Africa is bleeding. Our continent has been struck by opportunists and merchants who have traded every single item from the body of Africans to the soul of our race. We have been restructured in a way that suits external and selfish internal interests. The continent is running out of both physical and mental resources to sustain us all. We have been humiliated and sapped by slavery from the West with the complicity of compromised African insiders. We have been grilled spiritually and our original values lost for foreign values and codes that have led to the death of over millions.

Mentally, the majority have been defeated. This defeat wouldn’t have been possible if the people among us who glorified self above group were never in charge. They were mentally down and tasked with uplifting a people mentally down and the result is a continent of people who are largely mentally down. Instead of doing for Africa what the founding fathers like Thomas Paine did for America, they did for Africa what the founders of slavery and colonialism did for her. Like when the existence of railway systems were simply means to goals, these new set of leaders improve an area only when the improvement places them at the zenith.

If a road is built, it is because the road is the supply chain of the tyrants’ monetary power. It is never because the road is in dire need of uplift. It is all about the men in power and the money they can pimp from the position. You will hardly find one of the current handlers of Africa with a new mind. If there is any way the leaders here have touched Africa it is the further degradation of minds, bodies and structures with potential to uplift the continent.

The best things in today’s Africa were done by Africans outside power. The great contributions we see today are by those outside the corridors of power. Take the Nigerian Entertainment Industry for example. Nollywood and the Nigerian Music Industry has put our sounds on the radio of every country in Africa and beyond. Nollywood is the brainchild of the Nigerian people and the same goes for the music industry. But while these actors and artistes toil daily to give us lyrics and sounds that inspire and entertain us, the clueless government officials in charge sit at a corner and try to impose a ban on contents that will raise the conscious level of the people.

If the artiste talks of the ills in the system like Falz did with the song This Is Nigeria, it is banned by the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria, BON, for misinformation and its extreme metaphors. The consciousness it seeks to raise is belittled. A man who claimed to have found the cure for the dreaded AIDS disease was told that he didn’t ask for permission before embarking on the ‘ill-advised!’ journey that got him the purported drug. The Nigerian government stood in his way just like they have stood in the way of many Nigerians trying to move into entrepreneurship. What that scientist experienced doesn’t only validate the conspiracy theories on drugs, countries, neocolonialsm, money and power, it also kills the spirit of invention of the scientist and those around him looking for inspiration.

The people have taken over the job of the few persons in charge and almost every technology in the market today from torchlight, to power banks, to radio and television has no government input or policy. The people created the environment for the business to thrive and even borrowed and stolen technology were gotten by citizens’ sheer support. The thing is, immediately the government gets into any progressive venture, it collapses. If the music and film studios were run by these clueless African governments, they would have collapsed a long time ago. If Covenant University was run by the government, it would have collapsed and like the dirty hostels, the trademark of our universities, it would have been messed with, defaced and its educational architecture dead. It seems like once we know a thing is run by the government, we treat it with disdain and collapse it. After all, who is the government? Our inputs matter. The little efforts we make are affecting Africa.

Liberating Africa is not the job of only those at the top but every one of us who is totally fed up with the rotten system and desires a change. What are you doing to liberate this place? What have you done to get Africa out of this quagmire? Financially, Africa is down and the poverty rate is higher than others. Morally, Africa is deeply wounded. Those in pain are being treated by the butchers who injured them and the people in charge of absolution are in dire need of exorcism.

What is good and what is evil is now a political matter and like the evil Niccolo argued, goodness is now a construct of poorly developed creatures. Mentally, we have been dwarfed and stripped of the solid foundations that once fortified us. When did we notice that the black skin is the reason we are backward and not the organised chaos in the education system? When did we begin to notice that black skin is impermeable to light which is white? When did we notice that intelligence is racially transmitted and our IQ is skin deep? Dear Africans, tackle a problem to get this crawling Africa working again.

MortalPoet Blog is my own contribution to the struggle to liberate Africa. History shapes the decisions and actions of people. African history has been wrongly told and it has shaped the decisions and actions of Africans wrongly. I know that a mental prison is a bad prison to be in so I am trying to raise the conscious level of Africans to break out of that mental prison. What is buried at the underlying core of a person’s actions controls that person. I am trying to exhume false doctrines and replacing them with living springs of waters that inspire positive change. History is usually the version of the victor. Unfortunately, our history has relegated we, the vanquished, to the gutters. We must bring Africans out of that gutter and give them a chance to aim for the palace.

Africa´s problem is not skin colour. Not everyone of us will be entrepreneurs liberating Africa on the economic font and creating jobs. Liberating Africa on the economic font is a contribution to the growth of Africa. Contribution in music is another way to uplift us. As long as your voice is good, blessing the people with fine lyrics and a great show is something you shouldn’t shy away from. Thinkers are also contributors but when you think, share with the rest of us so that an intellectual discourse which will awaken and liberate will be forged. If you are a good talker and can inspire, go ahead and inspire other young Africans to change the world. Bloggers writing crazy thoughts, fine thoughts and raising questions should keep up with it as they are also contributing to the growth of Africa.

Shout out to that Ghanaian independent journalist who goes underground to expose corruption, risking his life and family to make Africa better. Sallah for President! Thank you M.I, Asa, Falz, Brymo, the Kuti’s, Khali Abdu Nneka, Genevieve and Kunle Afolayan. Shout out to the South African Rapper ProVabs whose conscious rap inspired so many of us to lead a better life. Shout out to our brothers, lost through slavery, who still think of us in the good light. Nas, Immortal Technique, Talib, Kendrick etc. Shout to the motivational speaker Sam Ikoku for the words. To Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Adichie, Nedi Okoroafor and the Ngugis. Tony Elumelu, Strive Masiyiwa I see you. Shout out to the Agberos in Lagos who are always willing to help with directions whenever you approach. Shout out to the Nigerian Newspaper Premium Times. Shout out to Jafar Jafar of the Daily Nigerian for the Ganduje job. Shout out to every African everywhere in Africa trying to liberate Africa despite the idiotic leaders trying to sink us.

By Rey Alaetuo,

A conscious Poet and health care professional living in Lagos.

Courtesy: Mortal Poet.