By Takura Zhangazha*
The current
chairperson of the African Union (AU) and president of Senegal, Macky Sall
recently met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the former capacity. In representing the African continent, not
much was reported on the geo-political implications of such a meeting save for
stories claiming that agricultural products that Africa heavily relies on from
Ukraine and Russia are still able to reach our African shores. For any discerning mind there was probably
more to the meeting than what was reported.
Hence on social media there were memes on how close Sall was to Putin as
compared to for example the president of France, Emmanuel Macron. A meme in which one can assume a deliberate
ploy by Putin to demonstrate that at this time of the Russia- Ukraine war he
intended to demonstrate greater Russian proximity to Africa in international relations. Not only based on the number of United
Nations (UN) votes from African countries (Zimbabwe included) that refused to
suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights
Council (UNHRC)
Be that as
it may, Africa’s response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been interesting
to observe and reminiscent of a Pan Africanism of yesteryear to reflect
upon.
And it is
an historical given that a majority of African states were closer to Russia
during their anti-colonial struggle than they were to what we then referred to
as the global West. While mired in the
global politics of the Cold War, a majority of African countries in all of its
regions (East, North, West and Southern) did have greater solidarity with the
then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Even until the latter collapsed in 1989.
But before
that as far back as the 1960s, the inimitable Ghanaian and African hero Kwame
Nkrumah had sort of set the framework for Africa’s interaction with the rest of
the world with his now famous dictum, and I am paraphrasing here, “We face neither
east or west. But we face forward.” This was in relation to the fact that Africa
would undertake a Pan Africanism that related to its intention to play an even
hand with global superpowers in its particular interests. Especially where it concerned the outstanding
task of liberation from colonialism but also the economic development of
already independent states on the continent.
We also had
a phase post the Cold War and its global international residues that our
post-apartheid era African leaders decided that it would be important to rename
and reframe the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the AU which
obtains today. The main thinking was
that we were almost done with the primary purpose of the OAU barring the
Saharawi Republic of the liberation f the African continent from
colonialism.
We moulded
the AU along the lines of the European Union (EU) yet the two organisation’s
geneses are historically incompatible.
The former having been formed for liberation, the latter for primarily
expanding economic cooperation between European states and eventually
coagulating that into liberalism beyond economics.
I remember
the big academic and continental debates about what we then referred to as the
African Renaissance with a new crop of intellectual leaders. These included for example the still
inimitable Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the long duree Olusegun Obasanjo, the
now late Abdel Aziz Bouteflika and the one who eventually hosted the AU
monument in Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade.
The thing
we did not to fully comprehend at that time and probably now is that taking
charge of what we would call our own destiny as Africans is as historical as it
is grounded in catching up with the rest of the world. A process which is historically ongoing as opposed
to being considered in phases as we did when we formed the African Union. Noble
as it was. And I do not make this point
lightly.
Where the
AU is now setting us on course for Agenda 2063 and insisting for example on
what it calls a ‘youth dividend’ in terms of our continental demographic, we
are saddled with the sad reality that this is no longer our own organic Pan
African narrative. We regrettably may be
returning to being slaves of a ‘free’ market that commodifies us again.
We need to
insist we are not a market for global neoliberalism. Neither should our Pan Africanism, or what
remains of it gladly be open sesame to the dictates of global capital.
Where we
return to the origins of our initial Pan Africanism ideologically and in
relation to the Cabralist aspirations of our people, we become a better
continent. Based on our Pan African liberatory history and an understanding of
the promise of the future.
But back to
the meeting between Sall and Putin.
Whatever motivated it and how Africa places or argues for itself within
the ambit of this increasingly globalized conflict and its potentially devastating
impact, we need to revive our organic Pan Africanism. As taught by Nkrumah, Nyerere, Cabral, Fanon,
Mbeki and others. There has never been a
better time to remember those famous words of Nkrumah, “Africa Must Unite!”
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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