“HAIL! United States of Africa-free!
Hail! Motherland most bright, divinely fair!
State in perfect sisterhood united,
Born of truth; mighty thou shalt ever be.
Hail! Sweet land of our father’s noble kin!
Let joy within thy bounds be ever known;
Friend of the wandering poor, and helpless, thou,
Light to all, such as freedom’s reigns within.
From Liberia’s peaceful western coast
To the foaming Cape at the southern end,
There’s but one law and sentiment sublime,
One flag, and its emblem of which we boast.
The Nigerians are all united now,
Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, too.
The Gambia, Senegal, not divided,
But in one union happily bow.
The treason of the centuries is dead,
All alien whites are forever gone;
The glad home of Sheba is once more free,
As o’er the world the black n-tan raised his head.
Bechuanaland, a State with Kenya,
Members of the Federal Union grand,
Send their greetings to sister Zanzibar,
And so does laughing Tanganyika.
Over in Grand Mother Mozambique,
The pretty Union Flag floats in the air,
She is sister to good Somaliland,
Smiling with the children of Dahomey.
Three lusty cheers for old Basutoland,
Timbuctoo, Tunis and Algeria,
Uganda, Kamerun, all together
Are in the Union with Nyasaland.
We waited long for fiery Morocco,
Now with Guinea and Togo she has come,
All free and equal in the sisterhood,
Like Swazi, Zululand and the Congo.
There is no state left out of the Union-
The East, West, North, South, including Central,
Are in the nation, strong forever,
Over blacks in glorious dominion.
Hail! United States of Africa-free!
Country of the brave blackman’s liberty;
State of greater nationhood thou hast won,
A new life for the race is just begun.”
These are the words of Marcus Garvey, an articulation of his dream of an Africa whose citizens would drive a united agenda whose ultimate goal was prosperity and freedom for all.
Africa has for so long laboured under the title the ‘Dark Continent’, characterised by images of war and starving children such that for many in the West, Africa is a place worse than purgatory.
For some reason, Africa’s sons and daughters continue to be relegated to peripheries of discussions to do with development, as though they have nothing to offer.
However, it is their continent, Africa, which has provided the resources, including the labour that has built these developed nations, which now stand towering over us.
This week, an embarrassing incident was reported out of California. The Annual African Global Economic and Development Summit had no attendees from the motherland after they were all denied visas.
The three-day conference usually brings delegations from across Africa to meet with business leaders in the US in an effort to foster partnerships.
The fact of the matter is and has always been, Africa has to set its agenda and take responsibility for its development, in order for it to find African solutions to its challenges.
The idea that the continent needs foreign donors to mobilise finances, has created a dependency syndrome, which has taken away Africa’s capacity to mobilise domestic and other resources for its needs, based on a set of ideals and priorities that reflect the values and aspirations of Africans.
The concept of a United States of Africa has not died.
Many have moaned the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi as it indicated a turn in that debate, because he was pushing that agenda.
It can be recalled that since 2000, Colonel Gaddafi made manoeuvres to ensure that debate on a united Africa gained traction at the African Union (AU).
For all the propaganda about Colonel Gaddafi’s love of power and eccentric behaviour, the idea of a united Africa remains the continent’s best hope to rise from the ashes.
What does Africa need?
The finance to harness its resources for the betterment of its citizens.
The continent has come to the game a bit late, as such it has to make do with unjust global economic policies that are foisted by Western-controlled international financial institutions.
The US and its allies exercise their economic hegemony through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It is through these two institutions that Africans have been sunk into great poverty through lopsided trial and error economic programmes.
The truth of the matter is that Europe and America did not attain their present economic status using the policies they prescribe to Africa.
Moves by African states to form regional economic and continental trade agreements are a threat to the West’s economic hegemony.
In business, students are taught that for a business to thrive, it must ‘grow, eliminate competition and diversify’.
By speaking with one voice, Africa is growing in that, instead of individual governments dealing with the US or Europe, they are now speaking as one whole.
By speaking with one voice, African countries are doing away with the issue of competing against each other in order to get the best deal for their resources.
Because of the diversity of raw materials found on the continent, each and every nation has something to offer and as such, no one gets left behind.
It is this set-up that the North fears the most.
It is like the proverbial owl, which fibs about having horns when the said horns are in fact ears.
A critical look at the reception of initiatives such as the move by BRICS to set up a bank, the concept of South-to-South co-operation and even the idea of a United States of Africa by Western countries and academics is telling.
There is a form of begrudging response to such initiatives based on the understanding that once developing countries begin to articulate, set and fund their own agendas, then the West loses out.
The recently held African Economic Platform embodies some of the ideas that push towards an economically independent Africa.
While I am not one to claim conspiracy theory, it would be immoral not to caution Africa that this path is filled with thorns and rocky patches.
The continent must guard against infiltration and manipulation by the North.
One has to look at how discourse on the need for Africa to have a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council has divided the continent, and yet such a seat would be good for the continent.