OUR GREATEST RESOURCE IS NATURE

Sir,

As a young man growing up, I have always been fascinated by ancient history, especially settlement and migration. It is quite intriguing that while we are at this juncture COVID-19 in history, many moons ago our ancestors had to look for land to settle on, where they could expand safely, feed themselves, protect women and children and most importantly find land where they would be safe from enemy attacks. Such living required expertise in certain fields – hunters would source food, healers would take care of medical needs, women would make clothing and take care of the village and children would be trained for war. Basically this means when one had to become a soldier of war they could not then protest and plead to be healers. Also, if the time to fight came, it meant one would have been well prepared to lead the troops into battle. In short, hunters would hunt, fieldsmen would be in the fields, soldiers would fight and healers would heal, et cetera. However, with colonialism came industrialisation and slowly we were channelled into settling for industry initiatives and aborted our God-given talents. No doubt this favours some but most live unhappily just so they can fit in and justify years of institutionalisation. Time and again it has been proven that those who live their dreams are the happiest.

Issue

The issue here is that colonialism came with the divide and conquer way of living. We were told to boot up and lace up for work while what we were good at was bundled into one service and sold back to us at higher margins – much like minerals. Africa is the richest continent but the poorest in terms of  the wealth of natural resources we possess. We also have an array of wild fauna and flora, including animals but we still lag behind in terms of development. They say you do not know you are lacking unless you see or experience something different. For many of our African brothers and sisters, technology is unattainable, yet they still have land, which somehow lies fallow year round. Plants that were meant to heal us are either extinct or getting there, poaching has led to numerous deficiencies in the life cycle and most importantly we have lost track of who we are.

Think

Where once barter trade was the norm, now we plunder from our neighbours because we have come to think of ourselves as non-entities. Our natural skills have been made inferior while some jobs demand so much pay at the expense of the taxpayer. Land lies fallow year round while our people complain of hunger, they complain of not being employed, while for years they have been taught that jobs will be waiting for them; many have given up and just watch the sun set. This pandemic has taught us that we have the power to change life for the better by making use of our skills and applying them where needed, even if just for a while.  Above all, it has taught us that we have to forgive ourselves and learn new ways of living; that our greatest resource is nature and that without – in the advent of pollution – the world can be a better place as long as we do us.

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