Africa

Africa is in abundance of natural wonders. Be it, its Safaris, exotic wildlife, plethora of ecosystems and geographical features, of which many only dream of one day experiencing. Scientific evidence points to Africa as the origins of the beginning of human life. Not to mentions, its excess of natural resources such as oil, diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, adding to its enticing wonders. Unfortunately, Africa’s natural wonders fall prey to exploitation, along side with poor leadership, institutionalized corruption, the rule of the Western, and the lack of modern technology. But who is to blame? After over 40 years of independence from the colonization of Europeans the struggle prevails after many failed attempts for the success of African social-economic developments.

One attempt, which according to Dr. Christian C. Anyanwu in his book “The African and Conscientization”, is a new phenomenon of the a philosophical approach of Conscientization. This approach requires that the individual is made aware of his or her oppression, and is given the tools of enlightenment to fight against it. Conscientization derives from the Latin word conscientia, meaning conscience and its tightly related to the philosophical works of Paolo Freire’s Conscientizaco. Conscientization plays various roles addressing the causes of under development and socio-economic conflicts in Africa.

To begin with, along side the decolonization of Africa came poor leadership.

Africa once had a vision of a new society free of European control, but it has not been an easy task, especially after once being subjugated to slavery, as Dr. Anyanwu mentions, Africans were psychologically debased, humanly degraded, cultura...

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...rding to Dr. Anyanwu (pg. 13). Moreover, Dr. Anyanwu argues, “African people need to acknowledge their own role in contributing to Africa’s problems, and their responsibility for resolving them”. In doing so, African people will gain the tools to fight for their political freedom. Africans must learn how to embrace their past and make a change for the better. Instead of teaching Africans a structured lesson, concientization allows the student to think for him/her self and develop self-worth and realize their full potential. The education system in Africa is failing the students, students ought to be learning critical skills in order to have a personal self awareness of their own contributions of making their world a better place, not only for the now, but for future generations, to end the struggle and those who stand in their way to success, once and for all.