“Like us”

The other day a friend of mine asked, “Why are things so bad in Africa ... won’t they ever be like us?” And as the conversation continued, some thoughts emerged . . . .

Most African nations, one might consider, have had their independance and “majority-rule” for less than 100 years. If we in the U.S. want to compare these countries to our own, then one might recall that during the first century of American independance:

- many U.S. cities were constantly torn apart by anti-government riots. Things got so bad that Congress passed the Sedition Act which forbade any public criticism of the government (punishable by 2 - 5 years in prison)

- for nearly 90 years, slavery was legal in many states

- the U.S. continued to fight wars with England, France, Mexico and nearly every Native American tribe

- U.S. soldiers forcibly removed 45,000 Native Americans from their land and forced them to march from Georgia to Oklahoma. More than 4,000 Native American men, women and children died as a result of the “trail of tears”

- the nation lost nearly 700,000 of its citizens in a civil war that lasted four years.

Many African nations are struggling to establish themselves . . . but let’s hope that they quickly get past the part of being “like us.”