The Country that Led to My Love Affair with Africa
Tani Gray
At God Cares Primary School, Namibia (2011) with my friends from Romania; Building Dedication and Hand-Over Function.
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In summer of 2011, a team of graduate students from Andrews University, including myself, visited Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa as well as Zambia and Namibia. We were based at the God Cares Primary School (GCPS) which is located in the Caprivi Strip Region of Katima Mulilo, Namibia. Our tour consisted of four (4) students, our college professor, and our fieldwork professor along with his wife. We attended mobile classes, conducted meetings with several local government officials, and participated in community outreach initiatives. We also facilitated life skills and academic-led classes at GCPS. As a graduate student at the time, I instantly fell in love with the children at GCPS, and the country in general. On leaving Namibia, I dubbed it, "a slice of the bigger picture"; the country that led to my love for Africa. On subsequent African trips, I've visited countries such as Uganda, Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe, Senegal and a return trip to South Africa.
As a young man growing up in Jamaica, I`ve always like the idea of exploring rather than taking the word of another, which ultimately assisted me in avoiding stereotypical ideologies and conjectures. Despite travelling to only eight (8) African countries thus far, I can truly qualify that Africa is a beautiful and an amazing continent. I've grown to love and appreciate what Africa truly represents, despite the many self-inflicted ills, stereotypical distortion, and the many negative depictions of a place so many of us with African heritage, refer to as the "Motherland"; home of our African ancestors.
As stated above, the continent of Africa exists not void of challenges. However, throughout my personal experiences, I`ve come to recognize that many of the challenges, distortion and negative views of Africa, have engendered great injustices across the continent for decades. In fact, history will show that many of the challenges affecting Africa, was initiated and promulgated by greedy monarchs, deceitful religious crusaders, meddling world leaders and tyrannical African government leaders; all with selfish aspirations to suppress and take without mutually giving back, thus leaving many African nations divided and economically deprived.
For several decades, the divisiveness and occurrences of deprivation in Africa, have unfortunately led to countless crimes against humanity, civil wars, and senseless killings with ethnic cleansing used as an excuse in some instances. Thankfully, Africa`s resilience and affluence are both greater than the many narcissistic leaders, regressive ideologies, and imperialism that impaired the continent, leaving behind undulatory effects still being felt in today’s 21st century.
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