and I associate myself with Acemah's sentiments. Thanx for sharing Laye.
Haruna.
Why is Africa in such a mess?
In October 1993, I bought a little book titled, Tiny
Roland: the ugly face of Neo-colonialism in Africa by an EIR
Investigative Team. EIR stands for Executive Intelligence Review, based
in Washington DC, USA.
The thesis of the book, which at that time
I found outrageous, but which I am now more sympathetic to, was that
Africa is on its deathbed, its people relentlessly mowed down by
starvation and disease. Among the perpetrators of this holocaust are
the International Monetary Fund, the former colonial powers, the
transnational corporations and commodity cartels such as the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
On this list, one
should add African leaders and the elite. Increasingly, I believe we,
the elite of Africa, are the primary enemies of ordinary Africans. We,
and especially our leaders, have let Africa down, very badly. Current
events in Ivory Coast confirm the tragic role African leaders have and
continue to play in the destruction of Africa. I fear Uganda is next.
According
to EIR, one man above all the rest, bears special personal
responsibility for turning the 1960s dreams of independence into a
nightmare. His name is Roland Walter “Tiny” Roland, boss of a British
Transnational Corporation, LONRHO. LONRHO is acronym for the London
Rhodesia Company. For decades this shrewd fellow was the most powerful
Western businessman in Africa. He had access to all African Heads of
State and government as well as African freedom fighters, guerrillas and
even bandits.
He would do business with African leaders, while
funding guerrillas fighting the very leaders he was wining and dining
with. He was a practitioner of the dictum: Never put all your eggs in
one basket.
The introduction to the EIR book on Tiny Roland is
prophetic. It begins with a short three-word sentence: “Africa is
dying”. It denounces Tiny Roland and asserts that “the list of African
leaders and guerrilla leaders with whom Tiny Roland has had intimate
financial dealings reads so much like a Who is Who of modern African
history. It includes past and present leaders of Uganda and Kenya.
Like all devious types, Tiny Roland had a tragic end and is no more.
Aside
from the treacherous behaviour of African leaders, Sub-Saharan Africa
is simply poorly led, by mediocres, conmen, frauds and drop-outs. Since
the advent of independence in the 1960s, Africa has had far too many
tyrants and gangsters as leaders, far too few statesmen, let alone
merely competent office holders at political and bureaucratic level.
Too often African leaders reject sound policy advice and refuse to take
the long or broad view of their job.
For example, how can anybody
justify and rationalise the sale of Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB), Apollo
Hotel, Uganda Hotels and Uganda Electricity Board, to mention but a
few, under the guise of liberalisation and privatisation. All these
parastatals were making profit, but more important, they were owned by
the people of Uganda. UCB was fondly and rightly called “The People’s
Bank”. UEB was sold to ESKOM, a company owned by the government of South
Africa. It defies logic and one does not need a PhD in Economics to see
through the absurdity of the actions of African leaders.
The few
African leaders who seem to be progressive at the beginning of their
tenure of office soon revert to the familiar form of autocratic one-man
rule. Some are literally insane and remind me of the Roman Emperor
Caligula. Take the example, Master Sgt. Samuel Doe and Sgt Jean Bedel
Bokassa. The former became a General and Life President of Liberia
while Bokassa crowned himself Emperor of the Central African Republic.
He was following the footsteps of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte of
France.
Today, another crazy young man called Yahya Jammeh who
has terrorised tiny Gambia for years, now wants to be crowned “King of
Gambia” and establish a dynastic rule in that ruined and impoverished
strip of land which is too small as a runway for the airbus 380 Jumbo
Jet. And the international community is just watching. For the enemies
of Africa it confirms their worst fears and prejudices about Africans.
During the 1960s many of these types used to patronisingly argue that
Africans are barbarians and not yet ready for self-government, let alone
independence.
When one looks at the map of Africa from Zimbabwe
to Somalia to Eritrea and Gambia and in between, it is painful for me as
pan-Africanist to nod my head and in silence admit that these enemies
of Africa were perhaps partly right. We Africans are our own worst
enemies. Let us stop blaming colonialism, the slave trade, imperialism,
etc for our own self-made tragedy.
Our education has failed to
remove the village mentality in most of our leaders. All we think and
talk about is “eating” or “manger” in French. Some allege they have
killed an animal and must be given eternity to feast on the carcass.
With such mind-sets Africa may indeed sooner, rather than later, die.
Yes, Africa is dying. Our primary challenge is to save Africa from
imminent death and keep the hopes of our people alive.
Mr Achema is a political scientist, consultant and a retired ambassador based in Arua