African Renaissance: Why the Battle for a Better Africa Starts With Your Thinking

When we look at Western countries, envy and anger often collide within us.

Envy because we wish we’d been born under winter snow, where quality of life is high, opportunities are bountiful, and systems actually work. And anger because we resent being here instead—in Africa, under the heat of the Sahara—where life feels backwards, a constant struggle to move forward, with uncertainty slowly draining hope out of us.

Still, many of us fail to be aware or maybe don’t see it relevant to remember that the West wasn’t always “Advanced” or enviable.

Norbert Elias wrote in his book called The Civilizing Process about the brutality and savagery Europe was once submerged in. Medieval Europe was a bloodbath, filled with honour killings, street brawls, public executions for amusement, while accommodating the worst of our species: murderers, rapists, charlatans, you name it. 

But, over several centuries, beginning in the 11th or 12th, maturing in the 17th and 18th, Europeans underwent a massive psychological shift which led to their emancipation. 

A culture of gain (the readiness to steal), preemptive attack (the readiness to kill), and honour (the readiness to avenge) slowly gave way to something else: dignity (the readiness to be just), empathy (the readiness to be considerate), and patience (the readiness to stay calm).

But this didn’t come from mere wishes or prayers.

These ideals began as explicit instructions from cultural elites. While the book doesn’t name the elites directly, the context suggests they were likely philosophers, writers, artists, people devoted to thought and reason. Their influence is preserved in works like Amy Vanderbilt’s Everyday Etiquette, On Civility in Boys by Desiderius Erasmus (1530), and other works which spearheaded cultural enlightenment.

At first, these ideals were sold to the aristocrats as a way to distinguish themselves from the “villains and boors.” But over time, the ideals began shaping how the aristocrats raised their children. Then, over time, the ideals moved downward: from the aristocrats (upper class) to the bourgeoisie (middle class), and from the bourgeoisie to the proletariat (working class), until it eventually solidified into a shared cultural norm.

Meanwhile, many of us back home fume at the Westerns. We pin all our societal problems on imperialism and colonialism. We blame our policies, our politics, even our own local proclivities on external forces. 

I’m not saying the indignation towards our colonial masters is completely baseless, but treating colonisation like it’s a curse placed uniquely on us—forgetting that colonisation was the curriculum for all human civilisation for thousands of years—shows the classical self-serving bias.

History happened to everyone: ancient Egypt, Persia, the Mongol hordes, Rome, the Ottomans, the Japanese, the Chinese through its endless dynasties, Europe’s centuries of bloodshed, and America through slavery and civil war. The difference is that some societies mourned, learned, and then rebuilt anyway. Others never moved past the mourning. Others like us.

In this piece, we will explore why this is and suggest what the path towards the African Renaissance might look like.

Emancipation is Mental, Not Geographical.

Emancipation, as explained earlier, is mental. Sadly, we Africans are a long way off mentally. The psychological gap between many Africans and Europeans is less about culture and more about differences in social development and underlying values.

For example, many Africans who migrate abroad and work in healthcare don’t struggle due to a lack of technical skill, but because they find it hard to understand concepts like patient dignity, personal choice, and autonomy.  In many of their home cultures, authority is rarely questioned; power tends to override compassion, and obedience often matters more than individual rights.

Many Nigerian men abroad complain that women there aren’t “submissive,” because they came from a place where women are more or less considered inferior to men. A place where the woman is supposed to cook and clean, whether she is juggling two jobs and nursing twins.

Some Nigerians living abroad gain access to international clients whom they charge premium rates, only to outsource the project to workers back home who they pay peanuts, with a superior undertone and act like they’re doing them a favour.  Why? Because “Half a loaf is better than none.”, and “Without me, they wouldn’t even get the opportunity.”

Good grief!

We can leave Nigeria. Shuffle between continents. And even become a multi-planetary traveller. But if the problem lives on in our thinking, we’ve escaped nothing. We’ve only exported it.

African Renaissance: The Dream We Haven’t Earned 

A few days ago, I came across the word “African renaissance”, while hunting for new words in my Oxford dictionary. And I had turned to  Google to dig deeper into the idea. 

My discovery?

“African renaissance” refers to a period when Africa is expected to experience tremendous growth in its economy, culture, science and technology.

This concept was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a series of essays between 1946 and 1960, later collected in a book titled Towards the African Renaissance. Diop’s ideas were further popularised by former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki during his tenure as Deputy President,  under Nelson Mandela. Today, many articles and videos have been made around this concept. 

Some scholars believe this era began at the end of the 20th century, right as we entered the 21st.

If their calculation is accurate, we’ve barely made meaningful progress toward continental development and prosperity. If it were a journey of a thousand miles, we’d have managed only a hundred steps.

Nigeria and much of Eastern and Western Africa make the gap impossible to ignore.

We have the technology the medieval Europeans never had and access to information they would’ve died for. Still, we’re struggling to make significant progress. We keep missing what matters most, which is the change in thinking that makes progress possible.

Many people believe voting in a new politician, creating a new political party or returning to a regional government will solve the problem. But the problem runs deeper than politics. And NO, a billion more prayers led by the most holy and anointed clergy won’t help either.

Why African Societies Stay Stuck While Others Progress

For a start, we’re trapped in a social hierarchy that’s strangling us. 

At the top: the unruly king (political cabals clutching power they didn’t earn). 

Below them: the self-centred nobles (wealthy families hoarding resources, not creating them). 

Then: the sycophant knights (the educated class serving power instead of truth). 

At the bottom: the peasants (ordinary Nigerians grinding just to eat). 

Hierarchy isn’t inherently evil. It’s how our species organises itself to survive harsh conditions, hunts for food, and procreates. But survival logic doesn’t produce progress. It only preserves itself by suppressing whatever tries to break the hierarchy, extracting tribute from those at the bottom, and accumulating privilege for those at the top.

Progress is impossible with suppression (brilliant minds being scorned, status inherited not earned), extraction (opportunities trickle down while loyalty flows up), and accumulation (the rich keep getting richer, while the poor keep getting poorer). 

Progress is only possible with innovation (turning stones into hunting spears), collaboration (banding together to bring down larger prey), and sacrifice (the hunters who divide their kill so the tribe survives famine).

Sadly, the everyday reality for most ordinary Nigerians is a country where housing prices go over the roof, clean water is scarce, electricity is unreliable, and life expectancy is short.

We are living in the 21st century, yet we have medieval mindsets, blanketing us in darkness under the scorching Sub-Saharan sun. Violence is the default language for people who can barely read. Community clashes erupt regularly in a country with no active volcanoes.  The abuse of power by security forces has become a tradition, despite our rich traditional heritage. 

Binding it all together is religion; the force that shapes how many Nigerians see the world, justify their actions, and find purpose. More often, it functions as a script followed without being tested against observable reality. We are talking about a society where thousands believe in prophecies of world-ending floods, and where some believe that killing non-believers can be morally rewarded in an afterlife.

Much of our society is driven by people stuck in the worst patterns of thinking. Tim Urban describes them as “low-rung thinkers”: tribal in politics, loyal to groups over truth, hostile to questions, and locked into an us-versus-them view of the world.

Under the domination of low-rung thinkers, ideas are judged by who voices them, not by their merit. Dissent is punished instead of refined. Power is claimed through force rather than competence. And the brightest minds either escape or withdraw.

We’re not trapped because of poverty or corruption—they exist even in the best societies. We’re trapped because the way we think makes real problem-solving impossible, and this turns our society into one of the worst places to live.

Africa’s renaissance will demand high-rung thinking: curiosity to find truth, willingness to be wrong, respect for evidence, humility to learn, and the courage to build something beyond oneself. Until that way of thinking spreads beyond the few, our renaissance will remain distant.

“The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970)

How Long Till The African Renaissance (And What That Means for You)

Europe needed about five centuries to escape medieval darkness. How long will it take Africa to reach Renaissance?

The brutal truth is that most of us alive today will not live to see it. Not a Nigeria or an Africa that matches present-day America or Europe. Our children probably won’t either. Perhaps not even our grandchildren.

So what then? Do we give up? Subscribe to the crab mentality, where anyone trying to climb out gets pulled back down? Is it every man for himself? Grab whatever you can, while you can?

I don’t think so.

Suppose you did; joined the scramble, got out, found greener pastures, and made serious money. What did you actually escape?

The low-rung thinking doesn’t stay behind at the border. It follows you everywhere you go.

It shows how you beat your children, squabble with neighbours, hire by tribe instead of talent, dismiss questions that challenge you, hoard resources that should circulate, and treat fellow humans unfairly. And only create an unending vicious circle of bitter, brutal, and barbaric people. 

The structures that trap us will crumble when enough of us consciously choose light over darkness. Even when darkness is easier. Even knowing they won’t reach the promised land – i.e. won’t see Africa’s complete transformation.

It starts when

• Leaders govern justly. 
• Merchants trade honestly.
• Thinkers question authority.
• Artists portray positivity.
• Citizens live nobler.

The choice is demanding yet must be made: accept your station and wait, or create change you won’t live to see? Stay a peasant hoping for better kings, or become someone who dismantles kingdoms? Think only of self-preservation, or build something beyond yourself?

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love (1963)

Conclusion: Fix Your Thinking

Activism might move things forward. Radical efforts might shake things up. But progress doesn’t require everyone to become Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela. The work is more personal than that; it requires us to be better thinkers, not necessarily saints or freedom fighters.

To be clear, I’m not saying we lack intelligence or that Africans are inherently simple-minded. I’m pointing to where the evidence shows our collective attention goes—as a nation, as a continent.

Look around. On social media, we’re more invested in viral drama than in understanding national policy. Online, we spend hours on entertainment and almost none on ideas that stretch the mind. There’s nothing wrong with humour or gist, until that’s all we consume.

In many communities, science is dismissed as unspiritual (or outright blasphemy), while religious dogma is treated as unquestionable truth. Education is resisted, sometimes violently (think Boko Haram). Money has become the main pursuit, with little concern for how it’s made (think Yahoo). Ethics and morality are waved off as outdated, concerns for old people, not principles for modern life (think Runs girls).

All that, brothers and sisters, are manifestations of low-rung thinking in action: a culture allergic to depth, hostile to questions, addicted to shortcuts.

But you don’t need to fix the entire system or wait for better leaders or some grand awakening.

The African Renaissance starts when you fix your thinking and share your thoughts with others—like I’m doing with this blog post. And you don’t have to wait anymore. You can start by sharing this content with family, friends, or colleagues you think might find it helpful.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994)

Here are some other blog posts you might enjoy—dive in now or bookmark for later:

1. The Crab Mentality: Are People Around You Holding You Back?
2. Should We Abandon Religion? Growing Beyond Blind Faith
3. Framing, Context, and Content: How Thoughts and Thinking (Re)shape Your Reality
4. Blind Following: Why You Follow Leaders Without Question
5. The Door of Your Mind: Why Critical Thinking Trumps Closed-, Narrow-, and Even Open-Mindedness.