The Journey of a Thousand Miles...

I will save you and I the jibber jabber of mindless rote history and go straight to the point. I will give you, dear reader, the history of my country Nigeria how I see it and how it is.

There were once vast civilizations that stretched across certain lands and islands now known as ‘West Africa’. We were rich, prosperous and content people. We did not instigate mindless voyages, we did not feel the need to leave our precious farmlands and blooming economy for anything else aside trade. Despite all these, however, we were not stupid. We invented, we studied, we dreamed. We had visions for ourselves as a country and as a people.

West African civilizations became the nest of northern empires in an attempt to gather resources for themselves both in the human and in natural sense. Soon the greed and curiosity of both the intruders and the West African leaders easily led to the beginning of the Transantlantic slave trades.

With the loss of manpower and the introduction of the ‘white men’ coupled with the superstition behind these slave traders and their lands, our civilizations began to crumble against foreign powers. They used strategic tactics to play into the minds of our leaders and soon our culture was pushed down the rungs to become ‘inferior’ and our ways were seen as ‘illiterate’.

Then colonization started. Basically colonization was the final result of the destruction of the West African culture and the end effect was the emergence of countries. One of these many countries is Nigeria.

The awkward mix of various civilizations cut and cellotaped into one people did not work out for the better. Fights, conflict of interests and many other problems arose within a short span. When the Nigerian man became ‘literate’ they began to advocate for the colonists to leave the awkward entanglement of a country. And they did leave.

But they left corruption, they left liars, they left thieves and they left murderers. Within all these darkness though, we believe that one day we might find peace with ourselves and our country. That one day our politicians might find that the best way to help their families is to help the nation and not their bank accounts.

Treading this journey will be me, a young boy of 18, with the stories to share of the aftermath.