We observe the current world disorder where international law as articulated in the UN Charter is no longer upheld by great powers, especially the US under Donald Trump. The non-existence of international rules-based order means Africa must ask: What is to be done?
What we have observed in the post-colonial era is a continent where individual countries still get abused by former colonial powers and exploited by great powers from the East and West.
In my opinion, Africa will remain divided because the settler colonialists (Europeans in the main) have caught on to a simple fact: Africans can be divided if you offer them money and/or power, preferably both.
We have experienced this phenomenon during our state capture years.
The Gupta family did not possess some higher intelligence; instead they realised that the root of all evil and control is money and power, aptly facilitated by former president Jacob Zuma and his ilk.
Fortunately, we managed to arrest that capture to a certain extent, but still it continues elsewhere on the continent.
We can go back in time and highlight the tribal divisions and wars instigated by white people here in Mzansi and elsewhere on the continent.
History is indeed replete with examples of how the colonialists and imperialists divide us and then rule and govern us.
The CIA has played its role in many African countries in this regard, as well as the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, France’s foreign intelligence agency, and the UK’s MI6.
The assassination of many African leaders and the facilitation of coup d’etats post-colonial years is legendary.
So, we were not as surprised, just as many weren’t, when Venezuela happened.
They have been doing this to us with no one coming to our defence. And now we are back to anarchy thanks to Trump.
We observe the games Marco Rubio’s State Department play when they invite our president to the Oval Office only to mock and attempt to embarrass him, and immediately afterwards, invite six other African heads of state to the same office and wine and dine them because they have something you need.
False narratives abound, from white genocide in Mzansi to mass killings of Christians in northwestern Nigeria.I can go on and on.
If the shenanigans that played out in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations are anything to go by, they represent perhaps a microcosm of how we relate to each other in Africa. Shameful.
Our AU and Pan African Parliament can hardly put up a fight. They are as impotent as the UN General Assembly in the face of genocide in Gaza.
So, what of our Renaissance, I ask? Will we be able to succeed in the rebirth of our arts and literature or our Ubuntu doctrine and the principles we stand for?
Or will it be more of the same…betrayal of each other and collaboration with white men to the detriment of our people?
If it is indeed true that the CIA bribed individuals very close to Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro for them to betray him, I don’t have to imagine what that means for Africans.
Give me 30 pieces of silver, and I will gladly kiss my fellow man three times.
Somehow, I don’t think we are going to be able to unite against the evil of the West or East; our dream will remain deferred. Pity, really.
• Dr Van Heerden is a senior Research Fellow at the Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at UJ
