A human rights lawyer and political activist look at Pan-African Dream!

 

 AU at 50: Has the Pan-African Dream Become a Nightmare?
By Daniel Molokele

"Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation. The notion that in order to have a nation it is necessary for there to be a common language, a common territory and common culture has failed to stand the test of time or the scrutiny of scientific definition of objective reality... The community of economic life is the major feature within a nation, and it is the economy which holds together the people living in a territory. It is on this basis that the new Africans recognise themselves as potentially one nation, whose dominion is the entire African continent. “(Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s founding President)

In January 1963 President Nkrumah wrote a letter to all the presidents of all independent states, proposing the Union of African States. (In May of that year the African leadership created the Organization of African Unity (OAU)).
He postulated that the economic and social well-being of Africa depended upon our ability to create a Pan-African Political union. President Nkrumah proposed the following fundamental points:
Common foreign policy and diplomacy... we need a process of political socialization that would "enable us to speak with one voice" in the fora of the world
Common continental planning for economic and industrial development...."building up a common market of a united Africa" that would bring about the material conditions we need to improve our collective quality of life in the global economy
Common currency a monetary zone and a central bank of issue...that we "need to orientate the economy of Africa and place it beyond the reach of foreign control" to be able to implement our social economy

Common defence system..."one over-all (land, sea and air) Defence Command for Africa" is needed to defend the social economy we create.
I normally regard myself as an eternal optimist. Indeed I have always found it easy to see almost everything I have come across in the most positive of all lights. Be that as it may, no matter how so much I try, I just cannot bring myself to freely invest in any form of optimism with regards to the future of my beloved motherland Africa.

Make no mistake about my global perspective of things. I am as African as they come. I do love Africa with all my heart. I am a fully blown pan-African bone and marrow!
However, I cannot pretend that all is well in my beautiful continent. All is not well at all. Africa remains by large in a state of perpetual chaos. Everywhere one might go, be it north or south; east or west, anarchy and impunity remain as the general order of the day.
For so long viewed by the rest of the world as the 'dark continent, it seems Africa is still struggling to shake off its identification with a myriad of negative words such as war, epidemic, pandemic, disease, risk, hunger, famine, poverty, slums, unemployment, rape, torture, violence, coup, dictatorship, oppression, corruption, tribalism, nepotism, crisis, among others.
It is such a sad story to say the least!

All around there is an air of despair, alarm and despondency. It is evident that the majority of the people in Africa have lost hope and feel so betrayed by the unfulfilled promises of a better life for all. Faith in politicians or politics for that matter is at an all-time low. Trust in most public service institutions has reached its lowest ebb.
Yet this was not meant to be! This was not how the leaders of the liberation movements against the continent's European colonial hegemony dreamt about life in a futuristic post-colonial Africa.
Indeed, the advocates for an end to the colonial era envisaged a new free, peaceful and prosperous Africa that was meant to take its rightful seat on the front row of the global stage. They dreamt of an Africa that would have worldwide honor and respect; a new brave continent that would be worthy of all global acclaim and admiration.

And so it happens that as the African Union (AU) or as it was originally known, the Organization for African Unity (OAU) celebrates its 50 years of institutional existence; I cannot but help myself to shade some tears of sorrow for my motherland. I cannot but find myself crying for my beautiful Africa.
A cursory glance across the continent immediately justifies a call to mourning instead to that of celebration. Instead of beating the drums of jubilation, Africa needs to slow everything down and lapse into a period of self-reflection. Africa needs to take a serious and honest look as to have far it has travelled since 25th May 1963.

Indeed Africa should use the commemoration of the 50th anniversary as a time to reflect on its very many lost opportunities and invest in strategies that will assist in the continent to finally develop its full potential as an enviable global leader.
It is time there be serious attempts to reawaken the original idealism that was associated by the leadership generation of 1963. It is time for the emerging young leaders of the continent to challenge the current political elite and also to start laying their claim for a return to the original vision of the continent's original leadership.

What Africa desperately needs right now is the rise of a new breed of leaders who are home-grown but having a visionary aspiration that is of world class in nature!
The time has come for a complete paradigm shift in the way Africa is governed both from a political and socio-economic point of view. The change process must start now than later.
Otherwise if there is no change in the status quo, the situation will continue to worsen every year. The situation could be such that by the time that 25th May 2063 dawns, there might not even an AU to reach the century milestone. (This article first appeared on Daniel's face book page.)

• Daniel Molokele is a human rights lawyer who is based at Johannesburg in South Africa. Please do feel free to further engage him using Twitter @molokele or on Facebook at ‘daniel.molokele’ or to visit his personal website at www.danielmolokele.com