An AFRICAphonie Poll
The Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, at its 8th Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa from 29-30 January 2007 decided that the next ordinary session of the Assembly to be held in Accra, Ghana in July 2007, will be devoted to a “Grand Debate on the Union Government”. This decision is inspired by the fact that Africa now needs a Union of the African people and not merely a Union of states and governments and that ‘the ultimate goal of the African Union is the political and economic integration of the continent leading to the creation of the United States of Africa’.
Having this in mind, the Assembly of Heads of States, in compliance with the policy of popular participation through civil society endeavours requested Member States of the African Union to carry out the necessary national consultations within their countries on the Grand Debate on the Union Government. It is for this reason that AFRICAphonie-Cameroon under the auspices of the African Civil Society Organisation is putting the following questions to you:
IS THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA PLAUSIBLE?
The dream of a US of Africa can only become a reality if a new model of mmultinational state is adopted,based on a social democratic pact and rooted in Africa's own traditions.The great dream cherished from the earliest days of pan_Africanism.The failure of the post_colonial state is the root cause of marginalisation and the upsurge of violence that is plunging whole parts of Africa into chaos.The dramatic rise in poverty is destroying social cohesion and opening the way for terrifying pandemics such as AIDS and malaria.Our skilled labour remains largely unemployed or out in a brain_drain spree or worst still wasting away in bankrupt civil services.The absolute prerequisite if Africa has to rise from these crisis and meetiing the challenges of globalisation is for the creation of a new state model based on African traditions.
Colonialism disrupted the process of state building,though African societies remain plurinational by nature.State and society seemed to have been in conflict ever since our plurinatinal societies were destroyed making way for an enforced western caricature.The consequences of this has disrupted our onward march.The Tutsi genocide and the chaos in Somalia are proof of that.In pre_colonial Africa it was possible to distinguish between the legal Nation_"state"_and the sociological nation_"ethnic group" which is founded on shared traits(language,blood ties and history).But the post_colonial state has no historical or administrative memory of the people and countries juxtaposed,simply because colonialism willed it so.The artificial boundaries we have today have poisoned the dynamic relations which the African peoples enjoyed.
Reinstating these nations will make it possible to bring to an end the crises of national consciousness and identity that is ravaging Africa and will prevent political manipulation of disputes over nationality.The kind of manipulation that led for example to the banishment of the Banyamulengue community to the East of Congo(Kingshasa),marginalisation of former President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia,Allasane Ouattarra in Cote D'Ivoire,the Southern Cameroons annexation by La République du Cameroun and countless other cases.
The post_colonial state has retained absolute sovereignty and peoples have been deprived of their own means of subsistence:the Ogoni people's of the Niger Delta(Nigeria),or the Dioula people of Casamance who are rebelling against the Senegalese state.Only the revival of our empires:Ethiopia,Ghana,Mali,Songhay,Kanem_Bornou,Monomopata will give a new lease of life to Africa.
NGA ADOLPH.
LEUVEN(BELGIUM).
Posted by: Nga Adolph | May 27, 2007 at 11:49 AM