Lost Dream – Analysis: Africa’s Ailments: Focus -South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya Are the walls come tumbling down?

The hope of a self-sufficient and
politically independent states has changed into weak, parasitic mini
states that are just prototypes of their colonial powers. The
indigenous public that have made so much sacrifice for the struggle for
independence became strangers in their own countries.The dreams of Dr.
Kwama Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba have changed into nightmare.

Africa is crying for radical
economical, political and structural, economical, and social
reconfiguration including economical Marshall plans, accelerated
educational revolution, construction of social justice institutions,
border realignments and  territorial adjustments. Africa needs huge
input from its Diaspora that have long ago shelved anything that is
related to the continent.This may sound extreme but extreme situations
need drastic remedies and reactions. leaving the status quo as it is,
will not resolve anything. Africa needs peaceful revolutionaries. The
time for transformational leadership to step into the plate is now.
With the absence of radical actions in the 21st century, the future of
this continent will be in the balance.The continent will face a bleak
future. If the last 40 years is a witness, things will even go further
down hill. If the destructive forces that have been at play for the
good part of the past 40 years are not reversed.You are talking about a
continent in a very serious crisis ranging from massive human
migrations, chronic and intractable conflicts, endless civil wars,
devastating famines, water shortage with the scale never seen before,
environment devastation, seismic political upheavals and chaos. Some of
the above-mentioned are already happening.

This article will revolve around the answers to three questions which are as follows:

"Neither the questions nor their answers are scientific" but just a personal attempt to answer a long lingering riddle.

1. What happened to the illustrators history of the diverse people of this vast continent?

2. What had happened to the heroes of this potentially rich continent?

3. What had happened to the promise of independence?

Before I try to answer the three
questions I would like to start with a moving song (Huhoy Afrikay
Hurday" (translation, OH! sleeping Africa) by the legendary "Zaynab
Haji Ali Bahsan"

"Huhay Afrikay Horiday, Duli Lama
Hilaabtii Away Hanada daadii" (Translation OH! sleeping Africa, shake
off the indignity, where are your heroes"

Brief answers to the questions

1. In this piece I will attempt
to address the answers to the three above-named provocative questions.
It is a historical fact that Africa has a celebrated ancient history.
There were several ancient civilizations around the continent. Among
many other civilizations, the Great Zimbabwe Civilization in Southern
Africa, the Adel Empire (Somaliland) in the Horn of Africa, the
Songhay, and Dahomey civilizations in the West Africa were high
lighted. There was also great civilizations in North Africa or
"Almaghreb) such as Carthage (AlQardajana)-modern Tunisia, the Berber
and the Muslim civilizations, following the lighting conquest of the
area by the Muslim armies led by the legendary Muslim warrior, Amir
Ibna Al-As (Omar Ibna-Al-As). The ruins of some of those history can be
seen in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria (Al Jasayir) and Morocco.These ancient
civilizations left behind a huge body of knowledge, impressive ruins
and scholarship.

These treasure trophies were largely
neglected by Africans.Those ancient African histories can be
well-matched if not better than the much publicized and extensively
written about European civilizations such as, the Roman, Byzantine, and
the Hapsburg Empires, the Phoenicians, Napoleon and others.The
difference between the later and the former, is simple, the later were
well researched, documented and written about, while the former still
lays as ruins all over the continent.The European colonial powers
portrayed Africa as a place which has no written history, and populated
by sub human savages. But the bulk of the blame of what had happened to
such an illustrious history will go to people of the continent. The
heritage, history and past glories of nations must be documented by its
people.That responsibility has eluded both the indigenous inhabitants
of the continent and their diaspora.

2. This thought provoking
question regarding as to what has happened to Africa’s heroes, is a
persistent question, all those concerned about the ills and aliments of
Africa often ask. What they are trying to say is, how come? some body,
some where such as a traditional elder, local leader, religious
personality or what have you can not come forward, and  intervene to
stop the endless conflicts and dysfunction going on around the
continent. It crystal clear the post colonial regional and
international organizations such as the AU and United Nations and their
agencies have miserably failed. Tootless organizations that have
outlived their usefulness can not and will not solve their problems.
These organizations failed miserably to resolve any major problem in
the continent. In some cases they exacerbate problems. Look closely
when ever a challenge faces an African nation, they call for a meeting.
In these gatherings they formulate empty press releases and immediately
pass the problem to the United Nations which is another failed
bureaucracy. The point here is Africans need to resolve their own
problems, because there is nobody else out there who can revolve their
conflicts.  

3. The third question is by far
the most painful and difficult question many Africans want to digest,
dissect, analyze and are eager to understand, what had happened to the
independence promise? It is a concrete fact the African people
gallantly and courageously ejected the recalcitrant colonial powers
from their land. Those masses who gave their blood and treasure for the
independence, freedom and liberty of the continent never enjoyed the
fruits of that huge sacrifice. During the hasty departure from the
continent, the colonial powers have tricked the African masses, by
placing their friends in the highest positions of power at the expense
of the general public. These dark skinned selected leaders look dark
but Europeans in their thinking and mind set. For the last 40 years,
the continent was misruled by an unholy alliance of European appointed
African despots and their former colonial masters. Those African
dictators  were, what the famed African revolutionary Francis Fannon
called" Black Skins, White Minds" in his famous novel, "The wretched of
the Earth". That is the process that brought horrible leaders such as
Mugabe, Milton Obete, Siyaka Stevens, Omar Bongo, Nimandi Ajeki and
others.  

The shaky post colonial artificial
constructs are in trouble. The world is at the dawn of the 21st
century. Some developing countries who more or less achieved their
Independence the same time as Africa are doing very well. Countries
like India, Singapore, Malaysia, and others have achieved huge
development in many departments ranging from education, business,
manufacturing capacity, technology, health care and the like. They have
already achieved several developmental index markers. But in Africa the
situation is different. Many Africans, Why there is no single viable
country in the continent? This may be a very provocative question but
it is the reality. The post colonial artificial states in Africa
started with huge structural problems. The colonial powers who hastily
exited from the continent never prepared these structural deficient
states to become normal countries.There was no gradual transfer of
power.They never prepared them for elections. The colonial powers never
allowed well-grounded political parties based on political philosophy
to flourish. The colonial times was basically an era of autocracy and
dictatorship. Some of the European powers may have democracy in their
native countries. But in their colonies and foreign possessions there
was a completely different story.

Soon after the so-called independence
of 1960, many indigenous Africans felt their government are not
representative governments.That was one of the reasons military coups
happen in Nigeria, Ghana and some other countries. Again the military
governments were never successful in Africa.The military governments
happen to became more repressive, autocratic, cracked down on the
media, banned political parties and can not tolerate any kind of
dissent. As a matter of fact, these early coups which later on became
an epidemic stifled the infant defective states to grow. The
rudimentary democratic forces emerging in post independence years, have
been smothered by the autocratic military government. Typically the
democratic forces have been uprooted soon after birth. That is why
Africa went through a very long winter of military government coups.The
illegitimate and unpopular African regimes spent so much money to
maintain their survival.

They earmarked a huge chunk of the
meager resources on the police and the military. Another very dangerous
thing they did was they polarized their nations. They divided their
people into different sectors based on ethnicity, tribalism and
clannism. They compounded the existing difference between the
people.This policy of divide and rule directly copied from the colonial
play book was excessively used. This is a policy that prolonged the
life spans of horrible regimes. another important components that
prolonged despotic regimes was the cold war. The two bitterly competing
superpowers at the the time, the united States and the Soviet Union cut
huge checks for the illegal dictators in Africa. Terrible depots like
Mobutu, Haile Selassie, Bokassa, Eddi Amin and others have been allowed
to destroy their countries and nations.

The cumulative effect of the sustained
polarization perpetrated by heartless and short sighted dictators, the
difficulty to remove them from power because they completely shut down
all the peaceful political process, that have let bad leaders to cling
to power for a long time. They have banned political parties, stifled
the media. There was a time every African country has only one TV/Radio
Station and one news paper and all of those were pedaling  the
government line. Dissent was tolerated. The accumulated grievance and
the difficulty to rectify it have moved many African communities in to
a state of despair and apathy. Some of that apathy has manifested
itself in the form of rebel groups led by bad actors, and other types
of violence. Charles Taylor of Liberia, Sanku of Sierra Leone, Zinewi
of Ethiopia, Afwargus of Eritrea, Lorraine Kabila of Congo and others
will come to mind. At the present African communities are in state of
resignation and hopelessness.

Africa’s artificial states are falling apart one by one

Like many other African countries,
Kenya is an artificial creation. The British basically jumbled together
about 40 tribes, who have their own subcultures, languages, territory
and way of living. These colonial-created countries called nation
states never addressed the concerns and special needs of these
disparate communities. New countries have created and no nation
building to bridge the natural gulf between these tribes was never
done. The British was forced to leave and when they were leaving, they
never prepared these new countries how to deal with the existing
inherent problems. The despicable images from Kenya, you have recently
seen around the world is a volcanic eruption relating to the huge
structural problems the British left behind. These problems were
largely left unaddressed by the new African leaders. Those African
leaders never cared to address those inherent problems, related to the
structural configuration of the new countries.

That is why you have huge problems and
underdevelopment in most of Africa. The post independence African
leaders were prototypes of their colonial masters. The colonial masters
left Africa with their hand picked men in charge. These men called
Africa’s big men or presidents for life failed to address to monumental
problems they inherited from the British. These men became very busy to
secure their positions. They have created government and machinery
geared for their life long misrule of these artificial states.
Therefore, what one can see in Kenya today is not that unpredictable.
Some are wondering how come? it did n’t happen sooner than this. The
carnage in Kenya is neither strange nor the last problem to be seen in
the sorrow African scene. The regional African organizations such as
the AU are also a carbon copy of the despicable African rulers.

This process’s of disintegration,
deconstruction, devolution will continue for a long time to come.
Countries taking the Somalia route will be on the rise. All the
indications are pointing to that bitter reality. if you look about the
kinds of leaders that still dominate the African landscape plus
economic difficulties, impending environment problems, pandemic
disease, collapsing infra structure, non existent public survive,
meager health care and health care facilities, the African Continent is
heading to cataclysmic disaster in the 20 century. A massive
well-organized movement that may make radical structural configuration
can save this sorrow continent.

Rwanda and Darfur genocide  happened in
their watch. They did nothing about the carnage, chaos and wanton loss
of life in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, Congo, Ivory Coast,
Chad and many other places. The above named are the most difficult
conflict that are not completely resolved. There are so many other
brewing conflicts all over Africa which may flare up at any time. For
the last month we have witnessed the carnage, burning people alive and
impending ethnic cleansing, which may degenerate into a full-fledged
into civil war which eventually lead into a genocide.

Zimbabwe

The disputed election is Zimbabwe also
indicate the emerging pattern in Africa. Like Kenya, in Zimbabwe
another president for life dictator is tenuously clinging to power,
after loosing election. What is happening in Zimbabwe is a carbon copy
of what had recently happened in Kenya. The 84 years old Robert Mugabe
party already lost the parliamentary elections. They have conceded
about their lost of the parliament. But he is still hanging on the
power to the presidency, which he had already lost. Dictators do are
not visionary. His days of iron rule has expired in Zimbabwe. There is
a silent revolution going in Africa and the world at large. There is a
genuine movement of change sweeping through out the globe. The upheaval
in Tibet is also part of this movement of change and hope. Baraka Obama
is may the leader of this international movement of change, which may
as large if not larger than the anti-colonial movement that started,
following World War II.  

What is happening in Zimbabwe is
disgraceful. It is a despicable thing  a vicious dictator is doing in
that country. That dictator is Robert Mugabe, a so-called war hero, a
revolutionary who chased the repressive, minority racist regime of the
former Rhodesia. Ironically these days, the Zimbabwe of 2008, led by
Robert Mugabe is worse off than than Ian Smith’s Rhodesia in every
developmental indicator. A potentially rich country, the economy is in
ruins. There is a severe shortage of food, in a country which has the
potential to base the basket of all Southern Africa. It is now close to
a month since the presidential elections have taken place last month.

Every body failed here. The regional
leaders fall short of interfering Robert Mugabe mess in Zimbabwe. The
so-called African Union miserably failed.This is a useless club of post
colonial gangs. They have a long tract record of not properly resolving
a single crisis around the continent. The AU is not more than a den of
dictators. This is a for live presidents club where is done. The United
Nations is another good for nothing organization which outlived their
usefulness. This another secretive club organized by the victors of
World War 11. Most of those victors are were colonial powers who were
at the time on the verge of loosing all their colonies. 

Kenya

What you have recently seen in Kenya,
the darling of the west is a case in point. At the time that country
appeared to be drifting to an uncontrollable violence. Just about ago
this was a country regarded and widely known in the west as a bastion
of peace, democracy, rule of law and what have you in a sea of chaos,
mayhem, dysfunction and dictatorship. This is a country which is the
regional hub for numerous international organizations. Nairobi is the
financial center for East and Central Africa. Kenya also is the
recipient of huge western aid. But to some observers Kenya may
superficially fit the above picture. The real picture is far different
than the picture the west has been painting about Kenya. Kenya is a
country run by a high corrupt government. Kenya is a country where the
majority people live in abject poverty. There are only few people who
became extremely rich on the backs of the ordinary Kenya. meanwhile,
Kenya is a country primarily dominated by one major tribe-the Kikuyu,
which is the tribe of the current president who was accused of rigging
the elections Mr. kibaki.

The Kikuyu dominated the finance,
education, the military. The most violent gangs in Kenya the Mungigi is
also predominately belong to the Kikuyu tribe.The irony here is Kenya,
which seemed to be the beloved child of the west itself has monumental
structural problems just like its contemporary African countries. These
problems are across the board problems which are not unique to a
particular country. Lately they popped up in Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast,
South Africa and other places. Earlier these are the pathologies that
have devastated Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi
and many other states.  

 

South Africa

 

Shame on South Africa, the on going mass murder of defenseless
immigrants will leave an inedible stain on the name of their
beleaguered nation. Shame on the government of South Africa.The carnage
in South Africa will stain the name of that country for generations to
come.The callousness, malignancy and ferocity of the unprovoked attacks
against the helpless is unprecedented. These attacks are even more
ferocious than brutal fascist attacks against the supporters of Chile’s
elected president Dr. Salvador Allende in 1973. At the time, thousands
of Allende sympathizers were herded in an open soccer stadium and
butchered in mass. The magnitude and the scale of mass murder have
crossed all the boundaries of humanity. These types of acts amount to
war crimes and crimes against humanity. The government of South Africa
has flagrantly violated the "1949" Geneva Convention for refugees. Of
all governments in the world, this government has been built from the
ashes of the former apartheid minority regime of South Africa. It is
mind bugling how such government miserably failed to protect the poor,
down trodden and the dispossessed who fled the ravages of Africa’s most
notorious dictators, the likes of Robert Mugabe, Zinewi, Siyad Barre,
Charles Taylor, Eddi Amin and many other myopic despots around the
continent. The government of South Africa has virtually disappeared
from the streets where brutal mobs committed heinous crimes against
immigrants.

They are missing in action. Where is
the president of that country? S. African police watched passively when
innocent people have been hacked to death, burned alive and cold
bloodedly killed with impunity. South Africans have been welcomed
around the world for many years. S. Africans have been helped during
their hour of need. But what is happening now through S. Africa is a
shameful behavior.This is unprecedented and such barbaric actions had
never been committed any where around the world, since the days of the
Rwanda genocide. What is happening in South Africa just sounds and
smells like another genocide along the long lines of the Rwanda
genocide in the making.These uncontrollable killers seems to be on a
roll. They appear to be on to a new round of another carnage, with a
magnitude never witnessed in Africa. Mobocracy seem to be taking grip
of South Africa. The current rampage appears to be calculated and
premeditated violence which may not be only confined to the poor
immigrants only. This may be a prelude of very long and nasty summer
for South Africa.The intensity of this large scale attack against
immigrants, may the beginning of a devastating civil war and the
collapse of law and order in South Africa. The country appears to be
drifting into lawlessness and chaos. The last hope of Africa may be
edging towards chronic violence and chaos.

Analysis

What you are seeing through the
continent is chickens coming back to roast. There is no single stable,
cohesive, democratic country around the whole vast continent. The
problems are diverse, multifaceted, and some are more acute in certain
countries than others. But there is a one sad under laying theme, the
underdevelopment, the political and economical mess and across the
board failing states is all the same. Even South Africa which was once
seen as the savior of the continent, in the late nineties is lately
spiraling out of control. As of now, full fledged violence is going on
in many South Africa major cities. few days ago, the military of that
country was mobilized to stem the violence against foreigners.

Before the eruption of the recent spate
of vitriolic xenophobia and violence against immigrants, South Africa’s
murder rate was the highest in the world. The AIDS pandemic is
devastating in South Africa, nearly five million South Africans have
the virus that causes AIDS.This is a sad and gloomy picture in a
potentially rich country. Apparently the African continent has been
left behind in the 20th century, while the rest of the world has
transitioned into the 21st century. Africa needs visionary leadership
that may extracts her from the 20th century mess of desperation,
underdevelopment, shaky, autocratic, failed, failed and failing
regimes. 

You can see those former colonial
constructs were not economically viable countries.Those were artificial
constructs which were arbitrarily curved regardless of ethnicity,
culture, and religion. The former OAU aggravated the situation in 1963
when they unanimously legalized the colonial borders. The problems,
political stalemates, violence, under development, huge refugees
problems, armed resistances and rebel groups, is in part due to the
defective artificial states they inherited from the former oppressive
colonial powers.

Suleiman Egeh is a freelance Writer