Fighting off Weltschermz

My reply to a post

Nov 11, 2024

“Men, there is much to live for, and there is much to die for. The man, the race of nation that is not prepared to risk life itself for the possession of an ideal, shall lose that ideal. If you, I repeat, must be free, you yourselves must strike the blow.” - Marcus Garvey

Wikipedia: “Weltschmerz (German: [ˈvɛltʃmɛɐ̯ts] ⓘ; literally "world-pain") is a literary concept describing the feeling experienced by an individual who believes that reality can never satisfy the expectations of the mind, resulting in "a mood of weariness or sadness about life arising from the acute awareness of evil and suffering.”

Although I am naturally a profoundly optimistic person, grounded firmly in my Yoruba people's philosophical conception of life, it is not easy to live in a world that appears to have gone terribly astray - what with the wars in Sudan and Ukraine, plus the unbelievable real-time genocide Zionist settlers are committing in both Palestine and Lebanon.

A few days ago, I exchanged messages with an internet friend; I have distilled my comments below.

Did you know that I prefer openly racist white people like Trump to those who pretend and mask their devilishness with hypocritical smiles?

Of course, I will pick Mr. Trump over “Brother” Obama any day, any time!

The reason is simple: Trump is an open book for me, and he gave me no illusion whatsoever. With Obama, I will not know what to expect. Ambiguous, ambivalent, cunning in devilish animalistic manners, yes and yes.

“I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.” - Marcus Garvey

As Kwame Ture taught: “If a white man wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he's got the power to lynch me, that's my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it's a question of power.”

No, I have never claimed to represent anyone or any constituency. Writing is, to me, a very personal thing—my therapeutic escape channel. That other people find my writings interesting is a bonus—a joy indeed—and deeply appreciated. I have always stressed this to those who know me.

Again, Let me reiterate my call that Africans should stop dreaming about foreign saviors.

We should wake up and begin to sort ourselves out!

How do we solve our problems when we are not prepared to lift a finger on our behalf?

We constantly complain about how tough life is and what this or that political figure or foreign power is doing to compound our miseries. Still, we refused to vote when offered opportunities to redeem our station in life.

I read some truly abysmal statistics about our cousins in the US refusing to cast their ballots during the recently concluded elections. They shocked me.

Today, our American cousins have saturated the internet with TikTok videos on how racist Trump will whip their asses like in slavery time!

Why did they refuse to vote for what they perceived as the lesser of the two evils?

I don't know.

More importantly, how do we confront and defeat our Demon when we are only about whining and no action?

Our eternal whinings cannot achieve much. I speak with the authority of history.

“The Negro will have to build his own industry, art, sciences, literature, and culture before the world will stop to consider him.” - Marcus Garvey.

Living among Westerners has taught me that they fix problems instead of enduring and complaining.

They have little time for “suffering and smiling,” apologies to Fela.

Take the Americans as an example; they didn't like the direction their country was going, and they joined forces to elect an avuncular, unabashed, and unapologetic racist who articulated their primordial feelings.

Trump will serve THEIR INTERESTS, and there is nothing that WE can do about it as WE are too lazy (mentally and intellectually) to galvanize ourselves to do anything about our predicament!

Do they not say that the heavens help only those who help themselves? Do we have anyone but ourselves to blame for our lazy complacency?

I have tried to live under the principles of the Father of PanAfricanism, Marcus Josiah Garvey. Here are some of his most pertinent quotations:

“I trust that you will so live today as to realize that you are masters of your own destiny, masters of your fate; if there is anything you want in this world, it is for you to strike out with confidence and faith in self and reach for it.

The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.

Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden.

The traitor of other races is generally confined to the mediocre or irresponsible individual, but, unfortunately, the traitors among the Negro race are generally to be found among the men with the highest place in education and society, the fellows who call themselves leaders.

The thing to do is to get organized; keep separated and you will be exploited, you will be robbed, you will be killed. Get organized and you will compel the world to respect you.

Every student of political science, every student of political economy, every student of economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation; that the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race and you have a slave race.”

©️ Fẹ́mi Akọ́mọ‌láfẹ́

(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, and Social Commentator.)

My latest book, From Stamp to Click (it’s still a hello), is published and is available online at:

https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/from-stamp-to-click-its-still-hello

How to order it: https://www.africanbookscollective.com/how-to-order

My book, “Africa: A Continent on Bended Knees,” is available on:

• Amazon

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My other books on Amazon:

• Africa: it shall be well (Get a FREE Chapter Here)

• Africa: Destroyed by the gods (Get a FREE Chapter Here)

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