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Prof Ernest Wamba dia Wamba,
Honorary professor, UHURU, Rhodes University.
The political kingdom was reduced to the state. And unity was seen
principally as a ‘United States of Africa’ (or one African united
government) to erect. And heads of states of Africa have been meeting
regularly to talk about this. In relation to the question of African unity,
both the Casablanca and the Monrovia groups acted in similar way.
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States of Africa’, by forming one government, and to later work out the
details of the building of united Africa, led by that government which
would be more competent in handling the basic problems faced by the
current micro-states, much more so than by any loose collection of those
states.
This was, in some sense, the outcome of the process and struggles within
the Pan-Africanist Movement which had originated in the Americas,
among the slave descendant diaspora. The movement grew from a
mass-based tendency in the organization of Marcus Garvey, to a focus
on an intellectual elite, producing a break that almost led to the neglect
of the African masses of people. The role of these masses gradually
became seen as less and less crucial. This break was, partly, doctrinally
theorized in Kwame N’Krumah’s idea of Consciencism. This was a sort of
consciousness of African liberation to be introduced into the African
masses from the outside, from the elite. It was for Amilcar Cabral that
the intellectual elite was required to commit class suicide and to return
to the source, which is to re-connect with the masses of people and their
cultural forms of resistance. Very few elite elements committed class
suicide in that sense; many did it in the other sense of distancing
themselves further from the masses of people and becoming closer to
imperialists, in fact they mostly served as the latter’s local ally, their
ruling class.
Surely, most of the heads of state in Africa understood the necessity for
African unification. But, they seemed to lack the “vigour, commitment
and sincerity” which the objective of African unity required. This is
understandable, as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere also said in his speech in
Accra in 1997 (3): “Once you multiply national anthems, national flags
and national passports, seats at the United Nations, individuals entitled
to a 21-gun salute, not to speak of a host of ministers, prime ministers
and envoys, you would have a whole army of powerful people with
vested interests in keeping Africa balkanized.” This may explain why they
failed to think of a mechanism of African unity, similar to the Dar-es-
Salaam based Liberation Committee of the OAU, to really focus on the
actualization of the political objective.
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We can see today that many micro-states did not even work out a real
meaningful unity in their own respective “Berlinist nation-states”. In a
real sense, people, in those countries, in their cultural or ethnic diversity
were not mobilized and organized to achieve real mutual understanding
and mutual comprehension between the various communities
composing the multicultural nation. After more than 50 years of
independence, the tribal factor still weighs on people’s minds and
actions. The enduring impact of colonial divide and rule practices were
barely positively reversed or healed. Institutions of interconnectedness
were hardly elaborated and put in place by the people themselves.
“Hybridity” seems to be the general rule governing behaviour. This
explains the absence of a real popular-democratic cultural tradition.
Most political parties reflect these characteristics.
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Where creative attempts at creating national unity through the state
took place, it was often undertaken at the expense of many languages
and cultural experiences which were almost forced into oblivion. The
rich experiences accumulated through those languages and dialects, --
supposedly as a way of transcending tribalism--, were almost left to fall
into decay. Is this not criminal? Indeed, very few countries tried to instill
in people a consciousness of African-ness, of cultural pluralism. Pre-
colonial nations divided by colonialism, straddling colonial borders, were
almost obliged to keep the ties between the parts in different countries,
clandestinely. Those parts of nations should have been a kind of glue in
the relationships between people to form a solid basis for state to state
relations. Instead, state to state relations have emphasized state
security. People of these nationalities living along the borders do not
recognize these in their daily activities.
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What made them survive?’ He suggested to researcher historians to find
out the answer and what is found should be made the basis of education.
This basic concern was hardly expressed on the African continent.
Despite the sanctity of colonial borders, border conflicts have not been
lacking, especially when a resource running across the borders is
discovered. For example, conflicts arose between Nigeria and Cameroon
over oil found on the border, Somalia and Kenya also with regard to oil,
Angola/Democratic Republic of Congo with diamonds-(at Kahemba)—
and oil, recently Tanzania and Malawi with gas in lake Nyasa, etc. Some
countries try, by use of violence, to loot the resources in the neighboring
country (Rwanda, Uganda in relation to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo.) We witness no creative political imagination, no proposals for
joint ventures to exploit, common resources by mutual cooperation. No
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political ideas such as the formation of federation or confederation with
a rotating leadership are contemplated since the unification of
Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The spirit of colonial conquest has simply been
internalized.
Before his death (in 1999), Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, in his Accra
speech (of 1997), made again a strong plea for African unity as the only
viable future for Africa. I quote him: “So this is my plea to the new
generation of African leaders and African peoples: work for unity with
the firm conviction that without unity, there is no future for Africa. That
is, of course, assuming that we still want to have a place under the
sun.”(6) The whole Accra speech could be viewed as some sort of an
important constructive self-criticism by one of the main actors of the
OAU/AU.
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Why is African unity necessary now? There are many critical reasons
why we need the unification of Africa. And we need now to bring to the
African peoples themselves the question of that unification and not just
leave it to the leaders of the micro-states. The African people should
also have a chance to assess the issue themselves. We shall discuss here
some of the basic reasons. In a real sense, Pan-Africanism was a political
subjectivity of the unity of African people and their emancipation.
African states have turned against this emancipation.
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The lack of African unity has made it easier for the enemies of the African
people to divide them further and to use some African sons and sisters
against them. Wikileaks, at some point, revealed the fact that even
certain heads of micro-states were spying and reporting on others for
the benefit of imperialist powers— for ‘the pride of being under the
umbrella of the Empire!’ They betray their colleagues, as they betray
their own people. Unity may not eliminate this, but it may reduce its
impact. In a real sense, this rivalry, similar to that between field niggers
and house niggers, has made it impossible for African micro-states to
have a permanent member at the UN Security Council, despite African
states’ desire for it.
More than this, as Tom Burgis has shown in his The Looting Machine (7)
African presidents occupy a prominent place in the systematic theft of
Africa’s wealth. Their rivalry also takes place through that machine.
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be achieved. I told them that if size was the motive force of peace or lack
of it, then, smaller countries such as Somalia, Rwanda and Burundi
should have been the most peaceful. Balkanizing the DRC into 4 micro-
states would in fact lead to more infighting, as some of those new states
would be land locked and have fewer natural resource endowments.
Still, the pressure lingers on.
Through the alliance between the U.S.A., NATO and Israel, a new
remapping of Africa is taking place, at the expense, so it seems ironically,
of France and Italy. The struggle to impose a “regime change” on Libya
seems to have accelerated this process (9).
As is well known, the hunger for labor felt by Europe, after the invasion
of the Americas and the near-extermination of their native populations,
brought to Africa the devastating capitalist enslavement, called the
“slave trade” that lasted for more than 4 centuries. Some small kings
and chiefs participated in this “trade”, at least early on, before they were
overwhelmed.
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The absence in Africa of the equivalent of NATO still perpetuates the
state of siege Africa has been under for centuries. We note that the US
military presence (through Africom, secret operations and operatives,
etc.) is rising (10) and that of the People’s Republic of China has begun.
In the eventuality of a clash between these powers over the access to
strategic resources in Africa, Africa is not prepared to respond. NATO
intervened in Libya to remove Gaddafi; Africa had nothing to counter this
move —notwithstanding her possible alignment to that removal.
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that the U.S. intended to reorganize the world, with its allies or
singlehandedly, in conformity with its growing interests. This led to the
pursuit of the strategy of “The Globalization of war: America’s ‘Long war’
against Humanity”(12) and the re-empowerment of NATO—rather than
to its dissolution, as was the case with the Warsaw Pact organization.
The events of September 11, 2001 reinforced the need for that “Long
war” program, now justified by “the war against terrorism”—which, in a
general way, it generated.
Let it be said that the African masses of people are hardly informed
regularly about what is being accomplished in Addis-Ababa, nor are they
actively invited to know or to appreciate what their rulers are doing, nor
are they asked for their peoples’ thoughts. As far as I know, not a single
experience of referendum voting on the issue has taken place in any
country. The question of the unification of Africa was never
organizationally brought inside the African people. No real attempt, as
far as I know, at a pro-people involvement in the unification process was
ever made. We know that Africa is the continent which hardly has
control over the media and the sources of information in the world.
Some dictators, in Africa, engage in misinformation as a policy of
governance. This explains the banishing of journals and radios,
educative films or TV channels providing sometime interesting
information.
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Being increasingly shaped by the short term market considerations,
African universities, in the main, are declining. Quality is giving in to
market project considerations and fundamental research is thus
suffering. Intellectual workers (as those organized through CODESRIA)
seem to be affected by positivism which is rising with globalization
conservatism. This is so at a time when Africa needs to embark more
and more on doing fundamental research.
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Africa needs to have a sound educational system that would eradicate
all the structures and prejudices of the “civilizing mission” which resulted
in some enduring educational structures and accumulated “knowledge”,
we need to revamp. This requires a critical mass of quality intellectual
workers. So far, we have not succeeded sufficiently critiquing Western
Africanism (historiography, etc.). Our schools have just adopted, in the
main, Western conceptions of the continent’s geography, the periods of
its history, its agencies, even the assigned status to African people as
victims whose survival depends on Western assistance (18).
Natural resources on the continent are not well distributed. Some areas
are short of basic resources such as drinking water and fertile soil. The
need for a redistribution of resources, not only inside each country but
also around the continent, must not be left to the market whose
dynamics in the main is controlled by outside stronger forces. Instead of
thinking from the perspective of African unity, some countries are
aggressing neighbors to pillage their resources. In place of imagining
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possibilities of creation of confederations or federations as possible
structures through which to collectively share resources some want to
redraw borders as a way of acquiring resources they do not possess (20).
The world is faced with major dangers threatening the very existence of
humanity if not life itself. These include the possibility of a nuclear war,
a failure to address climate change in a timely manner, a possible
uncontrollable epidemic and the underlining facilitating factor, the poor
quality of world leadership. An African unified voice in the “battle of
ideas”(21) on these dangers would have more impact than countries in
isolation.
Of course, as the African proverb says, “one must clean one’s house
before visiting others’ houses”. We know that the question of the quality
of leadership or just leadership per se, is a very serious issue. African
rulers have increasingly failed to transform themselves into leaders.
Many dream of becoming kings rather than responsible leaders of
Republics. How African unity will be arrived at, especially if it does so as
a result of African popular movements and pressure, will make it possible
to have a relatively good African leadership.
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strike pre-emptive nuclear attack against both countries is actually
contemplated. Both Russia and China are also busy preparing
themselves against the USA and NATO.
Last, but not least, the struggle for drinking water will very soon move
towards the center stage. Africa has major sources of fresh water.
Within Africa, fresh water is not well distributed. African unity may help
Africa take up this challenge as well. The thirst of drinking water,
elsewhere, should not become an occasion for another scramble for
Africa.
19
Of course, there are also other reasons for African unity; the ones
mentioned here may be sufficient enough to awaken people.
xxx
III
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Chinese to Africa. Scary things were said. Chinese settlers are
supposedly given living conditions and come to Africa engaging in gaining
control over minerals, acquiring land, engaging in poaching and they
come as a way of sending to Africa the demographic excess.
The colonialist policy of divide and rule and that of civilizing mission have
marked considerably the African personality. The psycho-cultural
consciousness has been formatted through curricula of slavery and
domination. Until now, educational systems still need to be revamped
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and a new curriculum should be devised. Most African micro-states give
very little budgetary attention to education.
Briefly, historically, a lot of resources have been taken from Africa, even
more through commercial robbery than through naked force, leaving the
majority of Africans impoverished, starving, diseased and sick with
curable diseases, without jobs—whole populations affected by
malnutrition.
Despite the long term exploitation of natural resources for economic and
human development, some development does exists but it is insufficient.
Economic growth and human development require a reasonable level of
technology to produce enough needed goods and distribute them., With
the destruction of its ancient foundations, the level of technology is too
low to make a difference. In many countries, the old artisanal and craft
technology (blacksmith, craftsmanship, etc.) have been destroyed with
very little replacement., After the destruction of the KMT civilization,
Africa has been faced for a long time with almost no continually evolving
technology in society necessary to deliver more necessities.
22
The articulation between artisans, scientists, engineers and captains of
finance responsible for the technological taking off elsewhere, has hardly
taken place in our micro-states. Reduced to a mentality of “prêt a
porter” (the ‘ready-made’) African consciousness suffers from
insufficient creativity, innovation and spirit of discovery. Even “foreign
aid or assistance” and the general reliance on donors have had a
considerable impact on consciousness. More and more, Africans see
nothing wrong with the practice of depending on foreign aid for electing
one’s “leaders”.
The need to align overall ways of life: the meaning of life, the value of
human life, conceptions of death, methods for acquiring resources for
survival and the problems of cultural and technical integration beyond
inter-ethnic marriage, etc. are not insurmountable. Mâât, the KMT
world view of justice/truth/balance incarnate, to the extent that similar
values are scattered in other African traditions, constitutes an important
unifying cultural basis. The recent translation into African languages of
some important Ancient Egyptian texts gives a sense of the underlining
African cultural continuity (27). Clarity on these questions will empower
people to deal with the cultural consequences of consumerism, in a
continent where the working class culture is not so vibrant.
Cases of epidemics (Ebola, HIV, etc.) in Africa have shown the difficulties
of health care. The cumulated legacy of African suffering, the low life
expectancy due to chronic problems such as poor nutrition, lack of safe
drinking water, inappropriate sewage systems and lack of indigenous
control of immunization systems—mostly in the hands of outsiders—and
insufficient medical structures emphasizing prevention over cure, all
these militate in weakening the health of Africans. Add to this malaria,
a most debilitating disease on the continent that causes havoc especially
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on children below the age of five; all these constitute the elements of
health difficulties. But, we should also say that invaders found Africans
on the continent kicking and vibrant; there must have already been
means of health care that need to be studied and re-activated. My great
uncle used to say: “colonialists found us here alive; after they took over
our land, they turned around and said that without them coming we
would have died!”
29
All the attempts at planning at a continental level and visions of
development, from the Lagos Plan to NEPAD have ended in disarray.
They ended Almost in the same way as the most creative popular
experiences, such as Ujamaa socialist villages (30) ended: complete
failure to primarily rely on one’s own forces, particularly human
resources. Indeed, the rulers have willingly allowed themselves to have
their economies mis-planned (almost disorganized), from the point of
view of the majority of the people, by international institutions such as
the IMF and the WB.
30
researchers summarizes it: “The self-serving ruling class in Africa today
generally has a stranglehold on power in various nations. There are
exceptions. The rule however is that governments are funded, trained,
supported and armed by Whites, Arabs to defend the resources they are
getting (for almost nothing) from fragmented African nations. In some
instances, they terrorize their own people with weapons of their nation’s
oppressors. They allocate over 18% of the nation’s GNP for their class
defense and the defense of their private property, yet they only allocate
approximately 1.8% on health care for the entire nation.”(31) The rulers
are the first to ruin their own countries’ ‘national sovereignty’.
Without going into details about all the difficulties and obstacles, let me
end by saying that we need to study systematically to reveal those
obstacles and thus find ways of removing them. I think that the creation
of a mechanism for African unity will be a starting point.
The committee will write its own Manifesto. What I can say here is that
it will gather and spread widely among the people necessary information
concerning the necessity for African unification. With and inside the
people it will try to discover new forms of organizations, not modeled
after state forms and conducive to creating people’s interconnectedness
and mutual comprehension—among African nations within each country
and between countries.
When we look around us, on the streets, etc., all we mostly see are
commercial publicity materials, emphasizing the fact that market short
logic, consumerism, money are the only things that count. We need to
embellish our social environment with African cultural, historical
materials displayed everywhere. Names of heroes on the streets and
public buildings are not enough. We need crucial historical images and
figures, political environment images; we need images and figures of
artists, musicians, etc. displayed. In brief, the Committee must help
make the social environment where people live and interact be a
learning environment conducive to an awakening to African renaissance.
Those are just few suggestions. I hope I provoked enough the reader’s
thinking on this important issue. I do wish that each of us will continue
dealing with it.
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END NOTES
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9. Michel Chossudovsky, The Glabalization of War. America’s “Long
War against Humanity. Montreal, Canada: Global Research
Publishers, 2015. Especially chap. VIII.
10. Nick Turse, Tomorrow’s Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret
Ops in Africa. A Dispatch Books Project. Chicago, Il.: Haymarket
Books, 2015.
.
11. Vladmir Putin’s speech. See. http://cluborlov.blogspot.fi/
2014/10/putin-t0-western-elites-play-time-is.html?m=1
12. Michel Chossudovsky, op.cit.
13. Nick Turse, op cit. especially, chap. 9.
14. Michel Chossudovsky, op. cit.
15. Hundreds of African people, trying to reach Europe in search
of greener pastures, are continuously being swindled by pirates
drowning in the sea and being buried at Lampedusa, Italy.
16. Therese F. Azeng has recently studied this issue in her
“Cinquante ans de planification du developpement en Afrique:
Regard retrospectif sur quelques experiences continentales. »
Journal of African Transformation Vol.1, No.1, 2015, pp. 101-117.
17. Tdka Kilimanjaro et al. Survival Organization. Build African
Institutions of a New Type. Detroit, Mi.: University of KMT Press,
2014, chap. 2.
18. Mueni wa Mutu and Guy Martin, A New Paradigm of The
African State: Fundi wa Africa. New York, NY.: Palgrave MacMillan,
2009, pp.195-196.
19. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, “Afrocentrism &
the African Renaissance Movement.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAdb6dNYdfs
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20. Both Rwanda and Uganda have been agitating for the
redrawing of their borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
21. Fidel Castro Cruz’s interview in Michel Chossudovsky, op cit.
chap II, pp.45-71.
22. Michel Chossudovsky, op cit.
23. Ibdem
24. Mueni wa Mutu and Guy Martin, op.cit.
25. IMF 2015 Report.
26. Theophile Obenga, Origine commune de l’egyptien ancien, du
copte et des langues negro-africaines modernes. Introduction a la
linguistique historique africaine. Paris : L’Harmattan, 1993. And
Felix F. Chami makes certain interesting observations in his: The
Unity of African Ancient History: 3000BC to AD 500. Dar-as-Salaam,
Tza, E&D Limited, 2006.
27. A group of researchers, of which I am a member, have been
translating some Ancient Egyptian texts into African languages.
28. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, op.cit.
29. Mueni Mutu and Guy Martin, op.cit.
30. Tdka Kilimnjaro et al. op. cit. p.
31. See for example, Ralph Ibbott, Ujamaa: The Hidden Story of
Tanzania’s Socialist villages. London: Crossroards Books, 2014.
32. Tom Burgis, The Looting Machine, op.cit. And also see
Howard French,” The Plunder of Africa: How Everybody Holds the
Continent Back.” A Review of the book in Foreign Affairs,
June/August 2015 issue.
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