We Need To Appreciate Our Roots by FUNKE AWOLOWO

Remembering my historical studies on the scramble for Africa. I just wondered if they touched on such subjects in secondary schools these days. In this particular area we touch on many areas to do with the undermining of our fore father's which should at least be good reasons for most to hold on to legacies and shun going to Western world for further education but the opposite was the case rather we could not wait to go overseas to further our education. The mindset was to go there speak like them and in some ways gain our freedom as many of us were brought up with very strident rules and regulations. Clearly this was the best but we could not wait to get our freedom and that in itself was a major flaw.

I must give it to African parents, generally most of us were well cultivated and rounded. So why that was unified agreement to send us out of the shores of Africa for more education so strong or wrong? Someone will argue that this in itself was the principal essence of education and I inturn will be inclined to agree rather abruptly but there were also inherent underlying factors which as Africans we are quick to explore and abandon at the same time. In most cases sending that sixteen year old without serious follow up educationally and culturally or even morally can amount to the greatest disservice on the young upcoming adults. This discovery for me is so experiential and I have observed most of us flocked together in our various institutions and environment. 

In actual reality losing out on the fundamentals of integration and eventually application in our final destination which is Africa.

The Africans who become white people in black skins are those who have left earlier and have been forced to acquiesce. On the whole these ones are termed usually as misfits of some sort. Why am I saying this, I observed a great number of us who were educated abroad gallantly passed through the system but left totally unaffected with little or no influence. These are some of the people in governance who are no different from their parents in spite of all the western education. There is the small group who have also lived most if not all their life abroad, they are a different specie entirely and with the grace of God they do survive this strange system.

I recall some of our books like stone and cozen and many of those intimidating books had another version which stipulated that those principles must be applied. I think most of us gave it a miss and so we are not able to translate the methods into our reality.
We need a revival and in most cases a rapid reawakening of our educational demonstrative abilities in Africa. At every level we must begin to apply what we have learnt, drop the copycat syndrome engage in reasonable and practical fundamentals for Africa. In so doing amidst the flurry of British, America and other mixed up influences and infiltration with dogged determination as a nation to undo and realign, much can be retrieved. The route to greatness must take us back to appreciating our roots.