I don’t know the situation in other countries in Africa, but what I could witness here in my country is a complete collapse of values system.
Values like honesty, integrity, accountability, professionalism, stewardship, loyalty, commitment, faithfulness, dependability, code of honor, etc. have completely disappeared in the society.
From the head of state to the street vendor lying has become very much common or the rule. People are constantly lying and deceiving. Cheating blatantly others and designing tricks to trap others and taking advantage of them has become systemic. All this has made it difficult for anyone to trust anyone.
Fathers are lying, kids are seeing their moms lie all day long, parents teach their kids how to lie, how to deceive, how to cheat, how to trap and take advantage of others. Friends easily betray each other. Business partners are easily parted because it’s impossible to sustain relationships on constant attempts to abuse others or cheating.
Everyone thinks he or she is smart enough to hide their lies, their cheating, making it difficult to build a culture of accountability. Worst, being deceitful and cheater is seen as good character for success. Honesty is scolded, integrity is seen as hindrance or pure naivety by others, and relationships are successfully only when the people in are all crooks and notorious thieves.
Here in my country, you’d be foolish to trust anyone, unless carefully vetted or recommended. Otherwise, you’d be painfully hurt.
Employees constantly steal their company goods. Construction workers steal cements and materials destined to their work. Public servants are notoriously corrupt and abuse their office for personal gain.
Men don’t trust their wives anymore. Wives are accustomed to their husbands constants lies and deceit. Kids learn early that life is a jungle, and tricking others, lying, deflecting, are what their parents use to fend in life.
The bottom of our society is rotten. The top of our society is more rotten.
My country is a jungle. People individually are cornered and lonely, with little community values and rules of law to build their life on. People retreat to doing their little things as it’s impossible to trust each other enough to build anything bigger or worldly.
Destroying trust in a society might be some evil program by some obscure forces. If that’s the case, those forces have been very successful here.
Trust has disappeared from my society making everyone frail, fragile, scared, lonely and hopeless, ever and ever retreating to private corners, more lonely, after each deception, after every treason.
Societies with higher trust level would always conquer and dominate low trust societies. Unfortunately mine is trustless society making any progress impossible or too daunting to initiate.
How are values system in your country? How to rebuild a trustful society?
Thanks a lot for this article, it’s like you went into my heart and wrote everything in it. Indeed honesty is dead everywhere in Africa, patriotism was buried with it. No wonder our people go for dangerous journeys everyday trying to reach Europe for better life. They can’t trust their government to give them the basics of life anymore. The question is, how do we change this self defeating mentality?