Our leaders' search for extra-continental validation the bane of Africa

President William Ruto chairs a meeting of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change on the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [File, Standard]

These are times of manufactured world chaos that disrupt accepted international order and place African countries in geopolitical binds arising from colonial conditioning. Among the lingering conditionings was for African potential policymakers to lose self-confidence or confidence in other Africans and thereafter become perpetually dependent on their former colonial authorities for validation or approval. This dependency was most effectively instilled in African minds through adopting European cultural mannerisms as well as the destruction of many African beliefs and values in the name of 'modernity' and Euro-Christianity. In the process, losing African identities became a mental condition that empowers the Euros to become the interpreters for African policymakers who thereafter constantly seek validation on how to interpret issues and interests. The tendency for Africans to seek Euro-validation bothers several Africans, like Mwangi Njagi, who would like to 'de-validate' the validation mentality.