‘THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY’

‘THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY’


By Stella Evelyne Tesha

I have always enjoyed stories. My grandfather from my mother’s side always told me stories about ancient African kingdoms, about slavery, about colonialism, about forced labor.

My grandfather from my mother’s side, was a good story teller. He lived to be 90.He lived during the time when the African tribal chiefdoms were functional, the various chiefdoms traded among themselves, there were traditional negotiations practices, and there were established customs, there were traditional doctors who healed by means of herbs and extractions from tree barks, roots, and or leaves.
These were the kingdoms that the colonialists termed as uncivilized.

My grandfather from my father’s side, died in 1945. During this period, many men died in their prime. If they did not die from tiredness as a result of forced labor, they died from broken hearts caused by slavery and exportation of their sons. With no sons left to carry on their names, no son left to continue with production, to take care of the families, the daughters, the wives, they foresaw no future. This was the beginning of poverty in Africa.

My father used to tell me, the colonialists had one very interesting trick called ‘divide and rule’. The ‘divide and rule’ practice pitted tribes against each other. Until today we see the result of this ‘practice’ from the Rwanda genocide.
When I was growing up I always looked at Europe as the source of all evil that is happening in Africa. The industrial revolution that ensured development of Europe and the welfare of European people, was a nightmare to Africa. We lost a lot! Until today many black people all around the world can not trace their ancestors. Until today, the daughters who had no support from their brothers and their fathers because they were either killed in sisal or sugarcane plantations or taken for slavery out of the country, are still suffering from the results of growing up as orphans. It is an obvious fact that if the head of the family is taken, if able bodied members of the society are exported, the society is weakened. And thus, Africa is still feeling the impact of the 19th century.

When I came to understand development work, I saw this as a positive contribution from Europe to repair the damage that was done to Africa by their ancestors. After all, Europe is still enjoying the fruits of labor and the blood of our ancestors.
Are there any grudges from Africa? Yes of course. You can see that from the reaction of Zimbabwe. We can all be angry about killings of innocent humans, but at some level we know it was just a matter of time before it happened.

Development aid has always seemed to me as ‘the right thing to do’. So I am very disappointed to hear that the Netherlands government has decided to cut down on aid.
Who will pay the price? We can’t foresee this now, but it won’t be the decision makers …naturally.

Development aid helps to uplift the grassroots societies of developing countries. Aid given for education, health, environmental management and others, contributes by building positive relationships between developing countries and the west.
In the past, we have looked at our history with Europe as ‘those are the ones who destroyed our continent’ wouldn’t it be nice if the history written by our grandchildren says ‘those are the ones who rebuilt the continent with us’?

Decision makers are not usually the ones who do the development field work. They don’t see the sufferings of hunger victims, they don’t experience the desperation of those who live with terminal diseases, and neither do they see the eyes of an orphan who foresees no future other than death on the streets. I could go on giving examples, but much information can be found on internet.

In my opinion development aid should not be cut down, but it should be more structured. We work in development and we are committed to UN development goals. Right now it is time to think of new strategies to accomplish the goals, it is not time to back out of the race. It is time to write a new history.



Enough is enough!