Recently, it was announced that the president of Tanzania has passed away. The details of his death are sketchy; some reports say he died from a Heart condition and some reports say he died as a result of Covid-19. Condolences to him as he was among a rare group of African leaders who cared deeply for Africa and Africans. Unfortunately, he had one flaw and it was the eating of poison fruits.

No disrespect intended. The poison fruit I refer to is not a literal fruit; it is the process of relying on ignorance instead of reality to sustain one’s life. Poison fruits were the first deceit in the history of human existence. They helped us to rationalize our reality because once a person dies from eating a poison fruit, everyone who hears about it now knows not to eat that fruit because it is poison.

Humans have survived this long in a world we have to navigate by trial and error because we’ve learned to use our Brain to avoid the millions of poison fruits that nature produces. And because we’re smart enough, we’ve learned to apply the poison fruit wisdom to everything else in life. We have the capacity to gain as much knowledge about life as we want. Such knowledge should not only be to facilitate happiness; it should be to sustain our health as well.

Religion is the one thing in life that defies the poison fruit wisdom, as it relies completely on wishful thinking instead of rational thought. Still, we try with all our might to fit the square peg that is religion into every round hole we encounter. We will declare that we cannot get sick because god is protecting us then when we get sick, we run to the doctor. We then believe that it is god that provided the doctor to help us get better.

When we die as a result of our own ignorance, everyone declares that it is god’s will. If it’s god’s will then there must be a lesson people! What is the lesson that god wants you to learn? Defy reason and give me an answer if you can fit square pegs into a round holes. I already know what you will say. You will say that only god knows the reason why he allows a good person to die.

The Tanzanian president scoffed at the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only did he refuse to implement any lockdowns, mask wearing, or keep any records of sicknesses and deaths in Tanzania, he boldly declared that god was protecting Tanzania from Covid-19. Months ago, I’ve seen people praising him for his anti-pandemic stance. I even saw Black American repatriates vlogging about how happy they were to be in Tanzania because of the non-existent Covid-19 rules.  

The president’s passing only leaves Tanzania and Africa in a dark cloud of ignorance. No one will learn to become any wiser by the knowledge about the true cause of his death. The only information that is being spread now is that he didn’t die from Covid-19 or he was assassinated by Western powers for his pro-Africa stance. When will we learn to depend on the wisdom of the poison fruit and let go of ignorance?