RE: [SWEP: PRINCIPLES FOR CHANGE] AFRICA'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION By YOWERI K. MUSEVENI. Dr. Motsoko Pheko's Response
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President
Yoweri K. Museveni of Uganda has delivered an interesting paper at the
32nd Summit of the African Union Heads of State. This was in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia on 11 February 2019. Its title is Principles For Change:
Africa's Economic And Political Integration. It must be widely read,
especially by the youth of Africa. It is attached hereto or posted.
For
my part I am reminding that Museveni's paper shows that the vision of
two prominent Pan Africanists, namely Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Dr.
Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe refuses to die despite all kinds of excuses and
sabotage.
From
their graves in Accra and in Graaf-Reinet respectively; these two Pan
Africanist giants and visionaries seem to be defiantly speaking of this
liberatory, redemptive and necessary vision. This vision refuses to die.
That is the vision of a United States of Africa, integrated politically
and economically. These Pan Africanist giants paid the price for this
vision. Nkrumah suffered an imperialist quo d'etat while Sobukwe
suffered an endless imprisonment in Robben Island and suspected
premature death through poisoning by the South African apartheid
colonial regime. On this vision, let me use the words of these African
leaders directly.
On
the 4th of April 1959, Dr. Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe said, "We honour
Ghana as the first independent state in modern Africa, under the
courageous national leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention
People's Party… [which has]held out the vision of a democratic United
States of Africa.
We
regard it as the sacred duty of every African state to strive
ceaselessly and energetically for the creation of a United States of
Africa stretching from Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar." Sobukwe
added, " I wish to make it clear that we are anti-nobody, We are
pro-Africa. We dream Africa. We live Africa because Africa and humanity
are inseparable." Sobukwe uttered these words 60 years ago.
Much
earlier Dr. Nkrumah the first President of Ghana said, "There is no
time to waste. We must unite now or perish….We have already reached a
stage where we must unite or sink."
Africa
has immense wealth and resources. There is hardly an agricultural
product that cannot be produced on this great continent. And almost
every kind of mineral is found in Africa: vanadium, chrome, cobalt,
tantalum, platinum, oil, gold, diamond, iron etc. etc. Africa is blessed
with three types of climate. They are temperate, tropical and
mediterranean.
The
paradox is that its African owners are among the poorest people in the
world. Africa is the size of the following twelve European countries
combined Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Armenia,
Albania, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium. Imperialist
countries have made Africa their looting ground for many years through
many forms such as slavery, colonialism, racism and neo-colonialism.
Congo
became a Belgian colony as a result of the imperialist Berlin General
Act of 26 February 1885. This was through which seven Western European
countries stole the whole of Africa except for the Empire of Ethiopia.
Thanks to the glorious victory of the Battle of Adwa on 1st March 1896
in which Empress Taitu played a very decisive role, in defeating the
Italian colonial invaders.Of course Emperor Menelek 11 and Ras Makonnen
the father of Emperor Haile SelassieI I were also present in this
decisive victory for Africa.
The
paper by President Yoweri R. Museveni attached or posted here is
timely. It must result in action. Nkrumah and Sobukwe appealed to Africa
on a United States of Africa long time ago and there has been only a
suicidal movement on this slow pace to a United States of Africa. The
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) did what it could. But the African
Union seems to have reversed the gains of the OAU. Its agenda of now
uniting Africa in 2063 is suicidal for Africa's people. Sobukwe
propagated a United States of Africa sixty years ago. Nkrumah who had
already won independence for Ghana on 6th March 1957 advocated this
earlier than this. He disliked this dragging of feet on this important
matter of the survival of Africa's people.
Dr.
Nkrumah pointed out that: "Freedom is not a commodity which is 'given'
to the enslaved upon demand. It is a precious reward, the shining trophy
of struggle and sacrifice. Nor do the struggle and sacrifice cease with
the attainment of [political] freedom. The period of servitude leaves
behind tolls beyond what it has already taken. These are the cost of
filling in the emptiness that colonialism has left. We have to guard
closely our hard-won freedom and keep it safe from the predatory designs
of those who wish to re-impose their will upon us."
For
his part Dr. Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe as a student in 1949 addressing
graduating students at Fort Hare University in Azania (South Africa)
said:
"Let
me plead with you, lovers of Africa, to carry with you into the world a
vision of a new Africa, an Africa re-born, an Africa rejuvenated, an
Africa re-created, young Africa. We are the glimmers of a new dawn. And
if we are persecuted for our views, we should remember, as the African
saying goes, that it is darkest before dawn, and that the dying horse
kicks most violently when it is dying….
Africa
shall be free. The wheel of progress revolves relentlessly. And all the
nations of the world take their turn at the field-glass of human
destiny. Africa shall not re-retreat! Africa shall not compromise!
Africa shall not relent. Africa shall not equivocate!. And she shall be
heard! REMEMBER AFRICA!" said the man who later became the first
President of the banned Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa)
imprisoned in Robben Island not even with a mock trial.
------------------------------
(Dr.
Motsoko Pheko is a historian, political scientist, theologian, lawyer,
researcher, author, former representative of the victims apartheid at
the United Nations in New York and at the UN Human Rights Commission in
Geneva, Switzerland, Member of the South African Parliament for ten
years. He has the distinction of a former freedom fighter who was
imprisoned by two colonial regimes namely in South Africa and Rhodesia
and detained by the Portuguese colonialists in Mozambique. E-mail: Dr.
Motsoko Pheko <drmotsokopheko@
From: selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com <selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com
Sent: 02 March 2019 20:10
To: selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com
Subject: [SWEP: PRINCIPLES FOR CHANGE] AFRICA'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION By YOWERI K. MUSEVENI, President of the Republic of Uganda
Sent: 02 March 2019 20:10
To: selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com
Subject: [SWEP: PRINCIPLES FOR CHANGE] AFRICA'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION By YOWERI K. MUSEVENI, President of the Republic of Uganda
A PAPER ON AFRICA'S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INTEGRATION
Delivered at the 32nd Ordinary Summit of the African Union Heads of State,
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11 February 2019
Presented By YOWERI K. MUSEVENI
President of the Republic of Uganda
Africa
is the origin of man, four and a half million years ago. All human
beings only lived in Africa until about 100,000 years ago. The last
ice-age ended 11,700 years ago. Before that, people could not live in
many parts of the North of our Globe. Therefore, the European Stock
(Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Australians), the Asians, the Arabs
etc., are all former Africans.
They
lost the melanin (the black pigmentation in the skin) in their skins on
account of their living in the cold climates, with little sunshine,
where melanin is not required.
Africa
is the pioneer of civilization. The Egyptian civilization which started
around 5200 years ago, around 3000 BC, is one of the earliest
civilizations of the human race.
The
three great religions of the modern world were succored by Africa in
one way or another. These are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Baby
Jesus was hidden in Egypt when King Herod started killing all the
infants. This is found in the Book of Matthew 2:13-14 in the
Bible. Before that, in the year 1567BC, the Jews had been saved from
starvation when one of the children of Jacob, Joseph, who had been sold
into slavery by his brothers, took them into Egypt where there was
plenty. This is found in the Book of Genesis Chapter 42 verses 1-10, in the Bible.
Yet,
this Africa of many firsts in the history of the human race, has faced
calamity after calamity in the last 500 years. These calamities have
included: the slave trade, colonialism, genocide in some cases,
neo-colonialism and marginalization. Why has this been so?
Africa,
which had achieved many firsts for the human race, had some internal
weaknesses which made it difficult for its people to respond to the
threats that emerged after 1453 AD. This was the year the Ottoman
Turks, people coming out of Central Asia, captured Constantinople, the
capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. By so doing, they blocked the
over-land silk route which had been pioneered by Marco Polo in the years
1271 to 1368. Since Marco Polo, silk and spices were coming through
this route. Now, that route was closed and Western Europe was cut off
from the products of the East, that they had come to treasure.
A
frantic search for a sea route to the East by the Europeans started,
led by Portugal. Better ships were, eventually, built and the Portuguese
got to Sierra Leone in the year 1460. By 1498, Vasco Da Gama went
around the Southern tip of Africa and, on Christmas day, landed at
Natal, hence the name of that place up to now, coming from the Latin
word, natalis (Natal).
A
few years earlier, in 1492, Christopher Columbus, working for the newly
United Kingdom of Spain (Castille and Aragon United in the year 1479),
had reached a whole new continent, America, whose off-shore Islands, the
Caribbeans, he mistook to be the Islands of the East, hence the
eventual name of the West Indies.
Therefore,
on account of the pressure created by the Turks on the Europeans, the
Europeans had burst out of their homelands and started accessing the
lands of Africa, America and Asia through the Atlantic and the Indian
Oceans.
This
is when the weaknesses of Africa and the Americas came to the fore. The
indigenous populations of the Americas could not withstand the
afflictions of the European invasion and many of them perished; they
were exterminated and their lands were taken over by the immigrants from
Europe. Hence, the Europeans became the Americans. Those who did not
perish, were marginalized.
Since
the Africans do not die easily, they survived the 500 years of foreign
invasions but having gone through many privations: slave trade,
colonialism, in some cases genocide, etc.
Why
couldn’t Africa defeat these invasions? Indeed by 1900, the whole of
Africa had been defeated except for Ethiopia which defeated the Italian
invaders in the battle of Adua in 1896. According to our analysis, it
was not because of lack of courage or the will to resist. It was,
mainly, on account of political balkanization. The African population
is only divided into four linguistic groups.
These
are: Niger-Congo (Bantu and Kwa); the Nilo-Saharan (Hamitic, Nilotic
and Nilo-Hamitic); the Afro-Asiatic (Arabic, Tigrinya and Amharic); and
Khoisan (so called bushmen in Southern Africa). Therefore, the entirety
of the African peoples are either similar or linked. I can pick words
that are similar to the ones in my dialect, Runyankore in the Bantu
dialects, all the way from Cameroon to South Africa. 2000 miles away in
South Africa, for instance, the Zulus and Xhosas greet: "Saubhona",
which, I suspect, means: “I have seen you”. This must be from the verb:
“Kubona” – meaning “to see”.
In
my dialect, Runyankore, the verb “kubona” means to find something that
has been lost. In Swahili, however, the verb: “kuwona” means exactly
what it means in the South African dialects. That is within the Bantu
cluster of dialects. Even between clusters – e.g. Niger-Congo versus
Nilo-Saharan ─ you find similarities. The Nubians of Southern Egypt and
North Sudan, apparently, use the word: Nina to mean “Mother”.
In
many of the dialects of the Bantus of the Great Lakes, the word for
Mother is: “nyina”. Amazing. The Somali word for cow is Saa. In the
Bantu dialects of the Great Lakes, the word Saa is specifically and
exclusively used for cow-dung (obusa, amasha, amasa, etc). Therefore,
these African peoples are either similar or linked. Indeed, if you use
the word “nation” to mean a people from a common ancestry or a common
heritage, you can say that the entire African population of 1.3billion
people today, is comprised of only four nations: the Niger-Congo; the
Nilo-Saharan; the Afro-Asiatic; and the Khoisan.
What,
then, was the problem? Why couldn’t Africa defend itself against the
invaders? Why is Africa still weak today? According to our study, the
answer lies in political balkanization. By the 1400s, Africa was
governed by small Kingdoms, Chiefdoms or, sometimes, by segmentary
arrangements (the rule of age – groups).
The
Europeans tried to swallow China; but it was too big to swallow. They
tried to swallow Japan; it was too big to swallow. They tried to swallow
Ethiopia; but it was too big to swallow. The African Kingdoms and
Chiefdoms were swallowable when confronted by the more organized groups
from outside. The gradual defeat of Africa from 1400-1900, caused
serious distortions which are captured in a number of studies we have
made.
Apart
from slave trade and other haemorrhages inflicted on the African
societies, there was also the gradual destruction of the artisan classes
(the black smiths, the carpenters, the copper-smiths, the medicine men,
etc.) and replacing their products with the imported ones. Even with
the primitive societies, they always produced their own food, their own
clothes, their own weapons (spears, bows and arrows, etc.) and means for
their own shelter (housing materials). It may only be the Africans of
the colonial and neo-colonial era that depend on the food, clothes,
weapons and building materials of others. All this was a consequence of
the distortions emanating from colonialism.
Nevertheless,
by a combination of factors, the African countries regained their
independence, starting with Egypt in 1922, Sudan in 1956 and Ghana in
1957. What were these factors? These were: Africans refusing to be
exterminated like the American Indians and the Australian Aborigines;
the resistance by the African freedom fighters; the support of the
socialist countries such as the USSR and China; and the wars among the
imperialists ─ the so called 1st and 2nd World
Wars ─ which weakened them so much to our advantage. By 1994, the last
part of Africa under foreign control, South Africa, regained their
political freedom.
What,
however, is amazing is that many of the African political elite, the
intellectuals, the other social leaders etc., have not bothered to
investigate the cause of our near extinction in the last 500 years and
to look for ways of how we can immunize ourselves against any and all
threats against our survival, our sovereignty, our security and our
prosperity in our land. That is how we come to the two issues that we
regard as crucial for our future. These are: political and economic
integration of Africa. Our view is that African integration means three
things: prosperity, security and fraternity. We
cannot guarantee our prosperity if we do not solve the issue of market.
When companies or families produce products (goods) or services, how
many consumers will buy those products? If a product does not have
enough buyers, the business will fail.
In
Uganda, recently we had a big crop of maize. We produced 5 million
tonnes; but Uganda consumes only 1 million tonnes. The prices collapsed.
Many farmers will move away from maize in the coming seasons. This is
just one example. Many others can be quoted across Africa. We,
therefore, need economic integration to provide market for our producing
families and companies to be assured of a market on principles of
competitiveness. The integrated African market will not only stimulate
production in Africa, it will also enable us to negotiate credibly with
the other big markets such as the USA, China, India, Russia, European
Union, etc. It is good that, recently, we agreed on the Continental
Free Trade Area (CFTA). Let us implement its provisions. It is the way
to prosperity and part of the answer for under-development, poverty and
joblessness.
However,
economic integration, even if it creates prosperity for our individual
countries, will not answer the issue of strategic security against
global threats. The Americans are talking of four dimensional
superiority: superiority on land, in the air, at sea and in space.
Recently, President Donald Trump was talking about creating a Space
Army. Many African countries do not yet have even a capable Army on
land, let alone air, navy or space. What is the future? Even when our
individual countries become first World or Middle Income countries, they
cannot, individually, have the strategic capacity to defend themselves
against the global super-powers. In the Second World War, the first
victims of aggression were the developed but small countries of Europe:
Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, etc.
Israel,
technologically, is a super-power. However, strategically, Israel would
be hard-pressed to survive in the Middle East without the partnership
of the United States. Therefore, in the end, size also matters. That
is why, therefore, we say that, in addition to economic integration,
where feasible, political integration is very crucial. The present 54
States of Africa, even when they are developed, may not be able to
guarantee our future against greedy global powers.
The
attack by the Western countries against Libya was a shame to Africa.
That is why, therefore, for the 55 years, I have been in the footsteps
of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere on the issue of the East African Federation
(the political integration of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). The EAC has
since expanded to include: Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. These people
are specific groupings of the African peoples comprised of the
Interlacustrine Bantus (the Bantus of the Lakes) and the Interlacustrine
Nilotics, Interlacustrine Nilo-Hamitic and Interlacustrine Cushitic.
These
groups have great similarities in dialects and also linkages among
different clusters. Above all, they have the good fortune of having the
de-tribalized dialect of Swahili. The six countries are working upon
the issue of Confederation and, ultimately, Federation. The politically
united States of East Africa, with the present population of 170
million, which will be 878 million by 2050, with I million square miles
of land territory, would be equal to India in land area. Such a unit
would be cohesive, around Swahili, as well as a centre of gravity for
African security. It would be capable of any tasks ─ to defend Africa,
if necessary, on land, at sea or in space since that is what others
want.
We
should, then, look across Africa. Which other areas have such
similarities and linkages? How about Southern Africa? How about Central
Africa? How about West Africa with its cross-border peoples of the
Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Akan, Mandigos, etc.? How about North Africa with
its people that are Arabic speaking and, mainly, Moslems? How about the
Horn of Africa with its confluence of the Cushitic and the Semitic
peoples of this area? I would not die from blood pressure if the present
54 States of Africa, the former colonies, were replaced by 10 or
States, each about the size of India. When the British forced the
independent tribes of our area into a Uganda, they, definitely, did a
good thing. If Uganda is a better product than the “Republic” of Ankole,
my tribal area, why shouldn’t the Union of East Africa be better?
Is
it correct to deify the colonial political architecture of the 54
present countries (52 of them former colonies) and rule out the
possibility of a rational re-organization to achieve optimum results?
Two colonies of the Dutch ─ Orange Free State and Transvaal were united
with the two British colonies ─ Cape Town and Natal to form the Union of
South Africa in the year 1910. Everybody is happy with the Union of
South Africa. Why can we not improve on what the colonialists did? In
1912, the defeated Africa, initiated a strategic counter-offensive
against the invaders when the patriots in South Africa formed the
African National Congress (the ANC) which also attracted the great
Mahtima Gandhi.
The counter-offensive gathered momentum, including the 5th
Pan Africanist Congress of 1945 where our elders like Nkrumah, Kenyatta
and others vowed to free Africa from the disgrace of foreign rule,
acting in co-ordination. It has, therefore, been an oversight to allow
that strategic counter-offensive to peter out after independence. We
need to re-ignite and develop that counter-offensive.
Finally,
the main point is that the people we are trying to bring together, as
pointed out earlier, are either similar to one another or linked. They
all belong to the four clusters according to language: Niger-Congo;
Nilo-Saharan; Afro-Asiatic and Khoisan. They are fraternal groups. When
Muammar Gaddafi was alive, I did not agree with him on the issue of a
continental Government now. With trading, I can trade with everybody.
However,
political integration needs more intimacy. The peoples should either be
similar or compatible. That is why I prefer Mwalimu Nyerere's strategy
of Regional Federations where feasible. Mzee Kwame Nkrumah preferred a
continental Government, like Muammar Gaddafi.
Therefore,
integration of Africa means 3 issues: prosperity; strategic security;
and fraternity. There are longer and more illustrated documents dealing
with this issue.
The
African leaders since independence, need to be careful not to share the
historical condemnation like the one we heap on the pre-colonial chiefs
who, for almost 400 years, certainly in the case of the Great Lakes,
concentrated on rivalries among themselves, even after Vasco Da Gama had
passed by the East African Coast. Instead of uniting our people, they
were busy fighting one another with their obsequious subjects heaping
pseudo-praises on them.
When
the Europeans were ready, after the Berlin Congress, they penetrated
the continent and picked up many chiefs like grasshoppers. Europe,
America and Asia are now going towards the 4th Industrial
Revolution ─ the use of intelligent machines. In Africa, we have not
even gone through the first and second Industrial Revolutions ─ the use
of steam engines and electricity. Yet, the economic and political
integrations are crucial stimuli for these changes. The African leaders,
therefore, need to work hard so as not to share the fate of the
pre-colonial tribal chiefs that let down their peoples.
I thank you.
Date: Monday, February 11, 2019
Approved on March 7th, 2019 , From Kigali-Rwanda,
by
by
Dr. Iraguha Bandora Yves, MD.
President and Founder of African Union Students' Council (AUSC)"For The Better Africa We Deserve".
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