Page 29 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 8

CUMMUNITY

him is that out there Tanzanian-
Below is an excerpt of an illuminating conversation with Prof. ness, Ugandanness, Ghanaianness,
PLO Lumumba on the state of Afrika post-independence. You Nigerianness, means nothing.
can watch the full-length interview on our youtube channel, “When they see us they only see us
Msingi Afrika Tv. as Afrikans and therefore we ought
By Chioma Phillips to unite.”
Afrika now finds herself punching
below her weight. She punches
below her weight economically, she
punches below her weight social-
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT that there was need to regain your ly, she punches below her weight
YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS OF esteem to run your affairs and there politically, she is beholden to the
THE STATE OF AFRIKA' IN was no more eloquent voice than erstwhile colonizers and for that
2020 AND WHY YOU BE- the voice of Kwame Nkrumah of reason, her sons and daughters are
LIEVE THE CONTINENT IS Ghana, when his own country re- always walking around the world
THE WAY THAT IT IS? gained her independence in 1957, through their leaders with a cap in
that independence of Ghana meant
Let me start by saying that this is nothing if the rest of Afrika was not hand, begging the world and being
a continent that has been abused dictated to. So, if I was asked to
throughout history and that history free. When they were meeting on write a letter to the great Afrikans
May, the 24th and 25th of May in
must never be lost. This is a conti- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963, of old who had gone and I were to
nent that has been abused through there were 32 Heads of States and write to Kwame Nkrumah, I were
slavery. This is a continent that has Government, Osagyefo when he to write to Thomas Sankara, to
been abused through colonization. Julius Nyerere, or Modibo Keita or
This is a continent that continues to stood to speak with a sense of ur- Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, I
gency and purpose, he urged those
be abused through the neocolonial present that they must come out would tell them, “Comrades, all is
project. This is a continent that has of the meeting with one army, one not well, but we remain hopeful.”
been abused by her own leaders, currency, one government. But they
who served as puppets of the impe- IN YOUR VIEW, WHERE
rial powers. Yet, this is a continent did not listen to him. They formed SHOULD AFRIKA BE AT
a weak organization called the Or-
that has always had promise. I’ve ganization of African Unity. 60? MOST COUNTRIES ARE
always said that throughout the Today, when we talk about Afrikan NOW AGED 60. WHERE
ages, there is not a single continent unity and the success of the OAU SHOULD WE BE?
that has attracted the attention of You know, that is a question that
the world, other than the continent and the African Union, we remem- invites me to swim in the sea of
ber Nkrumah nostalgically and in
of Afrika. Even if you go to the old 1997, the 6th of March, to be exact, speculation and in that sea, there
Greeks, to the Assyrians and other Mwalimu Kambarage Nyerere are many sharks and piranhas, but
civilizations, there was a sense in who in 1963 did not quite support I’ll swim nevertheless. I’ll swim
which they found their inspiration because one can use comparative
in the continent of Afrika. This is a Osagyefo about the immediacy evidence to determine where we
of the Afrikan union, speaking in
continent that attracted the Europe- Accra, Ghana on the 40th anniver- ought to have been if we had con-
ans. This is a continent that attract- sary of Ghanaian independence ducted ourselves differently. As we
ed the Asians. This is the cradle said, “Nkrumah was right. We were have this conversation, my mother
of mankind. When the Europeans continent is divided into 55-odd
were still living in caves, the Dogon wrong. We ought to have united countries. These countries are the
then. Because what has happened
were already engaged in superior now is that individual countries product of a European engage-
astronomy. The Benin Empire was have now gotten used to their so- ment in 1884 and 1885 in Berlin
walled, the Mwenemutapa Empire called Tanzanianness, Ghanaian- in Germany. And, as I was saying,
was alive and well. we are 55-odd countries, artificially
But fast-forward, the entire struggle ness, Kenyanness, Ugandanness, created, but we have made the best
and the trappings of power now
for independence in the 1950s, stand in the way of their vision of it, to the best of our ability, not
which was the height of post World and passion for Afrika.” But, he as well as we ought to have because
War II was really heraldic, heraldic reminded the audience that it’s not we have remained susceptible to
in the sense that it told the Afrikans manipulation and exploitation. So
too late. He said that what gladdens

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