“All the flowers of a tree do not produce fruit” is a proverb from the Wolof tongue. The picture that it conveys is quite straightforward. Indeed, it is hard not to admit that all the children of Mother Africa, for instance, do not necessarily work for her development and prosperity. Indeed, how many times has Mother Africa been betrayed by her own sons and daughters?
Mother Africa is feeling worried because she knows that the majority of her children are hardworking people. They are the ones, despite all kinds of difficulties, who are feeding her roots. Thanks to their nutriments, the tree (or African nations) does generate wealth which is often translated into GDP. Unfortunately, the share of the informal sector which is not assessed when computing the GDP proves that the real wealth of Africa is underestimated. Yet, there are people who do not work hard but do eat the fruits produced by the people; thus leaving the latter in a precarious situation.
The violence with which they insist to eat the fruits produced by others clearly shows that they do not work for the interests of Mother Africa. And this is why she’s weeping every day because the minority of her violent sons and daughters are the ones who are impoverishing the African continent; putting the majority at the mercy of diseases, chaos and ultimately death.
The trend can and should be inversed. In other words, the lazy ones should be the ones to benefit less from the production generated by the most active ones. By so doing, we could give Mother Africa a chance to keep on reviving hope in the hearts of her most benevolent agents of change. And thanks to her resilience, Mother Africa has proved that she can handle the wrongdoings from the negative aspects of some of her children. Therefore, this Wolof proverb is a call to action so that most of us identify ourselves as agents of change; thus rejecting the status quo! And this is a mental war that can only be fought within ourselves.
