Africa United: Claiming our Responsibility

By Derel Manpeo

We have lost our values, and our confidence over the years and there is nothing, anyone can do to change this sad situation but us. We must rebuild our countries and the continent in the twenty-first century. We must learn from past and present experiences such as colonialism, dictatorship regimes and social and economic problems. However, it seems as though the majority of us do not understand the importance of getting together and organizing to fight and eradicate these severe political , social and economic problems that we've known for so many years. We've always blamed these problems on others and have refused to take the responsibility and to acquire the knowledge and the tools necessary for the development and improvement of our countries. For so many years, we've stepped aside as passive observers, and have let international institutions and private donors and organizations with little knowledge of the continent and its people decide how to build our countries.

We are often not involved in the planning or decision making processes that affect our people and our countries. A few of our elite represent us in some of these organizations and many prove not prepared and often lack the confidence to represent our interest competently. These are very educated Congolese, Gambians, Ghanaians, Ivorians, Kenyans, Nigerians, Senegalese, and Togolese, just to mention a few. They possess PhDs, MBAs and MPAs from famous western universities and vowed to go home and help their countries but once they got into the system, they were no better than their seniors or "doyens", as some have been called by French politicians. They spend more time thinking about cutting deals with international institutions rather than researching and planning the development of their countries. Many become selfish, corrupt and pursue their individual financial security and do not by any means think of developing their countries and creating wealth for their people. Instead, they funnel their riches to various banks overseas, especially in Switzerland through third countries with the help of other corrupt African leaders (as recently documented in the UN report on Savimbi's dealings which started from Angola, and extended to Rwanda, Congo, Burkina Faso, Togo, South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, and Brussels). These people have indeed destroyed their countries with greed and corruption.

The majority of us do not seem to understand that it is our duty to build our countries, and the continent. It has become clear that some of us have lost our national and African values. We send our children, the future leaders of Africa, to get western education to help meet our local and regional needs for the sustaining development of our countries but once they get their education, they tend to lean more towards the western culture and civilization than their own. They neglect their rich cultures and values and fail to build their identity and character. These qualities are needed for them to become exemplary future African leaders with unquestionable integrity and a sense of duty toward Africa. They become alienated instead, and blame their countries' development and health problems on others but, we all know very well that our countries have been independent for 30 years and we could have done much better if we had created and followed good economic planning like Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore that started their development practically at the same period, in early and mid sixties. We did not, so we should not blame other countries, and other people for our own lack of discipline and failure to understand what it takes to develop our countries.

The self-serving mentality of the African leaders and the corruption among their immediate family members and entourage are destroying our countries. We should not let these infamous criminal attitudes continue. We should find a way to fight the corruption in these countries and build our economy. We are the same people within these artificial borders that define our African countries today. Our cultures and our people are closer than we are made to believe. When there is a social unrest, a political prosecution or an ethnic cleansing as we've seeing in Rwanda, the neighboring countries feel the impact and often suffer economically. We should plan not to only develop our individual countries but work together to develop the continent and create a stable region for all Africans. This will not happen overnight. We may not live to see it happen but we need to start now by sowing this idea in our sons and daughters.

We can't get citizens of the same country to sit down and have constructive discussions about their country, let alone get citizens of other African countries to pull together to find sustainable solutions to our African problems without a fight. In fact, we need to trust each other and learn to work together to help our individual countries as well as Africa as a whole. The renowned scientists and economists that should lend us their expertise have devoted their time, writings and research to developing countries in other parts of the world. It is as though Africa doesn't matter to them. It is difficult to see a whole generation of Africans incapable of finding their true identity and surmounting the undaunted task of pulling together, to share their knowledge and experience for the development of their countries and for the development of Africa. There is nothing wrong about bringing forth our ethnic and cultural differences. The only thing wrong is that, we dwell on them and let them divide us and prevent us from working together.

We spend too much time arguing among ourselves about unnecessary issues. We enjoy talking, but we do not act on our ideas, and follow through with our plans. We leave the work to foreign institutions and the few African administrators that work for them. The few of us who go beyond talking and follow through with our plans are often criticized and left to fail. We do not support each other as much as we should. Unfortunately we allow ethnic, religious, cultural, educational and perceived historical differences to keep us from unifying.

Except for social activities, we distance ourselves from individual countries' problems and issues. We distance ourselves from the African cause and any group work or venture that could benefit us as a group and extend its benefits to our people in various parts of the continent. You would think Africans, especially the educated ones and their elite would help nurture ideas, volunteer their time and lend their expertise to the few African groups, organizations or individuals who are working for good causes for their countries and for Africa, but they don't. They would rather criticize these organizations and tear these individuals apart than help them. They would go out and set up different organizations and groups just to prove they are capable of doing these same things, but often no one succeeds, no one wins. We've spread ourselves too thin. We lack the sense of unity and connectivity. We have lost our kinship and our sense of community. We do not understand the importance and the effect of group power and the result of group work. It is difficult to understand why we can't work with each other. We work very well with people from other parts of the world but we can't work with each other. Some people think we have lost our values and do not appreciate things of our own. We value things from other countries and cultures more than from our own countries. I do not really know what it would take Africans from all four corners of the continent to understand that they have to be the idea generators, organizers, planners and developers of their countries. It is unbelievable that African leaders cry out to private donors to help them find solutions to their development problems. They receive these solutions in many different ways. They receive these solutions in the form of solid currency, equipment, or advice for their various projects, but these solutions are often not properly used. Equipment and tools donated to specific development projects, are sometimes diverted and sold on other third world markets for hard currency later used to finance fraudulent elections, or transferred to private bank accounts in Switzerland or other countries. This needs to stop now. Otherwise the problems that we've being experiencing on the continent will get worse. Malnutrition, famine, AIDS, illiteracy, unemployment are already prevalent in every region of the continent. We must do everything we can at the local level as well as the regional level to find solutions for Africa.

We should not rely on aid from donor countries and institutions to build our countries. We should not continue blaming our problems on colonization. I certainly believe that if we pull together to fight and confront our African problems together we can successfully find solutions. We need to leave a legacy of competent leadership devoted to excellence. Let's stop the ethnic squabbles and work together to build a brighter future for Africa.