The Dilema of a continent

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To be or not to be
That is the Question
whether it is nobler
at this time
to unite
or remain forever apart
Whether Africa can decide:
enough is enough
weve been apart too long
It is time to unite
inspite of our differences
or join forces with enemies
within and without and say
No the black man cannot rule himself
he must always listen to his master's voice.

We could have hoped against hope that something miraculous and wonderful could have come out of the recent African Union Summit in Accra, and all the leaders could have come out with decisions that would point to the formation of a United States of Africa.

No one looking at the state of affairs before the conference could have predicted an outcome different from what did emerge. Were we expecting that the old "Monrovia Group" has changed from its old ideological stance from the "Cassablanca Group?"

The basic differences are still the same. The gradualists are still in place to articullate the master's voice. Albeit there are still valuable resources on the African soil and they are not done yet juicing the African continent, so why must they instruct their puppet heads to vote to end the exploitation prematurely?

At this point in time sadly to say, there seems to be only two or three countries out of fifty two which are sane enough to say yes to continental intergration: Libya, Senegal and to some extent Liberia-that's it!! (Even though the Liberian President seems ambivalent about her allegiance to the African Continent viz her call for AFRICOM to be located on Liberian soil according to the latest presses coming in!)

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE LEADERS OF LIBYA, SENEGAL AND LIBERIA for standing up for the IMMEDIATE intergration of the African Continent but there is so much work to be done before we can even hope to realise the dream of a United States of Africa.

We've all known that it is not a question of semantics that has kept our nations apart. It is not the differences inherent in saying yes to the United States of Africa NOW or IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME.

Isn't it uncanny that the same phrases which were in play at the threshold of our independence should still be articulated and recycled now? Isn't it quaint that that the same groupings could be found on the continent- still alive and thriving?

Not even after the major Anti-Apartheid push for the release of Nelson Mandela has there been any real change in the continental policies of South Africa and the other countries surrounding it- Swaziland, and the whole region. And what did happen to the President of Haile Selassie's Ethiopia- the seat of African Integration, and Kenyatta's Kenya and Uganda, whatever happened to Mugabe of Zimbabwe the avowed student of Nkrumah....And yadayada John Kuffour the eminent head of the Afrcan Union and the host country Ghana; another head who paid glowing tribute to Nkrumah's dreams of African Integration?

We seem to be staring into the still stony faces of Veowolf, Vorsta, Botha, Ian Smith, Tolbert, Tubman, Houphouet Boiney and all the forces of retrogression, and they are busily echoing the pay-off phrases "IT IS NOT YET TIME FOR AFRICA TO UNITE. BY AND BY ..ONE DAY .. MAYBE IT WILL BE TIME.

After all a look at the history of continental and regional integration might give us a few lessons. Of course America had to go through The Civil War to establish The United States of America as we see it today. A look at what it would have been without integration would be unthinkable. If integration were not important why would it take so much blood to establish the great United States of America? The sheer force of economic and industrial power, the magnificent and intricate web of infrastructural genius, the very fabric of economic, technological, and political and socio-cultural power which now dominates the whole world would not have materialized if all the little southern and northern states had kept to themselves.

The Soviet Union before integration used to be small groups of independent states facing threats from regional predators in Europe and Asia. In spite of all sorts of ethnic and cultural differences, these states were able to come together, feed off each other and realize their true greatness and strengths only after they came together and supported each other. In scientific research, in economic, cultural and social integration, they were second to non- they became a force to reckon with.

China, before Mao was a collection of feudal states which perennially faced starvation and mediocrity. There were political and ideological problems with entities like modern day Taiwan etc. But these problems were surmountable. With integration came industrial and agrarian revolution, political autonomy and the building of a thriving economy which has gradually come to command the economic clout China enjoys today.

Even Great Britain - Great Britain used to be a separate pockets of power in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. They all had their well entrenched cultures and political hierarchies But by or hook or crook they came together. There were statesmen and women who dared to dream of a Great Britain and were willing to defy all odds and get united.

And whilst we are at it, what about THE EUROPEAN UNION? Weren't they initially inhibited by realistic regional cultural political and economic differences? But aren't they working their problems out? They all put their heads together, started working on the modalities, set themselves deadlines and proceeded from there..

So when is it going to happen for us in Africa ? Yeah, Yeah ...When the exploiters of our continent have taken us to the cleaners a la Namibia, milked us dry by extracting every natural human resource from us. Yeah they'll be about done when all their military and cultural bases have been installed and the African has lost all sense of who he really is, and all his dreams are of burghers and ice cream!

Maybe the African is not confused enough at this point, we need to lose ourselves some more so that at some time when we are well be-fuddled about our identity and our whole purpose on this earth then that is the time we can integrate and build a United States of Africa !! Oh what a dream!!

The state of our disunity and indecision should be a clear indication that there is something really wrong with our thinking in AFRICA. If it is true that all these heads of states were constitutionally elected all over Africa, it should should clearly indicate to us that we have a long way to go.

The crisis of leadership in Africa has never been clearer.

It is moral issue. The creation of the United States of Africa is a moral issue. The continents problem of genocide, slavery, civil wars and rape, disease, displacement and all our other problems are not going to be solved by anyone but us.

If the same entities which stand to benefit by our disunity tell us they will help us to unite one day we will wait? Are we waiting for them?

This is a challenge to the youth in Africa . Our present leadership has failed us. We need to take note.

If all these leaders cannot think through these problems, then they will always leave the way they left Accra on July 3, 2007. EMPTY !!Indecisive divided , backward, bent. They came to Accra, and went back with a handful of communiques, a number of diplomatic, economic and cultural regional collaborations, BUT THE BLUEPRINT OF PLANS FOR A UNITED STATES OF AFRICA .. came up missing.

THE CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP AND POLITICAL WILL IN AFRICA HAVE NEVER BEEN CLEARER.

"If we do not formulate plans for unity and take active steps to form political union, we will soon be fighting and warring among ourselves with imperialists and colonialists standing behind the screen and pulling vicious wires, to make us cut each others throats for the sake of their diabolical purposes in Africa." -

- Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Speech at the closing session of the Casablanca Conference, 7 January 1961.

It is time to set some deadlines

It is time to forge o ahead in spite of our the perceived differences

It is time for the kind of leadership which will lead Africa out of mediocrity, myopia, ineptitude,

It is time to dare to dream and work for the United States of Africa

Long live Africa