When Mandela intuitively said that, “there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he was a man standing on top of a pedestal he could see further than yonder and new for sure what lay at the end of a tunnel. Sub-Saharan Africa stands on the edge of a precipice, we have been walking in darkness, in the tunnel, trot by trot towards the light. We have reached at the end of the tunnel; we can see what a beautiful world we have been missing, the rolling hills, the beautiful greenery, the milk, the honey. The promise lies within touch. We take the first tentative step into the light. But! Wait a minute! Stepping into the light isn’t that easy, the forces that tag us back into the tunnel are a bigger than the drive that pulls forward, that though does not mean
that we should stop tagging ourselves forward into the light. In not saw vague terms sub-Saharan Africa did not know independence, well at least political independence until Ghana started fumbling her way towards independence. Similarly Africa, has never known coherence in government policy, the only a consistent policy and by far the most popular policy with governments and policy makers has been the ‘loot and grab policy’. Well, not any more, something has given in the African continent. The Occupy Nigeria movement illuminates the path forward. The citizenry are beginning to demand government expediency, nil mismanagement of public resources, economic as well political responsibility and this, this my fellow brothers and sisters is the birth of a movement that will emancipate us from the shackles of enfeebled dreams. The Arab awakening was triggered by the self-immolation of Mohammed
Bouazziz, we are not going to burn ourselves though, and neither are we going to burn tiny little bits of paper where we had engraved and our dreams and aspirations. The only things that are going to burn are; rotten government, parochialism, ethnicism, kleptocracy, nepotism, and other terms that almost entirely carry negative connotations and that are most likely than not synonymous in Africa. Kenyans on the blogosphere, on social and other fora rant about what ails in the Kenyan society, and the ranting more than anything else will not get us forward. The Occupy Nigeria movement epitomizes Africa’s new grace, the 2nd of January, 2012 marks the day that our ineptness as a people were burned and buried, the day in destiny that we as people took the right to decide our destiny for us. For If I had that chance small chance to write a letter to Nelson Mandela, I would tell him; “Baba, we have been in the tunnel, we have since reached the end of the tunnel and under the light we want to dwell.’
Alex Njeru Ndungu is a Kenyan Libertarian and an associate of AfricanLiberty.org