Kofi Akordor: A vow never to be slaves again
After the Second World War (WWII), the Jews vowed never to allow themselves to be carted like animals to the slaughterhouse as happened to them during the Holocaust.
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They were referring to the gas chambers in the Nazi concentration camps where approximately six million Jews were exterminated.
True to this vow, the Jews, represented by a sovereign nation called Israel, are determined to not succumb to any foreign power, group or authority and that they would rather fight to the last person than suffer any indignity, persecution or annihilation from any quarters and if necessary, they would inflict the severest pain on anybody or institution that will threaten their peace and existence.
The Jews have kept their word and today, Israel, one of the tiniest countries in the Middle East, is the most powerful military and the most dangerous to play with. The Israeli Defence Forces, (IDF) as its armed forces is known, is ready at all times to go to the extreme of wiping out whole communities to avenge the death of one Israeli and that had been the philosophy behind its military operations against its enemies, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere.
You may not find justification for all its military campaigns, especially where civilian lives have been lost or maimed. You may even question her right to occupy Palestinian lands, but with history as a guide, Israel is not in the mood for any compromise where their sovereignty, peace and stability are at stake.
There was a time in history when Africans or blacks in particular suffered in a similar way that could be equated to the Holocaust. This was what became known as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which lasted for nearly 400 years between the 15th and 19th centuries. It was a period when blacks were subjected to indignities any human race could suffer in the history of mankind.
During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, an estimated 10 million Africans were carted like cargo across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean islands and the Americas as slaves to work on plantations and in the mines like mules, donkeys and horses.
Many perished on the journey from the hinterland to the coast and more died on the high seas on the way to their final destinations. The slave traders and masters made sure that all records on the slaves concerning their geographical origins, tribes, names and other valuable information that would help in tracing their roots were obliterated. Second, no two slaves from the same area shared a plantation and in doing so, avoided or minimised rebellions. As a result, they lost everything about themselves including their natural languages.
In contrast, the Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Spaniards, English and other nationals who found themselves in the so-called New World, carried along their identities including their names and culture. Our African brothers and sisters had only their skin colour to remind them of which continent they were coming from. They were given either plantation names, the names of their masters, the names of the merchants that brought them from Africa or the names of the boats they came with. They were totally lost.
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Today, it is guess work trying to determine where the African Americans originally came from on the continent and those who made the effort to trace their roots discovered how difficult or nearly impossible that venture was. The mental and psychological trauma has persisted and the colonisation which followed the abolition of the slave trade made it very difficult for Africans to regain their dignity and independence as a people.
After political independence, African countries failed miserably to detach themselves from the apron strings of their colonial masters and continue to be teleguided from London, Paris and Lisbon without any effort to leave the past behind and forge ahead as a proud people.
After experiencing the bitterness of the twin evils of slavery and colonialism, many thought Africans would vow like the Jews did after WWII, never again to allow themselves to be treated as slaves whether directly or by remote control and that they would take their destiny into their hands no matter the cost.
Today, the independence of most African countries is largely ceremonial and limited to a very large extent, the raising of flags and playing of national anthems. Our sovereignty has reduced considerably because
somebody somewhere must give a stamp of approval of whatever we do for it to gain a semblance of recognition.
The poor performance of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), since its establishment in 1975, is a clear indication of how totally dependent the individual countries are on their colonial masters and the new economic powers of Asia for their survival.
Our national budgets are not complete until a final approval comes from some foreign powers and institutions. Our economies have become so dependent on foreign support that we cannot determine what is good for us; neither can we pursue any nationalist agenda towards the attainment of set goals and aspirations.
The African Union (AU), the continental body structured on the same lines as the European Union (EU), is struggling to find its feet partly because members have divided loyalty and also because it lacks adequate funding to carry out its mandate to the letter.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has the audacity to be pursuing African leaders around the continent while leaders of the US, France, Britain and EU, who have caused the deaths of millions in other countries, destroyed infrastructure, and disorganised the national equilibrium of countries such as Libya, Syria, Iraq, Zimbabwe and many others to satisfy their national interests are seen as champions of democracy, human rights and world peace.
Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, has urged his fellow African leaders to stop receiving foreign aid since it is not an acceptable basis for prosperity.
“Dependency on giving that only appears to be charitable must end”, the Kenyan leader said ahead of this year’s AU Summit held in South Africa.
President Uhuru may not be the only person who has come to the conclusion that foreign aid, ”often carries terms and conditions that preclude progress”. With finality he said: “It is time to give it up”.
Can this be a new vow African leaders are prepared to take to redeem the slave image of the continent with nature’s most abundant resources? This is a challenge to our leaders to make a vow not to eat from other people’s bowl again and never to be modern-day slaves to anyone.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk