By Sifelani Tsiko
Harare,Zimbabwe  (July 4 2007)

WHAT are we looking for in Africa? Are we looking for charters conceived in the light of the United Nations "example a type of United Nations Organisation whose decisions are framed on the basis of resolutions that in our experience have sometimes been ignored by member states? Where groupings are formed and pressures develop in accordance with interest of the groups concerned? Or is it intended that Africa should be turned into a loose organisation of states on the model of the Organisation of American States, in which the weaker states within it can be at the mercy of the stronger or more powerful ones politically or economically and all at the mercy of some powerful outside nation or group of nations? Is this the kind of association we want for ourselves in the United Africa we all speak of with such feeling and emotion? We all want a United Africa, united not only in our concept of what unity connotes, but united in our common desire to move forward together in dealing with all the problems that can best be solved only on a continental basis, said Dr Osagfeyo Kwame Nkrumah, the Pan African visionary and legend in his speech on May 24 1963.

When the Organisation of African Unity was founded in May 1963, Nkrumah proved to be a visionary as he foresaw the creation of some of the important institutions seen in the African Union today.

His messages still resonate powerfully even today. African leaders who met recently in Accra, Ghana for the AU summit walked through the chapters of history and relived Nkrumah's ideals by calling once again for a United States of Africa.

If Nkrumah were alive this year, he would be 97 years old and would be happy to see the new crop of African leaders treading on a path he would have wished to have happened earlier on in the century.

A few days before the AU summit, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi spoke strongly about the concept of a United States of Africa.

He was quite emotional about it and wanted Africans to voice their support for this concept which he hoped would bring dignity for the Africans, bring new hope for its children who are running away and improve the livelihoods of millions of people on the continent.

"The OAU (predecessor of the AU) failed, the Council of African ministers failed, the African Parliament is a rump parliament," Gaddafi told a rally of more than 50 000 people is a stadium in Conakry, Guinea.

"In Africa we have not been able to create a government of union nor any instrument of union to bring about our aim. These instruments must be created in Accra, the voice of the people must be heard at last," he said.

"The masses of the people want roads, bridges, health, education, agriculture, water and electricity," Gaddafi declared.

"I see in front of me young people who want to leave for Europe by transiting through Libya. Why do we want to go to Europe? We must decide to live and die in our countries....all that must stop, thanks to the creation of a United States of Africa," he said.

People in Africa have heard this before. Is it a question of a 'new wine in old bottles? Is it something of a political rhetoric coming too soon for a divided continent?

The dream of a United States of Africa was voiced half a century ago by Nkrumah. This long-standing plan for a Pan-African government was shattered by divisions during the days of emerging African independence.

Can this ideal sail through when divisions between rich and poor, black and Arab, Muslim and Christian and armed conflicts are still raging as we see in Somalia and Sudan's western region of Darfur.

"For Africa, the matter is to be or not to be," Gaddafi said. "My vision is to wake up the African leaders to unify our continent. If the African masses are enlightened and aware and take the right decision, then African will come into being.

"How can an African country face a Europe that is united, negotiate with a big USA or Japan or China? If we have a United States of Africa, then Africa can be on an equal footing and negotiate with them."

Nkrumah and his crop of independence leaders like Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and others wanted to remove barriers to movement drawn up by colonial rulers at the Berlin Conference in 1884.

Gaddafi reignited the debate on the premise that if the European Union is succeeding as a bloc how can the dream of a United States of Africa pioneered by Nkrumah fail.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and other African leaders support the view that the Union Government should be established through a bottom-up approach founded on the regional economic groupings such as Sadc, Comesa, Ecowas, the East African Community and the Central African Community.

The AU has proposed a three phase transition towards a Union Government.

The phases -2007 -2009 setting up a new executive commission, 2009 -2012 operational and constitutional groundwork for the United States of Africa and 2012-2015 ensuring all structures of the United States of Africa at national, regional and continental levels are in place.

It's a good idea but its far-fetched. We have so many different indeologies, different tribes, traditions and religions," Jubilee Kamara (50), a Ugandan teacher was quoted saying. "You have got to have a common dream and that one will take time - it could be 50 years to even get close.

Many people in Africa still think its premature to talk about establishing a United States of Africa.

But practical examples of success -the EU model is there for Africans to see.

Much ground has been covered to remove barriers to movement and trade in most African trading blocs.

But challenges still remain. Visas need to be scrapped. Rich and powerful countries will throw everything to divide and weaken African countries.

They still want to exploit Africa's resources. They know that with a strong and united Africa exploitation of Africa's resources will not be possible without equal partnerships.

For centuries, Africa has been the milk cow of the Western world. Was it not our continent that helped the Western world to build up its accumulated wealth? We have the resources. It was colonialism in the first place that prevented us from accumulating the effective capital, but ourselves have failed to make full use of our power in independence to mobilise our resources for the most effective take-off into thorough-going economic and social development.... We have been too busy nursing our separate states to understand fully the basic need of our union, rooted in common purpose, common planning and common endeavour. A union that ignores the fundamental necessities will be but a shame.It is only by uniting our productive capacity and the resultant production that we can amass capital. And once we start, the momentum will increase, with capital controlled by our own banks, harnessed to our own true industrial and agricultural development, we shall make our advance, the visionary Nkrumah said then.

 

People in Africa should not take Nkrumah's advice lightly. Its still relevant today as it was half a century ago.

If Europe is moving ahead with a common parliament, currency, social, political and economic policies, is scrapping visas and forging a new and stronger unity, why not Africa?

Should we continue to evade this important issue by making excuses? Do we still want to see a Kenyan going to the French embassy to apply for a Senegalese visa or Senegalese going to the British embassy to go to Kenya?

Do we still want Zimbabweans to apply for a visa just to go across the Limpopo River to South Africa and vice-versa?

If nothing is done about establishing the United States of Africa, stand warned by Nkrumah's words: "But if we fail and let this grand and historic opportunity slip by, then we shall give way to greater dissension and division among us for which the people of Africa will never forgive us. And the popular and progressive forces and movements within Africa will condemn us."