The establishment of the Organisation of African Unity on this day, May 25, 1963 gave hope that Africans, at home and in the diaspora, finally had an institution through which they will reverse the centuries of humiliation, exploitation, oppression and dehumanisation visited on us through slavery and colonialism.
However, through neo-colonialism those hopes have remained a dream perpetually deferred. Brief moments of hope in the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Muamar Gaddafi, etc were killed by the imperialists and their collaborators.
We observe Africa Liberation Day having accumulated valuable lessons all these years about the internal and external power dynamics. External forces will not leave Afrika alone to chart her own development path, as in large measure they despise us, want to forever see us down and have predicated their own development on our subjugation.
Africa is a continent of contradictions. It is endowed with vast mineral resources, yet the beneficiaries of these minerals are not Africans. For Africa to develop it needs to believe and rely on itself, its youth, academics, artisans and its people. It needs visionary leaders, who are determined, disciplined and ethical. Everything stands or falls on leadership.
The African people, forever ready to build their continent are let down by their leaders. If one looks at the quality of the leadership of the African Union, let alone the individual countries, it does not inspire confidence.
Southern Africa led by liberation movements has degenerated to sorrowful levels.
However, the newly elected President of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah seems to have a different and promising attitude, but time will tell.
Leadership matters. The energy and focus of the leaders of Burkina Faso (Ibrahim Traore), Mali (Assimi Goita) and Niger (Abdourahamane Tchiani) who came through popular coups, has confirmed that with the right leadership much can be achieved.
One thing different about the Sahel leaders is that they are not scared of the people. They have actually mobilised them to be active participants in their own development.
These leaders have so far survived external interference because of the vigilance and active support of the people. There are encouraging signs so far from the elected governments of Ghana and Senegal that they might be following in the footsteps of the Sahel states.
Africans live in gut wrenching poverty, humiliation, arouse suspicion by their appearance in certain places, and yet the comprador leadership continues to facilitate the looting of our mineral resources for outsiders.
In South Africa freedom has brought victory for liberalism instead of the synthesis of Africanism. The ANC government has, since 1994, pursued policies dictated by the West, to the continued empowerment of forces who benefit from the misery of the African people.
It is for this reason that South Africa has become the most unequal country in the world. The beneficiaries of apartheid have never had it so good.
Disillusioned by the disastrous neoliberal policies of the ANC, the people refused to renew its mandate in the 2024 elections. Without a clear majority the ANC rushed straight into arms of the liberal DA to form a governing coalition, with a few bridesmaids for show.
This has emboldened the beneficiaries of apartheid, and they are now toying with the ANC to the embarrassment and humiliation of all Africans.
Groups such as AfriForum within the white community have linked up with right wingers and the Jewish lobby in America to halt transformation by conjuring stories about “terrible things happening in South Africa against Afrikaner farmers”.
The situation in the rest of the continent is no different. We have weak leadership, rent seeking at the service of foreign interests and concerned with self-preservation.
The era of the liberation movements has passed, they played their part. It is done. We need new organisations, new consciousness and a vision rooted in African history, culture and dynamics.
We need new activists who are firmly anchored in popular organisations, people’s power and African self-determination.
• Themba Godi is president of APC
