Nowhere Be Like Africa
Not just because it is the cradle of mankind — but because there is a lot that goes unsaid
Let’s start with Kenya.
The degree of talent I see daily in my country is enough to convert any art lover into an addict.
Kenyans are creative. Kenyans are passionate. Kenyans are ambitious.
Sadly, though, when one hears about Kenya, one thinks of long-distance runners. Ferdinand Omanyala is changing that narrative, but not so many people know about his achievements.
People know of Eliud Kipchoge, Paul Tergat, and Faith Kipyegon.
I can bet my last dollar — sigh, it would be my last — on the fact that someone somewhere from Kenya was asked this question when they landed in Europe or the USA:
Do you know Kipchoge?
Out of kindness, we don’t give a sarcastic response. That’s one thing unique to most African countries, but let’s begin with Kenya.
The only place where Kenyans are brutal is Twitter.
Outside the social media, they can be one of the kindest people you will ever meet. Even though some might not be willing to act out of kindness, they will do it because they know the importance of kindness.
Karibu kiti,
Utapewa nini?
Translation — Have a seat. What will you have?
There’ll be exceptions.
Rudeness is not rudeness until it sticks its head out to rudely announce its existence. But a smile is one of the things Kenyans and most Africans are known for. A rich, earthly smile.
It’s a little snippet to show how diverse Africa is and perhaps, why it is diverse. The diversity makes it not only a land of opportunity but a difficult one to understand. It’s unlike so many parts of the world.
In short:
Nowhere be like Africa.
My African hands will type for you
I often ask my friends who travel to the West or the South — like Europe and Australia respectively — if their shoes ever get dirty.
If ever their shoes fade.
In contrast, my 7-year-old self had my mother changing shoe polishes almost every month. One of the schools I traversed — yes, traversed because I was a local tourist when it came to schools — had a huge football pitch.
Dusty football pitch.
The gate was on one corner of the pitch and the classes the other side. And the dust? The DUST!
Even if you had cleaned your shoes with the latest shoe polish technology and the finest of bristled shoe brushes, they’d be dirty by the time you walked into class.
And over break time, football was a must. If you fell, that was it. It would be obvious. The dust said it all.
Say you bruised your fingers but classes had to go on. How would you write?
Simple.
Suck on that thumb until it clotted. If it did not, take some of the soil and clog the open wound. Somehow it added taste to the clotting blood. You’d then go back to class and continue as if nothing happened.
If the promised laptops were to reach every single pupil in the country, they’d have their African fingers typing, just as these African hands are typing this article for you.
However, when you touch my hands, they are soft.
Despite loving digging, my palms are soft. Despite playing football on tarmacked roads and going home occasionally bruised, my palms are soft. Despite playing basketball, my palms are soft.
You might think they are not African.
That is the hidden beauty of Africa. You might be quick to make an impression of it based on what you see, but the story behind it is deeper. It’s hidden. Mostly to the outsiders.
But anywhere you go, it is evident.
So let me take you back.
Anywhere you go, London USA, nowhere be like Africa
Africa is the cradle of mankind.
We’ve all heard of the stories of man in caves. Some still have these traditions in different parts of the continent. Some still hunt and gather food, like the Khoisan. Others are reading my article as we speak — sorry, write.
But Africa is unique across two fronts.
First, its countries.
It boasts of 55 countries.
Some recognized. Others are not quite so by international organizations. That is almost as diverse as the tribes in Kenya.
Kenya has around 42+ different unique tribes. But what do people remember when they visit our rich country?
Maasais.
The other 41 tribes are footnotes.
Take this example and imagine the diversity of other countries. I have to admit I know very little about other countries, but I can use mine as a proxy. The diversity is not just from the country, but from the people who make up the country. It makes Africa very diverse as far as human cultural heritage goes.
The other way to look at Africa is from axes.
As a continent, Africa has a unique axis compared to the rest. The Eurasian axis is latitudinal. The same goes for North America.
South America and Africa have a longitudinal axis.
Not so long ago, South America was part of the armpit of Africa, as I like to call it, so you could say the axis of Africa extends to South America.
Because of these axes, the diversity in the other continents is not as much as in Africa. To appreciate why this is so, consider the spread of territories, agriculture, and technology.
The Mongols could invade wide territories of Asia because it had largely the same climate. The latitudinal axis had a role in this.
The same axis meant similar plant types could be planted in different territories. One plant could dominate and spread over a vast piece of land. As tribes invade, they can consume similar food products. It made it easier for Agriculture to advance. With the advancement of agriculture came technology, to make it better.
A latitudinal axis grants its residents a wide latitude of exploitation. Pun is very much intended.
What of Africa?
The opposite.
What you can plant in Congo cannot thrive in Tunisia or South Africa. The kind of weather you find in Accra differs from that seen in Windhoek or Algiers. The longitudinal axis creates a lot of natural constraints.
Thus, when the horses were tamed by the Mongols and used to invade the different parts of Asia, Africa had wild animals in different parts of its continent. The Camel can survive in the Kalahari desert, but can a Maasai Zebu?
The constraints also made it difficult to tame animals. Presently, even with advanced technology, it is difficult to tame some of the wild animals we see in Africa. The African Elephant will pummel you to death if you dare overrule it. The Asian one is fairly gentle. Why?
Who knows.
But a good guess?
Africa.
The same axis caps Africa within the tropics.
It's the perfect climate for a diverse outspringing of organisms. On land, most diversity is found in rainforests. In South America, we have the Amazon. In Africa, we have the Congo Forest.
Diversity, visually, is seen in the creatures we can capture and tabulate. But there’s an unseen type of diversity ongoing underneath our noses. Microbial diversity.
McFall Ngai and her colleagues have written one of my favourite scientific articles. The title? Animals in a bacterial world. It says it all.
Some microbes are so used to a specific group of animals that if the animals go extinct, a unique set of microbes go extinct with it.
Consider the mitochondria found in the mosquito. It has shed so much of its genes to the nucleus of the mosquito cell, that only the essential genetic components remain. If the mosquitoes go extinct, a unique type of mitochondria goes extinct.
Mitochondria are intracellular bacteria. They formed a pact with other higher-complexity organisms to help each other. If we dishonour this agreement, it kills us. We are hostages of mitochondria.
As I said — animals in a microbial world.
As the richest continent in diversity, Africa has the potential to create and destroy the diversity we so vaguely understand but so desperately need, for us to preserve life on the planet.
It’s not just tribes. It’s wildlife. So let these artists sing it to you:
Anywhere you go, London, USA,
Nowhere be like Africa, nowhere be like home.
— Sauti Sol featuring Yemi Alade
Soldier come, soldier go
The diversity is also evident in political regimes.
A 90’s baby, I was born when the late Daniel Troitich Arap Moi was the president.
He ruled with an iron fist. The economy thrived during his reign. His word was final.
In 2002, his word lost its original might. The people’s word was final.
Enter the late Mwai Kibaki. The economy also thrived during his reign.
He, however, was not as ramrod of a leader as his predecessor.
After him was Uhuru Kenyatta, following scuffles with another great leader, Raila Odinga.
In the short span I have been alive I have seen different regimes come and go. I will likely so more change as I presently lament with 40 million others under the current leadership.
Despite having few presidents, the number of vice presidents we have had a many.
One even served for a measly 60 days.
Soldier come, soldier go.
That’s the trend.
As a rule, politics can be an investment towards securing a lot of wealth. Most people know this. Especially the common folk.
David Graeber, the anthropologist has written the most informative book I have ever read about debt and the rise of economies by looking at how countries in Africa, past and present, have handled power.
Take what I have already mentioned about the diversity of tribes. Add to it leaders. Each wants to leave a legacy different from their predecessor. How diverse does that make Africa?
Insanely diverse.
You can even think the continent lacks direction.
But don’t be mistaken. Remember — my African hands can be soft, but they have gone through rough patches that only I am privy to.
Diversity — our strength and our weakness
It is also the reason it is largely difficult to level up as other states and continents have.
We want to preserve our rich cultural heritage, but as we advance, we don’t want to destroy it. Aiming for advancement with instituted constraints. Each African country has this conflict.
Not so long ago, the leadership in Uganda and some parts of Western Africa made a stance about its culture regarding gender. Their argument? Countries have their traditions and they were asking the powers that be to respect these traditions.
The day I will see an Igbo start a movement in the USA asking them to put a stop to Thanksgiving is the day I shall stop writing online.
Hint: I will never stop writing online. So you know it will never happen.
Along political lines, the diversity we see in Africa is somewhat similar to the one we see in the United States. America is almost continental in size. Africa has 55 states. USA has 50.
In the US, some laws apply in one state but are overruled in others. Same applies to African nations. To some extent, the similarity ends there.
But the diversity is almost as vast between the two continents.
My people will speak English and Dholuo, codeswitching with ease. Nationally, English and Swahili are both languages of instruction. Similar scenarios are evident when we go to Angola, Nigeria, or any other African country.
I have friends in Ethiopia and they speak very good English, but their official language is Amharic.
What of the medium of communication?
While most Kenyans prefer WhatsApp as their messaging app of choice, Ethiopians prefer Telegram. And if present times are not enough, the Ethiopian calendar is roughly seven or eight years behind the Gregorian calendar.
Forcing unity breaks this diversity. However, diversity segregates and hinders development.
How do I view it? It’s not a bad thing. It’s an opportunity to see diversity thrive.
Evolutionary studies speak of the importance of diversity in robust systems. So Africa is bound to survive despite its diversity. Most importantly, it will thrive because of its diversity. Its survival through global and regional pandemics is just one way to prove this point.
Our diversity as an opportunity hinges on the possibility of developing case studies. From a single continent, we can have different case studies for every country, unique in their developmental journey.
It reminds me of the human body. We are all made from the union of a sperm and an oocyte. From this union we have a wide variety of cells, all thriving in their own way, to form the human being, a composite of diverse organs.
If evolution has found a way, then there is a way.
If evolution birthed human beings in Africa, then it can birth a solution for it to thrive. Then again, evolution makes species extinct. Cautious optimism is needed.
Regardless…
Nowhere be like home
I have attended many, many concerts this year.
The unitary message they echo is — nowhere be like home.
Tiwa Savage, Joeboy, Burna Boy, Sauti Sol, Nyashinski, Khaligraph Jones, Octopizzo, Patoranking, Yemi Alade, Maphorisa the list is endless. The place they love performing the most is home.
Africa.
But you don’t need to hear from them.
You don’t need to read this article, although I hope it helped. You just need to travel around this glorious continent.
I haven’t travelled much around my country, let alone Africa. But I hope to do so. I want to explore its evolutionary mysteries as many scientists do. But even more, I don’t need to travel to know how beautiful Mama Africa is.
I just know it.
And I want to see it.