Obama’s speeches: Talking at a continent

US President Barack Obama speeches on his recent visit to Kenya and Ethiopia did not show any sign that the American government’s condescending policy towards Africa has changed. His lecturing African leaders on “democracy” and “values,” was reflective of the old policy of dictating to non-Western nations on how they must conduct their national affairs.

President Obama seemed also to be very poorly informed on Africa. He said he came to Africa at this time “because Africa is on the move.” It was not clear to whose benefit “Africa is on the move” because he was the one giving lectures to Africans about things they have known all along and they are part of the continent’s Pan-African agenda.

EDUCATION AND GENDER EQUALITY

It is indisputable that Africa still has to do a lot more on the educational advancement of her people. It is something many African leaders planned to do even before they defeated European colonialism. It was colonial governments’ agenda to keep Africans uneducated.

Commenting on education many years ago, James E.M Aggrey famously known as “Dr. Aggrey of Africa,” said: “The surest way to keep a nation down is to educate men and neglect women.” As early as 1946 Jomo Kenyatta built 324 schools for 600,000 children in Kenya in those darkest colonial days.

At Kenya’s independence in December 1963, there was not a single university in Kenya. The moment Kenya freed itself from British colonialism President Jomo Kenyatta’s government built the University of Nairobi. Today there are 22 state universities in Kenya plus 26 private ones. In Ghana at independence there was one university. Today Ghana numbers 50 universities. Nigeria has 100 universities. Tanzania had no university during German and British colonial rule. It has now 10 state universities and 16 private ones. Zambia had no university during British colonial rule. It now has 8 public universities and several private ones. In Rhodesia which is today Zimbabwe there was only one university, mainly for whites. Today Zimbabwe has 17 state universities. African universities are for both men and women. This is just a sample. It is puzzling how this progress in education in Africa was overlooked by President Obama. In fact, the African Union has a protocol on education. It is intended to intensify rapid education in Africa and develop the continent economically for its people.

Zimbabwe has not only provided its girls with education, but many girls are pilots. The most shining ones are Captain Emilia Njovana and Captain Chipo Matimba. They were girls in Zimbabwe high schools. Emilia Njovana was the first female commercial pilot in Zimbabwe. Today she trains women and men to fly jets and helicopters. Captain Chipo Matimba was a cadet and trainee pilot in 1994. The course involves gruesome military training. It produces pilots who can fly aeroplanes in good and bad weather. She too trains men and women to fly.

The impediment to rapid education and gender equality in Africa is not the African “backward culture” which President Obama seemed to imply while speaking in Kenya. The main cause is the continuation of economic stealing of Africa’s resources by America and its Western allies.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke the truth which many Western leaders are hiding. The Pope declared in July 2008, “Our Western way of life has stripped Africa’s people of their riches and continues to do so.”

Corroborating this fact, a member of the Scottish Parliament, Mark Ballard, said: “Our relationship to Africa is an exploitative one. The West no longer needs standing armies in Africa to strip Africa’s resources, because it can do it more effectively with multi-national companies.”

DIVERSITY OF NATIONS AND VALUES ARE A REALITY

This world will be a better and happier place to live in when all nations show respect for one another. Diversity of nations and their interdependence are a reality. All nations have their interests and values. What may be values in America may not be values in Africa or elsewhere. The Eurocentric view of the world is not the only one on this planet. The Africentric view of the world existed long before the present America was born in 1776. It exists today despite the ravages of slavery, colonialism and racism inflicted on it.

The sovereignties of all nations must be respected unless their governments are guilty of genocide, war crimes and generally crimes against humanity. No nation has a right to impose its values on other nations or protect its own interests at the expense of other nations.

African leaders in particular long proclaimed that they were prepared to accept aid, “that has no strings attached.” Wise nations will always learn from other nations. Africans are no exception.

It was Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, an African leader whom the apartheid colonialist regime of South Africa imprisoned on Robben Island without even a mock trial, who said:

“We accept as policy the equitable distribution of wealth.” He continued, “Borrowing then the best from the East and the best from the West, nonetheless, retain and maintain our distinctive personality and refuse to be satraps or stooges of either power.”

Julius “Mwalimu” Nyerere of Tanzania re-affirmed this African position by saying: “We in Africa have no need of being converted to socialism than we have of being taught ‘democracy.’ Both are rooted in our past – in the traditional society which produced us.”

CORRUPTION MUST BE HEAVILY PUNISHED

President Obama spoke at great length about corruption. African people condemn corruption in all its forms. It is not their way of life. In Africa democracy must be liberatory for the poor economically, socially and educationally. For an Africa that has emerged from centuries of European slavery, colonialism and racism, democracy is not just a matter of the vote or periodic elections. People do not eat a vote. A vote that does not translate into the material needs of the people - things such as food, decent housing, education, employment and accessible good healthcare - is not good for Africa.

Democracy must be a means to the good things of life for a truly liberated nation. People must repossess that which was taken from them, especially in countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Namibia. Vast land and resources in these countries are still the monopoly of the beneficiaries of colonialism and European minorities. America kicked a big storm when the Zimbabwe government seized land that was theirs in the first place and had been expropriated from Africans through terrorist colonialism by Britain for its own colonial settlers.

The American government imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe. It never did so during many years of colonialism in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) even when Ian Smith, the rebel colonial leader, had killed many civilians. Zimbabwean people had to die in thousands fighting a war of liberation that finally ousted the colonial settler government.

As a result of American sanctions on Zimbabwe the economy there has been badly affected. There is also a time when Zimbabweans died of cholera in numbers because there was no foreign exchange to buy drugs that cure cholera. This is tyranny and naked dictatorship to African nations.

It must be noted that a number of corrupt regimes in Africa have been tolerated by American governments. A glaring example in Africa is that of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) under Mobuto Sese Seko. American governments assisted this soldier to rule Congo for 32 years while the democratically elected Prime Minister Lumumba was assassinated within six months by Belgium allegedly with the involvement of the then American government.

A MORE DISTURBING FORM OF CORRUPTION

There is a more disturbing kind of corruption that has been reported in Africa. The American government must contribute a solution to it, if it truly cares for the welfare of Africa’s people. Between $1.2 trillion and $1.4 trillion has left Africa. According to very credible researchers, this is roughly equal to Africa’s current domestic product. It surpasses by far the money Africa has received as “aid.”

This flow of money has been transferred to America and elsewhere. It is generally generated from corruption in the form of tax evasion, bribes and cross-border smuggling. Researchers have complained that Western media has hardly reported this killer-nation crime. The African Development Bank has described this kind of corruption as “The illicit haemorrhage of resources from Africa [and"> is four times of Africa’s current foreign debt.”

Raymond Baker, President of Global Financial Integrity, has revealed that “Traditional thinking that has always been that the West is pouring money into Africa through foreign aid and other private sector flows, without receiving much in return is wrong.”

Charles Goredma, a senior researcher at the South African Institute for Security Studies, has listed Transparency International, Global Financial Integrity, Christian Aid and Tax Justice Network as some of the groups that have quantified the magnitude of the illicit financial flows out of Africa.

TRIBALISM VERSUS PAN-AFRICANISM

President Obama was right when he said, “A politics based on tribe and ethnicity is doomed to tear a country apart. It is a failure.” That is why prominent Pan-Africanists such as Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Robert Sobukwe, W.W.DuBois, George Padmore Antony Lembede, Emperor Haile Selassie and Modibo Keita long advocated Pan-Africanism as a way forward for African progress and total liberation of the Continent.

Pan Africanism is the imperative unity of the African people to restore their full humanity and accelerate their economic development and technological advancement. Africans must be producers of goods and owners of property. At present they are consumers of other peoples’ goods, employees by foreigners and economic dependants in their own countries or continent. This is disguised slavery. It must stop.

Pan-Africanism unifies and puts Africans in a strong position to defend their interests globally and to resist all external enemies of the continent. It is the privilege of the African people to love themselves and give their way of life preference.

NATIONS MUST ABIDE BY CONSTITUTIONS

President Obama lectured African leaders in Ethiopia about relinquishing their positions when their term of office is over. He is right. But African people know this. Recent examples are Burkina Faso and Burundi where they opposed leaders who wanted a “third term” which was not provided for in their national constitution. Africans have, however, a problem when governments favoured and many times put into power by America rule as unconstitutionally as they like as long as they protect American interests. Some examples are Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Mobutu of “Zaire” who even changed the name Democratic Republic of Congo.

American governments have also gone out of their way to overthrow governments they do not like in Africa and elsewhere. The Somalia debacle began when the American government got involved in the internal affairs of Somalia in the name of “democracy.”They fled after the Battle of Mogadishu also known as Day of Rangers which was between the Somali forces and the American soldiers in October 1993.

It was the then American President Bill Clinton who admitted: “We had gotten to a point…where we kind of thought that we could intervene militarily without getting hurt, without our soldiers getting killed. The incident which I call ‘Black Hawk Down’ certainly disabused us of that.” Unfortunately this American mess has badly destroyed Somalia and affected Africa’s political stability.

In its pursuit to impose its own kind of “democracy” on other nations America has persisted on this dangerous route for world peace. America together with its allies such as Britain and France invaded Libya. They did not like Colonel Maummar Gaddafi’s government. Today Libya is in tatters. It is on the brink of a “failed state.” This imposition of American “democracy” also led to Saddam Hussein of Iraq being accused of possessing “weapons of mass destruction” and killed. He had never possessed these weapons but oil. Iraq’s American “democracy” is today a field of graves of innocent children, women and men.

The “democracy” that the American government established in Iraq has given birth to ISIS. This has ushered into this world unprecedented terrorism that is daily causing deaths, destruction and much suffering in the Middle East and spreading.

The American policy of destroying African governments it does not like began long time ago. The coup d’etat that overthrew President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana on 24 February 1966 was known to the American government as early as 27 May 1965. The then American President Lyndon Johnson had already organised and was waiting only for the date to carry it out. Robert W. Komer of his National Security Council later wrote:

“The coup in Ghana is another example of fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests in Africa than any Black African…the military regime is almost emphatically pro-Western.”

An African leader, the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, was right when he wrote, “We, [Africans"> are our own liberators.” Africa must look to itself for genuine liberation. That is through the implementation of the Pan-African agenda as propounded by many founders of the Organisation For African Unity – the predecessor of the African Union.

BLACK MAILING AFRICA TO GO HOMOSEXUAL

The West has been pushing the whole world to go homosexual, especially Africa; and threatening to withold its aid if African countries do not legalise homosexuality. It was not surprising when American President Obama told Africans in Kenya to go homosexual. Meanwhile it was only in June 2015 that America legalised same sex marriages. This implies that Africans cannot think for themselves. Their role in life is to be copycats of America and do as they are told. This is despite the obvious moral degeneration of Western countries, that signal that sooner than later they will declare incest and sex with dogs as a “human right.”

President Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the “Burning Spear” Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, would have abdicated his responsibility to defend Africa, if he did not tell the American President, “There are some things we do not share [that"> our culture and our society don’t accept. It is very difficult for us to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept.”

Why is this particular “right” on homosexuality so strongly pushed, but not that of Africans to repossess their lands and control their riches for their people and restore economic independence to this continent? America has not abolished the death penalty. Is taking the life of a human being less important than a homosexual right? If a homosexual were to choose between a same sex marriage right and a right not to be executed; which right would he or she choose?

RACISM AND VIOLENCE ON AFRICAN AMERICANS

America is still primitively a racist country. Not long ago on 17 June 2015, nine African American worshippers were murdered inside the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church). They included a Senior Pastor and a State Senator Clementa C. Pinckyney. Why was the Confederate flag similar to the colonial racist flags of Rhodesia and South Africa still flying in America after so many years of America’s statehood?

On 20 November 2014 an America jury was reported to have decided that a white policeman who killed a Black teenager, Michael Brown, should not stand trial. Bruce Western, a Howard University Sociologist, has reported that “The incarceration rate of African Americans is so high that young black men without a high school diploma are likely to go to jail than find a job.” He puts the incarceration rate of African Americans at 6 times higher than that of white Americans.

The Global Research for research on globalisation records that “The reality is that the USA which proclaims itself “a land of freedom” has the most dishonest and dangerous legal system of all the developed nations. Legal corruption is covering America like a blanket.” This research reveals that “The recent pattern of American violations of international law, are ultimately based on the USA domestic legal system.” This is clear. The invasion of Libya and Iraq and overthrow of their governments were not authorised by the United Nations.

African governments, in particular must be vigilant. They must serve the legitimate interests of Africa with the patriotism and integrity.

A learned African America theologian has written, “The spirit of confusion has reigned supreme throughout the world. The races and nations have changed over the centuries, but the spirit has stayed the same led by the pernicious Western world powers….They have polluted the air, water, earth and the minds of men. Through powerful deception the evil forces have made good seem evil and evil seem good.”

Must Africa hope that President Barack Obama will influence his colleagues in America and Europe to do introspection and recognise that Africa and other nations of the world have values and interests to protect? Meanwhile African leaders must be vigilant and refuse to surrender Africa to a new form of slavery and colonialism.

* Dr. Motsoko Pheko is author of several books and former member of the South African Parliament. During the liberation struggle in Africa he represented the victims of apartheid at the United Nations in New York and at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

* THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM

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