If you don’t lead, others will keep misleading: Ras Mubarak urges African Youth
In a passionate address to African students at Istanbul's Ibn Haldun University, former Member of Parliament for Kumbungu Constituency, Ras Mubarak, Ras Mubarak issued a clarion call for the continent's youth to take charge of Africa's liberation from neo-colonial influences, declaring: "If you don't lead, others will keep misleading."
The speech, delivered on Africa Unity Day, blended sharp criticism of current African leadership with a radical vision for self-determination, drawing parallels between historic Pan-Africanists like Kwame Nkrumah and contemporary figures like Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
Mubarak pulled no punches in his assessment of Africa's political class, accusing them of being "beholden to foreign interests in Washington, Brussels, and Paris."
He highlighted the stalled ECOWAS single currency project as emblematic of this failure, noting wryly: "I was a teenager when the Eco was proposed. Now I'm 46 and our leaders are still talking."
The former lawmaker saved his most scathing remarks for what he called "the logistics of colonialism" – visa restrictions between African countries and trade routes that force goods to transit through Europe. "Why must cargo from Accra to Monrovia first go to Brussels?" he demanded, calling such systems "colonialism rebranded."
Mubarak's speech took a controversial turn as he held up Burkina Faso's military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré as a model of resistance, despite his undemocratic rise to power.
"He may not be elected," Mubarak acknowledged, "but he's confronting decades of so-called democracy that delivered no dignity," citing Traoré's expulsion of French troops and reclamation of Burkinabe gold mines.
The address reached its crescendo with a direct challenge to the students: "You are not tomorrow's leaders – you are the leaders of now." Mubarak urged them to reject Western-centric solutions and instead look to Global South partners like China and Russia, while reviving indigenous knowledge systems.
Closing with a nod to current global struggles, Mubarak linked Africa's liberation to Palestinian resistance, calling Israel a "gangster terrorist entity" and drawing parallels between colonial experiences.
