Our society has succeeded in brainwashing most of us. It is so bad that we now think of paid employment or securing a job is the only way, the truth and the life. We have been brainwashed to see employment as normal. But there is absolutely nothing normal about securing paid employment.
Many years ago before the amalgamation of what they called ‘Southern and Northern protectorates’ in 1914 by the British colonial lords, before the advent of the Europeans, there existed in our climes the Benin kingdom, the Oyo Empire, the Kanuri empire and many others. Among these people the concept of “employee-ship” was non-existence. The people were natural entrepreneurs. Instead of expecting a monthly paycheck, like is obtainable today, they farmed, produced and paid royalties or taxes to the ‘Landlords’ or the king for the land. Everyone and every family worked for themselves.
When the British colonial masters arrived and defeated these native people through the superior means of transport and weaponry, they changed the prevalent economic order and established a different kind of civilization and economy, one that was based on employee-ship.
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According to Wikipedia “The British economic policy for Africa at the time was founded on the belief that if African people were brought to embrace European civilization…their economic resources would be more effectively and thoroughly exploited to the benefit of all…” In order to effectively achieve that purpose, they established factories, schools, churches and other businesses, which consequently required cheap labour to run and grow.
Interestingly, all they had to do was train the ‘primitive natives’ to perform specific roles in the new system and remain dependent and never self-reliant. The natives were informed and trained with knowledge that was just enough to execute the jobs that the white man required them to do. Those natives who were lucky to gain British education were promoted as the most-refined, best and most intelligent and superior human beings among their kinsmen. Everyone else was regarded as crude and barbaric. Soon enough, the natives began to believe in the “superiority” of the white man.
With time and no matter who you were, you worked for the colonial masters as an employee one way or another.
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