An African labels Africans mentally weak! Ridiculous!!!

This blog post is in response to an article by Mark Namanya that appeared in the Monitor newspaper online that was posted on Saturday, June 26, 2010 titled: Mental weakness killing Africa more than anything else! According to the article, the author is critically negative of the performance of African teams in the on-going World Cup finals taking place in South Africa. He makes bewildering claims about African players that leaves one wondering the rational bearing of his consciousness. He ridicules African players as being intimidated by their white counterparts at the “….occasion everytime they advanced to the goal box” and that the “….problem of the African players is psychological stamina and lack of conviction in their minds.” I have been shocked to find an African writer, writing about African representatives to the World Cup finals taking place on the African continent, labelling Africans as mentally weak. It is an insult to the whole African race and a perpetuation of the centuries old prejudice against Africans. And moreover, an African person of such rank and intelligence, to begin negating reason to Africans and calling them mentally weak, shows that he is not rooted in African consciousness. And, again that one can detach oneself from the continent of his birth and objectify it and say...Mental weakness killing Africa....shows that his whole perception and imagination about Africa is of a foreigner. One of the disturbing developments in our country’s education system has been to produce a people who are disconnected from their natural environment and social context and life history. This phenomenon is an intriguing problem which demands immediate attention from experts to study and establish the factors that deprive the people of Africa of the pride, attachment and appreciation for their country, race and continent. I think, failure to sort out this question, poses challenges to the modernisation and development paradigm which Africa is craving for in this era. Again Africa is currently at a turning point in the world discourse and African scholars in all dimensions must take the mantle of leadership that would redeem the historically tainted image of Africa.