There is nothing called ‘free aid’

THE shades and the hues of colour at dawn and at twilight are exactly similar and their melding into one another follows the exact same pattern: what differs is the pattern of their flow with one being the progress of another and the other being the regress of another.

Dawn precedes the day, and dusk precedes the night and the skies of both states of the day are governed by stars, there are just more stars to see in the navy blue sky of the night than the one star (the sun) one gets to see in the course of the blue clear skies of the day.

However different we may see night and day to be, the reality is that they are more similar than different with certain creatures in creation naturally being diurnal (of or belonging to or active during the day), and others being the nocturnal kind ( that is, belonging to or active during the night).
Nature so dictates that the creatures of the world be one type, that is, they should belong to the diurnal sphere of existence or to be the creatures of the night being able to see even into the inky blackness the naked diurnal human eye cannot see into.

Only us human beings have the benefit of being able to see into the night, having developed or invented instruments that enable us to see into the darkness in most of its forms. This means that the darkness of the night cannot be used as an excuse not to pursue a given entity or duty.
The brazen light of the day too cannot be used as an excuse not to perform certain tasks because there are tools that help the individual to guard against the brightness of the rays of the sun. We human beings have the benefit of being able to function in both light and dark to get whatever it is that we want or that our hearts wish for.
Should there be an argument to the contrary, such an arguer should perhaps tell me how human beings somehow managed to crawl into the belly of the earth in search of the minerals of the world that they use for different aesthetic pursuits such as jewellery and for industrial purposes as is seen in the mining of such metals as iron and copper.

The inner spirit of curiosity that drives the human being towards a goal gives such an individual human the benefit of being able to pursue the given goal despite or inspite of the various challenges nature in its form presents. This means that in essence, we cannot shy away from that which we want to follow simply because the day is too bright or that the night is too dark. There is no excuse.
I have read of the history of this continent and observed the political trends as they unfold with the passage of each era. The age in which we are in finds Africa at a point where there is some kind of a journey of self-discovery going on and there are many challenges that pop-up and all of them stem from the dilemma of the individual that does not understand their past.

The understanding of the past is the root to one understanding their place in society but even more importantly, it helps one to understand their true identity. It is only when one knows who they are that they can make decisions that serve their best interests, for the rationale is simply that one first has to know who they are to know what they want or what is suitable for them.
We are a continent that has for the larger part of modern history served as the labour reserve to extract natural resources but who sadly are not involved in the processing of such natural resources into finished products.

This means that we do not know how the raw materials become what we consume, the manufacturing phase is elusive to us as a continent, and the leadership we have does not have the wisdom to insist on us having the means and the resources to actually become full-time manufacturers of that which we get off the land in the form of natural resources.
That there are various disputes in this land over the ‘sale’ of wool and mohair to foreign companies does not wash with me, in fact, I think it is a flimsy ruse invented by those with interests to run away from the truly pertinent question: when shall we ever process wool and mohair products to sell them away as finished products on the international market at a better price than what is currently being made off these two raw materials?

It is weak political speak to tell the poor farmers that their previous agents or brokers actually skimmed a lot off their earnings from the sale of wool and mohair on the South African market and that the new benefactor offers a better deal.

Basotho are known to be “beautiful blanket wearers” and most if not all of the blanket brands that they wear are made from either wool or mohair.
What vexes my understanding is why the Mosotho blanket wearer has ever wondered why those blankets are not actually manufactured locally. I do not wear the blanket because I find it the most foolish piece of raiment to put on my shoulders and I find it the ultimate symbol of our stupidity as a nation.

It is made from the wool and the mohair of our sheep and goat herds, but we actually have no hand in its making, but then we now find the audacity to argue over the acquisition of the profits from its sales. What a bunch of clowns in a Scaramouch!
I grew up reading Paliso ea Sesotho and in one of the volumes is the story of the blanket (Pale ea Kobo) and it is a beautiful tale of how the blanket is made, and though patronising in its tone, it however does justice to defining the whole process of how the blanket is made from the first stage as a the wool on the backs of a flock of sheep to the point where it becomes a blanket.

Such tales may seem of little benefit to the ordinary reader that does not bother to question their true essence, but they do serve to sharpen the understanding of the figure that bothers to understand their true and full meaning. They are also relevant when one poses the Thomas Sankara question that could see most of Africa get out of the clutch of servitude the continent finds itself in. Thomas Sankara said:

“I think the most important thing is to bring the people to a point where they have self-confidence, and understand that they can, at last …be the authors of their own wellbeing.”

We fail to progress as a continent because we rely on everything foreign, from the basic stage of fashioning economic strategies that can lift us out of poverty, to adopting policies on governance that are relevant only to the donor and not the local masses that are forced to adopt them.

The truth is that we can never get beyond the door to true freedom if we keep on adopting neo-colonial policies that serve the interests of the donor nation at the expense of the local masses.
It is true the British may have left the continent at the point of independence (if they did, which I believe they did not do), but the truth is that Africa looks like a juicy piece of steak on a dinner plate for many of the nations of the world in the so-called First-world.

With abundance in terms of natural resources, there is just no sense in believing that we are being saved when foreign powers come and present their ideas in this continent. What those foreign powers should come with are materials that enable the continent to process the natural resources into finished products.
Other than that, we shall remain a continent that sees only the beginning, never the end of that which we claim to ‘own’ in terms of natural resources.
In my recent research, I have come across the reality that many of the papers from the colonial times are actually missing from the national archives, and if they are still present, rest in some foreign museum or archive.
This means that some of the arguments that can be made with regard to issues of land ownership and territory cannot be made, issues related to the status of Lesotho as a sovereign kingdom cannot be fully addressed because the evidence is missing or rests in some foreign archive where it cannot be accessed.
There is reliance on paper evidence in courts, and without the papers, we cannot have clear cases to present on issues that need to be addressed in terms of land and ownership of resources.
What we need are governments willing to follow the paper trail to understand where we stand, but the sadness is that our cabinets are oft made of individuals that can only sign their names on agreements and nothing more.
Independent researchers are deliberately deprived of the financial resources that aid with the search for truth as is found in those leather-bound archive volumes, meaning that the paper trail cannot be fully explored.

The pursuit of any truth becomes personal for the researcher at some point in time, and the frustration that comes with a lack in terms of funding makes one realise that perhaps there are some intentional omissions in some of the papers our governments sign with regard to the making of policies said to be geared towards poverty alleviation and economic emancipation.
We can only get out of this rut history and colonialism placed us in if we learn of the true worth of self-reliance. This attitude that one needs to depend on some big brother from somewhere will keep us chained in the clutches of poverty and perpetual debt.

There is just no thing as ‘aid’ for any kind of donation comes with conditions attached, it is in effect just a lure for one to fall into the trap of debt or indebtedness.
Who has seen a free woman or man that depends on others to free himself/herself from their squalid state of being? Africa should free herself from this mentality that aid is free, for the truth is that aid is just in short a business transaction where the recipient is given temporary short-term relief that ensures that the donor’s long-term goals are achieved.
There is nothing such as free help, no good Samaritans out here in this world, unless one believes that the manna of the Mosaic times still rains, which actually never happens.
We are a nation that considers itself smart simply because we manage to reach a certain level of literacy, but the truth is that we only possess the ineffective type of smarts from the rest of the world.

The knowledge of books is an endless travail as was said by Ecclesiast, and it does not serve one anyhow when it comes to being practical about poverty eradication measures.
The truth of the matter is that we did not progress because we depended on external understanding and not the essential self-understanding one needs to get to a point where they can establish veritable points of progress.

Politics are often blamed for the state of things, but I think politics are just used as the scapegoat in the case of a nation made up of individuals that do not understand who they are in terms of serving others.

We do things just because there is visible evidence in the form of instant gratification and reward. Where such evidence is not so visible, we quickly lose interest and lose the long-term benefit that comes with holding on to a dream inspite of or despite the prevailing circumstances.

Promises are just that, promises. They can never be reached if one does not bother to follow them through to the point where they become visible benefits all can get to enjoy at the end of the day.
This continent seems an unfulfilled promise only because the citizens never actually get to taste of its fruits, for someone from somewhere always comes along and takes such promises away. What happened to the diamonds, to the water, to the ganja? You tell me of their end and I will begin to think I am only rambling and not talking.

Tšepiso S Mothibi