by Ben Okri

This article appeared in Ode issue: 16
http://www.odemagaz ine.com/doc/ 16/healing_ the_africa_ within_us
Heart-shaped Africa is the feeling centre of the
world. Continents are metaphors as much as they are
places. And a people are spiritual states of humanity
as distinguishable in what they represent as lilies
and roses and daffodils.

Have we forgotten what Africa is? Africa is our
dreamland, is our spiritual homeland. There is a realm
inside every human being that is Africa. We all have
an Africa within us. And so when the Africa outside is
sick with troubles, the Africa inside us makes us ill
with neuroses. The sheer quantity of neuroses, of
anorexia, of inexplicable psychic illness in the world
is possibly indirectly due to the illness, the
troubles in Africa. We have to heal the Africa in us
if we are going to be whole again. We have to heal the
Africa outside us if the human race is going to be at
peace again in a new dynamic way. There is a
relationship between the troubles in a people and the
troubles in the world, in the atmosphere. The troubles
of Africa contribute immensely to the sheer weight and
size of world suffering. And this world suffering
affects everyone on this planet, affects children and
their health, affects our sleep, our anxiety, our
unknown suffering; for it is possible to suffer
without knowing it.

And so we have to heal our Africa within. We have to
re-discover the true Africa, the Africa of laughter,
of joy, of originality, of improvisation, the Africa
of legend, of story-telling, of playfulness, the
Africa of brilliant colours, the Africa of generosity,
of hospitality and kindness to strangers, the Africa
of immense compassion, the Africa of wisdom, of
proverbs, of divination, of paradox, the Africa of
ingenuity, and surprise, the Africa of a
four-dimensional attitude to time, the Africa of
magic, of faith, of patience, of endurance, of a
profound knowledge of nature's ways and the secret
cycles of destiny.

We have to re-discover Africa. The first discovery of
Africa by Europe was the wrong one. It was not a
discovery. It was an act of misperception. They saw,
and bequeathed to future ages, an Africa based on what
they thought of as important. They did not see Africa.
And this wrong seeing of Africa is part of the
problems of today. Africa was seen from a point of
view of greed, of what could be got from it. And what
you see is what you make. What you see in a people is
what you eventually create in them. It is now time for
a new seeing. It is now time to clear the darkness
from the eyes of the Western world.

The world should now begin to see the light in Africa,
to see its sunlight, to see its brightness, its
brilliance, its beauty. If we see it, it will be
revealed. We only see what we see. Only what we see,
what we see anew, is revealed to us. Africa has been
waiting, for centuries, to be discovered with eyes of
love, the eyes of a lover. There is no true seeing
without love. We have to learn to love the Africa in
us if humanity is going to begin to know true
happiness on this earth.

We love the America in us. We love the Europe in us.
The Asia in us we are beginning to respect. Only the
Africa in us is unloved, unseen, unappreciated. The
first step towards the regeneration of humanity is
making whole again all these great continents within
us. We are the sum total of humanity. Every individual
is all of humanity. It is Africa's turn to smile. That
will be the loveliest gift of the 21st century: to
make Africa smile again.

Then humanity can begin to think of the universe, even
the most remote stars, as its true home.

Ben Okri is a Nigerian writer living in London. His
book The Famished Road won the prestigious Booker
Prize. Okri is among Africa's most renowned writers.
He wrote this article exclusively for Ode magazine.