Africa has had a remarkable journey of ups and downs which reveals her resilient nature; and the love of her sons and daughters who have dedicated their lives to fighting for her. They are the pan-Africans. All pan-Africans do agree on the kind of Africa that we all want, a prosperous continent and key global player in international affairs. This is not a new thing for Africa has historically played that role. However, what has long caused a division since the Addis Ababa Conference in 1963, organized after the independence of African countries, is the strategy to adopt towards the Africa that all of us want. Just like in the old days, today there exist two divided groups; the old Monrovia group which advocated for autonomous African states but geared towards a gradual unity and; the old Casablanca group which advocates for an immediate unity of African states. Before I go further, we should note the common ground that emerges here, unity. Every pundit knows that the continent of Africa was and is still weakened by disunity.
According to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, for the colonialist to easily exploit Africa (which they do to date), they had to balkanize the continent. Africa was divided into smaller states that were shared among the colonial powers present in the Berlin Conference of 1884/1885. A case in relation to this, Chinua Achebe explains in “Things Fall Apart,” that the colonialists had put a knife at the midst of the thing that held us together and then we fell apart.” It is sad that when the colonial powers sat in Berlin, Germany, to divide African land amongst them, no African leader was involved. Also, almost no African interests were observed for they divided tribes and communities that previously existed together. Communities like the Maasai in present day Kenya and Tanzania that lived together were divided into two by the Kenya-Tanzania border. Pan-Africans would laugh this balkanization off by saying that they failed to partition nature for wildebeests cross Kenya and Tanzania every year in the great wildebeest migration. This proves that the intention to cut that region into two was a great mistake. Not a mistake of nature for nature doesn’t make any.
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The renaissance monument in Dakar, Senegal.
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The Gap between a Change from the Past and a Change for the Future
Away from the problems facing Africa, some of which were neither caused by our generation nor our people, finding solutions is what awaits us all. It is the responsibility of every African as a continent and a race. All of us from the black race have a responsibility towards helping Africa regain her lost glory possibly in this 21st century. This responsibility should not be left entirely to race heroes or the dedicated few who have decided to rise up against the enemies of African progress. Every black person has a role to play and especially in a united approach. This is not avoidable because the most famous aspect on the issue of African renaissance has always been that of African unity. Based on African socialism, African societies’ power lies in their collective approaches to issues affecting their lives.
You will see this in African principles such as Tanzanian ‘Ujamaa’ which calls for a cooperative economics and South Africa’s ‘Ubuntu’ that can be translated as “I am because we are,” meaning a single African cannot rise above the entire race. These words are echoed by Malcolm X who firmly stated that no African can be respected anywhere in the world until Africa gains its respect first. That is true. The gap between a change from the past and a change for the future is that of unity; bridging all the barriers that separates us from all of our kinds for there lies our strength. The past century has been a period of division, colonization, racism, conflicts, only to mention a few. Years later we still haven’t achieved this goal. It is a task carried forward. To add on the list, Africa is faced by newer problems in 21st century even though most of them can still be traced back to slavery and colonialism.
According to scholar W.E.B Dubois, the problem of the 20th century was racism, “The relation of the darker to lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, In America and the Islands of the sea.” The dedication by our forefathers in fighting the menace of racism in the African Diaspora is encouraging. That of colonialism too. After independence, there dawned a new era with its new challenges. In the 21st century, Africans and other black communities in the world face more of internal problems that those with external influences. Other gaps emerges here, the problems of bad governance and political instabilities, mental slavery, our conservative nature, and many others. To put the word ‘our conservative nature’ in place is this, as Africans and especially most Pan-Africans have misunderstood the phrase ‘African solutions to African problems’ with many thinking that the only solutions are traditional African ways. Fascism would block us from reaching our full potential.
While we must appreciate the past traditional African solutions and all our decisions informed from the past, the world is moving very fast and most of what Africans face today is not what our ancestors faced decades or centuries ago. A case in example is that there was a time when the traditional African hospitality cost us our land and freedom that some of our leaders had to wage costly wars with the invaders and colonialist. That aside, today we live in a world of global interconnectedness and inter-national commerce. Some race leaders also advocated for racial purity but we live in a world of unity. Intertribal and interracial, and interreligious marriages are a good way to African and world unity. Africa and black communities today cannot exist in isolation. In this era of global interconnectedness, unity should transcend our race; also, we should strategically unite with the outside world. If Africa aims to be a global player as our leaders at the African Union in 2013 echoed from the previous landmark Addis Ababa Conference of 1963, we have to take up that role and not wait for it to be crowned onto us. We won’t earn that role by folding our hands, literally.
The Most Critical Issues Affecting Africa in the 21st Century, as well as their Solutions
There are those who would say that we can’t judge Africa for taking a snail-speed in its progress for it took America centuries to become a super power state. This is not an excuse at all for all of us who would want our motherland to become a superpower as soon as yesterday. In the 21st century, and with technological advancement, the world is moving at a lightning speed. Yeah, time is not fair to us. For example, a single writing project that could take human beings hours or even months of research can today be done in seconds with the help of Artificial Intelligence. This means that Africa should now role up its sleeves before it is too late to catch up with the present-day world powers. Lord knows we are already left behind, though not late or last. By catching up with the world powers, I mean that Africa should solve the challenges that block it from its progress and unload the burdens that slow it down. According to Yarik Oguz, a research advisor at Tralac, there are many issues affecting Africa today, they can be summarized as disunity and neocolonialism. While the former breed more of internal problems; insecurity, tribalism, armed conflicts, and secessions, the latter breed a mix of external and internal challenges which include; bad governance, external debts, and poor infrastructure.
Solving the problem of Disunity
Africa has been divided for far too long. Some divisions are of our making while some were imposed on us. The divisions of our making are tribalism and violent internal conflicts. These issues have made it very hard for the people of Africa to unite and seek solutions to more challenging issues. When an African thinks that he or she is of a different class, tribe, race or nation, it becomes hard for them to see other people’s problems as their own. Africa is a united continent and everyone from Casablanca in Morocco to Durban in South Africa should see it as such. Africa should come first, before our skin colour, geographic position, tribes, and anything that divides us to weaken us rather that make us diverse to strengthen us. All kinds of conflicts like the one currently in Sudan and Somalia should be handled with diplomacy and dialogue. Guns should actually be silenced. African governments should join hands to settle once and for all the insecurity troubles in Africa.
Terrorism and the killing any human being for whatever reason is barbaric and a thing that should be unheard of in the human civilization. Armed conflicts, se-cessions and all that creates a rift among Africans should be discouraged. The goal is a united states of Africa and disunity is the most dangerous enemy. This issue can further be solved by Africans breaking the first barrier of tribalism and embracing all our tribal, skin colour, and cultural diversity of the continent in general. Embracing others means accepting them for who they are, without thinking that they are inferior or don’t deserve certain privileges. It is forming a multi-skilled team. Again from Mogadishu in Somalia to Dakar in Senegal, the identity should be first and foremost, African. The African Diaspora is also not left behind. Equality would be a misleading term for we cannot all be equal but equity will serve us all good. With over 2,000 tribes in Africa, God created us with this much diversity so we can complement each other.
History has also proven that linguistic unity is also gradually achievable in a united but diverse society. This can be seen with the emergence of Kiswahili as a language in East Africa. Bantu tribes and Asian tribes came together and in the process developed a language which united them in trade. The resultant population of the Swahili later is credited for building one of the greatest civilizations in Africa. Another example to prove that linguistic unity is achievable is the emergence of Sheng language among the Kenyan youths. Sheng is a mix of Kiswahili, English, Kikuyu, and other Kenyan tribes that has given a common ground for communication among the Kenyan youths. The third example to support the case is Nigerian Pidgin language which is a version of English but pronounced and written in Nigerian accent. Nigerian Author Mimi Werna says that if you are travelling to Nigeria don’t be discouraged communication-wise by the country’s 520 languages. “Just remember to add a little bit of pidgin to yours and you will be fine. It is the one language that binds us all,” she writes for the British Council. Africa can truly find common grounds for building a new and stronger civilization if we dedicate ourselves to it. For this to work, we must also find peaceful solution to our differences.
Fighting Neocolonialism
In his speech during the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Dr. Kwame Nkrumah warned African heads-of-states that the forces of colonialism were regrouping to manipulate the hard-earned victory of Africa. He further encouraged African presidents to not be blinded by the victory of the moment but get united and arm themselves for another impeding danger, neocolonialism. Different from the earlier colonialism that Africans had defeated, neocolonialism was indirect. According to Nkrumah, neocolonialism would seek to influence the political and economic landscape of the newly sovereign states to the advantage of the outside forces. “The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subjected to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality, its economic systems and thus its political policy is directed from outside.” Nkrumah is quoted.
Economically, neocolonialism sets classes in Africa with a bigger margin between the rich and poor. This has largely been caused by a small number of people and individuals in the countries benefiting disproportionally from the countries’ economic activities and natural resources. A question arises, has capitalism worked for Africa? In some cases, the economic domination by a small number of individuals or even foreign powers leaves African countries under-developed. Cases of under-development may include; limited access to healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The alliances of African leaders and foreign powers might also lead to unequal power dynamics in the continent where those foreign governments support corrupt or unethical leaders to protect their [foreign government] negative interests in the affected African country.
In addition, the issue on debt burden has been mentioned by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in ‘Africa Must Unite.’ In this book, Nkrumah states that colonial governments set Africa up for economic dependency and economic inequalities. The said governments borrowed large sums of money from their mother countries which left Africa in economic ditches that would not easily be filled. The effects that is has had on African government that have been made to pay not-easily-settled debts is alarming. Reports also indicate that African countries suffer direct economic effects from their colonial pasts. The solution to this challenge is rightfully provided by Prof. Ali Mazrui who advocated for reparations in the sense that former colonial governments commit to supporting democracy in Africa and write off African debts. The colonial governments don’t even have to pay back huge sums of money to Africa that would hurt their economies.
As seen in this essay, the African past has been both a glorious and a challenging one. There was a time, long ago, in African history, when tribes and communities united to build great civilizations that have their names permanently inscribed in the pages of history. Permanently inscribed by history, they cannot be erased by time. At that time Africa was a key global player in world affairs, its name travelled almost all over the world. The loss of all Africa’s glorious history happened gradually and by many factors. Among many factors are internal conflicts, foreign invasions, colonialism and slavery. This dark chapter in history was closed by dedicated African men and women who decided to engage the enemy forces. They won, but today Africa faces other challenges that rest upon our hands to mold them into the most beneficial forms.
Our role lies in transforming disunity to unity, armed conflicts to peaceful resolutions, and all challenges to opportunities. As times moves fast with the technological advancement brought especially by Artificial Intelligence, so should Africa be now moving at a lightning speed. One important thing to note is that the change is a responsibility of all Africans. We should handle the challenges of Africa in a collective approach for unity has been our strength throughout history. Africans from across the continent, from Casablanca in Morocco to Durban in South Africa, from Mogadishu in Somalia to Dakar in Senegal, should unite for this. Ubuntu, ujamaa, and African socialism principles should lead us to the African renaissance. It is said that every generation has its responsibility, ours is now; to solve the challenges of the 21st century.
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