I used to enjoy a lot of African historic material till I learnt that they were scripted all wrong. From the books we read in history/social studies class; to the movies we watch in cinemas; to the news we listen on the radio. Isn’t it just unfortunate that the African story is told as the black story? Worse of that it was narrated by foreigners rather than our very own Africans. How our history as Africans is often told as this tainted image. With tainted being a safer term referring to inferior. This being reason as to why they term us ‘Black’.

Black being the color referring to all things dark, dirty, evil, spoilt, and even dead, they say that we are doomed. And with the African involvement of black magic, black gold, black money, black market; among other vices, we might as well be ‘Black’.

So why are we really referred to as ‘Black’? Despite much research showing that this refers to the fact that Africans have darker complexion, even more evidences reveals that this is a term of demeanor. Sadly, since time in memorial, this is a term which we have accepted from the ‘Whites’. And they have convinced us that they were better and brighter while we are bitter and foolish.

For instance, how they introduced a western culture that defied most of what we already had in our own culture. Simple things like table mannerisms were defined by how one sat during dinner, conversation you made and how you served food. But for them it was defined by what you wore the cutlery you put and the furniture you sat on. And now most homes struggle to put on a show even for the annual guests at a high price, forgetting that the food and bonding is worth more than the venue and décor. Then they introduced their formal education which later came to supersede African informal education. And now kids with in- born talent will waste away their years trying to prove to their parents that they are books smarts. Then they end up in the populous of unemployed youth, they have to become entrepreneurs or even worse, corrupt politicians.

So is it right to refer to African Freedom as ‘Black Peace’? Being that the color of all things peaceful, calm, transient, good, clean and even alive is white. Well, I think African Peace would sound better. Aren’t there African’s with lighter complexions: the ‘chocolates’, ‘cocoas’, ‘browns’ and even ‘white’ ones? Depending on which part of Africa one was born and bred in, fewer Africans are of actual black complexion.

However, it is not really about color, is it? Is there more to just being free from discrimination based on race, tribe or origin? Can we really say for a fact that we are not under any colonial rule? Or did the rule just move gradually from territorial and dictatorial to emotional and psychological? As Africans we have become quite liberated in terms of development or technology but are our minds still free from mental slavery?

Are we African or ‘Black’?