The African Mental Conditioning (Between the Òrìṣas and Western Comic Super Heroes)
"Ènìyàn nií d'Òrìṣà"
[Humans attain Òrìṣàhood]
While we let them convince us to believe that "on our own, we can do nothing", while they make us to mentally look up to a White or Arab man as our savior, the average Caucasian sees himself as his own savior, he teaches his kids to rise up and fix things, that issues don't resolve themselves, humans resolve them; and if they are humans, they should be able to salvage situations without waiting on the divinity.
They plant in their kids' subconscious that there's something in them that is so special and can be used to fix the world and be heroes. Saving America, saving the world, etc. end the plot in many of their movies.
Ìdá'lǔ ni ìṣè'lú, the Yorùbá cosmology has the Òrìṣàs, people with special abilities who changed the course of history, coming through and delivering where and when humanity needs them most. The grafting of the European worldview into the Yorùbá cosmology has destroyed a lot. Òrìṣàs are neither gods, angels nor demons. Òrìsà (Specially selected one) is meant to be an occasional end product of being Ènìyàn (The chosen one), a title earned by winning the epic sperm race! All fields of human endeavors have their distinct Òrìṣà even though there might be instances of overlapping roles. Being Òrìṣà is being the referable best in your chosen field of endeavor. The Òrìṣas were nation builders, initiative takers, risk-takers, out of the box thinkers, pathfinders, exceptional mothers, carers, unmatched Sculptors, accomplished Farmers, unbribable Law enforcement agents, Projectiles and precision experts, Philosophers, Mathematicians, and so on. If you plant a Palm tree and a Yam, you don't give them the same amount of water, you don't treat the two the same way. The yam needs an extra stick to cling to, you don't need that with the palm tree, you harvest the palm tree by going up to its top, you harvest the yam by digging to its roots. Africans are neither Arabs nor Caucasians, as long as we leave our ways of life and worldview instead of refining them and using them, nothing will change. When we as individual Africans see our sole mission in life as getting saved at the end by a Caucasian coming from the Clouds or by an Arab who is dearest to God's heart among all humans, why are we surprised that the best we can build are countries that look up to Caucasian and Arab countries for freebies? It's the mindset of the average citizen that makes or limits the country. Mind you, the African Union is a beggars' association looking up to China and the European Union to foot her bills too, totally unable to save Gaddafi from the powers that be, unable to resolve real issues with French neocolonialism, unable to stop the trade of Blacks as slaves in Arab markets till this minute! Our individually learned helplessness have reflected on all the cadres we play at.
Let's leave the leaders in God's hands.
Compare "Òrìṣà bóò le gbè mí, fi mí sí'lè bóo ti bá mi" with the 13th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. That epistle was written to the Romans but they know when to throw it aside and face reality when situations call for it. Have Africans at least, taken the pain to look for epistles written specifically to them by theirs?