activist africa

My audience has outgrown my message

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There is a time for everything. That is very much truth for activism as well.

My usual audience of 25+ young metropolitan on the continent and in the diaspora has now passed 30+ and most have to deal with adulthood challenges and dreams.

The age of lofty dreams for justice and peace for all, anti establishment and anti imperialism has given its place to the dream of raising a family, building or buying a beautiful house, investing, and more interesting the desire to join the establishment leaving behind years of struggle and frustration with money and power.

Message of changing the world are still sweet to their ears but more as nostalgia than a live call to action, they would respond to.

Like Frantz Fanon put it ‘Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it.’

Most of my audience discovered their mission, but have to silently betray it, because of society, and its imperative of respectability at some age.

Messages of change had rightfully slowly become an irritating noise to most, and they wish to kill the mocking bird.

They indulge into conspiracy theories that discharge them of responsibility or make any wish of change as an impossible mission.… Read more

Useless Activists: No one cares about your ideas

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Activists spending most of their time on awareness or consciousness campaigns are either wasting their time or are in entertainment business.

In very religious countries, the masses are looking for ‘Gods in human form’ to follow.

Strong, powerful, charismatic, provider men or women regardless of their ideologies.

They crave faces with a presence that scares but also cajoles, patronizes, and provides.

People follow people, not ideas or ideologies.

If any ideology, they already have religion which is soothing enough. To Hell, you can go with your kemetism, panafricanism, afrocentricity, communalism.

Misunderstanding this fundamental aspect of religious societies often leads to high frustration in the activists communities.

The masses don’t want discourse. They don’t want to understand. Like the God they pray to never speaks back, but in silence respond to their prayers, the masses want men, not poor like themselves, far away from their pitiful conditions, who just come to tell them what they want to hear and provide things on their wish list.

They want saviors.

Everyone else should mind their business.

Marginal, loud mouth, poor activists barely qualify as the figures masses in poor religious countries are looking for.

As reminder, they don’t want empowerment nor illumination, they want people who could provide and make them dream or relax.… Read more