This week Andrew Wutawunashe in his book Dear Africa — The Call of The African Dream that The Patriot is serialising, says the present generation of black leaders whose voices have earned the attention of the world must not be side-tracked by premature international accolades to think that their mission among the black people has been accomplished.

IT is time to train the peoples of Africa into a new strategic synergy.
A part of Africa which may not have as yet apparent wealth may excel in ideas and resources.
For example, parts of Africa in which black people have had political independence for some time have provided black people with time to go through invaluable training in the struggle to take resources or enterprise under hard conditions.
A Somali black kiosk business owner has invaluable lessons for the black South African aspiring kiosk owner who is finding it near impossible to break through in a white-dominated economy.
The black Zimbabwean farmer or small mine claim owner could inspire his black brother in South Africa to whom the handling of gold or diamonds by himself as a black owner may seem unreal.
It is the black South African investor who must go to Congo or Zambia, Mozambique or Zimbabwe, Nigeria or Tanzania and synergise with fellow Africans there to exploit the abundant resources and opportunities.
Yet without training our people into a new ideology of African unity, we will watch the Chinese, whites and other people exploit these opportunities while black people major on a self-destructive Afro-phobia.
It is time therefore for the African political leader to embark on an impassioned mission to teach African people the vital need for them to understand and embrace their oneness throughout the continent and to initiate among them Indabas for synergy and networking.
The people will not get there by themselves.
They need the focussed guidance of enlightened political leaders.
If the revelation of African unity were more meaningfully communicated by African politicians, Africans all over the continent and beyond would be consulting and working fraternally together resulting in a new age of self-empowerment by black people.
Although I have put great demand on the African politician, African leaders in every field must take up the task of building the concept of African unity in the hearts and minds of Africans everywhere.
And this applies also to the African outside the continent be it the African-American, the African in the Indies, Caribbean or Europe.
A great and positive phenomenon of our time has been the rise and elevation of black leaders into prominence at an international level.
Some of these prophets, such as Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Bantu Steven Biko and others had to pay the ultimate price for their struggle for the uplifting of black people.
The present generation of black leaders whose voices have earned the attention of the world must not be side-tracked by premature international accolades to think that their mission among the black people has been accomplished.
From legendary liberators and achievers like Mandela, Kaunda, Mbeki, Chissano and others, to sitting Presidents like Zuma, Banda, Dos Santos, Bingu wa Mutharika, Kikwete, Obama, Kagame, Pohamba, Mugabe, Museveni and others, to prominent clergy like Archbishop Tutu, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Andrew Young and others, as well as from a young generation of black leaders must rise renewed initiatives and a shrill voice for the unity, dignity and competitiveness of black people worldwide.
One cannot help wincing in pain as many of these voices are lost through a false assumption that mission is accomplished and they can now retire or ascend to the prestige of becoming messiahs of all people worldwide.
There are forces in this world that have a deeply vested interest in deceiving or dignifying leaders of black people into this kind of tragic irrelevance.
The assassin’s bullet has always been very brutally precise with black leaders with the right message.
The new and golden bullet is the reward of international prestige, and it is just as accurate.
I hope I have not been presumptuous in including President Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States of America, among African leaders.
I was truly impressed by the way this extraordinary African-American man openly celebrated his African origins before America and the world, both in his writings and by his celebrated ‘pilgrimages’ to Africa before he came into power.
In this man’s family comes a confluence of every concept of the African holocaust through the slave trade and colonialism.
His grandfather was a detainee in the infamous British detention and torture camps in Kenya where thankfully he was not castrated as others were.
His wife hails from Africans uprooted to America through the slave trade.
Obama has by divine providence ascended to arguably the most powerful political office in the world.
A slave has become a king, and black people from among whom he hails are anxiously waiting to see what his voice and contribution on behalf of black and African people is going to be.
While Irish presidents like Bill Clinton can look back with pride at the way they used this high office to help the Irish in their peace process, Obama does not seem to be yet on course to raise a meaningful word or finger towards causes crucial to the African people, such as for example African unity or the rehabilitation of black people’s minds and economies from the traumas of the holocaust.
He has been content to rehash lectures of former colonial Western leaders to African leaders struggling against staggering odds on the subject of corruption and incompetence, and to tread a path of sanctions, bombs and disregard of the views of African leaders that is embarrassing in its lack of both imagination and originality.
President Obama should be having a special multi-million dollar task force dedicated to engaging and empowering the African Union (AU) and African leaders.
He is in an advantaged position to examine the failure of imposition of un-adapted Western democracy models on African nations which are the root causes of many electoral and civil conflicts.
It would be so energising to Africa to see him inviting clusters of African leaders for consultation on African problems in the White House rather than focusing entirely on the Semitic tribes of the Middle East.
The voice of the AU on African countries such as Libya should be more important to him than the voice of the Arab League.
The Arabs advised Obama to bomb Libya in Africa and not Yemen or Bahrain in Arab lands for identical problems.
Ironically, this Arab-Western symphony was the engine of the African Slave Trade.
For less than the cost of one tomahawk cruise missile Obama could achieve major strides towards inspiring African unity and dignity.
I hope the President will have a change of heart, for I can see coming White American Presidents ignoring or bombing Africa in the name of his example.
Will it be conscionable for Obama to leave office with an African record bettered by George Bush?
Black people’s intellectual leaders have not been exempted from this conspiracy of misdirection.
Africa and black people worldwide have already suffered from a dearth of intellectual thought on which they could, like other peoples, found their identity, politics, competitiveness and unity.