The Sunday News
The dream of our early nationalists and visionaries who spearheaded the struggle for independence across Africa, and who battled mental colonisation, could soon lie in ruins if the post independence African states’ citizens neglect to inform their offspring of their history and how that history should help chart their course into the future.
What kind of Africa do we envision as a people, what form of heritage or legacy do we seek to bequeath to future generations and what sort of future does the resource-rich continent deserve, especially looking at its painful history and its promising potential on all fronts?
If the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Julius Nyerere and other fallen comrades were to arise today, would they pat us on our backs or would they spit in our faces, for our role since we took the baton from them in the race for total emancipation of the African continent?
These are some of the sobering questions that we should candidly pose and honestly answer as well, as we mark Africa Day, a commemoration of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (now African Union) 51 years ago, all in a bid to chart the destiny of our motherland.
At the formation of the OAU in 1963, the Southern African region was still under colonial rule and thus was not part of the 32 states that gathered in Ethiopia for the launch of the organisation whose guiding principle was unity of the continent not only for political ends but even for economic reasons, chiefly to halt the siphoning of the continent’s resources by Western nations through neo-colonial control of the affairs of the independent states. It was through the efforts of the OAU, using its liberation committee, that many countries got the necessary support to wage the struggle against colonialism.
Today, Africa boasts of 54 members of the African Union, from the 32 states in 1963, a great achievement showing how far Africa has come in liberating its people. However, several issues that African leaders warned of in 1963, still haunt us to this day since the Western influence that was feared then continues to stalk the leadership on the continent with cases of instability linked to some major powers.
There is instability in Nigeria due to the Boko Haram menace, and though the group has been linked to some Western powers by some quarters, the French have taken the lead in attempts to “restore order” in Nigeria with a summit in Paris last week with several West African leaders, including Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. OAU founding fathers Emperor Haile Selassie and President Kwame Nkrumah warned of such foreign meddling in 1963, and they later became victims of military overthrow.
Founding OAU chairman Emperor Haile Selassie said at the OAU 1963 inaugural conference in Ethiopia: “The nations of Africa, as is true of every continent of the world, from time to time dispute among themselves. These quarrels must be confined to this continent and quarantined from the contamination of non-African interference. Permanent arrangements must be agreed upon to assist in the peaceful settlement of these disagreements which, however few they may be, cannot be left to languish and fester. Procedures must be established for the peaceful settlement of disputes, in order that the threat or use of force may no longer endanger the peace of our continent.”
The flare-up in Nigeria threatens regional peace and is not in the spirit of calls by OAU leaders 51 years ago, something which should challenge the current leadership of the African Union not to allow the neo-colonial meddlers any foothold on the continent. What is worse is that Africa is turning to our erstwhile colonisers for solutions to our problems that should be “quarantined from the contamination of non-African interference”.
It is about time Africa took charge in shaping its economic destiny so that the West does not use the economic might to sow discord so that it robs the continent of its resources. African unity can never go out of fashion. It is in fact more important now than ever considering the subtle manoeuvres of the yesteryear vanquished who have laid siege on the continent though preaching peace so that our people see them as their saviours.
Trade among African countries still remains worryingly low with figures showing that in 2013, intra-African trade was at 12 percent. By comparison Intra-European trade stood at 60 percent, as was the case with Asia while in North America the figure was at 40 percent.
The African population has meanwhile grown from about 300 million in 1963 to at least 800 million now. And this should count when it comes to trade. Africa is still gathering towards economic independence as the continent still ships out primary products. We need a serious shift towards value addition and beneficiation and deepening trade links between African states through economic integration of the 14 trading blocs on the continent.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s words in 1963 in Ethiopia may as well have been prophetic. “On this continent, it has not taken us long to discover that the struggle against colonialism does not end with the attainment of national independence. Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs; to construct our society according to our aspirations, unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist controls and interference.”
Zimbabwe has taken the lead in much of Africa in reclaiming its land and now has embarked on an indigenisation programme that the West has never bothered to correctly interpret and properly position in the context of our painful past of subjugation.
We seek nobody’s endorsement besides our conscience, and we know that might is not necessarily right, hence we are determined to stay the course. Africa for Africans.
