You don’t start living until you rise above individual concerns to humanity concerns.
– Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
You start dying when individual concerns rise above humanity concerns.
– Chigozie Anuli Mbadugha (Camba)
Humanity is dying! I know this for certain. I used to hear the saying that companies have a human face (if they were big on family, philanthropy and social issues) or that someone should have a human heart. Today it is becoming increasingly easier for people to ignore the needs and pains of people in our communities. Xenophobia makes me wonder if there are hearts in some humans. There is definitely an organ pumping blood somewhere, but the organ is bereft of emotions!
I grew up listening to several Nigerian artistes singing anti-apartheid & ‘Free Mandela’ songs. Sonny Okosun was probably one of the most influential of the lot. I am sure he would be turning in his grave today, if he could, with the recent news of xenophobic attacks on black foreigners in South Africa. It is sad that people find it easy to take away from others something that they can never replace – life!
The whole world, especially Africans, stood behind South Africa in their fight against apartheid, but today they are practising the very thing they fought against on immigrants in their land. The world respected and adored Madiba as the father of true forgiveness, reconciliation and equality. Madiba would have been disappointed at the acts of violence against fellow blacks that are rife in South Africa today. I know wives of prominent Nigerians that are of South African and West African descent and who we love dearly for who they are and not where they are from! The love for filthy lucre has fuelled some of these attacks. Rather than loot and kill, why can’t we understudy, learn and practice new business tips to empower ourselves.
The black South Africans carrying out these attacks can never justify it. They have no moral standing to accuse the apartheid government of discrimination and injustice because he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Their hands are soiled. Period!