As of this moment, we have about 14.4 billion people on earth. That’s a lot of people, and yet there are only about 170 million African leaders and politicians. This is a problem, because Africa can and does develop its own political system. It doesn’t need to be subservient to other countries. It can do whatever it wants and form its own government, just like other African nations. The problem is that most Africa leaders aren’t willing to make that kind of change for the good of their country rather than for the benefit of their audience. They don’t have the courage or the motivation to lead in a more responsible way. Black Africans are particularly vulnerable to this because our culture is often viewed as inferior by much of the world’s population at large and those who do positively look down on us especially among many African-American communities due to our race and cultural similarities with other Americans. We are also prone to groupthink when we hear reports from second or thirdhand sources on matters such as government performance, crime rates, education quality, health care etc. We all know how important it is for black Africans to work towards becoming leaders and not followers like every other black person in this world. Let’s take a look at how many black leaders there are in Africa and why they are unable to lead in a more positive manner.
Think of Black Africa as a village
The first group of leaders to rise to prominence in black Africa were the medieval great rulers of the Horn of Africa, the early colonial era. Black Africa is a very diverse place with many different cultures, languages, and peoples. It is home to some of the oldest and largest human populations on earth. People in black Africa are among the most complex and interesting to research due to the diversity of our biology. Human embryos are neither sexual nor are they determined by environment. The sex of humans is determined by HC data and is an important part of human identity. However, the sex of animals is irrelevant to the species, its characteristics and its behaviors. This is the case for the black bear and its kin. Black bears are characterized by their broad, grayish-white, and dense hair. The black bear could be any of several subspecies, such as the African black bear, the Asian black bear, the Brazilian black bear, the Mexican black bear, the South American black bear, and others. They can also be identified by their black or orange stripes. The brown bear is a subspecies of the black bear that is less dense in hair and brownish in color.
The early colonial leaders
Ezra Taylor, the first black African to be granted the title of president of the United States, was the first of this group to address the issue of race in public. In his 1869 letter to the editor of the New York Times, Taylor challenged the notion that black people were less than human: “I have never believed that the black race, like the white, is a lower species than the rest of mankind. On the contrary, I believe that all man is flesh and bone. The black race is a vital branch of human nature, and is worthy of our consideration as such.” In a similar vein, Booker T. Washington, the first black American to achieve international prominence, wrote in 1887 that “Black people are not inferior to white people, or to other humans, although they are not necessarily so like them as to be members of that race.” White people were expected to give such addresses or write such letters in order to avoid being tarred with the brush of inferiority.
Jomo Kenyatta, slum landlord and leader of the Kikuyu people
Kenyatta was the first black to hold the office of president of a country. In 1960, he was elected president of Tanzania, a position he held until his death in 1979. He also served as minister and attorney general for the former British Somaliland. When he was 77 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer and died. Though he was poor by western standards and lived in a crowded house, he never allowed his perceived inferiority to influence his judgment or actions. “The more I got to know my race better and better, the more I became reconciled to their position,” he said in a speech in 1944, “If the white race is to have any place in the sun, it must be of the dark races.”
Julius Nyerere, president of Namibia
When Julius Nyerere was elected president of Namibia in 1976, he became the first black African to ever hold the office of president. Since his father, Haile Selassie, was the country’s first black head of state, he was the head of a unique and unique racial group. Rather than defer to the wisdom of others, Nyerere saw himself as the “only majority black Afrikaner” in the country.
Moïseko Kwasi Mwinyi, president of South Africa
When South Africa’s first black leader, Moïseko Kwasi Mwinyi, was elected president of South Africa in 1983, he became the country’s first black African leader. Mwinyi was a leading candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to integrate the judiciary and Parliament into the new South African National Court. However, he was vilified for his alleged lack of courage and for his softer approach to race relations. When he died suddenly in 2000, the country was mourning his loss. “The departing president was probably the most powerful man in South Africa,” says Martin Luther King Jr. “And he was a black Afrikaner.”
Botswanan President Museveni who is also black.
In his early teens, Mwinyi was drafted into the Uganda Scouts of Mujahidin, the black military unit that was active in the early 20th century. By adulthood, he was a major general in the Ugandan army and the first black general of the military. “The future of the black race is in your hands,” he said in a speech in 1929. “You must lead it in the right direction.” It was a message that would be particularly relevant 60 years later, when the country was experiencing a major identity crisis.
India-China relationship: Is it still healthy?
In the wake of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in December 2004, the two Asian giants lifted a collective arm and sent a strong message to the world about the importance of human and civil rights. They sent a strong telegram in the form of a letter to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, which had been their primary forum for international diplomacy for the past 50 years. The signatories were China and India, who were following the example of developed nations such as the United States and France by making important strides towards human rights.
Conclusion
The world is a more complex place now than it has ever been. There’s so much opportunity and so much work to be done. As a result, the survival of any one individual or any group of individuals can drain the energy and blood-resources of the entire community. This in turn leads to a long list of problems and costs that are impossible to control. The best and brightest can fall by the wayside, while the rest are driven deeper into darkness. This is the nature of progress and change.
