East Africa’s drought response: Union members must arise

What would you say are the colours of ideology that African leaders use to paint the backdrop for their performance and engagement on a continental stage?

This is a question many others and I grapple with as we seek to understand the how, how not, why and why not of the collective leadership that is entrusted with the responsibility of governing and protecting the African continent and its 1 billion citizens. Simply asked, what would you say is your national leader’s contribution to collective continental leadership on Africa?

When in July 2000 African leaders adopted the Constitutive Act of the African Union, creating the African Union (AU), they expressed a determination to take up the multifaceted challenges that confront the continent and its peoples in the light of changes taking place in the world.[1] This determination was founded on the ‘vision for a strong and united Africa, capable of meeting global challenges and shouldering its responsibility to harness the human and natural resources of the continent in order to improve the living conditions of its peoples.’[2]

Over the years the union has sought and made efforts towards realising this vision of a strong and united Africa – with Africans providing solutions for continental needs – and right now, this vision needs to be reaffirmed. Today in the Horn of Africa region women, men and children are in dire need of food assistance in a drought that has resulted from the lowest rainfall levels in 60 years. The drought has seen the death of thousands of people, with tens of thousands of others facing death, especially in Somalia, according to United Nations reports. Women and men in the parts of the region are being forced to make unneeded decisions, such as which child to save, as they begin their long trek in search of food, unable to take along all their children, and only opting to travel with the stronger ones.

Right now, the continent needs definitive leadership. By definitive leadership I mean leadership that is very deliberate in providing clear direction towards the realisation of a tangible solution, a solution that is consistent with African leaders’ universal commitment to the protection and promotion of the rights of Africans, in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The yearning by African citizens to see the face and hear the voice of bold, African, home-grown continental leadership runs deep, and the disappointment over the consequent lack of presence of this bold, home-grown continental face and voice of leadership over the last few months is evident.[3] Definitive leadership was needed in the continued months of election and succession stalemate in Côte d’Ivoire; definitive leadership was needed during the ‘Arab spring’ in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and today definitive leadership is needed in the face of what has recently been declared a famine in parts of Somalia and severe drought in parts of Ethiopia and Kenya.

The call for assistance to the international community to raise the over US$1 billion needed to save more than 11 million Somalis, Kenyans and Ethiopians from starvation has gone out and responses have began coming in. Joining Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia who have made donations, on 14 July 2011 the AU through the Permanent Representatives Committee Sub-Committee on the Special Emergency Assistance Fund for Drought and Famine in Africa (SEAF) approved a grant in the sum of US$300,000 to the people of Somalia affected by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa. This is laudable, and to be emulated. The sub-committee also called upon all member states of the African Union to provide the required financial and material support to Somalia and to make voluntary contributions to sustain the operation of funds. While African states do not constitute the wealthiest of nations, their involvement on an international platform in responding to the need for emergency aid is not without precedent. Following the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 many African nations joined the international community in donating money and support during the crisis that saw the death of several hundred thousand Haitians. South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Namibia, Mauritius, Botswana, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya and Benin among others all made funding pledges amounting to several million dollars. They also offered medical and other assistance. More recently, alongside others, they gave money to aid the people of Japan following the earthquake and tsunami disasters that saw several hundreds of thousands killed.

The importance of African states being visibly at the fore of the ongoing fundraising and relief efforts cannot be overstated. As regional blocs, and as a continent, it is important that we continuously remind ourselves that we can and need to be players on the team and not linesmen on the sidelines watching the players whizz past. This requires that our heads of state and our governments are thinking not only about their country and national agendas – important as these agendas may be – but also their regional and continental responses and responsibilities. It requires that they be unified in mind and commitment and the knowledge that the most important thing is a win for men, women, youth and children of the continent. It demands that they are seen and heard. Responding to this drought is no exception. African states need to lend their support in cash and/or in kind, for in so doing they become part of a solution.

In the next few weeks, whether or not the world turns its face to the Horn of Africa, African leaders need to take to heart the words of the late Pan-Africanist Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, who rightly stated that ‘We cannot be spectators in our own affairs.’[4] Today nobody should die from hunger.

We call on the members of the union to arise.

* Anne Mitaru is a human rights lawyer and has worked extensively in governance and women’s spaces in greater East Africa.
* Thanks to Mary Wandia for her comments and contributions.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Preamble of the Constitutive Act of the African Union
[2] Sirte Declaration Fourth Extraordinary Session Of The Assembly Of Heads Of State And Government, 8-9 September 1999, Sirte, Libya EAHG/Draft/Decl. (IV) Rev.1 EAHG/Draft/Decl. (IV) Rev.1, Article 7. This vision is also founded on ‘The imperative need and a high sense of urgency to rekindle the aspirations of [African"> peoples for stronger unity, solidarity and cohesion in a larger community of' peoples transcending cultural, ideological, ethnic and national differences as stipulated under article 5.
[3] Africa wide radio talk shows and regional newspaper commentaries continue to highlight this.
[4] Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, ’Speaking Truth to Power: Selected Pan-African Postcards’, Pambazuka Press, 2010