We are still consumed by worries about the power of the West’s stranglehold on Africa and the power of its suggestions to influence and shape our political and economic policy. Africa appears hypnotised by the West and obsessed with finding something of relevance for herself in Western ideals. The fact remains that when you want to find solutions to a community’s challenges, you need to appreciate the challenges from the viewpoint of locals first. You need to invest time in investigating and understanding the complex patterns influencing social, cultural, religious, economic, and political activity in that community or society. It is only when the source of problems is clearly understood, its source appreciated, and its impact discerned from its rightful context that you can truly identify applicable solutions.
Complaints about colonialism and Western imperialism, legitimate as they are, do not represent a solution for challenges Africans face. Victim mentality remains the biggest hindrance to Africa reaching its full potential; the message is clear we cannot consistently validate our victim mentality and expect a change in our circumstances. Validation of victimhood has had us dance with the devil, only to complain that we are in hell. A healthy and progressive psyching will see us start acknowledging the impact of external factors to our lives without surrendering our responsibility to reach out to our reserve of ability to recover and achieve.
‘Great’ Western ideas have not always been the solution to the challenges Africa faces. We believe in the localisation of definitions and that solutions rooted in our values, and solutions reflective of our communities are what we must aspire to.
We need to get our minds in the right place, dig deep into the innate ability to build our communities. We recognise we will not have solutions to all challenges, external advice, knowledge and ideas will be required now and again, but we need to be able to identify and seek the right help. How Africa and our communities are defined is our business, not the World’s.
You cannot compare different communities and then apply identical standards to judge and address presenting challenges. Remember, you are dealing with social, cultural, religious differences that influence patterns of behaviour and until you understand that you will always try to find same explanations among different communities. You will always have unreachable standards and disappointments. If you want to find solutions to challenges in a community you must judge that community’s operations from a place of realistic expectations about its values and capabilities.
Reactive approaches to problem-solving have caused more harm and agony than they have solved challenges in our communities. We must create our own goals and learn to proactively deal with challenges in our communities. A strong civil society will be an investment to our socio-political space; we must educate and challenge individuals so that they may take their stake in society serious, behave like the real owners that they are of solutions to their communities’ solutions.
Foreign built solutions are often expensive misfits. That your neighbours’ problems resonate with yours does not automatically make their solutions transferrable to yours. It is fine to look at how others have dealt with similar challenges, but that must be used for advisory purposes only. Do not be swift to embrace solutions from external sources, they may be good for that society, but remember they were created in response to a specific context.
When your values are the centre of your solutions, your community is safe. Stop creating policies in response to what others think you are but to what you are. Develop scientific assessment tools to gather relevant information that will inform your understanding of yourself and your community, identify how the community got itself in the position it finds itself in the first place, and how it can get itself out; identify what you can contribute to the community at individual level and what community has for you; what your community has and gives to the world, and what it lacks and needs from the world.
You must make sure your community takes its rightful place and becomes a greater part of the world without losing its principles. There are shared ideals that we recognise – gender equity and equality, equal access to opportunity, eradication of poverty, accountability and a strong civil society among other things that will make our communities stronger.
Taking lessons from a fall instead of logging complaint after complaint about the trip is a step to progress. Solutions must be reflective of communities they serve. Strategic flexibility will be invaluable in maintaining unity in diverse communities. Everyone may agree upon the cause of a community’s challenges, but they may not always agree on the solutions put forward. Indeed, to find solutions and make progress, things must be sacrificed at times, but that must be left to the community members and not just the political elite to decide what sacrifices are worthwhile.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 