THE RAPE OF A PEOPLE By: Akinsanya Oluwasegun

One peculiarity about African culture was that it encouraged communality. We seemed to enjoy being together, taking collective decisions and doing things in common. That was before we were raped by the Europeans. The present generation are the hybrid offsprings produced by that exploitation. Here we are in our current state, swinging between the old time communality and the newly infused individualism. What we practice now, is neither a perfect expression of either of the two nor a perfect mix of both.

The Africa we read about in the history books was the Africa where people ate together under the dull moon; and young girls with little apples run around innocently with boys of their age without any form of fear. Everyone seemed to have something in common. Everyone seemed to trust each other. Farm produce were placed on the pathways for days without any fear; the farmer was sure of picking them up as intact as he left them...Gone were those days.

The world that the slave trade and colonialism introduced to us was the world of *"every man for himself..."* That ideology functioned well in their world, not in ours; so we resisted that ideology. We also chased away the proponents of such strange ideology. We broke the chains of slavery but our mothers were already pregnant with us. When we grew up, we couldn't recognise who our rapist-father was. We were born with mixed blood.

Here we are, hapless products of terror. Sometimes we are confused whether to follow the appeal from the strong gene of our rapist-father or the sentiments of our mother.

We are confused...we really don't know what exactly is right. We are taught to fear our next door neighbour; and at the same time to love our neighbour as our self. We are taught to preserve animals; and at the same time we are schooled on the nutritious value of their flesh and bones. When we go to places of worship they confuse us the more. They showed us the blissfulness of a far away heaven; at the same time, they show us how glamorous the present world is. Those who teach us to live only for heaven are busy accumulating the goods of the present world for themselves and their children!

Are we left with any option but to rebel?

©EXRADALLENUM OLUSEGUN AKINSANYA,

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