(PRO, Imo Concerned Citizens)
Nice question. But, I think we did not get here from anywhere. We have always been here. Wickedness and envy, barbaric spirit, power tussle and instinctive responses reflect everywhere in our environment: In our society; families; churches; schools and businesses.
The spirit of "ime nshi na aja" is dominant even among religious leaders...(Don't be scandalised). Among them (us), it's called "pull him down spirit". But we are there. Destroying others with every means at our disposal is an experience of a society where people see the success of others as the cause of their own failure. As if they should be the right ones to have the privilege others are enjoying or the fruits of their labour. We are wicked and envious even with God-given talents or grace. But while envy may push a Whiteman to work hard and do better, we Africans will go into "nshi na aja" or whatever form of pull him down, to destroy whoever we think is overshadowing us or whatever is making us feel less endowed.
Two things I have noticed in our culture are:
1. We, Africans are more emotionally religious and less spiritual. We have little or no spirituality in its anthropological and evangelical implications. Our "faith" is only for "God's guidance and protection. For health and wealth". It never transforms into social responsibility. In an emotional mood, we practice religion only as love of God but less as love of neighbor. Jesus prays looking up. But we pray inviting people to close their eyes. A gesture which has its theological meaning, but which in this context evokes the image of how the lack of spirituality keeps us from seeing the face of our fellow human beings. The image of closing the eyes can mean that people's hearts tend to be opened to God but closed to their neighbors. But there's no way you can be seeing the face of God without seeing that of man. God is love. And Christ is the image of the invisible God. And love, religion with human face is the image Christ revealed to us of God.
2. We talk about the community spirit of Africans. It's not wrong but it's not totally true. Oftentimes, the community spirit comes in only and if you succeed after all your struggles or if you are the speechless victim of the community injustice; if you agree to the statusquo no matter how. But any day you begin to ask questions, the community will hate and excommunicate you. The community is often there only if you make it, no matter how. How many times does the community ask you how you are taking care of your children? But they will come in when any of them is about to marry. Who cares when you are in the University and jobless after? But they will give you a Chieftaincy title once you get rich. Who cares when your aged ones are sick? But they will come with their list for the burial and whatever they contribute they will also consume. Sometimes what we call solidarity is in actual fact, self pity: only when one is totally down or six feet under ground.
So, where did we get it wrong? We got it wrong in a mentality that needs to be overhauled. The perpetuation of poverty is not rooted in peoples conditions but in their way of life and in the choices they make. We seem to be convenient to live only according to the first level of human needs: reproduction and feeding, reducing wealth only to the possession of banknotes. We are afraid of evolving to a more civilised society because that means doing away with corruption, with religious bigotism, with false piety, with bogus way of life, with the tussle for superiority, with the yahoo Boys mentality.
For now, we give more value to the "I pass my neighbor mentality". See, barbarism is dominant in an environment with such mentality.
As a matter of fact, this also plays back here in Nigeria along different ethnic nationals. Many tribes believe others overshadow them in their own environment; while some believe others have developed and enriched themselves from the natural resources from their land.
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