THE DELUSION OF SELF IMPORTANCE

 Growing up as a young boy who was considered to be smart by both my peers and teachers, I attended my fair share of meetings, events and seminars. It was something I always looked up to. For most of us, it was considered a privilege to be chosen to attend such events. You were always treated more highly than the others. That is how much importance we placed on these events. Most of the times, these seminars and events were centered sex education, politics and education. For every event I attended, the topic of discussion was among those three. What struck my mind was the repetitive nature of these events. The same theme each time, no improvement whatsoever. Ironically, we loved it that way. We preferred talking about things we had to do or things we failed to do. Not once did we talk about what we had done. 

Our minds have been greatly affected by the way we were being treated during colonial times. We were made to feel invaluable and useless. Fast forward six decades later, this mindset is still haunting us. The least chance we get, we want to feel important. We think attending meetings, events and seminars will give us that which we desire but it does not. Because of this, we go into these meetings not really for what it is about but because of our ego. We have forgotten about 'us' and are now focus on 'me'. Each person is trying to satisfy their own desires and in the end, no one ends up satisfied. We spend all of our time talking about about the problems the continent is facing and the things we need to do in order to solved these problems. When we return for the next meeting, we talk about the same things and the loop goes on and on. No change, no implementation and no accountability. Nobody cares if anything has been accomplished since the previous meeting. We are only focused on the agenda of the next meeting which is the same as the last's. We repeat the cycle over and over and the continent does not move forward in any way. Unfortunately, no one seems to notice this or better still, take proper action to tackle it. As Albert Einstein once said; Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we want to grow, we must break out of this cycle. During each event, the successes which have been recorded since the last one should be discussed. What problems were outlined, what solutions were proposed, how they were implemented and where they were lacking. We cannot longer stay stagnant and expect some imaginable savior to do it for us. It does not exit. The only ones who exist are those who are there to still from you in order to enrich themselves. I doubt that is a path a reasonable African will want though it is the same thing we have been doing for ages now. The world is moving forward and we must move with it. Other parts of the world are light years ahead of us economically, technologically, infrastructurally and what have you and it means nothing to us. Instead of trying to solve local problems, we spend time importing foreign solutions which more often than not do not fit. 

We all desire growth but no one is willing to put in the necessary effort required to achieve that growth. We must put our self importance aside and work towards the growth of Africa. By thinking it is pride to attend events and discuss about problems without any action, we are only living a delusion filled reality. We must rise up and take proper action. Discuss the problems and possible solutions, implement them before any other event takes place. It is only in doing this that we will be able to achieve the kind of growth we envision for ourselves.
One love, Africa.

By Yimnai