Am so amazed when ever i go into a chinese restaurant, because i see that no matter how much the fork and knife looks attractive, they can never let go of their chop stick. But the case is different when i get into a Nigerian restaurant, am always irritated because instead of eating Pounded yam or eba the African way, i see people using fork to eat eba...all in the name of westernizing it...Is this not slavery continuation?
I went for an interview a certain time and the receptionist in the company attended to me so rudely as if i was the cause of her problem. But when a white lady came in who apparently came for the same interview, she smiled and immediately changed her voice. oh my God... *rolling my eyes*.
Watching the movie 12 years a slave did not make me hate the white man but i hated blacks the more...because we are still slaves- slaves to the white man.
My friend Teemakulor wrote this and i was inspired;
I once heard a man at some public speaking function, say
Nigerians are suffering from colonial mentality. For a long time I wondered
what that meant. Several thoughts came to my mind of course, thoughts like;
Blacks do not appreciate their skin colour because we’ve been brainwashed into
looking at anything white as superior. I held that thought for a long time
until my recent epiphany!
After watching several movies based on slavery and
colonialism, I took notice of how “well behaved” the slave home keepers were.
They bowed while serving, didn’t call their masters/madams by names etc. Now
that we can say slavery is about 70% abolished, the expected behavior from slaves
lives on; except this time, the behavior transcends beyond slaves to the “free”
everyday people.
We Nigerians are turning out to be even harder on ourselves
than our colonial masters. What is the need for our maids or subordinates to
bow while serving us or refer to us as madam asides some ego boosting trip. What
would it cost to lift your head and say “thank you” to the gentleman that
serves you coffee?? I can never understand that, I am guessing the reason is
because; growing up, anytime my siblings and i completed an errand for our dad
or finished our chores, he’d say “thank you”, and I am not exaggerating when I say,
that propelled me to do even more for him.
Colonial mentality goes beyond skin colour, now it has to do
with what we accept and the way we see ourselves. As at two months ago,
there
was a pride price calculating app that gained popularity. In this app,
there is part dedicated to accents – 100,000naira deduction for accents
associated with any of the Nigerian tribes and, 100,000naira addition
for
foreign accents. I thought that was really silly and as lightly as we
want to
look at it, the truth is, we’d never be good enough in our eyes and
those of
others as long as we remain stuck in this colonial mentality. What makes
a
foreign accent better than the regular Nigerian accents?
As Nigerians, we should be proud of our accent, our colour and our country. Faking an accent or bowing down to a white man whenever we see one doesn't make us any special- it makes us remain slaves...
2 comments:
Yeah, kind of. There's nothing wrong with been colonised, or to speak a foreign language, or to practice other ascents. Whats wrong is 'losing yourself in the process'. Have u ever asked yourself why African ladies prefer long stretched hair (white woman's hair), to their natural tightly curled hair? What about skin bleaching? Like I said, your argument is very valid, but you've misrepresented the 'content of the discuss'. I think black people are still mentally enslaved, because I always wonder why a young strong healthy Nigerian prefer to be a cleaner, security personal, hospital assistant, etc, in this country, instead of acquiring good eduction, and go get a reputable job in Nigeria. Its madness to me, and I see it everyday around me. Thats the sort of mental enslavement I think you should write about. Nevertheless, you have an extremely brilliant topic, if I may say.
Very True @ Gbons Chass
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