The Zulu are a Bantu ethnic group in Southern Africa and the largest ethnic group in South Africa. About 11 million of them are estimated to live in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and a few also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
The topic of this article is ‘Zulu people, thank you’. You know, a person who speaks in English before his illiterate in-laws is duty-bound to translate what he has said if he wants to take away the damsel.
When a person or a group of people does you a favour, if the recipient of the excellent gesture is a nice person, they usually reciprocate by thanking their benefactor. That is why I thank the South Africans for putting us in our proper place.
The unusual situation in South Africa is no longer news. It is unusual because Africans are highly noted for their warmth to strangers. However, they are also noted for their deep hatred of enemies.
I was young when the Murtala/Obasanjo came to power in a palace coup that displaced General Gowon. Both Generals Murtala and Obasanjo were ministers in Gowon’s cabinet.
For those who had not been born or were too young to know, Gowon led Nigeria to victory in a civil war against Biafra. He was the one who ought to have industrialised Nigeria. But he was purported to have once declared, ‘Money is not the problem of Nigeria, it is how to spend it.’
When General Murtala and his fellow plotters overthrew him, the new rulers made Africa the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy. Southern Africa was then under apartheid rule, so there was particular emphasis on that region.
The Nigerian rulers showed they were military in their treatment of the apartheid rulers in Southern Africa and their perceived supporters. Barclays Bank and Standard Bank were naturalised and became Union Bank and First Bank, respectively.
It also affected the oil sector. Shell Oil Ltd became National Oil Ltd, and British Petroleum became African Petroleum Ltd.
Nigeria backed MPLA to the detriment of UNITA in Angola.I remember that General Obasanjo even tried to promote traditional warfare systems in case things turned out against Nigeria. Of course, nothing came out of that.
Those were the days when Nigeria was a giant. It was the day Nigeria was a tiger and did not need to pronounce its tigritude.
However, as soon as Southern Africa, particularly South Africa, became free, its inhabitants started behaving funny. They started showing that they didn’t care about Nigeria and Nigerians.
I make bold to say the behaviour of South Africans is unAfrican. It is indeed strange. When a person supports you in the days of trouble, you are only expected to reciprocate when that person is also in trouble.
If the foreigners have committed offences, they should be tried in adequately constituted courts of law. However, since the lesser animals in South Africa know that most of their ‘hounds’ are sinless, they have resorted to jungle injustice. Is it not a perfect symbol of the oddity in the land that policemen in uniform even turn a blind eye to where crimes are being committed against foreigners? One will not be wrong to conclude that the uniformed beasts supervise the crimes!
However, so much for the South Africans. I think the Nigerian ruling class should also be blamed. How many working-class Nigerians are living in dignity?
If those working are not living with dignity, what is the fate of those not working? It is not as if members of our ruling class do not travel abroad. They do; they are just wicked, and they have this false belief that Nigeria can not have a bloody revolution.
However, if a defenceless man is pushed to the wall, he will have to resort to whatever he can to defend himself. Nigerians have not only been pushed to the wall; indeed, the wall is caving in on them.
Let us hope this new government will CHANGE the situation!
AMAZULU KAKHULU!
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