GUEST COLUMNIST: Of the failed vision of united Africa

Six decades ago, in the late 1940’s, African countries began their independence liberation struggles from imperial colonial rules and the dream to have one united Africa. The struggles would usher the new era of self-rule for these countries.

The continent the produced the first generation of leaders who all had a common vision of; pan-Africanism. They all wanted a one Africa; a United States of Africa. These leaders were the firebrand of Africa’s liberation struggles. To date, although individual African States are politically free, the African Continent is still a fragmented continent comprised of a congregation of lone free African States most of them in tied in economic dependence.

Why did the founding fathers fail to unite Africa? When will the dream of one Africa come true? What can we do now? How can Africa create a new core of leaders who once again desire to see an Africa which is one and economically free?

These are some of the questions which have motivated the writer to resolve into delivering a series of articles to trace and explore the pan-Africanist efforts of the first generation of leaders in building a united Africa.

Some of the endeavours and discourse of the founding leaders who were the principal figures in this noble course of creating one African nation, will be considered.

The history of the African Continent is a political story that is marked by a generation of founding leaders who thought, envisioned and acted in unison to unite Africa into one nation. It is a story of pan-Africanist leadership to create an African identity.

The African Continent leadership can largely be seen as a succession of elder leaders who successfully led their countries to independence and some rose to their ranks either through guerrilla warfare or military coups.

Some of the leaders managed their countries wisely but they did not attain the goal of “pan-Africanism”, a goal of one United States of Africa.

To date the dream of one Africa has not succeeded as many of the leaders who struggled to unite the continent met with an aggressive neo-colonial imperialists obstruction; ending their political callings in failures. The African political leadership story, is a story of vision and tragedy.

In mapping the endeavours of these leaders we encounter powerful and original leadership veiled in a desire to win and lead the people in the Promised Land. We see great strides and vision that crosses the threshold of hope, but in the end it was tough and challenging to achieve the vision.

Most leaders were eliminated by a cancer of betrayal from the elite; where neo-colonial powers found open wedges and infiltrated the independent administrative machinery and curtailed the regimes.

They did not survive to rule for a while to achieve their dreams as they were either assassinated or removed by a coup d’état and exiled to die in a foreign land.

Those leaders who survived assassination or a coup d’état met with a new world economic order that was designed to introduce a new kind of colonial bondage based on economic dependency.

The new system led by neo-colonial economic aggressors forced most of the leaders to forcefully or voluntarily step aside from leadership to allow the wind of change introduced by the new order to consume Africa. With this new order all leaders ended in failure.

Some of the founding leaders of which their leadership actions and innovations to promote pan-Africanism include; Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana; Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria; Sékou Touré of Guinea; Léopold Senghor of Senegal; Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt; Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

Others are Julius Nyerere of Tanzania; Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso; Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya; Samora Marcel of Mozambique; Muamar Gaddafi of Libya and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, to mention only a few.

The Emperor Haile Selassie was part of a long time Ethiopian Imperial Monarchy and became involved with the leaders of free African States; pan-Africanists wanting Africa to unite. Although his country was not colonized he was very instrumental in supervising a new Africa in the making.