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(TALKZIMBABWE) United States of Africa to define 21st Century

United States of Africa to define 21st Century
By: Garikai Chengu
Posted: Thursday, September 2, 2010 6:33 am

OVER a hundred years from now, well after the ink has dried on historian's quills, future generations of students will be learning that the defining moment of the 21st Century was the formation of a United States of Africa. They will learn how that moment made the 21st Century an African Century.

The defeat of Napoleonic France in 1815 was the defining moment of the 19th Century and made it a British Century. The collapse of the Soviet Union was the defining moment of the 20th Century, and made it an American Century. African sons and daughters have the chance to fulfil the dreams of their nation's founding fathers by forming a United States of Africa.

Through unification the current century could very well be defined by triumph and growth, rather than the defeat and collapse that formed the basis for the centuries that came before. As it stands, in one particular sense African unity already exists.

All proud and patriotic Zimbabweans believe themselves to be part of a greater movement, that makes them feel personally involved in the triumphs and setbacks in other nations across the continent.

This emotional unity is born out of a shared history of subjugation and colonial rule.

However, it must be transformed into economic and eventually political expressions for it to promote continental triumphs and reduce setbacks.

The gallant sons and daughters that triumphantly freed the continent understood that it took the efforts of entire villages to attain political independence for the nation. So we too must recognise that it will take the efforts of entire nations working as one to attain economic independence.

In the wake of European integration, the rise of mighty China, a rapidly developing India, Russian territorial expantionalism, and the ongoing spectacular collapse of the American Empire - a United States of Africa would appear to balance the global political and economic equation for Africa.

Where as there is common sense as why Europe is uniting, there is no common sense as why Africans who are weak are not. If the powerful are uniting surely, the weak must be uniting too.

Despite the weakness of individual African nations on the international stage, the African continent is by far the richest on earth with precious metals, oil, gas, minerals and brilliant hard-working people. So why then are hundreds of millions of Africans the poorest, sickest, hungriest and most diseased on the face of our Earth?

The answer is simple: For as long as history has been recorded the strong have done what they will and the weak have suffered what they must.

For African nations to gain strength internationally and end the international causes of their suffering, they must unite.

In fact every patriotic, moral and proud African must declare personal war against this present situation. Otherwise many African nations will continue to be underdeveloped while making the rest of the people on earth, including those who have nothing but scorn and even hatred for them, wealthy.

Current wealthy imperial nations, built on fear and the exploitation of others, are merely flaunting their riches and abusing their power. However, the very emergence of a United States of Africa from hope, unity and sacrifice will allow the new superpower to be a force for good.

For centuries, Africa has been the milch cow of the Western world. The very same Western world that has suckled from the resource rich teat of Africa unabashed for far too long.

The same Western world that has done so whilst inappreciatively sinking its teeth into the continent and expressing scepticism about the value of African unity if not outright hostility to its success.

The same Western world that relies on Africa for more than 60 percent of its gold, masses of uranium for nuclear power, titanium for supersonic projectiles, copper for electronics, iron and steel for industries - essentially the basic proteins for the very western muscle that is crushing the continent, come from Africa.

Political brains from Whitehall to Washington exercise this muscle through multinational corporations. These multinationals are called as much because long ago they saw the strength they could wield by operating on a continental scale.

By utilising cross-shareholdings, interlocking directorships, and other means, various groups of seemingly different companies have in fact formed, one huge capitalist monopoly, which is ruthlessly efficient at exploiting African resources.

In a world of increasing globalisation, where the small guys often get drowned out by the bigger players, clearly the only means to challenge this financial empire and safeguard the continent’s resources, is to form an African Economic Union.

However, challenging those with current vested interest in the skewed relationship between the haves and the have nots and overthrowing this ignoble imperial economic empire, will require unification from Cape to Cairo.

Individually neither South Africa nor Egypt can put pressure on these vested interests or the United States, the European Union, Russia or China. In fact, at the United Nations there are more countries from Africa than from North America and Europe combined, yet we do not have any say on what goes on in there because we do not speak with one voice, we are not united.

If we want to make our influence felt as the world's natural resource Superpower then we must unite and speak with one voice, unite and have one foreign policy and unite and have one economic policy.

During the 1960s Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere debated how to unite Africa. The former advocated a ‘fast track’ process and the latter pushed for a more gradual ‘step by step’ approach.

I too like the learned Chambi Chachage, can’t help but feel with Nkrumah, yet I shall think with Nyerere.

Indeed Africa must unite, albeit pragmatically.

Africa’s people predominantly support a United States of Africa and have looked to the African Union for decisive steps towards unification.

However, despite the Organisation of African Unity’s re-branding as the African Union in 2002, it has continually struggled to shake off its image as a talking shop where rhetoric and bombastic speech thrive, but little action is taken.

What we need now is for our political leaders to continue to commit themselves to the idea of a United States of Africa, get the people sensitised, and have a sense of purpose and direction as to where we want to go, when we want to go and how we want to get there.

Rather than quibble, African leaders should bolster efforts towards regional integration and the formation of smaller scale African Economic Communities, consisting of the Southern African Development Community and its regional counterparts Economic Community for West African States (Ecowas), East African Community (EAC) and Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa).

These Regional Economic Communities should be designed to create economic and monetary unions through free and fair trade policies, common central banks, common currencies and passports.

The process of merging these four parts of the continent into a United Africa will then be much easier.

The United States of Africa should then be formed as a hybrid of the nation state that is the United States of America and the economic union that is the European Union.

The four pillars on which the United Africa should rest include common defence, economic, citizenship and foreign policy.

Firstly, under a common defence system the African Defence Force would be mandated to protect the continent from external threats and be equip to deal with internal emergencies and conflicts. Individual nations would provide resources and soldiers commensurate with their economic means.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, common economic policy should consist of a common African currency, free movement of goods, common external trade barriers and an African Central Bank.

Thirdly, common citizenship, by means of free movement of persons and an African Passport.

Finally, a common foreign policy will enable Africans to speak with one voice in the fora of the world. Undoubtedly, even the demands of the most soft spoken of African Foreign Ministers, backed by several quadrillion US dollars worth of untapped natural resources, and a two million-strong continental army, will be heard loud and clear at any international gathering.

The eventual governing structures of the United States of Africa should only be mandated to focus on these four areas so as to minimise the inevitable ceding of sovereignty that must accompany such a union.

To make the United States of Africa a reality Africans must cease to think in terms of Anglophone, Francophone, and Arabs or Mediterraneans.

They must think as Africans.

They must think as Africans not as Christians, Jews or Muslims. We are all God's children.

Africa is our homeland and all Africans must work to protect its people, its democracy, its cultures, its stability, its economy, its peace, and above all its unity not only for ourselves but for our children's children.

For our generation of peace-seeking Africans, the battle for a United States of Africa is the only one worth fighting - the only one that can provide the answers to the myriad of problems faced by the populations of Africa – the only one that can turn the continent into the world's great superpower and force for good.

Indeed "when spiders unite, they can tie up a lion" goes an old Ethiopian proverb. Most Africans and their leaders feel that to be true. It is only a matter of time before they spin that single web and weave this century into an African Century.

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*Garikai Chengu is a researcher at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at chengu *** fas.harvard.edu. The views expressed herein are solely those of Garikai Chengu

Labels: UNITED STATES OF AFRICA

posted by MrK @ 4:13 PM