Dr Nkosozana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson, African Union Commission and all Representatives of Member States attending the 20th African Union Summit to discuss Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance, held in Addis Ababa, January 21-28, 2013.
We, members of the newly formed Pan-African international, African Revolutionary Movement (ARM) wish to document and propose the following ideas to all members of the African Union at this crucial time in our history, for your deliberation and action.
The ideas outlined below, and the eventual total liberation of Africa and Africans worldwide from external domination in all of its manifestations - is inevitable. The march toward our second and true independence is unstoppable. For this reason, we implore African leaders gathered at this summit at Addis Ababa, January 2013, to take very seriously this call to action.
Sadly our leaders have missed many historical moments and opportunities to take the kind of stand that would have set us on a different path to the one we are faced with today – the re-colonization and foreign military occupation of our homeland. The AU’s ineffective response to the invasion of the Libyan Jamahiriya and the murder of Muammar Al-Qaddafi and the resulting regional chaos is a case in point. How much more humiliation and suffering must we bear before our leaders stand tall and defend Africa, her resources and her peoples? The time is now – tomorrow is too late.
We call on member States of the African Union to:
• Acknowledge that the problems facing Africa must be resolved with African solutions and to reject all outside intervention in African affairs – both military and ideological/ political.
• Immediately reject AFRICOM and remove all foreign military operations from African soil, including AFRICOM advisers, training programs and any joint military exercises.
Let us be well aware that AFRICOM is a creature of US imperialism and is modeled after the infamous School of the Americas, where military training, including instruction on torture techniques, was provided to the military and para-military personnel of the most vicious of Central and South American dictatorships. The objective was to build their capacity to fight US imperialist conflicts and achieve the imperialist’s outcomes throughout the Americas, without having to deploy US troops. This partnership with compliant South American countries meant that citizens of the South, rather than US citizens, would fight and die to further US objectives in the region. Likewise, AFRICOM already has Ugandan, Rwandan, Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somali troops fighting to achieve the US agenda in Somalia.
• Condemn African leaders who are calling for NATO and other imperialist military forces to intervene in African conflicts, under the guise of bringing democracy, peace and liberation. In the centuries since Europeans made their first incursions into Africa, have they ever brought us anything but genocide, plunder and destruction? The answer is no.
• Denounce the French government's military intervention in the sovereign state of Mali. This intervention is simply a pretext to intensify the conflict between the Malian military and so-called Jihadist organizations. It is a strategy designed to increase the chaos and violence in order to create a justification for the very same imperialist forces, who in the first place created and facilitated the Jihadist forces and the commotion they have instigated across the region, to invade and militarize Africa. Their intention is not to liberate us from the tyranny of the Jihadists but to use them as a smokescreen to re-colonize the entire continent.
• Throughout the tragic history of slavery, conquest and colonization of our continent and our people, the imperialists have presented themselves as liberators and so they play the same game today. In this instance, they are invading our lands under the pretext of combating these so-called Jihadists that they claim are their enemies, but who, at the same time they are clearly allied with and have employed on more than one occasion as their proxy army. Are we to be fooled yet again?
• Free themselves of their conceptual incarceration and to embrace a genuine Afro centric worldview. It is time to acknowledge that the European ideologies of neo-liberal capitalism and liberal democracy have failed Africa. This is documented not only by ourselves but by numerous leading and enlightened European thinkers themselves, who have irrefutably demonstrated that neo-liberalism and so-called liberal democracy are politically, economically and morally bankrupt and that adherence to these ideas has led to the current global crisis.
In Africa, the cradle of humanity and civilization, we have rich indigenous traditions of democracy, governance, political philosophy and organization which are far superior to anything that can be found in Europe or North America today. Let us begin decolonizing our minds and return to our source since that is the only way we will achieve true independence, both intellectual and economic.
• There are many lessons to be learned from the martyred Pan-African revolutionary, Muammar Qaddafi, however one of the most important lessons was that Libya’s incredible social and economic achievements were only possible because of the complete dismantling of the old colonial structures and ideologies and the establishment of indigenous forms of democracy and institutions of governance.
• Accept and unanimously join the movement toward a united Africa. It is clearly understood by all other groups on earth, for example, Europe, the United States, Asia-Pacific, BRIC etc that in order to be an empowered and meaningful player, given the current global arrangement, they must either unite or perish.
• We implore African leaders to realize Africa's immense power. Realizing this power is primarily a psychological transition, since the material facts are over-whelmingly clear. Almost every natural resource needed to run contemporary industrial and high-tech economies are located in Africa. It is only with access to Africa’s resources, that modern day economies can be built. Europe, the US, China, the Arab nations are all maneuvering to gain access to African lands and resources.
• It is a well-documented fact that if Africa stopped the flow of all resources and raw materials to the Western nations for just one week, the United States and Europe would grind to a halt. This means that although we are currently in a position of weakness and among the poorest nations of the world, we are, ironically, in fact the most powerful continent.
• We implore the current African Heads-of-State, gathered here under the umbrella of the African Union to put all their efforts into the realization of Nkrumah and Qaddafi’s grand plan for a United States of Africa. A strong and truly independent Africa, with one government, one defense force and one currency based on our African gold standard as Qaddafi had proposed. A united Africa would completely alter the balance of power globally. Only when we achieve this level of unity and power, will we be able to take our rightful place in the world.
In unity and struggle,
Yahaya Ezemoo Ndu
Chairman, African Revolutionary Movement (ARM) and
Gerald A. Perreira
International Secretary, African Revolutionary Movement (ARM)
ARM is an international, Pan-African revolutionary organization committed to the unification and total liberation of Africa and the scattered African nation.
RE: Kevin-Prince Boateng Protest Sets the Pace for Africa
I listened to the FIFA President's comments with shock in reaction to what Kevin did. I would like to suggest that we highlight the fact that every time we have such an incidence, the FIFA President takes it as a joke. We need to lobby against the handling of racial incidences by the FIFA President. Definitely he has been using Africa but looks down upon Africans as he thinks we should just ignore racial slurs. I would rather be killed than accept racial chants! It is sad! I wish Boateng had even gone into the stands to challenge the racists. He did well by throwing the ball at them. It is a pity no one was hit.
Mandla Gama
RE: Kevin-Prince Boateng Protest Sets the Pace for Africa
Well said. We need to this often. We have been underrated for long.
Mary Kinyanjui
RE: Gaddafi's Libya: Africa's Most Prosperous Democracy
Garikayi, This is an informative article. The only challenge is that people see and think differently and consequently they act differently.
Nicholas Mudungwe
RE: Gaddafi's Libya: Africa's Most Prosperous Democracy
We should not forget the West have always throwing down progressive governments like the elected government of Iran in 1953, the elected president of Guatemala in 1954 and the government of Juan Boss of Dominica republic in 1965 by the US. The list is very long. Now they are undermining other countries in Africa.
Johan Cronie
