Remembering Dr Tajudeen Abdul Raheem (6 January 1961 – 25 May 2009) on African Liberation Day

A Tribute

In the Pan African struggles for liberation, very few are able to address every facet of society and still make lasting impact wherever they touched. Many leaders become part of exploitation as they become entrapped with the positions they had earned through their efforts and sacrifices of others. Pambazuka News, individuals and institutions across Africa will remember Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem’s contributions that have cut across every part of African society and the rest of humanity.

On African Liberation Day in 2009, Tajudeen had a call to celebrate it with the ancestors and we missed him joining us in further ALD commemorations and stock-taking for the remaining necessities of the emancipation struggles of women, the working peoples, all Africans wherever they are on the globe, and humanity. He had done his part well. The earth could not hold him any longer and had him released to the ancestors.

Taju is no longer physically with us, yet what he stood for, and his thoughts on liberation at various fronts in Africa and globally will continue to provide intellectual and ideological context to engage the struggles for dignity, unity, and freedom for Africa and the world. 

Some of Tajudeen’s thoughts on liberation are presented below as we reflect on African Liberation Day and the transition of this giant intellectual and activist of Africa.

Breaking leadership complicity in worsening poverty in Africa

The irony of Africa being a very rich continent but Africans being some of the poorest peoples in the world is no longer lost on anyone. While we can argue about the historical, structural, attitudinal, personal and institutional causes of this state of affairs, the fact remains that majority of our peoples remain in need amidst plenty. Decades of Aid, humanitarian intervention, prayers, activism, development plans, action plans, government declarations and so many other initiatives have not produced fundamental change for the poorest and weakest sections of our societies. Yet Africans remain one of the most optimistic peoples, perpetually believing that ‘tomorrow go better’ (i.e., tomorrow will be better, as they say in Nigeria). The hope may be dependent on a few Chinese or Indian made wares hanging on the neck of the street hawker or a tray of fruits dexteriously carried by an underage girl rushing for vehicles on the streets of Accra or few sachets of allegedly ‘Pure water’ on the streets of Lagos or Obama paraphernalia in Nairobi. From Tajudeen's last Pan African Postcard: City beautification is destroying livelihoods, Tajudeen 25.05.2009 

Our elite are embarrassed by the mass poverty that surrounds us but they are unwilling to provide leadership and appropriate policies to take our peoples to prosperity. They think they can lock it away from polite society. They engage in avoidance and denial mechanisms to pretend to visitors that ‘everything is ok’. That’s why they rid our capitals of beggars, hawkers, and other ‘undesirables’ before any major ‘international’ conference but out of sight is not out of mind for the Mama and Baba Mbogas in our midst. You can pull down their kiosks and destroy their tables but they will come back with new tables, under umbrellas and their clientele will know where to find them. By no means are their clients all wretched of the earth. I still call my favourite mama Mboga, Mama Sarah, or her husband, Martin, to send me top up cards from wherever Nairobi City Council have forced them to. But this couple like me driven back to the streets by government policy have had their hopes and dreams shattered by a government with a tunnel vision of development that only looks at the welfare of the minority rich and powerful at the expense of the impoverished and powerless underclass. While the elite engages in power struggles the citizens are only concerned about Livelihood struggles. Any society that threatens the livelihood of its own citizens risk permanent threat to its own survival and security. From Tajudeen's last Pan African Postcard: City beautification is destroying livelihoods, Tajudeen 25.05.2009 

It is really sad that our patriotism and nationalism are brought out mostly in the negative. Where is the patriotism of the media in the face of the high- and low-level corruption destroying the country, compromising the delivery of services, the maintenance of roads and leading to deaths in badly maintained hospitals? Where is the media's patriotism in an aspiring middle-income country where 10 million citizens face mass hunger and starvation despite ample food? Why is the media not waging war against corruption and hunger? Hunger in Kenya is not due to a lack of food but rather the fact that the poor do not have the resources to buy it. Middle-class professionals and the indolent political elite, who do not produce anything and merely milk the country dry, have money to buy any food they want, whereas poor and powerless farmers cannot farm due to drought and cannot eat due to lack of economic means. Where is the patriotism in this? From  The Migingo dispute: Will diplomacy work? Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem 23.04.2009 

However, I am more than ever convinced that the battle against corruption cannot be won in conference halls or through the creation of more anti-corruption bodies and even more laws. There are enough laws in the statutes of many countries that if they are implemented many leaders; politicians, their families and cronies; business people; members of other professions; legislators; councillors; civil society and NGO leaders; police bosses; security officers; nurses; judges; imams; priests; bishops; student leaders; college principals; civil servants; journalists and many more will be in jail.

Of course, there is nothing particularly cultural or African about corruption. But we should not take cover under such blandishments. Corruption is destroying Africa more than any other region and it has greater impact on our lives than it does in most others. From drinking water to the dangerous ‘licensed’ aircrafts defying gravity that fly across our airspace, through hospitals and death traps on our roads, corruption is more omnipresent than God. Even in our temples, churches and mosques corruption reigns. We reserve high tables at religious, cultural, social, political and other public events for thieves and rogues who continue to rob us and wipe our noses in their acts. We elect them and complain afterwards. From Corrupt leaders are mass murderers: Corruption more omnipresent than God. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem 19.03.2009

It is not possible to root out corruption without every one of us willing to do our part. You may not be able to do something about it, but you can decide not to be part of it by refusing to give or take, and by refusing to respect or honour those who do. You can show your zero tolerance of corruption no matter how ‘small’ – whether it is what the police call ‘chai’ in east Africa or ‘handshake’ in west Africa – or the ‘bigger’ examples involving government contracts and other public procurements. As long as we are willing to partake in it or not mind being its beneficiaries through our kiths and kins then corruption will remain endemic.

It is about time we borrow from other parts of the world like China, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia where corruption is treated with the highest contempt and sternest sanctions including capital punishment. It does not mean that these countries are inhabited by angels, but the fact that severe sanctions are often applied has proven to be a deterrent in many ways. Not all thieves would be caught but those caught would not be allowed to go with impunity.

It is the regime of impunity in many African countries that has made institutionalised corruption. It is not enough to continue to blame the system without looking at human agency. Gone are the days when we could glibly dismiss corruption as the ‘primitive accumulation of capital’. We have to accept that after several decades of primitivism this class of exploiters is not capable of growing out of it or transforming their loot into anything but more looting. Indeed, we should regard public officials and their private sector collaborators as mass murderers killing millions of our peoples through inadequate public services compromised by corruption. Monies meant for drugs, roads, hospitals, schools and public security are siphoned away, making all of us vulnerable to premature death and our societies more unsafe and insecure for the masses. From Corrupt leaders are mass murderers: Corruption more omnipresent than God. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem 19.03.2009

Tajudeen on Women’s Freedom from Gender-Based Violence and deaths

For many years activists – both feminist and non-feminist – have been campaigning against gender-based violence (GBV), and drawing upon several international instruments, conventions and statutes that prohibit violence against women. All African states sign up to these instruments, and our intergovernmental multilateral organisations, whether at the regional or continental levels, have drawn upon some of these instruments and Africanised them in order to take our concrete, lived experiences into consideration. Having done these, the other frontline is the domestication of the laws in the national statutes of various countries through ratification. Even when that is achieved there remains the Herculean task of popularising them so that the public will know about them and sensitising the police, social workers, and the entire judicial system to take them seriously, investigate allegations and bring perpetrators to justice. Also there are many challenges about victims being sufficiently empowered to be able to report to the appropriate authorities. No matter how good a law is it is only in its implementation that its impact can be felt. As any judicial activist knows, a law that cannot be enforced diminishes the status of that law. Impunity arises not simply because victims do not have access to justice, but because perpetrators get away with their crimes and at times are not even aware that they have done anything against the law. Therefore, general public education and mass awareness must be sustained at various levels. This will not just be about laws but also confronting certain received wisdoms, and cultural and social practices that encourage violence against women and disempower them in voicing their pain, let alone seeking legal redress. 

While the campaign against gender violence is gaining in momentum, it is important that campaigners do not concentrate on women alone. After all, it is generally men who batter and rape women, both in war and in peace. It is important to enter into serious dialogue with men to campaign against all kinds of gender-based violence together. We as men must look at things and ask ourselves what our reaction would be were such violence to be perpetrated against our daughters, sisters and mothers. Our strength should not be in our fist, gun or between our legs. From Ending violence against women 12.03.2009 

Official statistics reveal a shocking trend of mothers dying in circumstances that are preventable. Despite the fact that some countries have invested in the provision of basic healthcare, in developing countries only 35 per cent of births are attended by skilled health workers.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman has a one in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth, compared to a one in 4,000 risk in a developed country. More than half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth every year, and of these deaths, 99 per cent are in developing countries.

In a continent where most of our peoples still live in rural areas, it is highly precarious that the health and lifespan of mothers and other citizens are based on such a random selection. It means that the majority of our peoples is condemned to inferior access to good medical facilities. Even in the capital cities, your residential area and economic wellbeing condition your access.

A young sister of mine, Asmau (better known as Talatua) aged 33, died two hours after delivering her second child, a boy, whom she never held. Asmau was not an illiterate woman. She was a senior science teacher, while her husband is a college principal. Both fall far beyond the so called ‘ordinary man and woman’, as their income could ‘buy’ them better access to health facilities. My sister died in a ‘private’ clinic, one of many that have mushroomed in response to the crisis in the public health sector. Most of these ‘private’ clinics are owned by doctors and other medical staff ‘working’ in the public sector. So really the only dividing line between public and private is the ‘extra’ money that those who can afford pay in order to buy themselves extra care and time of overworked public professionals.

The paradox of the situation is that millions of children in Asia and Africa now have a better chance of living beyond the age of five. If more children are living, why are their mothers dying in such scandalous numbers? Who is going to nurture and care for these children with improved chances of living beyond the age of five, facilitating their universal access to education and greater opportunities beyond 2015?

Our people try to cope with every calamity, many of them avoidable, preventable and human-made, by insisting that ‘it is God’s will’. Since God does not protest and has no instant rebuttal department, everything can be blamed on him.

It is not God’s will that children should be brought up without their mothers. It is the way in which we plan our society that leads to women being penalised for doing what is natural to womanhood.

It is unacceptable that governments that can find money for unjust wars, the private security of presidents and their wives or concubines – not to even talk of ministers and other state officials – while ignoring the far greater needs of their citizens for these services. It is not about lack of resources, but lack of people-friendly public priorities. If the minister of health of a country goes abroad on the flimsiest of health reasons and the minister of education does not have any of his or her children in the educational services his or her ministry is providing, why should the public trust the services?

It is not morally or politically right and it cannot be acceptable that mothers die giving life.  In memory of my mother who sacrificed everything for her ‘first child’ and other children, my grandmother who nurtured and loved me unconditionally, my great-grandmother whom I was privileged to know, my eight sisters who are now reduced to seven because of Asmau’s untimely death, and in honour of my two wonderful daughters, Aida and Ayesha and their mum, Mounira, and my numerous nieces, women cousins, sisters-in-law and all women, I have pledged myself to support the ‘Piga Debe’ campaign (‘to make noise’ or ‘to shout’ in Swahili) on women’s rights of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, with a particular focus on maternal health.

Mothers should not be dying giving life. Enough is enough, join the ‘Piga Debe’ campaign. From Mothers should not die giving life, 05.03.2009 

Tajudeen on Libya and African Unity

Despite his ideological alignment with the socialist bloc Gaddafi was neither a Moscow or China surrogate leader. In spite of supporting mainstream liberation movements in an age when such organisations claimed to be the ‘sole representative of the people’, Libya often supported different groups from the same country and even different factions of the same groups. It also had an infinite capacity to switch support from government to opposition or vice versa. Any regular participant at the various Al Mathaba events and training at that time will readily attest to the presence of a motley of groups from all over the world that were fellow travellers in Tripoli in those days, courtesy of Libyan solidarity and internationalism.

Sometimes with friends in Libya you do not need enemies. Libya’s unpredictability was both an indication of the country’s independence and Gaddafi’s attempts to create a third way between the two dominant blocs. He never quite succeeded but the relative fabulous wealth of the country and the popular legitimacy of the Al Fatah revolution enabled it to be a force to be reckoned with. It is not just Libya’s wealth but the orientation of its leadership that cemented the country’s power, because in comparison Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zaire under Mobutu, Angola, Botswana and a few other countries in Africa have tremendous wealth yet did or do not have a similar level of influence.

Imperialism fought against Libya for a long time including several coup and assassination attempts and Tripoli bombings (Ronald Reagan’s pre-emptive strike of 1986 missed Gaddafi only by a whisker). Libya also fought Euro-American hegemony by all means at its disposal. But it was Lockerbie that finally led to sanctions being imposed on Libya for 10 years. The sanctions regime nearly brought Libya to its knees. It was pan-African diplomatic and political solidarity that helped Libya to find a diplomatic end. It was Africa’s resolve and threat to break the sanctions unanimously adopted at the 1998 Ouagadougou summit that forced the hands of the UN Security Council. Mandela, Museveni and Rawlings were instrumental in instigating the change. The OAU gave the UN, the US and Britain an ultimatum to accept the trial of the Libyan suspects in the Netherlands instead of Scotland. Mandela even went on state visit to Tripoli twice in one week. Who could have imposed sanctions on Mandela for breaking sanctions against Libya?

The lessons of Lockerbie were what dictated Gaddafi’s renewed interest in African unity and his belief that African states could wield more influence if they were to act together. Africa held together whereas the Arab league, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and other pan-Islamic or pan-Arab diplomatic and political forums that Libya belonged to could not back up their solidarity with any tangible action. His gratitude to Africa led to the extraordinary session of the OAU in Sirte in September 1999. In the search for a faster process of African unity, it was the Sirte Declaration that led to the transformation of the OAU to the African Union. By this time Libya had more or less abandoned the policy of changing African governments in exchange for just having friendly relations. The world had already changed too. By then many pro-Western governments in Africa had become post-Cold War ideological orphans. And many of Libya’s former rebel friends had also assumed power in a number of these countries. Even those leaders who did not share Libya’s revolutionary ideas learnt to accommodate the country. You may not be firm friends but you do not want it on your enemy’s side.

The business of unity is too important to be left to the whims and chagrin of leaders. It has to be anchored on sustainable institutions that are well thought-out and well costed and budgeted for. There is enough in the constitutive act of the African Union that any further reviews agreed in Addis Ababa can only advance the interests of the enemies of unity who are determined to put the brakes on any progress. From Gaddafi and African unity 05.02.2009 

More Postcards can be read in:  Speaking Truth to Power: Selected Pan-African Postcards Edited by Ama Biney & Adebayo Olukoshi (Pambazuka Books, 2010).