Cry the African continent

The first President of Ghana which was the first former colonially ruled state in Africa to gain independence and the right to self governance from the Colonial master was the late Kwame Nkrumah.

Nkrumah was a notable Pan African and intellectual and he greatly influenced and moulded the political thought processes of other African leaders who would go on to lead the Independence movements within their own countries. Examples include Patrice Lumumba, Abdel Gamal Nasser, Robert Mugabe, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Amilcar Cabral and so on.

Mr Nkrumah himself was in turn deeply influenced by the earlier voices among those of African descent in the diaspora and who fought in whatever way they could for self determination, dignity and freedom for African people. Most notable among those voices was Marcus Garvey, a man I consider to be the true Godfather of Pan Africanism.

In fact the book Mr Nkrumah said influenced most was one called the Philosophies andopinion's of Marcus Garvey which was, and is, a compilation of the great man's articles and transcribed speeches. Marcus Garvey was the Malcom X and Nelson Mandela combined of his time. It goes without saying that he greatly influenced those titans of black self determination too, both directly and via their civil rights forebears who came in between the period of Garveys fall and their own rise to prominence..

Within this book, if we unite the various alpha points he made in the various speeches and articles contained within it, we find a rudimentary set of values which, in my view, should be the template for how independent Africa should be governed, and how the black man should live.

In short he wanted the below as a means of improving and governing the collective in each country

i)Independence and freedom and fairness for all former colonies and their inhabitants.

ii)Economic self sufficiency as a means to improve the living standards of Africans.

iii)Collective self love and self pride

iv)Education and independent technological development

v) An appreciation of our true history as well the will to learn and to improve ourselves from it.

One not so practical item on his agenda, and the only one I disagree with, was complete separation from other races. This can, however, be understood if we were to place ourselves in the position that Garvey, and blacks in general, were in at the time that Garvey lived.

Many of these ideals, if not all, were at the root of the charter of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was formed on the 25^th of May 1963 and which, in its current form is known as the African Union after the original versions disbanding by South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2002, and whose meetings I see, relatively speaking, as little more than a series of fora at which National leaders congress nod wisely in agreement that certain current events are bad and then shout out a few ear catching slogans and do nothing. .

But back to the topic.

Why is it that Africa seems to have failed the vision of Nkrumah, Garvey, Lumumba and others?

My own view is that at the root of this, is a failing of the aggregated African psyche, or mindset, as well as an unwillingness to learn from our long, and often glorious history. It seems to me that we have been cowed by a century of absolute colonialism into being too timid to take complete control of our destiny now that we have our freedom to live with others as equals in this global world. We seem to have had it so successfully ingrained within us that we cannot succeed without help from outside. This is a dangerous mentality to have and an exceptionally destructive one.

We remain unnecessarily deferential and obsequious to our former masters who do not have our best interests at heart, and who seek to exploit rather than to improve us, and the galling thing is that many of these uncle Tom leaders who should, both in the past, and in the present, have worked to instil a sense of nationalistic pride beneficial to progress similar to that of countries like Japan, are the very same “leaders” that preached those very same values espoused by Garvey, Nkrumah on their way to office.

Given that many ancient civilisations were situated in Africa; civilisations that promoted knowledge and enlightenment, fairness and improvement, it is difficult to see how almost all our leaders fail to recognize this and to understand that something that has been done successfully before can be done successfully again. How are they unable, educated as they all are, to learn from their glorious past and also from what we see going on in the world today.

The black man is viewed as being at the bottom of the pile. They see this, we see this, and yet, instead of working to correct this notion, and instead of trying to solve our own problems we ignore these problems and, as a priority, march with others rather than convening with our own to deal with our problems. Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria is one such example. 

This man sprinted to Paris with almost indecent haste for his photo-op with Mr Hollande in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo incident which killed 14 while failing to address the murder of over 200 – 2000 according to some – of his own citizens by Boko Haram for close to 3 days.  

Would Mr Hollande, or any of the other “outraged” western leaders have travelled to Nigeria to dance in the street with their fists in the air and chanting defiant slogans had the situation been reversed? These thugs have since invaded Chad and Cameroon with the leaders of those countries doing little, if anything at all, about it.

I think we all know the answer to that.

In the midst of all the yelling and shouting by our leaders as they mourned people they never knew roads remain in the same state that they were in in the 1960's when most countries in Africa became independent. In Ghana I believe, no new ones were constructed since the fall of Nkrumah until its present government. Health delivery is literally in the intensive care unit. The very freedoms that Mr Jonathan and others went to march for are pretty much non existent among their own people. Manufacturing has collapsed, corruption is endemic and GDP relatively speaking has seldom exceeded that of the pre-colonial days.

True, a few improvements were made here and there each time a new leader came to power but after 5 years or less, without fail, and with a few exceptions, it seemed like they all sank shamelessly into the unhealthy pool of regression.

Cry the cursed continent. We must learn to own our problems and to embrace a true spirit of self determination and self improvement. If we don't do it who will? Why do we still seem to have this sense of waiting for for others to show us the way rather than create that “way for ourselves?

It is up to our leaders to ensure that this happens but why, I ask, do they behave like stupid poodles who are so swift to forget the very Garveyite/Nkrumah style platforms that got them into power in the first place?

In love of Africa.