Africa is Rich but Poor by Sinneh T. Moijueh

I can see life moving round in circles,
Ethics suspended like beautiful bubbles—
Vanished by a simple blow of wind.
Revelations about the truth are not a mystery;
It takes a simple use of the mind.
With indignation and frustration,
I decided to bring this revelation—for a transformation.

Africa the rich continent!
Africa the poor continent!
It may sound illogical or paradoxical,
But nonetheless—it’s factual.
For we are rich in minerals and resources,
But poor in morals and ethics.

We want our situation to change,
But we are not ready—
To change our minds and hearts
For that which is good and right—for national progress.
And therefore,
We continue to slumber as a result of our very actions and inactions.

I wonder why we are trying to keep a white surface clean,
In an open area exposed to dust!
It is okay to be intelligent—
But intellectualism without finance is frustration.
We cry for school fees,
But still see a sea of people who don’t feel or see what we see.

The dreams of our graduates
Are buried in streams of hopeless thoughts—
We got from a pool of unemployment.
This gives them less hope,
As they become hope-less—
As to what the future really holds.
And our parents continue to submit meekly
To insults in the hands of foreigners, just to get our daily bread.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that:
“You must be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
But Africans have long accepted
Immorality and corruption as the norms of daily life.

So when would we live our lives
With ease and peace,
With a mind that sees
The breeze of genuine success?

We dance to the music of the very culture that has buried us,
When a renewal of the culture is what would ultimately salvage us.
From North to South,
From East to West,
A wind rose to fly with the dream of Africa—
Blocked by the walls of corruption and injustice.

Ordinary citizens become public officials,
And all public officials were once ordinary citizens.
It’s not the coat that matters,
But the man in the coat.
The rotation is not a solution—
But a change of attitude is.

As we move along the road of redemption,
Challenges will surely tend to vanish our promises
Into mere wishes of the mind.
But let’s not give up on the African dream.
Let’s keep the hope alive—
For God will surely send His divine light to clear our path to glory.

God’s divine wind will move our tears,
To fill the holes once left in our hearts,
And make our continent great again.

Barack Obama once said:
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

So let’s take responsibility,
And move in unity,
To restore the dignity
Of our very humanity.

There is no individual transformation without character transformation.
There’s no national transformation without individual transformation.
If Africa must change—
Then we, the people making up Africa, should first change.

Now my question is:
Are we going to continue complaining
And avoid the all-important decision of changing our very selves?
Or do we want to continue suffering?

It’s our choice to make.

Sinneh T. Moijueh is a Pan-African activist, spoken word poet, and visionary founder of The Perfect Guide for Mankind (PGM)—an organization committed to ensuring every African succeeds without corruption and injustice, and making Africa the best place on the planet.

A multi-award-winning Chartered Accountant and Life Coach, Sinneh earned seven major qualifications by age 31, including two Master’s degrees, ACCA, and dual BScs. Through powerful content like “Africa is Rich But Poor” and his media platforms including The PGM Show, he inspires mindset transformation and champions hard work, discipline, and self-leadership as tools for genuine success.

Followed by a growing audience of over 35,000 across social media platforms, Sinneh is a catalyst for change—empowering a new generation to rewrite Africa’s story through hard work, vision, and resilience.