Of A Wasted Generation And The Extincting Other
Twice, our Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, had established that his generation was a wasted one. First in 1984 and the second, in 2019.
In his 1984 assertion, his take captured a rather graphic illustration of the wastage of talents by an otherwise insensitive state and he averred:
“After a quarter of a century of witnessing and occasionally participating in varied aspects of social struggle in all their shifting tempi, dimensions, pragmatic and sometimes even ideologically oriented goals, I feel at this moment that I can only describe my generation as the wasted generation, frustrated by forces which are readily recognisable, which can be understood and analysed but which nevertheless have succeeded in defying whatever weapons such ‘understanding’ has been able to muster towards their defeats.”
However, convinced he didn’t misjudge his generation, Professor Soyinka, during an appearance on BBC’s “Hard Talk” in 2019, reaffirmed his 1984 inference.
“I compare today with dreams and aspirations we had when we all rushed home after studies abroad. We considered ourselves the renaissance people that were going to lift the continent to world standards, competitors anywhere. It hasn’t happened.”
Unfortunately, if Professor Soyinka had thought his generation was the wasted one, I have no other word to describe the current one except “The Extincting Generation”.
Gradually, everything is being thrown out of the window and straight to the dogs.
We’re fast losing it all: morals, values, humanity, compassion, contentment, God’s fear and decency. Aren’t these the paths to extinction? Perhaps, redemption is also not impossible.
Maybe miracle is feasible since we can’t put anything past God. But reliance on miracle without any conscious effort at redirecting the ship is as good as doing nothing.
Even God would demand from us, a degree of commitment to our own cause. After all, hope isn’t a plan.
Good morning, fam. I love Thursday. It signals the birthing of the weekend
