A few years ago, a clip showing a Malawian man of God displaying his recently acquired affluence – away from home – went round on social media.
One of the points raised in the said clip was that the man of God was being welcomed by mzungu (a white man). I find it difficult to appreciate that being welcomed a white person is a sign of doing well.
My maternal uncle left for Southern Rhodesia back in the 1950s, before I was born. He ended up working on a farm owned by a white settler. After some time he came back home on holiday, which holiday was beginning to get indefinitely long. The white man grew impatient and drove to Nyasaland to look for his faithful servant. Somehow he managed to locate the village and fetched my uncle, who left Nyasaland again, this time for good. When Zimbabwe became independent the white man left the farm and my uncle relocated to a different area. He died in Zimbabwe in the 1980s and was buried there.
He could easily have claimed greatness since a white man braved the long drive from Rhodesia to an unknown Nyasa village, just to find him. The truth of the matter is that that did not change his status: he remained a servant and died with that status. If he had somehow outsmarted his boss and claimed a share of the farm or developed his own which was at par (or exceeded) that of the white man, then he would have shown true greatness.
We tend to overestimate the value of white people. Every white person is way above every black person, socially, financially, technologically, intellectually, right? Wrong! Perhaps one would be forgiven for having such an impression if they never had the chance to see white people in their homelands.
In 2015 I came across a white beggar at a minibus (taxi) station at Kempton Park in Johannesburg. Most of the taxi passengers were black South Africans and this white man was essentially begging from blacks. He also begged from me but, unfortunately, I did not have any cash to spare and could not assist.
I have seen many destitute white people on the streets of London. Some whites I met in the great metropolis were not so much destitute as stranded, because they did not know how to get to where they wanted to go. On a number of occasions I was approached by such stranded people, looking for information.
The point is that to be welcomed by a white person should not be taken as a sign that one is doing well or is getting higher on the ladder of greatness.
The man of God also showed off his newly acquired “machine”, a Jaguar XK, 2018 model, costing ZAR2million by his testimony. This was perhaps the ultimate indication that he was doing extremely well. There is no denying that he is a great man who is able to purchase a Jaguar. But I want to submit it to all readers today that he is a far greater man who conceives of a Jaguar, or any car for that matter, and takes the necessary steps to get it made. Usually people like that will have their name imprinted on the product, a true mark of greatness. A German called Karl Benz made what was probably the world’s first functional car, which got named after him. This was way back in 1885.
Another motor car entrepreneur, Emil Jellineck, Austrian, had a vehicle manufacturing plant called Daimler. Emil had a daughter called Mercedes and decided to have a line of vehicles named after her, beginning with the Mercedes 35 hp model of 1901. Daimler Company merged with Benz Company in 1926 and started to produce Mercedes Benz vehicles, which we still have today.
Henry Ford was an American manufacturer of cars, who, in 1913, invented the assembly line and increased the productivity of his factory eight-fold. He had a whole line of vehicles named after him. People like Benz, Jellineck and Ford, and not mere users like the man of God, can lay a legitimate claim to greatness.
Searching within Africa, one comes across an extraordinary man of God, Apostle Dr. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, Ghanaian, who is, in my view, a truly great man. He makes a range of his own vehicles, including the word’s first ever motorbike limousine, the Kantanka Odeneho V8. Let him take a selfie of himself driving, nay not a Jaguar XK, but his own car, bearing his name, then the world will pause to appreciate the exploits of a truly great man of God.