It is so amazing how ignorant the world is about Africa, I’d like to think that the main reason for this is because of what the media shows people. Although Africa suffers a lot from poverty and disease, the inverse is also true, some cities have beautiful skyscrapers and all the luxuries one can imagine. I want to address a painful reality of neocolonialism. Africa as a continent has gone through colonialism and independence, this does not hide the fact that neocolonialism is the black.
If you think about it, for example, Europe has no natural resource such as oil, minerals and fertile land as Africa does. Countries from the developed world still benefit greatly from Africa while its people suffer. The fact that majority of Africans have to work tedious hours to survive on minimum wage or even less than a dollar a day displays a modern form of slavery (without being beaten of course, but hey if you don’t work you will die of starvation, so it’s kinda like you have no control over you life, you just have to survive).
“ Dependency theory is the theoretic basis of economic neo-colonialism, which proposes that the global economic system comprises wealthy countries at the center, and poor countries at the periphery. Economic neo-colonialism extracts the human and the natural resources of a peripheral (poor) country to flow to the economies of the wealthy countries at the center of the global economic system; hence, the poverty of the peripheral countries is the result of how they are integrated in the global economic system. Dependency theory derives from the Marxistanalysis of economic inequalities within the world’s system of economies, thus, the under-development of the Global South is a direct result of the development in the Global North; the theories of the semi-colony from the late 19th century.” (Mandel,E. Semicolonial Countries and Semi-Industrialised Dependent Countries. New International (New York), No.5, pp.149-175)
The above piece about the Dependence Theory is very saddening. Africa has plenty, our continent is rich but somehow our riches do not belong to us. Am I advocating a civil war against the powers that be (”The Man”)? Certainly not, but I wish more of us would see this injustice and develop methods to be economically, psychologically and culturally independent.
During this shoot, Nicola and I wanted to portray sisterhood and to celebrate being black girls, in a world where we are least celebrated. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a previously and currently oppressed people stand together. My prayer is that we support each other as Africans and rise above the standards that the world has set for us. We are beautiful and our voice is as powerful as any other people; may we truly see ourselves for what we are - queens and kings.
It’s fascinating how we are supposedly living in post-modern times when modernism is thriving, where people are still being ripped-off. I am not writing this post to stir anger, but rather to awaken the mind of an African who may read this. Mayibuye iAfrika.
Photo credit: Paloma Ncoco