They exhibit their titles of Masters, engineers, doctors, professors. They insist on mentioning their Bac + 5, 7, 10, they talk all day long about their supposed skills, they scour TV sets and speak out without distinction or selection on all themes, from politics to diplomacy, going through history, geostrategy, football, cinema, agriculture and nuclear power, they are experts in absolutely everything.
And our media, devoid of personality, willingly become accomplices of this indigestible folklore. We find them at the head of our states, in our universities, in our companies and in our ministries. They are men and women full of themselves, insolent and indolent, irritable to criticism and fond of flattering praise, because they know themselves to be the most beautiful and the greatest. They are also beggars for recognition and hungry for power, which drives them to embrace every opportunity, no matter the cost. Never satiated and always disposed to all forms of compromise, they are careerists much more inclined to appeals to good flesh than to works of the mind. However, that does not prevent them from claiming to belong to the clan of intellectuals and claiming the exclusive right to say who belongs to it.
Their accumulation of diplomas only serves their egos. As for the social issues on which they are expected, it will be necessary to go back. They are too busy scouring the television sets, the corridors of power and the villages of the masters of the Republic to negotiate positions and political positions. Their academic backgrounds? They were in the greatest schools and universities in the world. They defended their masters and theses on themes that are of no interest in the contextual reality of their countries, but it doesn’t matter, the main thing is to gargle with prestigious academic titles and then to seek the right professional tip. .
As long as their limitless sacrifices ensure their own comfort and that of their families, they have fulfilled their mission on earth. They are not intellectuals, they are imposters. They are of no use for this Africa in full renaissance. They are extras who constitute serious obstacles to the awakening of the continent. They are conformists without any spiritual consistency, without moods and without any vision for their people. They are neither more nor less, the misfortune of Africa.
Africa in the 21st century needs intellectuals, not misguided graduates. The amalgam between these two terms is a huge danger for Africa. The concept of intellectual is more than ever hackneyed and its status usurped by all sorts of adventurers.
The imposture of careerist graduates with docile and frivolous intelligences is more and more unacceptable, as it jeopardizes initiatives and actions to restore African dignity, in the face of the oppressions of inveterate predators in the service of capitalist hegemony. The notion of intellectual refers to action in favor of a noble cause. The intellectual, graduate or not, leads a determined fight to change or improve a given situation in favor of people who are victims of injustice, scourges or all kinds of misfortunes.
The intellectual assumes to leave his comfort zone to denounce and raise awareness. He is not a conformist. He deliberately swims against the current if necessary, even at the risk of his life. He takes up the cause of his people by assuming the risks that this entails. Contrary to the careerist graduate, the intellectual privileges the general interest to his personal objectives.
The intellectual is that person who takes care of what does not concern him, as Jean-Paul Sartre pointed out. True intellectuals are inspired by and in line with historical references such as Um Nyobè, Osende Afana, Félix Moumié, Tchuindjang Pouemi, Mongo Beti, Douala Manga Bell, Ngosso Din, Patrice Emery Lumumba, Steve Biko, Thomas Sankara, Bob Marley, Myriam Makeba, Muammar Gaddafi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Marcus Garvey, Rosa Park, Gamal Abdel Nasser etc.
Africa needs more than ever people who follow in the footsteps of these heroes and not charlatans who shame Africa and drag it down.
