By Tendai Makaripe
A society that strives to build a nation where crime and corruption, theft and graft, child abuse, violence against women and children and other social pathologies are viewed with indignation and treated with the disgust they rightly deserve is every African’s dream.
However, countless social ills have characterised African states reducing this lovely continent to a hive of theft, corruption, drug dealing among other disgusting tendencies.
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II, stated, “History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed in to political and economic decline.” These wise words point to the moral decay that is rotting our nations around us. Time is short—humanity must pay attention now!
A plethora of issues can be attributed to this death of morality especially among young people in Africa and something should be urgently done to solve the impending crisis.
Western values, cultures and religious traditions are presented as the universal messages of the truly civilised through CNN, BBC World Service, Voice of America and other western media.
The result is that a thick layer of the western cultural dust is spread all over the world. Hollywood movies selling glamour and sex penetrate every house hold in the world without mercy.
American cigarettes like Marlborough’s and Pall Mall, beers like Carlsberg and Heineken and magazines like Penthouse and Play Boy are being pushed down the throats of the poor youth as the symbols of modernity.
Sydney Mabhiza, Chairman responsible for National Affairs at the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) bemoaned the death of morality amongst the youths attributing it to their desire to live the western way of life.
“A non-stop bombardment of glossy western life styles, having expensive cars, disco life pleasure, beautiful apartments, blond women and neon lights are being projected as an ultimate paradise on earth. When the youth in the poor countries see this through internet and CNN, they want to have these things too. They do even the most morally acceptable things to get a feel of the western way of life.”
The man of the cloth was spot on as many youths have left the traditional acceptable way of doing things and falling for the western way of life which has various loopholes as far as morally accepted behaviour is concerned.
Mabhiza’s counterpart Bishop Divas Chakwenya concurs; “Children and adults are bombarded with advertising, television, and social issues that simply did not exist a few generations ago. Each year, the standard of what is considered acceptable entertainment drastically degrades.
“Hollywood pushes immoral concepts through movies. And the fashion industry and magazines take up the baton in offering clothing to suit these roles. Such drastic social changes have not occurred without a dramatic effect!”
But is it proper to lay the blame at the feet of the entertainment industry only?Some will argue and say “Adults can resist the pulls of television and society. They can watch televised acts of murders, sex or deceit without it affecting their moral compass.” This thinking is partially correct.
The most effective way to instill wrong morals into a person is to teach him wrong morals as a child. The key is education!
In the words of the former President of United States of America, Theodore Roosevelt, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
For example, some people argue that racists are born not made. Racism is learned—developed—over many years, in an environment that drives these wrong concepts into one’s mind, supplanting what should have been proper and balanced concepts of racial equality.
Also, the younger a person is when wrong thoughts and concepts are introduced, the more likely he is to be open to them. Attitudes must be programmed before a concept of right and wrong solidifies. And so is the case with morality. People must be taught morals when they are young to have them transfer to adulthood. But if they are not being taught proper morals, what are they learning?
While modern society cannot stop people from committing immoral acts, individuals must realize that their actions do carry serious consequences. The world has reached a point where virtually anything is tolerated. Almost nothing is considered intolerable.
Small children are now being taught about lifestyles and sexual concepts that would make adults blush. Their small brains are fed with such beliefs and ideals are ingrained into them as they grow into adults.
The result is most of the African youths fail to believe in the concept of right or wrong conduct. It has been said that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” This is especially true with morality; you are not born with a proper concept of right and wrong, you must be taught!
The reason many problems such as crime, war, adultery, theft, etc, are exploding around us is that children are no longer taught right from wrong. They no longer understand what proper conduct is and what improper, immoral conduct is.
When one says that something is wrong, they are being intolerant of wrong conduct. Teaching tolerance will never be compatible with teaching right from wrong, because teaching right from wrong is considered intolerance!
The task of teaching children proper morals now completely lies in the hands of parents and this responsibility is usually underemphasized. Think of all the things influencing our children today: Music, television, movies and peers, which all undermine proper parental influence and authority.
Teach a child in the way he should go so that even if he gets old he will not depart from it. The only way we can curb rampant immorality in our continent is to get rid of it when it is still in its diapers.
Comments
About Author
