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Dump colonial legacies

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WHEN African leaders met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 25 1963, what appears to have been the driving motivation was the desire for the continent to be united.
Thus the choice of the name Organisation of African Unity (OAU), later changed to African Union (AU), was an accurate reflection of what was going on in the minds of the 32 African heads present.
And for this unity to be achieved, all African states had to be freed from colonial rule.
By 1963, a good number of African countries had achieved their independence through negotiations with the colonial powers.
But some of these colonial powers had enjoyed the exploitation of their colonies’ natural resources and were reluctant to give up power.
That is where the AU came in handy.
For a number of countries that were denied the right to govern themselves decided to resort to an armed struggle to force the colonialists to surrender.
This was an expensive process for liberation organisations which had no means of raising sufficient cash to buy arms and all other logistics to wage a successful war.
After all, the colonial power had all the state armoury and had authority to raise money from tax payers.
The Liberation Committee of the OAU was formed specifically to assist those countries which had resorted to armed struggle to liberate themselves.
No doubt Zimbabwe’s liberation forces will forever be indebted to then OAU executive secretary, Col Hashim Mbita, for the part he played in the war effort.
When the liberation struggle had almost ground to a halt because of détente, Col Mbita organised the release of arms and ammunition that saw the rapid fall of the stubborn Ian Smith regime.
African leaders have been meeting annually in Addis Ababa to map out strategies to celebrate their independence and map out strategies for the future.
It’s a given that political independence alone is not enough.
Having freed the whole of Africa from foreign colonial rule, the battle is still not yet over.
The colonialists had structured our economies in such a way that Africa would always be dependent on the colonial powers.
Though the continent is blessed with an array of various natural resources, these are shipped to Europe where they are refined and their value added.
Africa is not industrialised and does not own its resources as they have always been poached by foreign firms.
The Scramble for Africa made sure Africa was divided.
But the AU summit of 2013 in Addis Ababa introduced Agenda 2063.
This is a strategic attempt to transform the socio-economic status of the continent as a whole over the next 50 years.
But for this to be achieved, leaders must be reminded of the determination of the founding fathers to have the continent united.
In less than 50 years, can Africa have a single army, uniform currency, one visa and a common language, among other facets that demonstrate oneness?
Will Africa be in complete control of its natural resources, value-adding them from its own industries?
Will Africa have devised a way of financing its own programmes, without relying on donor funds or Western ‘benefactors’.
Let’s forget that the one who pays the piper calls the tune.
The challenge facing Africa is that its leaders should transcend the artificial boundaries created by imperialists at the time of the partitioning of the continent.
We don’t want to hear this nonsense about Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone, Hispanophone and we don’t know what else.
If we remain guided by that, then the road ahead is bleak.
Let not our founding fathers like Kwame Nkrumah, Emperor Haile Salassie and others turn in their graves.

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