POLITICS
The Mozambique Insurgency and the Conscience of the African Leader
Lonzen Rugira
I
have written in the past of the need to grow a conscientious critical mass of Africans that believes in and defends the idea that the African way of life – who we are , what we aspire to be , and how to go about pursuing these aspirations – is valid despite the relentless onslaught that seeks to remake African societies in the image of western societies . The diametrically opposed interests , therefore , suggest that growing such a critical mass in Africa is a task that cannot be outsourced to the very outsiders who seek to remake Africa in their image , however benevolent they appear . If these outsiders cared , they would have realised that our development objective – socioeconomic and political – is not the westernisation of Africa ( ns ). This quest for western culture and standards
– Eurocentrism – is not in the interest of Africans ; neither is the desire to create a single culture in the interest of humanity . Every society should be able to contribute their ways of life to the table without any one of them being denigrated and discredited as unworthy because to do so is to claim at once a people as being unworthy of respect , which violates a basic human right . Accordingly , the
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