Mentor-ship and Africa

(Marcbombenon Website)

In stories told, before Africa was divided into colonies, the elders trained and taught the young ones about life. They were taught how to speak, how to act and how they were meant to live. The elders mentored the young ones and then left them on their own to mentor others. The cycle of mentor-ship continued on for generations and the culture, history and traditions of most African communities were kept. Unfortunately when the colonial masters came, Africans were forced to reject the traditional ways and adopted the ‘civilized manner’ of living. I have no arguments or bitterness towards that, and I do not think we should go back to “The African way of life”, rather embrace it and encompass it in our daily living. Mentor-ship, to me, is what is making Africa drag its feet in the race towards incorporation into the global space.

Today Africans are greedy and selfish. We have been given the mark of being among the most corrupt. The problem is that we have already accepted it as a fact and most Africans reading this will be angered and say I have insulted my people. No, I have not. I am saying the truth. We do not want to see progress in other people’s lives. We want to progress on our own. We are happy when people are under us or are on a lower position from our stand point. If we really cared about others, we would not be having poor people, starving people, sick people in Africa. If we worked together and mentored each other, people will not be jumping in boats, drowning in seas to look for a better life in Europe. Most Africans has lost hope in life and hate themselves for living. Do you know why I say that, why do we still have slums in Nairobi? Why are we divided between the haves and the have nots? Why do we have the same leaders since independence? Why do we fight each other? What are we even fighting for? Why are the youth losing direction in life? Who is supposed to bring them up? The church, the school, the parents, or God?

Look at the productions we have in Africa. Nobody wants to support it, yet we complain it is of low quality. Look at the textile industry, nobody wants to wear African fashion not unless it becomes a trend. We do not want to be different, but to be copycats of trends that have no precedence in Africa. Why is this happening? Mentor-ship. We have nobody to guide us. We are not guiding anybody.

The leaders we have in Africa should be able to mentor the young, so that they can go back and rest. Nobody can be in power forever. What happens when the leader dies, who takes over if he or she had not groomed someone?

Mentoring is very easy and it is applicable for everyone, no matter your status in life. A mason can still show people how he does his work. A Chief Executive Officer can bring in a trainee to takeover after his or her departure. A mother can talk to her daughter about marriage and the roles and duties expected of her. A father can train his son how to court a lady until marriage. An adult should be able to talk to a child and tell to him or her about life. The best thing to do is mentor people about what you are good at so that that person can improve or add on to the skills impacted on him or her. It is said people die, but their legacy lives on. I believe that a person would feel good that they impacted someone’s life and made a change. As Africans we need to embrace mentor-ship and provide it for everyone.

Mentor-ship should be both ways. As a mentor, find someone else to mentor you. It does not necessarily have to be an older person, it could be someone who is more skilled in something. A son can teach his father on how to use social media; that is a form of mentor-ship. Having a mutual mentor-ship relationship makes everybody comfortable to share and engage together.

We should all embrace mentor-ship. I know it is already being done elsewhere, where people have to mentor someone before leaving a position of power. We should bring it to Africa.

(Carolepemberton Website)