AFRICA DAY: DECODING THE DECOY BEYOND AFRICANNESS IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA
I am usually cautious when it comes to commenting on issues to do with Africa. I know the sensitivity that surrounds the matter. Some have been called traitors for speaking out and others have been labelled puppets before Christopher Dell's assessment actually confirmed what we have said before, that in fact the person who has been passed on as a puppet for a very long time is the opposite of that and "he will need handling once he is in power" which actually says that he is not being handled at the moment and therefore he is not a "puppet" whatever the meaning of the word.
Luckily I didn't have to participate in the Second Chimurenga as my birth in 1973 coincided with the decisive phase of the Second Chimurenga and my father and mother and others in my circle including my brother gave themselves to the liberation cause as has been the tradition in my family. We have fought selflessly in every war that mattered since 1684. So no-one can accuse me of being anyone's puppet. And I was still 6years in 1980 when independence came, still too young to hold a kitchen knife unsupervised let alone an assault rifle.
Africa Day is still relevant as is the unity of Africa. But the question that boggles the mind is what unity; because there are several unities; Unity of Purpose; Unity behind Evil, Partners in Crime, Union in Nobility, Unity for Sinister Motives; Joint Enterprise for Criminal Purposes. Africa must identify her unity as a continent and it is that identity that has seen competing definitions and an emerging split in regional relations. Unlike the OAU which was united in its effort to end all forms of colonialism on the continent, the African Union seems to struggle on what brings them together.
The Organisation of African Unity was really principled on the aspect of fighting colonisation and colonialism. They rejected Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence and rejected the lies that South Africa became independent in 1910. But the most significant stance taken by the OAU which separates it from its successor, the African Union, was its insistence that Morocco was a colonial power in the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and their open, united and vigorous support of the POLISARIO Front which was fighting for the freedom of the Saharawi and which they gave liberation movement status and therefore recognised only them as the legitimate voice on the Saharawi Republic, prompting Morocco to have stormy relationships with the OAU. In a similar principled stance was the OAU's recognition of the SPLM as a legitimate liberation movement in South Sudan prompting countries such as Zimbabwe to have diplomatic relations with the organisation.
The significance of this is that an African organisation was recognising that it was possible for an African to oppress another African and here the OAU was doing better than what had happened in Europe in the 1930s when the whole of that continent including the United Kingdom had problems accepting that a European could oppress another European and therefore allowed the rise of Hitler and Nazism and Musolinni and Fascism. The OAU was one better, even though it concentrated mainly on colonialism but left the rise of dictators during its tenure. At least they succeeded in the primary role they sought to address; dismantling colonialism on the continent; all forms, all colours of vice; including black on black vice.
THE STREET CASINO
There was a game they played on the streets in Harare. It was played with a deck of cards and it was illegal gambling. The main player would assimilate a foreign accent and each time they saw a potential "client" they would bait him or her by pretending to play and win but in actual fact they were playing among themselves. Many people fell prey to the street casino. But there is this day we went to town and I was with my brother Robert. We took one of the cards and put a mark on it such that we could also trick the trickster. So we won the first round and when he noticed what had happened he asked to change the cards and therefore the rules. Unfortunately they found me in one of my rare moments and I would not take that. Rules should not be changed and I insisted with a stony face. It was the previous week which made me behave like that. In one of the "casino" a young mother had lost money in my eyes and when she cried I demanded that the thugs give her back her money which they complied to but with grumbles. But we thought that should not have been the end as they also had to feel the pain of loss. Yet they wanted to change the rules.
A CONTINENT SHY OF SUCCESS
I will never accept any criticism of Africans as shy of thinking. Or even that we lag behind Europe in terms of innovation. That is so untrue. But one thing I always praise Europe for and which we should copy is the continent's propensity to improve. Europe takes everything as a raw material and improves on it. And Europe is the master of borrowing ideas, they copy almost everyone and then improve on that. And they have weaknesses which they are so keen to expose through trial and error. Yet most of the things they do so well all started in Africa. We have heard how writing started in Africa, oh yes that's true but I am not going to talk of the ancient, I am going to talk about the contemporary.
The concept of continental unity started in Africa, the first monetary union was in Africa through the UAPTA which
h was a currency for everyone and in football the African Nations Cup came before the European Nations Cup. But just how we have been surpassed says a lot about our seriousness as a people. The blame game we have which is based on a rhetoric that is constructed on blaming Europe for almost everyone of our failures is our undoing. We have created an astronomic West that is only Utopian, it simply doesn't exist and then we fail to deal with it. People in Europe sleep and dream, they wake up and go to work, they too fall ill and get treated but if they can't be treated they too die and get buried. In their countries white Europeans also do menial jobs, they also pick bins and clean toilets, its just as normal. Most don't even know there is a country called Zimbabwe, some are barely educated but they have geniuses too. They blunder and fire their ministers and change their governments. They recruit workers and dismiss others just as we also have the punishment and reward model in our own systems.
We have a problem of improving, we start things that we cannot pick on. We also destroy the good things that we may have had; the near collapse of Zimbabwe made Smith die a satisfied man saying "I told you didn't I, that you cannot give blacks a country like Rhodesia; and look what they done". Our problem is when we fail we don't want to acknowledge we still want to put the blame on others and I simply can't understand how we became infallible.
UNITY OR GANGSTERISM
There seems to be a total failure to understand the responsibilities of the African Union. Is it to Governments or to nations? This seems to influence the debate on whether South Africa, Guinea and Nigeria were correct to vote for UNSC Resolution 1973/2011 which led to the Western-led attack on Libya. What should the African Union do when governments turn against their own. Since its inception the AU has seen Operation Murambatsvina and the post-2008 Election Violence in Zimbabwe and the post-2007 election violence in Kenya. Clearly an organisation of that significance on the continent derilicts on its duty to act if they fail to interfere as they have done. For governments to say when a foreign actor under the auspices of the UN interferes to help the hopeless and defenceless victims the AU should side with them, is an act of sticking to a secret code.
The AU has protected decoys at the expense of victims and clearly the emerging split between the progressive nations led by Jacob Zuma's South Africa and the antithesis led by Libya, is a test on the principlehoodness of the AU. The ghost must surely be exorcised. The post-2008 deaths in Zimbabwe were unnecessary deaths and that followed the Gukurahundi deaths which should never have been allowed. Africa, led by the AU should strike an ethical code that is based on protecting Africans and not African governments. It should not be an open room that anyone can enter or leave. It should have house rules that have to be adhered to and those who cannot conform to the house rules must not be members of the fraternity. Not every country in Europe is a member of the EU. Not every country in Africa should be a member of the AU. Only those who conform to its house rules should be. Governments that are not accountable to their people, that kill their own are existing in very adversarial and counter-productive world. They don't deserve friendship. AU must not shake bloody hands and hug laden chests. It is leading a great and principled continent. The governments of Kenya, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe have questions to answer for the unnecessary deaths in their countries every time there are elections. Africa can easily lead the world, we are gifted with everything. God favoured us but it will be for us to now say enough is enough and the AU must lead the singing of that verse and the perfect, melodious pitch!
BE JUDGE!
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
CHAIRMAN OF COMMUNITIES POINT
contact: 07401182271, 07529705413, mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk
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