Our comrades are raping us

It must be very difficult to run a country. 

At least from what happens in Africa.

The leaders do not buy food. They don't pay rent. They don't fuel cars. In some cases, they have clothes bought for them. Their children's school fees are paid for them. They fly the world without paying a cent.

Their families are respected. We have even opted to call their broods first families. Their wives are first ladies. We do not call our mothers, wives, sisters or aunts first ladies. Yes, the leaders come first every time and everywhere. Yet they cannot run the countries for us.

We give them mansions with many rooms. And armed men and women to keep them safe. We also give them several servants to do everything for them. To take their children to school. Keep their children safe. In some cases, their mothers, sisters and brothers. All this so that they can rule us well. Yet, they cannot do it properly.

We have even been kind to let some of their children join the ruling elite. Sometimes their wives too have joined the ruling queue. And cousins. And sisters. This hoping that they can do a better job.

But just why they cannot do a proper job of it is baffling. These who eat free. Sleep free. Lead an everything-paid-for life. But still fail to just do a better job of ruling us.

We have accepted their sarcasm of them being our servants even when we know what this means. For what servant lives like a king while the king lives like a servant? On the streets. In informal settlements. Thirsty. Hungry. In the dust.

So if we do all these things for them: starve to death for them; brave the cold for them; walk thousands of kilometres for them; work for them; compose songs in their honour; sing and dance for their visitors just why can't they do one thing – rule us well?

This is not a joke or an exaggeration, comrades. It's not made up. Just take a look at us today. Look at Africa despite piling years of being independent, most remain jobless. Homeless. Waterless. Powerless. Impoverished. Diseased. Divided. Brutalised. Uncertain.

Our youths flee the continent in droves. Some die on the high seas. Others make it to Europe for self enslavement. Our women too give up everything for livelihood. Those who remain on the homeland are drunkards given up to fate. The enterprising ones steal from us.

This is not a fixation with the negative. It could be happening elsewhere too, but for and in Africa it is worse.

Just check: What good has come out of Ethiopia? The great Haile Sellasie's country. Look at Egypt. The land of the Pharaohs. The cradle of civilisation. Morocco – the land of beauty. Somalia – the land of the Gods. The Central African Republic – the land of Ubangi-Shari. Liberia – the land of freedom. The Congo has remained just that – the land of misery. Ghana – the land of gold but some of her children are running away. Mali – the land of the Dogon. Niger – the land of fear. Nigeria – the giant of Africa now staggering under the heavy load of violence. Chad – the land of broken hearts. Malawi - the Warm Heart of Africa. The Sudans – the broken land. Check Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

Either all these countries are already in the mud or they are rushing there, determined. Others are trying hard to crawl out but they can't make it. This is all because the people we feed, clothe, house, protect, respect and sacrifice for are not returning the favours. They demand more even when they see we have nothing more but our pain and shame to give.

This is not about Europe. Or America. Or even China any more, comrades. It's not about the former colonisers. It is about us. We have everything to do with us. If we allow Europe to come in after we asked her to leave, we have ourselves to blame. If we open our doors to China, we should not cry foul when China takes over everything.

This is our fate. All of us on the motherland. Our paths run into each other. It's a shared destiny. It is as if this fate runs in the Nile, the Zambezi, the Limpopo and the Orange rivers. Flowing with the tide from the north to the south, from the east to the west. As if the people whom we feed, clothe, house and protect are children of the same mother.

Why do we feed, clothe, house and protect them when they rape us? Steal from us as if what we give is not enough? Deny us jobs, education, health, shelter, promised freedoms? It's like we are feeding them so that they can get strength to overpower us. And rape us.

But just why can't they be faithful to us and do that one simple thing – rule us properly? Is it that difficult to do? Now, comrades, is it too much to ask to be ruled well?