Freedom is not free, is a popular idiom in the United States of America; used in expressing gratitude to the military. Well in my case it is just a reminder, just like the verse in the national anthem that says:” the labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain”.

While on an excursion in 2013, to one of the pervasive family museums that laid along the desolated Slave Coast in Badagry. Our tour guide a gentleman in his early forties who was a representative from the Nigerian Commission for Museums and Monuments explained a lot to us, far from all the theories we were thought in the classroom, he showed us numerous artifacts and various objects of historical relevance; affirming the truth of some of the things we were thought in class. From the diminutive cell rooms where our ancestors were held captives, before exportation via the sea into slavery to burial sites we voyaged into history.

 I was flabbergasted at the mystery of how our ancestors could sell themselves in exchange for mirrors and ceramic plates. What however compelled me most was the story of a young lad, who sold his wife and four kids into slavery for a bottle of gin. Yes one bottle of cheap alcohol and his family was forever held in bondage. I continued to look at the empty bottle in disbelief.

Back on the bus, I began researching about slave trade; its antecedents, logistics and inner workings. What surprised me most was the manner people got enslaved. The movie 12 years a slave might paint a picture, but believe me; it is far worse than that. The conspiracies, greed, cheating all were big blows to everything I understood about humanity before now. This quickly took my mind to a scene in the movie blood diamonds where another lad sold diamonds in exchange for satellite television. Yes cable TV

Ethnologist might want to justify the actions of such people, and quickly blame it on their socio economic situation claiming that it lead them to such actions, we loudly condemn today, they would say if we were in their shoes we might have done same if not worse argue, well i agree and that’s the essence of this piece.

The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes, and the negative effects of slavery from the loss of manpower, to the collapse of local industries, to the imminent destruction of African cultures and values till date cannot be overemphasized. What slavery has done is doing and would still do remain a tragedy for analysts and commentators to squabble upon.

Fast forward into today, more than a century after the abolishment of slavery following the emancipation proclamation by president Abraham Lincoln, questions are raised from the enslavement of the Africans and one very pertinent to me remains what are we selling today? For slavery is in different forms and wears different faces.

Our continent is the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent, yet it is the most underdeveloped with enormous problems ranging from extreme poverty, hunger, maternal, depreciating health, lack of education, rising rate of H.I.V/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The failure of our continent to provide an enabling environment for her people is hurting us, and would eventually do us more harm than good. From science and technology, health care, architecture, agriculture you name it in any industry like our ancestors we again have become incredible innovators, but for whom?

Take athletics as an example every winner of the 100m since the inaugural event of the world athletics championship in 1983 has been black, similarly African-Americans make up 65 percent of the N.F.L. and 80 percent of the N.B.A. the world’s top sprinters and marathoners nearly all trace their ancestry to Africa. And we also well aware of long distance races have become an east African monopoly. This entirely have not necessary meant that Africa has in any way developed in track and field or sports in general; rather we know where all the laurels are headed.

In agriculture, although cocoa is largely produced in developing countries in Africa, it is mostly consumed in industrialized countries. Europe consumed 42.7% of production in 2007, followed by the Americas (23.7%), while Africa consumed only 14.3% of production in 2007. With the later continent especially in its west been responsible for over 80% of the production

Cocoa prices hit a 23 year record high on the international market in 2008, the price of cocoa hit $2,581.6 per ton in January 2009. According to the Reuters/Jefferies commodity research bureau (crb) index, cocoa rose by 31% in 2008, making the largest gain among 19 traded raw materials.

According to copal (cocoa producer’s alliance), the total area under cultivation worldwide in 2007 was 7,415,081 hectares with production standing at 4,043,784 metric tons. Out of this, Africa cultivated 4,738,232 hectares, while producing 2,614,749 metric tons

In admiration of the west, many would rather have us “copy” their modus operandi which is alien to us and our people; little wonder why a majority of the policies and action plans have minimal effects till date.

 in the same vain many have lauded foreign aid as an alternative in solving our problems  but i align my thinking with DAMBISA MOYO in his article why foreign aid is hurting Africa where he assets that ”overwhelmingly evidence demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. Even after the very aggressive debt-relief campaigns in the 1990s, African countries still pay close to $20 billion in debt repayments per annum, a stark reminder that aid is not free. In order to keep the system going, debt is repaid at the expense of African education and health care. Well-meaning calls to cancel debt mean little when the cancellation is met with the fresh infusion of aid, and the vicious cycle starts up once again. Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.”

He also adds that “over the past 60 years at least $1 trillion of development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Yet real per-capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50% of the population over 350 million people  live on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in two decades”

Former President Obasanjo earlier this year in a paper presented at the Ethiopian Academy of Science in honour of Professor Ali Mazrui, bemoaned the dwindling clan of African scientists saying that “sadly today, the place of eminence of the African scientist on the global horizon is fast regressing. In a fast-changing world, we are getting far left behind. Our contribution to the science, technology and engineering scholarly literature is the least of all regions of the world.

“Our universities are at the bottom of global league tables of world-class universities with the region having the least number of Nobel Prize winners in science. Even, a good number of our local problems are being solved by scientists from outside our region.

“Yet, we have some of the best intellectually-endowed scientists in the world. The laboratories in Asia, Europe and North America, where breakthroughs are achieved to drive our fast-changing world, are populated in part by brain-drained African scientists, You will recall that some of the well-known contributions of ancient African science include one of the first intensive agricultural schemes; metallurgy, including the mining and smelting of copper, practiced in Africa as far back as 4000 B.c”

Over 65% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under the age of 24 with little or no economic prospects, how can you expect development? But of course just recently the Gabonese government was rumored to have paid Barcelona’s Lionel Messi 2.5m to visit the country to take part in a ceremony at one of the venues for the 2017 Africa cup of nations. Imagine what such resources would have done to the continuous environmental and water problems faced by the country.

He who pays the piper calls the tune: we must wake up; for slavery exists In an entirely different manner!
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!

Marcus Garvey

Alhassan Ismail Mustapha is a trained archaeologist and a freelance writer.

@The_mustyhassan on twitter

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates