Show me the money

What is the difference between success and failure? Well where I come from, success is equated to material possession, station of life, financial security etc. Actually we do not give a hoot as to the method or manner employed in acquiring the wealth. In fact, the illegal the method, the better. We venerate thieves, murderers, corrupt persons etc. I guess is because poverty is such a sore reality to a point whereby once you are born you simply join the race to acquire more and more without giving care to the small details.

This is the reason why from birth, a Kenyan child is expected to achieve some certain  goals, namely read and pass exams and get admitted to the small number of so called National schools where admission to universities is more or less assured.

It is all a battle for the limited resources. It is a battle for security. And to that, add poor leadership, lack of initiatives, and general lack of role models. We therefore engage in a rat race to acquire more and more and more. Methods vary from white collar crime to engaging with churches that preach prosperity gospel.

We tend to praise our African culture is being in tune with our human side. I beg to differ. The African culture was more of being selfish than anything. Men were the only ones who owned property yet women did virtually everything. It was all about satisfying their whims. Children and wives were all commodities, property of the men of yore. They all existed for one purpose, to assuage the head of the house’s ego. We keep saying that we have all fallen into the corrupt ways of westerners. I beg the question then, why is it that only our cultures have become victims of western cultural invasions? Why did it not happen with Orientals? Or other cultures for that matter? May posit here that all this occurred because our traditions and cultures were based on weak foundations. Ours was a tradition that did not think about tomorrow. Ours were a culture that was the victim of its surrounding. It placed a lot of emphasis on acquiring as much possession as possible.

So what I’m I saying? The idea of acquiring as much material possession as possible is something that is deeply ingrained in our collective psyche since it is embedded in culture as well as forced by the surroundings.