How long must we sing this song?

Again we are hearing in the news about yet another African fratricide. I am reminded of U2: "How long must we sing this song, how long?"

Africa has had independence for over 40 years. The current conflicts there have nothing to do with Western imperialism and are, for the most part, self-created. And the question to ask Africans involved in these conflicts is, "What do you think you're doing?"

Most of these people do not understand that, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, it doesn't matter which party in which conflict wins. Whether it's Rwanda's Tutsis or Hutus; Nigerian Muslims or Nigerian Christians; the Lord's Resistance Army or Ugandan government; to the rest of the world it's all the same. All they see is Africans slaughtering one another. And that makes Africans look to the rest of the world like degenerates and influences treatment of African people as such.

Political conflicts exist everywhere, and they will always exist everywhere. What matters is how they are solved. Whereas a disagreement between France and United States results in a bunch of shouting and chest-beating on both sides and not much else, a disagreement in Africa results in a civil war. And that costs the lives of many thousands of Africans; but what it also does is make Africans look like the worst people out there; pursuant which the rest of the world treats them as such.

Call me a racist for saying this; I do not care. I wanted black people to do well since I was a little kid. From the position of an African person being slaughtered, it doesn't matter whether it is the white people or the black people doing it; the person is still dead. And African people benefit, not from these slaughters being overlooked, but from the people doing it being taken to task for their disgusting behavior to their own African brothers and sisters.

Yes, there are many wrongs that the white people have done to black people; but these problems did not come from white people; they started in Africa. Which means that the African people engaged in these slaughters bear full responsibility for these wrongs. An African person benefits not from having such things excused but from having such things confronted - both by other African people and by the rest of the world.

A much better guide is to learn from history. Genocide and fratricide do not work, and there are plenty of historical examples of that. If Nazis, with all their power and their weaponry, could not wipe out a small population like the Jews, then neither will anyone in Africa wipe out the people they choose to see as enemies. What does work is respect for human life and constructive, productive activity. This is the case whatever race one may be.

If you are in Africa and you are reading this: Perhaps you can do some good for your people. Perhaps you can tell them just what they are doing and what it does for their continent and their race. You have in common a shared race, a shared continent, a shared history and shared aspirations. The more you focus on achieving these shared aspirations and the less credence you give to homicidal scumbags, the better will be the lot of African people and the better the situation in Africa.