But the Chichidodo Feeds on Cocoa

Abstract

The struggle for the liberation of Africa from colonialism was a demonstration that the indigenous peoples, conquered in the unjust wars of colonization, opposed subjugation and oppression in all its forms. The opposition that took various forms of resistance was the reaffirmation of the human dignity of the peoples upholding their inalienable right to freedom and their sovereign title to their territory acquired from time immemorial. Nkrumah’s Consciencism, in its own words, a “philosophy and ideology for decolonization” inspired and supported this reaffirmation. Mesmerized by the dazzling prospect of the political kingdom, postcolonial neocolonialist Africa renounced the ethical and political bases of its struggle for liberation. In consequence, contemporary Africa is like the chichidodo bird. She “hates excrement with all its soul. But the chichidodo only feeds on maggots, and you know the maggots grow best inside the lavatory.” Proceeding from the many profound and incisively critical writings of Nkrumah, matched by his exemplary revolutionary activism, the thesis defended in this essay is that although Africa hates slavery with all its soul, she nonetheless feeds upon self-imposed slavery for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. This condition must change in defense of the human dignity of the indigenous peoples and, in honor of Nkrumah.