The Beautiful Citizen:

The concept of community was well understood in the African context. There were wives sharing the well, the children the playing in the fields and the men the hunting. That is how our society was shaped, on principles of sharing and not only items and commodities but also time and lives. There was a time when every society worked together to get ahead, when advancement was not frowned on but admired and in many cases coveted.

That was then and it was beautiful but as society became more progressive individuals realised that in order for them to move faster, they had to detach themselves from those slow fellows, a right decision. They also realised that they could do this alone and that in fact it was better done without involving many people, the less the better. We embarked on personal ambitions with the single goal of getting to our desired destination or positions/status in society.

At the same time and at a higher level we reorganized our society to be all encompassing; of course we were greatly aided by those others foreign and exposed to what seemed like a better structure of society. We formed governments or we accepted them and their role was to take care of all of us. The idea of taking care of all is noble and one that should be embraced by all but it faces its own challenges.

For one we entrust a few citizens from different communities with the responsibility to take care of all. This would be great if these citizens were still in touch with their own communities or if they saw all as part of their community, but sadly these are citizens who have resolved to pursue personal ambitions only. And as we have noted so oftenly, these citizens are in fact shielded from the community and as such are left with this obscene liberty to do as they please. The result is that they have seen themselves or those small communities where they come from as the only service points and the rest, the greater all, have suffered for it.

The rest of us, not entrusted with the greater responsibility, have also been known to forget that we are part of the current community; we have desired progress so much that we have closed our eyes and ears to the plight of those others close to us to that were supposed to be close to us. It is as if we see ourselves as individuals unaffecting and unaffected by everyone else. Our cause is to satisfy ourselves and once that is done, we are at peace.

So we see that what we have today is a society on a race to some place, we race faster each day with no thought or regard of those others with whom we share this home. We have determined in our hearts that time will be bought by money and money by our souls. We have taken from everyone else and decided to give to ourselves simply because the opportunity is here for a moment and so are we.

These motives of fear and greed have left the progress we all pursue, whether at a personal or society level, far behind us and now it seems as if we are running towards nothing. The truth is that we all affect each other and that there is much to go around for a very long time and we need to shun the taking that never fills whatever bags we choose to keep our deposits in. We need to correct the citizen we have created if we are going to see a better tomorrow.