Page 102 - A People Called Afrika

A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA

He believed that with unity, political non-alignment and le-
veraging of anti-colonial and liberation support among the
imperialists, Afrika would overcome. Less than a year af-
ter his book was published, Kwame Nkrumah was over-
thrown in a military coup that is said to have been orches-
trated by Washington. He must be turning in his grave at
the sight of what has continued to ail Afrika all these years
since he penned these words. As Miriam Makeba once pow-
erfully voiced, “A luta continua, a luta continua, continua!”

Continued imperialist threat
Perhaps the most blatant example of the continued so-
cio-economic and political subjugation of Afrika is that of
France and its former colonies. At Afrika’s faux-indepen-
dence, France signed a pact with Benin, Burkina Faso, Sen-
egal, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, Cen-
tral African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea,
Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, and Gabon. This was known as
the Pact for the Continuation of Colonization, and it wasn’t
actually optional, as was made very clear several times.

For instance, Guinea under SékouTouré opted for inde-
pendence from France. SékouTouré’s mantra was “We
prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.” As the
French left Guinea, they took all that they could and de-
stroyed what they could not: buildings, personal and farm
vehicles, books, animals, farms and food in one pathetic,
massive and vindictive tantrum. Togo, Burkina Faso and
Mali did not fare much better, neither did Thomas Sanka-
ra or Modibo Keita. These countries were under contin-
ued siege with coups or threats of coups if they did not co-
operate with France. This was the price of rejecting France.

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