Blame the Colonizers

When will we Africans get over this "blame the colonizers" culture for everything that is wrong with Africa?

The inability for the security guard mentioned below to effectively deal with the situation is an educational matter that has nothing to do with Zambia's colonization, which ended 43 years ago. This man is uneducated because for 43 years successive inept regimes have seen this country's educational system all but collapse. Do you honestly expect him to know better or have the ability to distinguish between various cultural attires and fashion statements?

For your information I was preventing from entering the same establishment for wearing a wooly hat. I explained that this was a physical requirement as it was June and I am naturally "follically challenged". However, I did not ridicule the guard nor blame colonizers for the event. I simply referred the decision to a level where it could be dealt with effectively.

My Zambian people remain poor and uneducated, even more so than when we were colonized, because we have condoned incompetent leadership. Donor agencies, including the UN, must shoulder some of these responsibilities because they seem to not want to tackle the real issues driving Africa backwards.

The root cause of the problem remains our inability to add value to the opportunities we have as a country. Donors continue to treat the symptoms – mopping the floor when someone should be asking why the tap isn't being turned off. The "value" of being African is being diminished by ourselves – not by anyone else. We accept our politicians being late for every function they attend, we don't complain when our whole cabinet waits in the baking sun for the presidential jet to arrive for hours on end. It is this mindset that keeps us poor and the "butt" of every joke.

My success as a man of colour from Africa (I made my first million dollars by the age of 31 and never looked back) was achieved by replicating work ethics and disciplines engrained in other cultures. I create my own destiny as a person and certainly do not but myself in a box with a label. Nobody is "anti-African" as the author makes out – they just play on stereotypes we create for ourselves. Malaysia certainly doesn't wallow in self pity point a finger at anything and everything being the reason for their failure.

Food for thought I hope!