Communication Afrique Destinations

TRIBUNE/AFRICA: Appointment

Venance Konan

At the time, Léopold Sédar Senghor, poet and former President of Senegal, announced that “at the rendezvous of giving and receiving, non-European countries will not arrive empty-handed. For many of us, this meeting is in the indefinite future, which gives us hope that by this date which is not yet fixed, we will have reached the level so dreamed of by the developed countries, in order to to say that, indeed, we are not coming empty-handed. We still have hope that the time for take-off from Africa will necessarily come one day, and that we are just going through an area of severe turbulence at the moment. I'm sorry to play pooper, but this date has been happening for ages and is happening every day. This appointment, it started when we had met the other peoples, and since we have been together. What did we give them and what did we take from them at that time? What do we give them today, what do we take from them, what will we bring them tomorrow, what will they give us? I think that's what Senghor was talking about. We could go back to ancient Egypt and base ourselves on the writings of Herodotus, Champollion, Volney, Cheikh Anta Diop or many other Egyptologists, to say that it was we who gave Europe the foundations of its civilization and its dominant religion. It can perhaps console us but it does not explain the state in which we find ourselves today. But that is what it is about.

Let us therefore situate our meeting in the era which has been much more precisely documented, that of the encounter between Africa and Europe, at the time of triangular trade, and also at the time of the encounter between Africa and the Arab world that seems older. At that time, we brought, in spite of ourselves, it must be admitted, the strongest among us, in exchange for junk objects, mirrors, fabrics, alcohol or religion in terms of Arabs. We have thus enriched America and the European colonies in the West Indies, as well as the Arab countries, while impoverishing ourselves. Then, during the era of colonization, we had kept our muscles to use them to extract or harvest our raw materials for the needs of the Europeans who had also dominated the Arabs. This lasted until the time we call our independence. And since then? We continue to use our strengths, this time without constraint, at least physical, to produce the raw materials that Europeans and now all countries that aspire to their development need. Moreover, we also provide them free of charge with the few rare scientists, engineers and intellectuals whom we manage to train at great expense, our best sportsmen, our best artists and writers, in short, everything that we consider to be good. In past centuries, it was the Europeans who took a lot of risks to come and get the men and women they needed. Today these are managing on their own to go and sell themselves there. So far so good with the rest of the world. But it turns out that many of our young people who have not been asked anything, and whom the rest of the world does not want at home, also want to invite themselves to this meeting. And that's where it gets stuck. It's complicated when you make an appointment with a beautiful woman and her very ugly girlfriends want to come too.

I believe that in the spirit of Senghor, Africa should also bring its culture to the rendez-vous of giving and receiving. Perhaps even above all its culture. From that side, things seem to be going badly. The Congolese continue to whiten their skin and our African women are buying the hair of Indian women at exorbitant prices, that is to say. Rather, it was we who took all the culture from Europe, from the Arabs and from everyone else. But there were the cultural and religious objects that had been stolen from Africa, which enriched European and American museums and from which the greatest artists of these countries were inspired. Today we no longer steal these objects, nor the works that our creators continue to produce; they are sometimes bought at exorbitant prices, but they always serve to enrich and inspire others. Like our raw materials. In the end, what do we bring to this meeting of which the poet president spoke? A lot. Much more than you would think. And what have we received? Nothing before independence, if not the cultures and religions of others that they had imposed on us to better hold on to us. And since independence, we still receive their culture and help. Basically help. In the end, it's as if you go on a date with a basket loaded with all the beautiful things you produce in your field, and, on your way home, you ask the other person to whom you have offered all of this to pay you for the bus. And you thank him warmly for his help.

By Venance Konan

*This article has been translated from French into English by Marcus Boni Teiga

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Communication Afrique Destinations