Practical Politics
It is easy to only view Africa through the eyes of the uneducated and poorly educated. Yes, former colonial powers are still wreaking havoc on the giant continent. France just won’t let go. England keeps thumping its privileged chest as if it can never be disinvited. Germany keeps denying its murderous plunder of Namibia and Southwest Africa. Belgium, an obnoxious small country which never should have been allowed in Africa, keeps refusing to acknowledge its megalomania and dastardly historical deeds on the continent. And too many of Africa’s current leaders are really not qualified to effectively administer the countries they chose to preside over.
But Africa matures regardless. After all, Africa is where human life began on planet earth, and its forward progress is in its genes.
The African Economic Community Plan (also known as the Abuja Plan), promulgated and approved by members of the now-defunct Organization of African Unity in 1991, called for Africa to achieve gigantic future growth, and to be able to fend for itself in a selfish and dangerous world. That plan has been expanded and buttressed by the AU’s Agenda 2063 plan for the imminent economic and territorial integration of Africa in the 21st Century.
With its approved African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), and its slow maturation to completion, Africa had already laid out a history of steady growth forward. Last weekend the G-20 international organization of countries, including the European Union, Russia and China (though absent), approved a permanent membership for the African Union which represents all of Africa. It did not need the U.S.’s help to achieve that distinction.
This is big time, heady stuff. Africa is now a legitimate partner in world economic activities, not just as a supplier of raw materials, but as an equal partner for trade at all levels. This is the new Africa, a major player at the economic poker table, not just an interested onlooker hoping to get in the game.
As stated last week, the full implementation of the ACFTA, even more so, will make Africa a major international player, with the necessary cash and resources to stay at the table and play until everybody else has cashed out. Maybe Wakanda was more than just a movie character after all.
African-Americans and other members of the Afro Descendent community should now begin buying property on the continent and otherwise investing in Africa. If things continue to go badly here, Africa may yet become a very valuable and achievable alternative to life “with the conversation” and life steadily asking to be treated with the dignity we deserve.
Though there are, and will still be, instances of African-on-African trouble, and allowances still made for foreign troublemakers in the house, the African Renaissance long heralded by Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois, Amy Jacques Garvey, and other pioneers can now be clearly seen on the not-to-distant horizon. We just have to stay on it----never giving up.
Africa will and is rising again. We are not done, and we are not alone.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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