Africa Day is perhaps the most politically conscious of all
of the continent’s public or commemorative days. On its own, before we even analyse what African
countries, their leaders and others have done over the 54 years that have
lapsed since the formation of the liberation struggle oriented Organisation of African
Unity (OAU).
This is because by just remembering the continent’s struggles
and history we are performing a complete act of contextual consciousness. Even before we act upon it or if some of us
Africans are reluctant to acknowledge the monumental task that was the struggle
for national and continental liberation.
The African Union has themed this year’s Africa Day’s commemorations
“Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through investments in Youth”, is not so
much looking to the past but the future.
And this is an important aspect despite challenges with democracy and progressive
social democratic economic policies.
An important aspect that should however never be overlooked
is that while the past is not enough to mitigate the challenges of the present,
it is integral to a very necessary liberation struggle consciousness that must
be bequeathed from one generation to the next.
In this regard, while being a young African is important, it
is not enough if one is not only historically and politically conscious of the
many progressive struggles that have brought the continent to where it is
today. Warts and all.
This is why it is key that where we commemorate Africa Day
in our various countries and in the global Diaspora, we must remember that our
liberation was driven not just by youthful anger, but also ideas that remain
valid as they were in the past, as they are today and as they will be
tomorrow.
These values are many but can be summed up as people-centered
social and economic justice via popular and democratic political and economic
participation.
While they may appear a though they are just slogans, they
are values that require continual application of rigorous thought (both intellectual
and non-intellectual), actions and commitment to improving the livelihoods of
all our continents people.
These three aspects of thought, action and commitment
however must not be undertaken with simplistic mimicry of the ideas coming from
outside of the continent. They need to
be applied with specificity to context and a progressive willingness to learn
from different continental experiences and actions of solidarity.
This however entails a change in our contemporary African
approaches and understanding of what is good or progressive political
leadership.
In recent years our continental leadership has been relatively
mediocre if measured on the basis of consciousness, context and
commitment. More often than not a lot of
our political leaders have sought to stay longer in office, extend political patronage
to retain power, evade economic transparency and accountability and easily go
to war or threaten to do so. Or they
have been so lax in international relations they have inadvertently led to
proxy wars being fought on the continent especially if one consider Libya, Mali
and South Sudan.
The same can be said of those that we would laud as Africa’s
business leaders. Their pursuit of
profit even if via state capitalism and cronyism is wrongly praised as
innovation. In most cases, the richest among
them generally have to counter rumours of their previous or current links with
repressive governments as they proceed to make millions. The latter millions which are also then
siphoned off to tax havens as described in the Panama Papers.
Even where we cross over to African civil society, there are
key leadership challenges that are not dissimilar to those that are also found
in business and politics. Even where
civil society is expected to be relatively much more focused on serving less
politically partisan interests.
This brings me to the key question surrounding this year’s
theme of ‘harnessing demographic dividends through investments in youths’. As argued earlier, the very fact of referring
to young Africans as a key element of Africa’s future is very important. What is however more important is the levels
of consciousness of not only those that came up with the term but also those
that are its target. And this begins by
not running way from Africa’s unparalleled continental example of liberation
consciousness to use business terms such as ‘dividend’ to refer to its young people.
Indeed we have what is referred to as a youth bulge in
relation to our continental population but we should avoid treating young Africans as some sort of 'market'. Or presenting them more as an investment
opportunity than addressing their contemporary challenges organically and in
relation to what member states are actually doing for them. Both in terms of democracy and social and economic
justice.
If we recall the contextual consciousness, commitment and
revolutionary action of those that founded the OAU and the intrinsic values of
our liberation struggles, and if we ensure these are not lost to young
Africans, we will arrive at our ‘post liberation’ liberation.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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