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Building National Unity in Guinea Through Love
Dear Malinké, Foula, Soussou, Kissi, Gherzé, Toma, etc…
I have some feelings that I would like to share with my Guinean brothers and sisters…
Here is a simple, yet powerful personal message: Clearly Guinea is in deep trouble at the moment (primarily between Malinké and Foula, but everyone else is involved as well).
Hate is what plagues us.
Hate is what is tearing us apart.
Hate is what is destroying us.
Hate is a disease.
Hate is like cancer: it must be completely eradicated, or it threatens to return and hurt even more, as it is currently doing with us. The question is, how do we cure ourselves from hatred? The answer is quite simple… through LOVE!
LOVE overpowers HATE. It really is that simple. No need for complicated theories or long explanations. Love is found in different forms all throughout human relationships, in families and in friendships. Clearly, I am encouraging everybody to build diverse friendships, but more importantly, I advise all Guineans to begin marrying outside of their tribe.
Families are the unit of society. The best way to build national unity is to build diverse families. Let us stop this close-minded business. Culture is not static, and in-breeding weakens the offspring. To avoid dying a slow, culturally stagnant and genetically defective death, let us foster national peace through love, literally. The middle ages are gone!!! The glorious empires of recorded history are never to return!!!
WE HAVE TO FOCUS ON UNITY.
The space-time continuum is four dimensional. Time is the measurement of the movement of an object in space. Everything is constantly moving forward. History is just that: history; the key word is STORY! There is never a singular version of a story. As long as they are told by the imperfect minds and tongues of human beings, facts will always have a degree of relativity, and stories will always come in different versions.
Emotions are powerful. Feelings define who we are, our character. If we continue to hate “the other” tribe, when we are no longer in contact with “the other” tribe, we will begin hating “our own people.” In allegiance to the need to hate, the mind will find a “valid excuse” for hating one group or another. Why? Because we will have fixed our nature on hate. We will have a natural pre-disposition to hatred… Vilifying people from another village, tribe, or region, will not solve those of our own. Each of us needs to take responsibility, as responsibility is a pre-requisite for independence, interdependence, and authority.
My fellow Guineans, I would like you to consider one small thought… as you entered this world, you were greeted with love by your mother. It is in fact love, in one form or another, that brings a man and a woman together to perform the most miraculous act of (pro)creation in the animal kingdom. Love is the mother of creativity, and creativity is the mother of all human genius. The comfort we enjoy, the technologies we have, the cultures we hold dear… are all the product of creativity, and the root of creativity is love. If you don’t believe me, observe people that are in deep love. They become forgiving, oblivious to the negative traits in the target of their love. People in love are creative, imaginative, open, quasi possessed. Love is who we are. In creating us, our Creator bestowed his love and mercy upon us. Literally, without love we are nothing. With hate (the opposite of love), we meet our doom and destruction.
Think for a minute… who wants a civil war, or the consequences of physical and cultural in-breeding? Which Guinean can guarantee that none of his/her family members will be affected if chaos breaks out in Guinea?
So, my dear Guinean brothers and sisters. I won’t lie to you all. Despite the many talents and potential of the Guinean people, many of us are still sick in the heart. Some of us have forward thinking views, but our families and friends are eager to infect you with hate. I did not have the opportunity to grow up in Guinea or to spend time around Guineans during my adolescence, but since I began meeting my people a few years ago, these have been my observations.
There always seems to be a “valid excuse” to nurse hatred. Elections, Nafissatou Diallo, rocket fire on President Alpha Condé’s house. Despite all logic, it always seems that you our public eventually forfeits reason to follow the doubtful philosophies of an uneducated uncle, or the manipulated emotions of the masses. EVERY TIME SOMETHING HAPPENS, OUR ANALYSIS IS ONE DIMENSIONAL: WHICH TRIBE DID IT????
All this is the result of hatred. A hatred that we have preached and practiced for decades. For this, there is only one cure, and our creator has equipped us with this cure deep inside us: LOVE. LOVE EACH OTHER. BUILD NEW FRIENDSHIPS. MOST IMPORTANTLY, MARRY DIVERSELY.
To those that are already married, help your sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles, and cousins and friends to find marriage and love outside of your villages, outisde of your tribes, outside of your regions. This solution will naturally correct all anger and hatred that we have built around ethnicity, political affiliation, etc. It will also teach us to love, and give us a predisposition to love all.
In the end, ask yourself: will love overpower hate, or will hate overpower love?
The choice is ours…
I would like to ask our leaders, both President Alpha Condé and Cellou Dalein Diallo to sit down together and talk, so that the citizens of Guinea will be inspired to follow their noble example and work for national reconciliation. I am also appealing to our elders, sages, and religious leaders to give the future precedence over the past, and the larger collectivity precedence over their small immediate circles.
As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, May Allah bless us, may he clean our hearts and fill them with deep love for all.
If you want to discuss more about unity in Guinea, follow me on twitter @MohamedToure or e-mail me at mohamed@allianceguinea.org