Beyond Black

By Babatunde Oladoke

Every healthy person is blessed with the capacity to think and is therefore capable of thought. The difference is the willingness to think and the quality of our thoughts, not race or skin colour.

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Africa’s problems are not going to be solved at the same level of thinking that created these problems. Tunde makes a strong case in this book for elevated and deep thinking. Away with shirking responsibility and blaming others for our problems. No one is going to help us; it is up to us to rise to the challenge of creating a new narrative for the black race. ...an inspiring book and a clarion call to Africans to rise up and take charge. The world is waiting for us.”

Ayodele Arogbo - A Private Equity professional

“In all my exploration and quest for understanding leadership, I have never read a book so in-depth and lucid in distinguishing between leadership and ‘rulership’ as the book “Beyond Black”. For all those who have been challenged by the doleful situation of Africa and the misplacement of her destiny, this book gives you the answers to the mysteries and the hope for her future.
I have been so blessed by it.”

Dr. Victor Olusegun Aigbogun – President,

The Gathering Organization and Consulting.

Babatunde Oladoke is an African, a deep thinking Christian who believes in the power of thought. He is on a mission to get Africans talking to Africa and not just speaking for Africa. He is happily married and richly blessed with a sound mind, free of fear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Babatunde Oladoke
• Release date: May 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463024874

Babatunde Oladoke

I am Babatunde Oladoke, a deep thinking non-discriminating Christian who believes in the power of thought.I love to share what I know with everyone, when I know, if I know. That way, I believe, we are all learning, to teach others what we know. I believe every man and woman, regardless of race or religion {or lack thereof}, and barring any mental or psychological impairment, is capable of good thoughts and good quality thinking.I have had a successful career in television as a writer/producer/director spanning over three decades. Working as a content developer and creative consultant has taken me around the world quite a bit and helped open my eyes to some uncomfortable distorted realities we, as people, have been conditioned to accept and live through. My observations got me thinking and brought me face to face with a lot of inconvenient truth. I realised things had to change and it had to start with me and us, then others.I believe for everything to change, we have to change everything.So I am on a mission to start a 'fire' that hopefully spreads worldwide by getting everyone thinking for a change.I am happily married and richly blessed with a sound mind, free of fear.

Book preview

BEYOND BLACK

...Thinking for A Change

Babatunde Oladoke

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. Please send permission requests to [e-mail].

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2019 Babatunde Oladoke.

Published by Babatunde Oladoke Publishing at Smashwords

A Big & Mighty Co book.

Published by Reach Publishers for The Big & Mighty Co.

Edited by Lorna King for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Dedication

To

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

{1918 – 2013}

A great African who unpacked his bag,

Found his purpose and lived on purpose.

He gave life his all.

He was born loaded, but died empty.

Thought-driven, his was a life well lived, not spent.

Acknowledgements

All thanks to the Father of light, from whom every good and perfect gift comes.

And to my very dear wife, Sola, a partner of life and for life. Thank you for supporting and believing in me all through this very bumpy journey. There’s no one else I’d rather do life with, so yeah … thanks for being …

To my family and friends, you are the best because I say so, and I say so because you are the best.

I think …

… I love to share my thoughts with people.

I am always willing to learn what they know,

That way I learn how they think.

I would love to share what I know,

When I know,

If I know.

This way, I think, everyone gets to think,

Everyone gets to learn,

And we are all teaching …

... I think?

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Preface

1. The Most Expensive Brain?!

2. All Blood is Red

3. Before Man and God …

4. Win or Lose!

5. Product or Victim?

6. Motion Devoid of Emotion

7. Rule Your World

8. Leading for a Change

9. The Burden of Truth

10. Have an Idea

Preface

The ability to think is God-given, regardless of race, colour, creed or language. A friend once alluded to the possibility that a normal human being is capable of an average of 16,000 thoughts every day! He casually dropped it in a banter that drifted on to some other issues, but it came back to me sometime later and you know what, it just might be true. Being able to think is a natural phenomenon, often taken for granted, just like everyone having a 24-hour day, no matter where you are on earth.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘think’ means to ‘have a particular opinion, belief, or idea {emphasis mine} about someone or something, direct one’s mind towards someone or something …’

I reckon an average human being thinks every waking moment of our lives. Going back to my friend’s loose claim, I actually did some calculations and arrived at a thought every 2.7 seconds of a 12-hour day to have 16,000 thoughts. Staggering! Yes it is, but I daresay it is possible, since your mind can’t possibly be blank, even for one second – unless one is in shock or unconscious. Moreover, most people average a 14 to18 hour-day on a regular basis. Interestingly, however, few or none of these thoughts ever get acted upon, as they are fleeting and absent-minded in nature. We don’t even remember them let alone act upon them. Again, this has nothing to do with being white, black, yellow, or brown; it is just human nature, period.

Please note the emphasis on the word ‘idea’ in the above explanation, as it could be the main thrust of this book. I want to challenge everyone, especially fellow Africans, to just have an idea, something to think about. The more you think about it the better it becomes and the higher the probability of it being acted upon. I don’t think ideas start out being ‘good’ on their own. They start out simply being ideas, become good when remembered, and get better when thought about. Time will tell if they turn out being the best, at least until someone has a better idea.

So, you know what I think? JUST HAVE AN IDEA!

1

So What? ... I’m African!

1

The Most Expensive Brain?!

An African preacher once told a joke – chances are you’ve heard it before – about a man who sourced and supplied human brains for medical research. It happened that this guy had a collection of human brains across all races, ages and educational qualifications. His customer on this occasion, was quite happy with the variety but could not understand why the brain from an African, despite being the oldest, was the most expensive while the ones from Europe, America, China and India cost next to nothing. So he queried the brain merchant, hoping the guy would realise his error, because the much younger brains from industrialised countries should normally cost much more than the very old African one. The merchant quickly snatched the African brain from the buyer, realising he didn’t know the value of what he was holding. He carefully locked it back in its special glass case, turned and said to his customer, That brain, though 85 years old, is almost brand new as it didn’t even do up to 15% of what it is capable of. Hence the cost!

If you are an African or of African descent and you are not laughing, you either didn’t get the joke or didn’t find it funny. If the latter is the case, I’m encouraged as it means we are on the right track, because it wasn’t meant to be funny! For those who didn’t get the joke, you didn’t miss it either, because it wasn’t one! Don’t you get it? It is an insulting, humiliating, but inconvenient truth that some insensitive fellow decided to make a joke out of. Now you see why you shouldn’t be laughing? We should actually start thinking, not like Africans, but as Africans, for Africa.

I wasn’t around during both World Wars, thank God, but I was told that Hitler, had he succeeded, was going to turn the continent of Africa into a farm to provide food and cash crops for the whole world! Can you imagine? It left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Bitter because we would have all been slaves, just growing food for everyone and not being in charge of our destiny as mandated by God in Genesis 1:28. Sweet because it means even Hitler, in his almighty evilness, saw a lot of good in Africa! Our rain forests packed full with herbs and roots for medicine, our fertile grounds where almost everything grows, and our resourcefulness as a people, not to mention our legendary physical and emotional strength.

Seventy-something odd years after Hitler, however, what do we have? Africans wanting all that’s Western, our rulers {no, not leaders!} becoming lap-dogs to their Western, and lately Asian, counterparts, going cap in hand to beg for handouts and returning the money to the so-called donor countries in the form of looted funds stashed in secret bank accounts protected by ‘private banking laws’, thereby building European {and Asian} economies and destroying theirs. Come on guys, who does that? Non-thinkers! People walking around with their brains switched off. No wonder they die and their brains look almost unused – profound apologies to thinking Africans, who unfortunately never get to lead this great continent.

The wealthiest king of his time, King Solomon, said, He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house …. {Proverbs 15:27}. The thoughtless greed of African rulers destroys Africa. They do everything to get to power and crush everyone to remain there until death do them part. They don’t care if their people die of starvation and poverty born out of joblessness and repression. Even if there is no one left to rule, they just want to be president.

A former Nigerian military dictator who got his wish and died in office, General Sani Abacha, was widely quoted as having said he would remain president, even if no one was left in the country. And he meant it because he had his ‘political’ opponents assassinated, locked away, forced into exile and a rash of street protests crushed by armoured tanks – after all, he was the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces. The black-goggled iron man, who seemed indestructible, bade farewell to the late Yasser Arafat, the then Palestinian president and one of his very few friends who came visiting on a Sunday in 1998, went to bed and was confirmed dead Monday afternoon! Nigerians dismissed the news as nothing more than a strong rumour we wished was true. The local television and radio networks were too scared to break the news for fear of reprisals from the dictator’s boys in the military, and just in case he hadn’t died. Then Bam! It was on CNN, Abacha had actually died. The local networks echoed it and the streets of Nigeria erupted in wild jubilation like Solomon said in Proverbs 11:10 … and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.

You know, this guy really had Nigeria in a weird grip of fear, where we started to accept that there was no way this guy could be removed without taking a huge chunk of Nigeria with him, at least in physical and human terms. He however, allegedly, did leave with a huge chunk of Nigeria’s famous oil money, a significant amount of which we hear is still sitting in bank accounts in countries with looter-friendly banking practices.

One was almost led to conclude it had to be a black thing, because the Organisation of African Unity {OAU}, turned African Union {AU}, was starting to look like an exclusive club of Black African Despots {BAD}. It boasted names like the late Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast, Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, Paul Biya of Cameroon, the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, the late Mobutu Sese Seko of the then Zaire, to mention a few. The list is endless. The likes of the late Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo, Omar Bongo of Gabon, and by default or design, Laurent Kabila of the DRC, were succeeded by their sons. Ghastly! A few of these guys died only to be succeeded by younger dudes with attitudes. They rock up like the Egyptian Pharaoh who came after Joseph died and tightened the screws on the Israelites by making them work harder and longer in the most inhumane conditions. Take Charles Taylor of Liberia and Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, don’t you just love Africa? We never run out of ‘Vagabonds In Power’ {VIPs}, to borrow the words of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the legendary Afro beat musician, a true son of Africa, I daresay.

It would be totally disrespectful and unacceptable of me not to dedicate a whole paragraph to the Zimbabwean ‘Icon of Democracy’, His ‘Eternal Excellency’, late Mr Robert Mugabe. He had a distinguished singular record of leading his country from colonialism to freedom in 1980, building a strong and prosperous economy, and like a boy playing with LEGO™ blocks, taking it all apart piece by piece, as if he wanted to build another structure because he was bored and unhappy with the one he had made.

This would have been an Oscar winning Hollywood performance, if it were not really happening, as this seemingly deranged nonagenarian carried on as if nothing had changed while his people had to drive into neighbouring South Africa to buy bread, groceries, baby food and diapers. Zimbabwe has recorded one of the highest levels of inflation known to the civilised world – over 1,000%, and the local currency, the Zim Dollar, is so useless no one spends or accepts it, not even the government; they trade in US Dollars or South African Rand. Mugabe should have accepted that he had lost it and quit, but no, this is Africa, it is never our fault, someone else has to take the blame, the usual suspects – Britain and the US, France too, of late. How convenient. This is so played out it is sickening. The seemingly never-ending horror story continued until Mugabe, at the height of impunity, sacked his then vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to pave the way for his wife, Grace Mugabe.

Mugabe accused Mnangagwa, his erstwhile right-hand man, of attempting to oust him. He then allegedly commenced a manoeuvre to have Grace, his wife, strategically positioned to succeed him as ZANU-PF leader and president of Zimbabwe in the event of his death or retirement. Mnangagwa promptly went into exile in South Africa and within two weeks co-ordinated a soft military takeover, forcing Grace Mugabe to flee Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe to