When people reject you They don’t realise they’ve done you a favour; You can move on from the rejected you And metamorphose into a higher nature. Had they accepted you You would have remained the old creature In that lower state unaware that you Could have activated this new extra feature That has deepened, strengthened, elevated you. Rejection is ejection into motion, An injection of self-reflection Towards redemption and transformation. An injunction to move, and motivation To self-improve in a new direction With grit, with purpose, and with intention. On the path towards self-realisation and self-actualisation, every new rejection Is another tiny course-correction. Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river Che Chidi Chukwumerije Poems from the inner river
Global themes
UNCOLONIZED
Chaos made us thirst Orderliness undid the rest Today we ravish with finesse This global concrete forest Immaculately dressed Inwardly lawless Appetite burning in our chest. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
A DEEPER SURVIVAL
The more the world is flooded with A.I., the more I hunger for natural things - Natural images honest to the human eye, a genuine human voice that sings - Content that springs from the human “I”, what the original human spirit brings - The truth’s rough edges, not a smooth lie, the exertion that with evolution swings - The more the world is overwritten by A.I., the more I gravitate towards natural things. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
TARGETING THE VULNERABLE
They that came to remark the lines of destiny on our palms are still pulling the discords of smiles armed with sticky alms groping the vulnerable. They are legion. Their allegiance is with history and vision It is seasoned with wry reason when they call aid a mission targeting the vulnerable. The enmity is below the thought-line It is a volition seeded in culture Only one Dove visits in Love Every other dove is a vulture encircling the vulnerable. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
FRONT AND BACK
Some will want Wanting will be their front Some will taunt Taunting will be their front Some will flaunt Flaunting will be their front And some will be gaunt But it won’t be a front It will be real, for wont Of everything they want. Everything they lack - A place to call their own, The feeling of being at home - They want it back. Che Chidi Chukwumerije
FRANKFURT IST MEHR; UND KANN MEHR
Ich habe mich entschlossen, bei den nächsten Kommunalwahlen (14. März 2021) hier in Frankfurt am Main für die Kommunale Ausländervertretung (KAV/Ausländerbeirat) für ganz Frankfurt und für den Ortsbeirat (5 – Niederrad, Oberrad, Sachsenhausen) zu kandidieren, und bin dankbar über jede Unterstützung.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
https://che-chukwumerije.de/
NIGERIA: SERVING TWO MASTERS
Nigeria, by and large, was conquered and colonised TWICE – by Islamic Arabic Imperialism and by Judeo-Christian Western Imperialism.
But when Nigeria fought for Independence, it only fought for Independence against Western Imperialism and not against Arab Imperialism.
That is why the soul of Nigeria has divided loyalties today. Many Nigerians who consider themselves free and independent today are only independent (partly) from Western Imperialism, and not from Arabian Imperialism which – like the green snake in the green grass – is deeper, stealthier and more inchoate and not bound into a concrete, easily dismantable State-form.
While Nigeria battled back right from independence with the consequences of this subtle lack-of-freedom, Western imperialism quietly returned in the form of neo-colonialism.
Until Nigeria – and indeed Black Africa – is politically, economically and ideologically free of both the WEST AND the EAST (Middle & Far East), it will never be able to develop. It will always remain a puppet on a string and a pawn in a game being played by others.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
DO AFRICANS BELIEVE THAT AFRICANS CAN INVENT?
We have to make our own world, because there is little space for us in the world others have created, out of their own ingenuity, for themselves.
So what we need is to create in Africa an African system that supports research and invention from Dream to Done Deed. What we need is to awaken the strong sense of the need to create our own world, a new world. A desire, the unquenchable thirst and unslackening desire to do this or perish. It becomes our racial focus, and the essence of the DNA we pass on, henceforth, from Generation to Generation. Our black spirits will come ready-made with the natural Urge to do this. We will be born differently from today. Born to invent.
But…: Do Africans believe that Africans can invent? Do Africans who feel the spirit of invention and innovation stirring within them have the guts to sacrifice their whole life to it? Are there financiers and patrons ready to support them to the bitter or sweet end?
If all you do is extract natural resources and minerals from the earth and the waters, and sell them unprocessed to others, then you are just a glorified miner. Now, today, as oil revenues dwindle, the call is sounded. Any mathematician can do the arithmetics and work backwards from the finish line. It is the point in time when our oil becomes worthless and our ability to invent and innovate becomes the only natural resource we have left. Untapped?
Yes I made the the jump from oil to inventions; whereby the popular wisdom proclaims that the alternative to oil bears another name: Diversification. But… Diversification Alone Is Not The Answer! It is only an interim puffer, but not the guarantor of survival. Only the fit survive. The fit are those who have trained the power and ability to create the future.
But…: Are African governments, think tanks, traditional institutions and financial institutes really ready to chart and push this course and pour all their resources into creating a new world, their own future? Do Africans believe that Africans can invent?
If we simply diversify from Oil to Solid Minerals, we will make the same mistakes again because not only are the underlying methodologies unaddressed and unchanged; nor the corruption issues in terms of persons, institutions and systems unammended; but, most importantly, the fundamentally flawed ideology that drives and guides our concept of nation-building, people-building, capacity-building – whatever you want to call it – remains the most entrenched and in-built weakness that we carry with us from generation to generation, from century to century. It is an ideology that supports a taker-mentality as opposed to a giver-mentality; it remains a receiver-mentality as against a creator-mentality; it stays a past-deifying and present-indulging mentality instead of a future-engineering one.
But it is better to produce the future than to reproduce the past. What our so-called education so far has not done for us is trigger the creator-gene. Systemically, deeply and deliberately. En Masse. The discoverer-Complex has yet to be activated within the context of African Culture, Upbringing, Orientation, Foundational Thinking that later guides investors, policy-makers, entrepreneurs and every citizen. We are talking about the Survival of the Species here.
The human being, in the end, respects only intelligence. Not just articulated intelligence, but intelligence that has yielded action and tangible form. The human species‘ only hope for survival and expansion, right from time, and for escaping extinction, has always been innovation and invention, i.e. the practical application of intuitive perception and intelligence. Thus, humans finally only respect those persons and groups whose ingenuity or depth of perception leads to discoveries and inventions that continue to move humankind forward. The urge to move, physically, mentally and spiritually, and to defend gained territories, is a deep evolutionary expression of primal survival instinct.
Therefore: Africans had better start believing that Africans can invent and that Africans SHOULD invent. And start pouring all their resources into making this a reality. Otherwise, the future which is being currently invented and designed by Non-Africans, for Non-Africans, will have no place in it for Africa and Africans. Or the place that will be reserved for us, we will not like it, nor possess the power and ability to change it. It will be worse that the days of Slavery and Colonisation. It will be a depth of systemic powerlessness and denigration not yet seen in the history of humankind. Because, if you don‘t make anything, you‘ll never own a thing.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Thoughts on Africa
GLOBAL UNITY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
The Elite and Power-holders, traditionally few in number, always find a way to prevent the masses from uniting against them. The most popular and effective, trusted and time-tested, methods are the instigation and strengthening of racism, tribalism, sexism, religious intolerance, etc, within and amongst and between the masses. Man, being a living being, soaks up these sentiments and they grow within him, upon which he begins to also defend and propagate them; thus they become self-perpetuating from generation to generation, across centuries, and people even forget where and when and why these things started.
But these things were never the actual problem of the masses in the first place. It’s all an illusion. True, when different sides happen upon each other there is initial distrust and competition; but there is also curiousity, such that left on their own – if there is no conscious malicious and insidious effort to awaken fear of each other amongst them – they will always merge with time as they unite in the common struggle to master the battle of life. Especially when they face a common threat, e.g. nature and the elements.
But man has a fragile nature sometimes. In his struggle to master his own personal little life he can lose sight of the bigger picture, thus making him gullible and susceptible to the intrigue and manipulation of those who seek their own personal and selfish goals. And those who have money and power, or who strive after money and power, know well to prevent the masses from ever uniting against them or developing a WE-consciousness as a united group. Thus they keep them occupied with the individual struggle for existence, or distracted by a media barrage of empty things of no importance and, as the master stroke of genius, they keep them divided amongst themselves by pulling the strings and feeding the sentiments of religion, ethnicity, race, sexism, etc.
Any leader or leadership system which really loves its people will seek to unite them. This however is rare. Instead what we see are power-centers which perpetually ensure that the flames of division (religion, racism, ethnicity) never die. All the rest of the people perpetuating these things are just blind tools. But if you follow the trail of the true power-centers it will always lead to where the money is. Follow the trail of the money’s smell. Those who have the money – who OWN the global wealth – are the ones who make sure that those who need the money always stay divided amongst themselves. Divided and distracted, so that they will never see the effort being deliberately made to keep them from recognising the path that will lead to freedom. The path of unity.
People, unite.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Searching For The Right Response
I live in Germany. Just two days ago, my wife, our two kids and I were at the Christmas Market in Frankfurt. It was jam-packed, and most people seemed relaxed and happy. We had lots of fun, rode the giant carousel with the kids, laughed out loud, ate extra-large Brezels with hot steaming Glühwein for Yvonne and me, and for the kids warm Kinderpunsch.
And we stood in front of a super-sized Manger and I told my daughter the story of the overwhelmed shepherd to whom a host of angels appeared and brought the glad tidings of great joy: that God had sent His Son to bring Light and Love as salvation to mankind. Pointing at each figure in the Manger, I told her about Joseph and Mary, about the three wise men, and about the Child in the crib in whose heart was Magic. Because Love is Magic. It was a beautiful day.
What religion, what philosophy, what doctrine, what hatred, what madness, what smallness makes a person drive a truck into a packed Christmas Market? How can such a thing be rationalized or comprehended?
I think of the people at the Christmas Market in Berlin yesterday – and inwardly I see the faces of the people I saw at my Frankfurt Christmas Market two days ago. The same kinds of people. Happy people. Full of the spirit of Christmas. I see myself and my family. I see mankind, up against an Evil; an Evil that is slowly uniting the rest of mankind against it. It might take long for the right response to intuite itself into conscious thought and into a visible systemic form. But one day… one day… it will.
Mankind is not perfect, it is true. But this kind of Evil… is beyond all depths.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 