FEATURE: Africa starts rebuilding for a better self-image

“What kind of Africa are we creating?”

A prominent Kenyan scholar and international consultant raised the question this week at an exclusive discussion about the continent’s governance and related economic, social and political issues.

The session, however, came to an abrupt end before its fatigued participants reacted. They headed to their hotels with that question in mind, but the entire African citizenry should take it as a stimulus when they think about the future of this continent.

Speaking at the launch of a book, ‘Capturing the 21st Century: African Peer Review Mechanism Best Practices and Lessons Learnt’, Prof. Ahmed Mohiddin said Africans are now facing a new phase of global changes under with external forces once again impacting on the continent’s people and resources.

“Are we witnessing another manifestation of colonialism?” Mohiddin further queried, offering some enlightening explanation of what the African citizenry and the Diaspora alike should consider as they start to forge suitable development paths for the continent.

Celebration of the first half century since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of today’s African Union (AU), has seen the whole African continent engaged in debates about African perspectives and ownership of the development process.

There is almost nothing new about this except that, since independence, the population had never been so much involved as crucial partners in shaping their own destiny.

In a more or less prophetic way, the eminent pan-Africanist and first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, told the founding assembly of the OAU in May 1963: “Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs; to construct our society according to our aspirations, unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist controls and interference.

“From the start we have been threatened with frustration where rapid change is imperative and with instability where sustained effort and ordered rule are indispensable. No sporadic act nor pious resolution can resolve our present problems.

“Nothing will be of avail, except the united act of a united Africa.”

Nkrumah predicted Africa’s current situation as if he knew that the requisite reaction to his statement would take so long to come only in the 21st century. Regardless of the ongoing debates, ‘the united act of a united Africa’ cannot manifest itself in endless talking.

Thanks to the efforts and resolve of the OAU, Africa defeated the old colonialism. Today African nations require greater determination and wit to thwart neo-colonialist controls directed to their natural resources, including human resources.

According to Mohiddin, “We are now entering a new global, political and economic order” whereby, he said, forces from the East and the West are yearning for Africa’s resources and human labour.

Mohiddin argues that Africans have both the best and the worst of experiences with regard to the past injustices committed against them by outside forces in the forms of slavery, oppression, colonialism and discrimination. “But as a people what do we do with this information?” he asks.

Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, speaking at a different forum in the run-up to the AU jubilee celebration, jokingly remarked that luckily, the colonial rulers did not find out about the abounding wealth that is being discovered in Africa. Had they done so, independence for many countries could probably come after a very hard bargain and liberation wars would have lasted long years.

With more than 50 years of independence for many of the AU member countries and now 10 years of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) that was created by the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Africa has a wealth of information on which it can base its imminent choice of change for progress and democratisation, while asserting Afrfican perspectives and ownership.

The new publication by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on practices and lessons learnt from the APRM, asserts that what is needed to end the scourge of Africa’s underdevelopment and alleviate poverty, in terms of human and material resources as well as technology and skills, are within the reach of the African peoples.

“Africans now need to be proactive, getting involved in the global markets of goods and services, ideas and politics, acquiring the requisite knowledge and information, identifying possibilities and opportunities and responding to them appropriately, thus strengthening and positioning themselves as credible, competent and competitive global actors as the 21st century unfolds,” says the publication.

Through the APRM over the last decade, at least in those countries where the peer process has started, the people have been gradually empowered, their self-confidence enhanced, governments have been demystified and according to Mohiddin, “the phenomenon of big people is no longer there.”

The groundwork is yet to be completed across the continent, but African countries should be set for a take-off to attain strategic objectives of Agenda 2063 for the next 50 years – to rapidly develop human resources, to industrialise, to develop agriculture and to foster self-reliance.

These objectives envelope increase in quality jobs, incomes for the people and rapid reduction of inequality and poverty with the central focus on children and youth. Africa’s population is expected to rise by over 360 million to 1.2 billion by 2025 and 1.9 billion by 2050, according to UN statistics.

In the meantime, however, African countries face an extra challenge of eliminating malnutrition to give their children a chance for growth and well-being.

Presently, Africa has the highest percentage of undernourished people in the world with over 30 percent suffering from chronic hunger and an estimated 38 percent of children in the region are stunted.

Africa accounts for 94 percent of child deaths caused by malaria, 89 percent of deaths attributable to HIV/AIDS and 46 percent of child mortality from pneumonia, and 40 percent of deaths from diarrhoea. All these are preventable causes of death.

In Eastern Africa, for instance, almost half of the children in the sub-region, some 45.7 percent, are stunted due to chronic malnourishment.

When the African citizenry start taking part in the grand debate on Agenda 2063, focused on Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance, they should take on board these and other issues related to socio-economic development in an open and non-intimidating manner in order to generate robust home-grown strategies that ensure a better future for the continent.

The AU wants public discussions around Agenda 2063 to be part of the yearlong anniversary activities in all member states, but the AU Commission’s Deputy Chairperson, Mr Erastus Mwencha has the Agenda has to be ready by May 2014.

By Rwegayura ANACLET, PANA Correspondent