However, the fruits were still there
on display and the price (in cowrie
shells) was indicated. A buyer simply
dropped the required number of
cowrie shells and took what they
needed and proceeded with their
journey.
Now, that was an honest society
and that represented the African
society of the past. The value placed
on family names and family honor
was so great that no one wanted to
mess with it. Where then did the
curse come from? At what point did
the African lose all sense of morality
and integrity?
One theory puts it at the point
where they were taught to profit
from causing losses for their own.
The practice of slave trade existed in
Africa and indeed in other parts of
the world for thousands of years.
Tribal wars led to the conquered
being carted off as slaves who were
then used as military, farm and later
domestic workers for the conquerors.
In Biblical times, Joseph was sold
by his brothers to wealthy Arab
merchants (The Ishmaelites) who
then sold him to the Pharaoh’s chief
of staff called Potiphar.
It can be argued that the Arab
merchants’ pioneered the organized
trade of humans in Africa – a trade
that was then taken to the next level
by the Europeans when they arrived
on the scene.
So lucrative was the Trans Saharan
Slave Trade that Martin Meredith
reports in the book The Fortunes
of Africa, ‘The majority were
female slaves who were bought by
prosperous urban households for
use as servants and concubines. The
average ‘service life’ of a slave – the
time between final purchase and
manumission or death – was no
more than about seven years, so the
need for replacements kept demand
high. In exchange, the Kanemis
purchased horses and weapons with
54 MAL 19/17 ISSUE
‘‘ : Then the era of independence came but was
the independence true? Political independence
alone is not enough to take a people forward.
Political independence without economic
independence is a farce but then economic
independence is not attainable without mental
independence.’’
which to continue their raids.
A good horse could cost between
ten and thirty slaves.’ [1]
So can the African Leadership
curse be attributed to the fact that
more than in any other part of the
world, Africans understood bondage
and have never been able to fully
break out of it? Could this be why
a person can be a thief but if he
can steal enough money to become
wealthy, his people will celebrate
him as a leader and it will then
become dangerous to bring such a
person to justice without invoking
the wrath of his tribe?
Did the slave mentality linger
to such depths? Stealing is only
bad when it has not attained the
threshold of wealth. Once it attains
that threshold, people naturally
submit to the thief as their leader
and they as slaves to the wishes of
the thief turned leader. Is the curse a
direct consequence of slave trade?
‘‘Some have blamed colonialists for
the curse. Do they have a point? ‘‘Years
ago when Kwame Nkrumah began his
crusade for a powerful African Super
State, he was chided and derided.
In fact, on September 5 1961 A. W.
Snelling, British High Commissioner
to Ghana sent a despatch to the
Commonwealth Relations Office in
London which read:
“To us, it is particularly galling to
have this egoist Nkrumah shouting
us to take off the brakes in the
Rhodesias, Nyasaland and Kenya
and drive faster down the road of
independence, which we know much
better than he does. And his knack
for giving expression to the feelings
of so many Africans, who are all
the time becoming more politically
conscious, is exasperating. I can well
understand the fury he arouses in
London, and often share it myself
… He wants to kick us out of Africa.
He opposes us over the common
market and has the impertinence to
start talking about a commonwealth
without Britain.vMuch the best
course would be for us to kick him
out of the Commonwealth. We shall
be better off without him”[1]. (New
Africa Magazine December 2005)
Lord Lugard the one time Governor
General of Nigeria is quoted to have
said, ‘My African friends often say
to me when we are discussing the
past acts of Britain, I always tell
them: “yes, but it was all done in the
interest of Britain not of Africa’[2]
A clear cut example of this is in
what is a confession of a conspiracy
as told by a British insider as
highlighted here-under:
When Sir James Robertson (another
Governor General of Nigeria)
was coming to Nigeria, he came
with a mandate. The mandate
was to enthrone a Northerner as
the Prime Minister; to ruin the
Southern Educated Elite under
leadership of Chief Awolowo. For
this purpose some British graduates
were recruited in England to come
and serve on the headquarters in