This blog was set up to address issues
such as this. In the last few months, I have had recourse to ask myself so many
questions especially as regards the nature of what I would like to call “African
Life”. African life as used here is the totality of an African, the place of
Africa in the committee of nations and the sanctity of human life in African perspective.
Majorly, my worries about the neglect
of Africa stems from the wave of terrorism all over the world and the response
of the world to them. Some days ago, over 140 ‘innocent’ students were killed
in Garissa university in Kenya. The world was almost silent on this issue –
there was no worldwide outcry as was the case in France months ago, when there
was a terror attack in Charlie Hebdo.
I recall that on that day and
days following the Charlie Hebdo attack, world leaders and even African leaders
were swift to condemn the killings, and even converged in Paris for a
solidarity rally. It was swift, resounding response. Nobody blamed the France
government for not protecting the lives of those who were murdered in that attack,
no one blamed the security agencies for not securing the lives of those who
were lost on that day; rather, the world was in unison in condemning in strong
terms, such action. The response was
such that the culprits were apprehended days later, and those who abetted them
were apprehended.
In Africa, it is a different
thing all together. The book haram terrorists killed hundreds of people in baga
within the time of the Charlie Hebdo attack, but that was not given a
significant voice or appraisal. Then, talk about the Boston bombing and the
murder of a policeman in UK, all these received worldwide condemnation.
