SIR: Scholars and students of African history will not be surprised by the recent reactions of the Western media, particularly the English media in referring to Morocco as an Arab nation in their traditional penchant of attributing every success recorded by Africans to foreign factors. This has been their antics for centuries. Seeing the wonders in Egypt and the Nile region, they could not but attribute these successes to the Hamites. Unfortunately, this Eurocentric hypothesis has long been refuted. They have failed woefully.
Everything good from Africa, to an average European, is rooted in Europe.
When players of African descent won the 2018 FIFA World Cup for France, they were silent; but when some British-Africans missed penalties during the Euro 2020 Final, they were abused. Meanwhile, a Harry Kane can miss an important penalty against France in the 2022 FIFA World Cup without a single backlash.
Geographically, Morocco is located in Africa. Morocco is one of the five African representatives at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. They are indigenous Berbers. But because of their disbelief in the strengths and abilities of Africans, they have begun their usual antics (their forefathers thrived in) of attributing African success to foreign factors.
When Tobi Amusan won the Women’s 100 Metres Hurdles at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, their hatred for Africans did not allow the same English commentators to wholeheartedly praise the gallantry of the talented Nigerian. But if she was to be a British, an American or a Jamaican, they media space would have been shut down.
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The hypocritical No Room for Racism and taking the knee of the English football should rather be stopped. They are the racists.
If this hypocrisy continues, it will consume them. We will continue to remind them that colonialism destabilised African countries. It altered our pattern of development. It took us backward. It robbed us of the human and material resources that would have been used to develop African countries. It destroyed our rich history. It destroyed our cultures. It costs us everything.
The West benefits more from Africa than Africa benefits from them. Africa can survive without the West while the West cannot and will never survive without Africa.
The modern generation of the West must be properly guided. Never will they continue from where their forefathers stopped. This is a modern African continent. We will write our own history. We will determine our own fate. And we will never allow any opportunists take our hospitality for weakness again.
- Adewale Qudus Lawal,
Lagos.