Bling vs. Bang “In America it is bling bling, in Africa it is
bling bang “I borrowed this expression from a movie named “the
blood diamond” to start writing this article. In the United States
the duty of every respectful loving man is to put a pretty ring
with a big white shiny rock on his beloved’s finger, well I’m not
saying that it is banned or shameful, as they say “diamond is the
woman’s best friend”, it turned out that this is not true after
watching this movie and reading a few articles about this
particular subject. How come it is the woman’s best friend if it
deprives her of the apple of her eye, her son or husband? While the
arrogant western women are bragging about their manly husbands for
purchasing “the rock” as they call it in front of their best
friends, the African women are yearning for theirs in every second.
Because they are out there in the mud, half naked, bare-feet, and
famished looking for these small beautiful rocks to feed the west’s
ego and greed for our property. As the western kids go to school,
learn about civilization and history, the African ones are being
hunted by groups of people calling themselves “the protectors”,
they kidnap children to teach them how to use guns, smoke weed,
drink alcohol, rape women, and protect the country of course. I
believe in God and fate, but I don’t believe that this is God’s
actions or Africa’s fate. Mamadou is a simple worker in a tiny
plant, his wife takes care of the kids and everyday is pretty much
the same as the previous one. One night as he was having a peaceful
dinner with his wife and two children, not too much on the table
but that was enough to draw a big smile on their faces. All of the
sudden they heard a lot of gunshots and screaming, they all stood
up trembling seeking for any way out of that small hut, the wife
took her daughter’s hand and whispered to her “stay with me, no
matter what happens, do not let go my hand” the daughter nodded
with her tearing eyes. Mamadou was holding a knife in one hand and
a big baton in the other, the boy snuck out of the hut to bring
some stones, they were all standing by looking at each other as if
they knew they won’t be together anymore. The 13 year old girl was
raped until she died, the wife was shot in her head, the boy was
kidnapped and nobody heard about him ever since, and the dad was
beaten up till he lost his conscience. Mamadou is still alive; he
refuses to eat from the food that the American jets deliver to all
poor hungry Africans. He said “Americans think that by filling our
empty stomachs, they’re going to make us forget what they are
depriving us from, a family.” Nowadays, when we see known people
like Madonna and Angelina Jolie adopting children from Africa, we
feel grateful and happy about that, but at the same time it doesn’t
come to our sleepy minds that they’re the real reason, not only
them, behind the homelessness, death and hunger, of these kids . I
am African and I have a bigger dream than Martin Luther
King’s.