Arthur K asks: What can we celebrate on Africa Day?
Today is Africa Day.
As usual, Africa will be touted by all the usual suspects.
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Speaking at the 50th Africa Day, UN General Secretary Ban ki Moon lauded Africa as "a continent on the move". He went on, "Peace prevails in most African countries. Extreme poverty is declining, income is rising and there have been important inroads against deadly disease".
He is not alone. Others, including President Mahama have declared this young century, "The African century".
It is easy to be carried away by the superficial vibrancy of Africa.
There is another side to the African narrative.
42% of Africans live below 1.90 US dollars per day compared to 12% globally.
Only 3 in 10 have access to sanitary facilities and a majority have no access to toilets at home.
In Southern Africa, 70% of males work in Agriculture while only 49% of women do. Only 20% of adult men work in industry. The implication is that unemployment is rampant across the continent.
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There is more but you get the picture. Whoever has lived in a house without toilet and had diarrhea at night while there is a rainfall knows what it feels like.
Whoever has been at the city Centre in Accra or Lagos and needed to use a toilet can attest to the challenges.
Just recently, nearly 400 African youth, trying to reach Europe drowned. The youth of Africa are not buying the spin that Africa is on the move. They believe that if there is movement, it is backwards!!
We are a continent of contrasts.
Gleaming sky-scrapers in the middle of cities with open sewers.
Talent besides tomfoolery.
We have produced Mandela, Nkrumah, Soyinka, Pele, Carson and Obama. And yet we have given the world and history Amin, Mengistu, Mobutu and the genocidal murderers of Rwanda and other places.
Nkrumah had it right when he set the appropriate standard for Africa in his Addis Ababa speech of 1963 to the inaugural meeting of the O.A.U.
He said, "With capital controlled by our own banks, harnessed to our own true industrial and agricultural development, we shall accumulate machinery and establish steel works, iron foundries and factories. We shall link the various states of our continent with common industries. We shall astound the world with our hydro - electric power, we shall tame marshes and swamps, clear infested areas, feed the undernourished and rid our people of parasites and disease. It is within the possibility of science and technology to make even the sahara bloom into a vast field with verdant vegetation for agricultural and industrial development. We shall harness the radio, television and giant printing presses to lift our people from the dark recesses of illiteracy".
Now, that is vision to inspire the most skeptical. Today, we have leaders who lower our vision and aspirations and turn our children into child soldiers to make war and cause strife on the continent that gave Gandhi his start in non-violence.
Here is what we need to do:
1: Require every school child in Africa to read Nkrumah's Addis Ababa speech.
2: Stop believing that the same imperialist forces that looted Africa will rebuild it.
3: Explore seriously our rights to reparations for colonialism, slavery and the treasure that left our shores.
4: Arouse the African masses so that they can stand up for genuine emancipation and Development and call out the black parasites, stooges and neo-colonialists who are still doing the work of imperialism and holding us back.
May Africa arise and live up to our potential.
Until then, we must reflect but never celebrate Africa Day.
God bless Africa and us all.
Arthur K
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