Recently, I attended a group discussion at which, Why is there pain in the world? was the subject of conversation. I did lend my voice to the discussions that were going on, and my answer to the question was that most of the pain in this world emanates from – an extreme desire to dominate.

I will explain further, as I did during that group discussion …

A lot of pain that people have experienced in the past, the ones that people are experiencing now and the ones that are a result of past vices can be traced to an extreme desire to dominate. The desire by a person or a group of people to be better than the other, always at the top. Evidence of such desire shows up when we think of colonization, racism and corruption.

Colonization, though this may not seem like the case, twisted cultures. I am Nigerian and my ancestors, for example, were persuaded to leave their own religion for Christianity and some people’s ancestors took on Islam. This is evidence of absolute domination. People were so much influenced that they left their religious practices with trust that the colonizers knew better. I love my religion – Christianity, but when I think of how it was acquired long ago in my country, I feel a little upset. English language became the norm of the day. Do note that several languages are spoken in Nigeria, but English became Nigeria’s lingua franca. The English language through Western supremacy, has dominated the world so much that if you are not from and in a French-speaking country, you are disadvantaged in many parts of the world.

At the root of racism is White supremacy – a desire to be the dominating race. For this cause, people have been lynched, and many degraded and not treated as human beings. Racism may not be as overt as it was a while ago, but it is still engrained in many Western societies. It has spread across several diasporas. It is not just a White to Black thing anymore, it could be a Black to White, Hispanic to Persian thing these days.

I find it hard to decipher why there are leaders in this world who continue to enrich themselves illegally at the expense of the poor. Leaders who are oblivious to the sufferings of others and want to benefit themselves, their family members and friends, irrespective of the condition of others. The cycles of corruption continue to keep generations on the margins.

We need to put a stop to the vices of the past and end those of the present because vices tend to be passed on to future generations. The random killing of black youths by police in America can be traced to a filthy history of segregation and stereotyping in that nation.

This is a summary of my contribution to that group discussion.

All sorts of extreme desire to dominate continuously rob people of the bond that we all have in common – the human bond. Our humanity becomes numb and we can care less about the other person. However, for peace to reign, we must have self-control and we must remember to be human because it is a good thing to be human in soul.

In the words of the Late Jimi Hendrix, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”.

Love & Peace,

Chiamaka.

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