STAGE FOUR

STAGE FOUR

The Covid 19 era will usher in the fourth stage of the colonization of Africa.

It will be the stigmatization stage.

Pfizer just announced the discovery of a vaccine for the pandemic.

Other pharmaceutical companies will soon follow suit.

They will distribute these vaccines throughout the world.

But you already know the continent they will forget to send the vaccine to.

AFRICA.

We didn’t start the virus.

We didn’t spread it.

We contained it as much as possible with hardly any assistance from those who brought it to us.

But you know who will get stigmatized with the virus?

Listen to the conversation>

America: They don’t have a vaccine in Africa.

Europe: You travel there at your own peril.

Asia: True. You must be crazy to visit the continent.

America: We must impose travel restrictions on them in Africa.

Europe: We already imposed a ban. What is everybody waiting for?

Asia: If you travel out there, you will die.

America: We should send AID workers there, but these people are so poor they can’t pay for it.

Europe: The World Bank should make them devalue their currencies further to get some vaccines.

ASIA: We are negotiating with their leaders to take their capital cities in exchange for some shots. Nigeria still has some oil left. We can take that and provide them with vaccines.

America: Meanwhile, we will build a quarantine wall around the continent so they don’t spread the disease.

And so will begin the construction of the Wall of Africa, to see how long we can last without their vaccines before we all die out.

Why they all hate Africans so bad defies human imagination or logic.

What derogatory names have they not invented for Africans: the list is endless.

But Africans are always full of love for them.

We welcome them with open arms.

We spread out our best mats for them to sleep on.

We give them the best smiles we can make.

But what do we get in return?

You already know.

What is worse is that Africans have learned from them to hate fellow Africans and we have become our own worst enemies.

Africans have joined the drive to stigmatize Africa.

I did this poem-picture titled AFRICA IS NOW, as I began to think about Stage Four of the colonial project.

They say the future belongs to Africa. That tomorrow is for Africa.

But there is no such thing as tomorrow. We all experience now–not yesterday or tomorrow.

Africa is now.