The other day, I was in a Shopper's supermarket in Tanzania buying some small groceries for the household when I caught a woman following my friend and I around the supermarket while the European expats were left to shop in peace. At first I quickly dismissed it, but the more she followed me around, the more I started to feel uncomfortable and annoyed at times. How could someone who looks just like me follow me around with suspicion in my home country? You know, I always expect that kind of behavior from the Asian store owners in the United States. It is unfortunately a way of life, especially in predominantly black neighborhoods. But having to deal with that same kind of foolishness in my own homeland made me completely sick to my stomach. Adding fuel to the fire, the woman following me around look just like me...same skin complexion, hair and ancestry. This truly hurt me. This type of anger and disappointment is what prompted me to break my silence, let all my thoughts out, and write this blog.
I am appalled to see the type of corruption that thrives in my home country of Tanzania. It seems like everything is run and dictated by corruption, and it seems to hit all areas of everyday life. What to do? Why does Satan have such a strong hold on the state institutions which were merely created for the benefit of the people? They have become meeting places for the sick greedy and careless among the bourgeoisie. I am tired of this. I want my country to prosper, not get poorer by the second, minute, and hour, while the rich continue to benefit through deceit.
It is also not fair to the millions of poor Tanzanians who have lost all hope and are treated inhumanely by their own brothers and sisters. They are disrespected and treated worst than the guard dogs used to protect the massive and expensive homes of European expats living in Dar es Salaam. And then worst of all: Oh how we treat the foreigners that come into our country as if they're Gods. We bow to them like Uncle Toms and think they are the most important beings that ever existed. But when it comes to our own fellow Tanzanians, we don't mind giving them an evil eye and even an occasional evil tongue. This is wrong. It is a shame to see my country in such an evil mess. Help us Lord. And then the ever-rising college educated Tanzanian youth who graduate college with new and refreshing ideas that could change this society for the better....IGNORED and cancelled off as ignorant reckless kids who don't know what's best for Tanzania. Well, let's continue to be silent and let the old and foolish elite run our country into a stone age. Lets give our old and foolish elite the right to drive our country into a deeper poverty by the hour. If we don't stand up for what is right and ethical, then our demise is inevitable.
As the young woman who followed me around in the supermarket, Tanzanians don't trust nor respect each other. As a wise and very loving aunt of mine once said to me not too long ago, "We as Tanzanians are colonizing ourselves". Europeans, Americans, and Asians are treated as angels when unfortunately in so many cases, they just want to strip our land of the little that we have left. Yet the Tanzanians like I who want to see this country move forward are looked down upon by our own kind. How sad and pathetic. This colonial-mindset is our worst enemy and is eventually going to be the main ingredient in our demise if we don't wake up soon. This type of behavior makes me sick. How psychologically damaged are we as a society? How can a country like Tanzania have so many rich people, but lacks in simple and basic infrastructure like roads and electricity? This kind of selfishness is destroying our country. We are Africans and we truly cannot to afford to be selfish in any aspect of our society. Wake up my fellow brothers and sisters!
I love this country so much with all my heart and there's no other place I'd rather live, even with all of the country's problems. That is why I had to speak up. I know there are millions of Tanzanians who are too hopeless to speak. Well, I am too saddened not to speak. May God help our country...especially our youth who are really the only ones who can change this country with God's Armor of Faith. Lord help us. Tanzania deserves better than this. Our people deserve better than this. One more thing: When the poor and the youth of Tanzania have decided that they are too tired of the senseless corruption and greed that is destroying our country, then we will start to prosper. Otherwise, the more we continue to stay silent and give way for evil ideologies to prosper ravage our country, we will have nobody to blame but ourselves in the end, especially once the old and foolish elite are long dead!
