Page 90 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 15

Leadership

of them i.e., the detractors and the just such a map had been presented with each other, manufacture for
‘leaders’, when, where and how will and he proceeded to put it up on each other, help train and upskill
Afrika ever have the opportunity the screen. Then he presented the each other, nation by nation, until
to speak of her true state, let alone demented rhetoric that I just shared we have the requisite strength to be
begin to live it out? about how Afrika is a drain on the a force to reckon with… based on
world’s resources and if she wasn’t unity, forged by love and brother-
We can attend as many climate there, the world would be much hood. Create an Afrikan policy for
change, poverty reduction, health better off and be able to do much Afrika that has clear guidelines also
intervention, gender equality blah more, with much more speed and about how to deal with the world in
blah blah blah you name it con- efficiency. It’s kind of like a fami- a way that creates advantage for us.
ferences as we like, we can learn ly that has a child who they think
to speak the ‘NGO language’ as has special needs and the thought They will never let us do it
much as we want, we can sign their occurs to them, that they may This is for the person or people
agreements, and enact foolish, blind quicky banish or choose to dwell on, who just thought or said that to
and mindless policies based on G8, about what their lives would be like themselves. My answer is, “It doesn’t
G20, MDG, SDG, COP, AGOA, if that child wasn’t there. Yes, it’s matter what ‘they’ want, it matters
EU this that or the other pacts… that horrifying. Glad I caught your what we think, say and do.” We must
THEY WILL NEVER accept or attention. There are people who leave behind the treachery of the
see Afrika as equals. We will remain sit around and imagine the world Sankara, Lumumba, Nkrumah days,
pawns being used in a game whose without 1.4 billion people in it and the treachery behind the founding
rules change to suit whichever probably increase those figures to of the OAU, the treachery of bi-lat-
wicked puppet master is at the helm. the 1.6 billion that encompass those eral agreements that selfishly seek
It doesn’t matter how many times in the diaspora as well. Strange little gain for solitary nations at the ex-
we bend over backwards to please world, eh? Can you imagine being pense of the continent, and we must
them. Tie yourself in knots if you asked to imagine that you never build our reality. The truth is that,
want, you will still be the server at existed or that your existence on even the turncoats at the AU, AfDB
the table. earth was insignificant, and at worst, and AfCFTA levels know that true
irrelevant? You need to know that unity for Afrikans is possible and
One gentleman, whose article we there are people who think that way that it is being hindered by external
have featured in this issue, writes and act on those thoughts. forces. Even the turncoats at pres-
about America’s foreign policy on idential and prime ministerial level
Ethiopia being amiss. He’s right, it But this article is not about them. know that selling out their nations is
is. So are all the rest of the foreign I have, for the past 9 years or so, a temporary non-solution that will
policies on Afrika. And the reason been of the mind that Afrika needs eventually see them get swallowed
they are amiss is because of what I to close all her external borders up by a global unitary government
have tried to explain already… and and open her internal ones and sit that will continue to keep Afrikans
because Afrikan leaders have not yet together as one unit to map a route in subjugation to their will. They
gathered to themselves the requisite to continental success and cooper- know that the positions they have
self-dignity to be able to tell the rest ation. That Afrika must cancel all taken are not sustainable and that
of the world to go jump in a lake existing multilaterals, bilaterals and the ultimate solution is a strong and
because we, as Afrikans, will be tak- any existing trade or other agree- united Afrika. While they remain
ing over our affairs from here on. ments with any country outside afraid to die for taking a stand – a
Afrika, draw up a strategy for Af- risk we know is very real and still at
I have told this story before, some- rikan success and begin to build it. play even from recent events – they
where, about how I sat in a meeting, And, when that is ready and running are aware of Afrika’s need. So, we
befuddled at what I was witness- with strength, turn to the world and know that the ultimate goal that we
ing. The guy who speaking, a Brit, say, “Ok, we can talk now. On our must push for is a strong and united
invited us to ‘imagine for a while’ a terms.” That’s my modern Afrikan Afrika. That’s one goal that can
scenario where Afrika did not exist. utopia. And most seriously we need unite us across the continent and
Just for a little while, he said, not to do it. Find each other’s strengths within the diaspora, and it is a goal
that he supports the notion. If I re- as nations and work together to worth pushing for, using every overt
member correctly, I think he had at- enhance those, even while building or clandestine means at our disposal
tended a meeting somewhere where up the areas that are weaker. Trade to manipulate policies and laws on

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