I am an African American, and racism in America is not something that I find out of the ordinary. This is because subtle discrimination is far more rampant, widespread and much worse in the continent of Africa itself than what happens in America.

Leaders want absolute power. Ethnic groups fight each other all the time. War lords bicker over territories like criminal gangs in the west. Intellectuals are marginalized so as to curtail their influence. Religious intolerance is worse than in the middle east. Even dark-skinned blacks are discriminated against by light-skinned blacks. Dark-skinned women are known in Africa to use skin-bleaching products just to get lighter skins. Those who make all the noise about white racism should ask themselves a few very cogent questions like:

• Why was it so easy to trap and ship Africans across the Atlantic to the New World, rather than exploiting the native population that were already there for the same purpose? Only because African leaders at the time co-operated with the colonialists. The native Indians, on the other hand banded together and resisted infiltration to the best of their ability.

• Why, after several years of decolonization, are African countries still so backward and underdeveloped?

• What affirmative actions, besides endless and meaningless protests, are black leaders taking to really nip racism in the bud?

There is racism in America so what, if you do not like it, do something about it.

Africans are the most disparate and divided people on the surface of the planet, and this is not because the ordinary African people want it this way, but because the African leaders that emerged post colonialism either have been brained-washed to maintain the status quo, or the thought of granting their people basic human rights is just too scary a proposition.

It is a popular saying that “you should do onto others, what you want them to do unto you.” The ordinary American citizen may not know what is happening on the African continent but those who practice racism are very knowledgeable, and they do their homework. They know that most African/Black leaders do not really care about the welfare of their race. They just care about how much they can profit materially or otherwise from events.

Those so-called American racists do not have any respect for black or African leaders, because African leaders do not have any semblance of respect for themselves. If black leaders all over the continent have any respect for themselves at all, then they probably would have a long time ago, taken it upon themselves to find ways and means of intervening in African affairs, so that events in countries like the Sudan, Congo, Nigeria, Uganda and most countries in Africa would not have depreciated to the level it is at this point in time.

African slaves may have contributed free labor under duress to build the American continent, but would they have done it if they were not forced; I doubt it very much. It is because nobody is forcing our leaders to do the right thing that our continent is so backward. Because of our backwardness, nobody respects our leaders, and this lack of respect translates into what many call racism against blacks in the more advanced countries.

Most ideas originated from the African continent, but most Black leaders, like those behind the nation of Islam and a variety of other religious organizations choose to embrace beliefs that are foreign to us. They do this so they can exert absolute control over the black populace. How do you expect those who took our ideas, re engineered the same and fed it back to us, to respect us, if we swallowed everything they taught us hook, line and sinker.

Recently, there was a BBC profile that described the current Nigeria leader as ‘taciturn’, down-to-earth and not to be underestimated. This is exactly how most African leaders have been portrayed over time that they seem to behave exactly that way. The leaders themselves either out of ignorance or a chance to boost their political ego, or perhaps because they are just extended tools of the so-called racists, do not seem to mind. This is of course not in the interest of those they lead.

As far as I know, taciturn is not a very positive word for describing the CEO of an enterprise that caters to the welfare of 150 million human beings. If the Nigerian government is not suing the BBC for such flagrant statements, why should anybody care about racism against blacks anywhere.

Blacks should take more interest in their own affairs, act more responsibly, start respecting their own kind, and prove to those who underrate them that blacks are not subhumans. Then and only then can the real truth behind racism in America begin to emerge. Only if one knows what the problem is can a solution be found and then applied.