample size but still…
Maybe we are not really victims of colonialists or elitist structures. I met a Taxify Driver in Pretoria, South Africa and we bonded in the shortest ride ever. He said to me “Class Differences are integral to aspirations.” In the short discuss, I came to a lot of conclusions. Maybe the politicians and rich people are there serving a purpose, in fact maybe they are the good people and we the poor are the problems of Africa. Maybe.
Many of us want the classes to be removed, we are waiting for a saviour.We want the inequality to be destroyed so we can “inherit the earth.”
But again the taxify driver said to me. “We need people to be put in different classes, so they can come to terms with their unique position. They must not be exposed to privileges they have not earned. They must aspire to move to a higher class.
The discomfort and struggle is important for humans to evolve and grow. Hence, Equality is a myth. We all can never be equals. I stumbled on Luvvie Ajayi yesterday, her talk showed me that indeed we need more people who are uncomfortable, not wishers and takers.
Where am I headed? We have too many takers and too few givers. In away, it shows that the problem with Africa may not be oppression by the west or political corruption. Its just the disbalance of too many people TAKING and too few GIVING.
Finally the taxify driver said to me, “One black man that rises to the middle class probably has to be responsible for twelve other humans while his white counterpart is most times focused on himself and probably a wife and if they have a child, then the child.”
This is a call out, I was shocked at the little response that came after I made the post asking for skills to be advertised. Compared to the post asking for wishes, it’s a landslide! Africa is where wishes are the selling commodity and indeed it’s the same place where wishes rarely come through.
There is a lot of work to be done.