Black People: A Peculiar People !! By Ogbeni La
Black People: A Peculiar People !! By Ogbeni La.
” Ogbeni La wrote:
A Peculiar People
I was quite young when I used to hear my dad complain bitterly of black people. I hardly knew we had black people outside the continent or never gave it a thought but I figured he meant Africans. He’d often say, and with exaggerated cynicism,
“We ought to be leveled up and our lands used for rice plantation by and for other serious people in the world.”
It usually amuses me. By the time I grew older, I found his stance radical and callous in a 21st century where gays have right, women can vote and slavery have become a thing of shame.
Well by the time I was married and living in a first world country, I’d hear myself recount my dad’s old stance to my wife with nostalgia. I’d later claim to her that there has to be something about African geography that makes it incompatible with development and technological advancement. I once said it could be that development isn’t possible in the Tropics. And she’d remind me of UAE. I couldn’t believe I got more cynical than my old man as regards the problem of the black man
Maybe we are just peculiar people. Ajibola M Salami , perhaps having similar perplexity as my dad and I once asked an interesting question. “If we move every British people to Nigeria to start a new country, and we move everybody in Nigeria the other way round to the UK to start afresh … every other factors remaining constant … what would be the economic status of both “new” countries in 20 years time?”
There’s no way to tell exactly what would happen unless we are indeed swapped but I have an interesting idea of what could and they are backed with real life events. I’ve been in the UK for six months and the grittiest neighbourhoods are mostly populated by Nigerians and other blacks. In Southampton where I reside, St Mary is such place. The first time I visited an African shop there, I felt the sharp distinction to my posh white neighbourhood. In contrast, the poshest places in Nigeria presently are where you find an average UK visitor or resident in the country. Don’t get it wrong, this isn’t just about affordability. In St Mary resides some of the most industrious and wealthiest black men in Southampton. They don’t just care! In Southampton precisely, if you move native English folks to St Mary and move all blacks to other parts of the port city, St Mary would clean up in a year. This is telling!
It wouldn’t be the most outrageous hypothesis to suggest there’s something inherently wrong with the African man. We have an identity confusion. We don’t know who we are. So we don’t know what to aspire to become. We don’t know what quality life is hence a seeming inability to value it.
If you’re still wondering how English people would fare in 20 years if taken to Nigeria, I’d refer you to a Fela classic, Just Like That. He sings,
🎶 Whiteman rule us many years we get electric constantly,
Our people come take over dem come build Kainji-dam
Dem come build the dam finish electricity com stop
One year, two years, twelve years till now no electricity for town 🎶
That was 32 years ago and electricity has gone worse in the country since he sang those lyrics! White men from UK have also become more sophisticated since 32 years ago. In twenty months of twenty years, there wouldn’t be anywhere in a Nigeria inhabited by British people without electricity supply. Take that to bed.
We are just a peculiar people! How those who thrive among us manage to do so is a miracle and how still many of them manage not to do anything to improve the situation they come from when they thrive is even beyond a miracle. Not farfetched since it’d seem we always rely on miracles to solve all our problems. Recently I ran into a black preacher at City Centre in Southampton shouting at the top of her lungs for people solving their own problems to accept Jesus. Aside the irritating noise pollution, It made sense.
Ogbeni La.”
