In African continent there’s 55 states which claim independence in one way or another at least decades ago ranging from 4 to 7, through this time we experienced a lot and learned from the history but unfortunately the achievements are way back beyond what we were capable of achieving.
In this article I’ll like to look at broad-spectrum of the whole African continent, I’ll use individual state to have good picture of what we’ll be discussing “unity”.
To provide good and adequate solution to any problem we must first have to understand the problem crystal clear, in achieving unity always there’s must be some obstacles. Here we are today discussing the problem discussed long time ago instant implementing the solution, this is due the failure to understand it clearly, by this I mean the consequences of failing to address it sooner.
Problem;
As I mentioned in the first paragraph of this article the problem is quite clear, meaning we all believe disunity among African states is catastrophic but the issue of ethnicity, tribalism, religion etc. stand in the way of doing what supposed to be done in copping the malignant behavior of this problem.
Colonialism cut Africa up into bits and pieces. When it ended following the Second World War, the new leaders of Africa struggled to institute political unity for the sake of both social and economic development. This proved to be an extremely challenging endeavor and some 20 years later at a 1963 African leaders’ summit, the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah declared that if unity was not achieved soon, the result would be even more division and dissension for the African people.
But why despite that political unity would strengthen Africa and many great people have called for it, yet it not reality?
If you recall, there are formidable obstacles in place that prevent the unity in the African continent. Both externally and internally. In particular, the current world system, characterized by an increasing militarization of neoliberal globalization, presents overwhelming challenges for the African continent.
Borders cause major problems for people, African nations regarding matters as divergent as citizens’ visa rules or territorial boundaries have prevented major trade and the development of resources.
Gaddafi has been pushing for an African unity government for years, saying it is the only way Africa can develop without Western interference, but many African states say the idea is impractical and would encroach on their sovereignty.
In unity lies strength. African unity can be traced back to the formation of Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 now the African Union (AU) has two main agendas.
The first is to ensure the decolonization or political emancipation of the African continent, and the second is to ensure the economic integration of the continent.
It is only with the achievement of both of these that one can confidently say that the dream of African unity has been realized.
The decolonization of the African continent has been achieved; what is yet to become a reality is economic integration.
In my opinion African unity is still a dream worth pursuing, however problems such as ethnicity, quest for power, amassing of wealth by corrupt leaders, diseases, ethnic conflict, and manipulation of data on Africa by African leaders, unhealthy rivalry between ruling governments and oppositions, and international trade conditions are likely to delay this dream.
Though we will be discussing about the solution to the problem stated.
Self-sufficiency
Now that we understand as well as African leaders fear their continent is becoming increasingly powerless in a tough global economic environment.
Many believe that unless Africa can talk and act with greater cohesion, it will continue to be virtually ignored by the richer countries.
“Nobody will come clean your house; you have to clean it yourself”
I think the most important step in reshaping African economic, social-value, good health, healthy environment, is by mobilizing our people to work hard to provide what the community need.
It was reported Britain took away far more money from sub-Saharan Africa than it gave in aid and debt relief last year, despite pledges to help the region. In all, it took away £27 billion from Africa. In the 12 months since an annual Group of Eight (G8) summit in Scotland last July, the British economy gained a net profit of more than £11 billion ($20.3 billion) from the region. The charity calculated that almost £17 billion flowed from Britain to sub-Saharan Africa in the past year, including donations, remittances from salaries earned by Africans in Britain and foreign direct investments. At the same time, more than £27 billion went in the opposite direction, thanks to debt repayments, profits made by British companies in Africa and imports of British goods and capital flight.
This give some idea on parasitic behavior of those claim give aid to Africa and this is just one example of the financial hemorrhage hurting Africa.
And then the US so called “war on terror” deprived Africa more than that globalization and privatization of national assets to the benefit of multinational corporations. Trade and industries, the creation of a US military command for Africa - Africa Command (AfriCom) - is a major step toward expanding and strengthening the US military presence in Africa through more aggressive policies to enlist support from African countries for its 'war on terror'. According to George W. Bush, “the new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa.”
While the objectives of the Africa Command are to be found in the US drive for global dominance and its growing appetite for Africa’s oil. In fact, several studies have forecast that the United States may depend for up to 25% of its needs on crude oil from Africa over the next decade or so. Thus, oil is one the main driving forces behind the US activism on the continent. It has nothing to do with Africa’s ‘security’. On the contrary, this is likely to increase the insecurity of the continent!
Therefore, the US strategy aims to secure strategic positions in Africa by using the threat of “terrorism” to gain military facilities and bases to protect its interests.
Now we realized that all those “developed” country are here in Africa to depend their interest, not in African interest. Several countries still depend on western countries for their “security”. France is intervening in the Central African Republic in an attempt to help the government push back attacks by rebel groups.
These countries are home to foreign military bases and have signed defense agreements with their ‘protectors’. These military bases are also used to launch criminal aggressions against other African countries, as the United States did when it launched air strikes against innocent civilians in Somalia from their air base in Djibouti! France is using its military bases in West Africa – Senegal and Togo- to destabilize Cote d’Ivoire.
These examples underscore the vulnerability of the continent and the fragile nature of many States, in large part as a result of structural adjustment policies. Africa’s vulnerability is also reflected in the widespread poverty affecting its population, in the deterioration of the health and educational systems and in the inability of many States to provide basic social services for their citizens. Poverty is the result of policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank, using the pretext of the illegitimate debt with the complicity of African governments.
This has aggravated economic, financial, political dependence on western countries and multilateral institutions. Food dependency has dramatically increased. According to the FAO and other UN agencies, more than 43 million Africans suffer from hunger, which kills more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined! As a result, Africa spends billions of dollars in food imports, paid for by credits and ‘aid’ from western countries and multilateral institutions.
The external dependency and the extreme vulnerability of the continent are also reflected in the surrender of economic policies to the World Bank and western “experts” by many countries.
In a strange way both African and western governments fear a strong, united, democratic Africa. For the west such unity would mean it could no longer do whatever it wants with Africa's resources. It would no longer be the sole determinant of the prices for exports to, and imports from, the continent. Its oil and mining companies would no longer continue to be the sole, invisible masters of Africa's vast oil and mineral resources.
MNA/TT
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