There was the Africa of the fathers of independence, those who, at the cost of fierce struggles and unspeakable sacrifices, sounded the trumpet of the unity of the continent. You know, those first presidents of "independent Africa" — only thirty-two countries had then attained national sovereignty — who signed, on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, the birth certificate of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Even today, and while the date of May 25 is now dedicated to "World Africa Day", their names resonate as essential landmarks and their speeches remain inexhaustible sources of inspiration for an Africa in full mutation and more than ever in search of its real identity.
Here, "what we need is a single African organization through which Africa can make a single voice heard", had proclaimed, that day, the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, host of the conference founder of the OAU. Indeed, echoed the Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah, “African states must unite or else sell themselves to the imperialists and colonialists (…) Our current problems cannot be solved by sporadic actions, nor by pious resolutions . It will take nothing less than the action of a united Africa”.
UNITY AND UNION
Today, we are indisputably far from these dreams. And yet, from “Africa must unite” by Kwame Nkrumah, to “When will Africa?” of Joseph Ki-Zerbo, the questioning remains the same. Until when, in fact, will this continent, so great, so rich and oh so ingenious, bide its time? And why, despite all its potentialities, don't we quickly do the essential to find this Africa of Thomas Sankara (revolution of mentalities), Nelson Mandela (charisma and political leadership) and Sylvanus Olympio (monetary sovereignty)?
It is a fact, fifty-seven years after the creation of the Organization of African Unity, which became the African Union in 2002, the Black continent is still running after unity and union. A unity which should result in a strong geopolitical entity, more independent and which weighs more in the concert of nations, I would even say in the “big show” of the continents. But also a union of the sons and daughters of the continent, which induces more solidarity in the promotion of our endogenous values and wealth.
In short, counting first, as the Beninese revolutionaries chanted in the 1970s and 1980s, "on our own forces, our own resources, on the creative initiative of the broad masses in our struggle to free ourselves from foreign domination, to to develop our economy and to give our people the dignity and personality of a free people". Have we already forgotten the Burkinabè Thomas Sankara who enjoined us to… “produce what we consume (and to) consume what we produce”?
DIVISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES…
However! Sixty years after independence, Africa remains largely dependent on the diktat of those who colonized it yesterday, and even sometimes stiffened by the centuries of shameful slavery to which it was subjected. And to make matters worse, it too often surfs on these internal divisions of which it has the secret, blowing on the unextinguished embers of balkanization to finally agree only on its disagreements, where the wickerwork of continental unity of action. However, and it was the late Guinean Ahmed Sékou Touré who so aptly recalled, "in Berlin, in 1885, the European states, with their anarchic economic development motivated by an arbitrary feeling of power and the horizontal expansion of civilization, proceeded to divide Africa which was then considered a piece of cake".
However, it is appropriate to stop being its past and be satisfied with having one... On this subject, Africa today capitalizes on so many values, energy and resources, but also on lessons and experiences, to sublimate its painful past, in order to write tomorrow in golden letters. Ahmed Sékou Touré also saw in the meeting of May 1963 the horizon of a reunited Africa. "The authentic and worthy sons of the African peoples, united under the banner of their awareness, of their common destiny, loyalty to their personality and to the original character of their mother house, Africa, have decided this time to undertake, legally and legitimately, the reunification of their States in a single charter, the charter of fraternity, the charter of their henceforth indomitable solidarity, the charter of freedom and peace, justice and progress in Africa”, he had hammered. We will probably wait a long time for this "united" or "reunified" Africa.
I SPEAK TO YOU ABOUT THIS AFRICA…
However, it would be wrong to paint the destinies of this fabulous continent only in black! Without overshadowing this Africa of David Léon Mandessi Diop, which "my grandmother sang on the edge of her distant river", it is useful, I think, to also speak today of this Africa which wakes up in the early hours of the dawn and setting in the middle of the night... Yes, I'm talking to you about this Africa of women who punctuate with such joy and self-sacrifice the daily life of cities and countryside... I'm talking to you about this Africa of young people, who sounds the alarm and refuses confinement, corruption and eternity in power… But also of this Africa of courage, determination, technological success and innovation.
Despite the economic difficulties, the terrorism which sows discord in its communities, the major epidemics which it has to face, the black continent remains indeed standing, moving, advancing... Between accounts and miscalculations, Africa still has to, it is true, to oblige oneself to more discipline, to more rigor, to sublimate one's past and finally take one's destiny in hand.
However, one can still legitimately wonder whether the famous dream of the "United States of Africa", which moreover has never won unanimous support, was not simply too big for the "founding fathers" and objectively unrealistic for current leaders. In any case, for Fulbert Youlou, then President of the Republic of Congo, “the unity of Africa should not make us forget its diversity, especially since it is an immense continent. No continent, be it Europe, the Americas or Asia, has so far succeeded and can claim to establish a continental government, form a single state, forge a single nation”. Of which act!
only a consumer market for the rest
of the world.
FROM ESTATES GENERAL?
What if, in this year of the 60th anniversary of the independence of many countries on the continent, we convened the Estates General to redefine the real priorities of Africa in a globalized world that drowns our "essential being" in political and economic stereotypes that are miles away from our social and sociological realities? Indeed, as the late Joseph Ki-Zerbo so rightly observes in his book "A quand l'Afrique?" ( When is Africa?), "by the manufactured objects that come to us from the industrialized countries of the North, by what they carry of cultural charge, we are forged , molded, formed and transformed”.
Better, argues the first African graduate in history, “we are immersed in the world at the level of televisions, radios, computers, the internet. We are not able to disconnect. We do not have the freedom to free ourselves. We do not have the freedom to be unaligned. None of us is truly independent of this surge which falls from the industrialized countries and fetters us by the chains of production and consumption”.
Let's do justice to Joseph Ki-Zerbo, we are indeed unable to disconnect from this devastating surge! But, while remaining open to the world, we must, it seems to me, recreate an Africa based on our main cultural and religious values, and build an Africa that feeds on the sweat and genius of its sons and girls for self-centered and self-sustaining development. World Africa Day will, in my opinion, only make more sense...
© Serge Mathias Tomondji
Ouagadougou, 25 mai 2020
