OKIN | Nikolai Tjongarero

This is an astonishingly obtuse take, and a direct product of the colonial education we receive in Africa. African scholars have spent decades producing hundreds upon hundreds of books and research papers debunking these narratives, unearthing suppressed evidence, retracing our histories and restoring what colonial accounts distorted or erased. How much of that work have you actually read before dismissing African scholarship with such confidence? That an “educated” African would speak of “envy” when confronted with demands for accountability over genocide, mass rape, enslavement and the near destruction of entire communities reveals how successfully colonial education has turned some of the descendants of its victims into mouthpieces for their oppressors. The more I read this kind of such nonsense, the harder I find it to remain hopeful about this continent. Watching educated Africans trivialize the suffering of their own people and parade that contempt as evidence of enlightenment is so revolting.