AfriCAN... Or CANit?

Today is Africa Day! 

As I prepared to celebrate with friends and family I started thinking about what Africa Day really means and if we should celebrate it.

I remember the day I decided to move back home after living as part of the African Diaspora in Europe for over a decade. Almost everyone I know said NO!!!! My country has been troubled for more than two decades and the instability of home worried my loved ones, whilst the insignificance of being in aboard worried me. I believe that we were all born with a purpose, a specific reason of being, in my case, Black. Female. Educated. Creative. Passionate about the African Continent –

‘I am uniquely me placed specifically here for a purpose and until I started living that as my truth I was destined to be insignificant.’

So at the first sign of some semblance of stability I packed up and shipped on home to become part of the solution.

African Diaspora

When I arrived back home I had an insane ‘culture shock’ experience which I did not expect. I had lived away so long, only coming back for short breaks annually, that I no longer new how to fit it. This coupled with the dark times my countrymen had faced while I was away, there was a clear disconnect between us. I had to learn very quickly and make friends with no time to spare. It was a steep learning curve but I rode the wave and made it to the other side…just. Almost a decade back on the continent I am now local once more and yet with a Diaspora view of so many things… I did as my heart desired, came back rolled up my sleeves and found a spot from which I could work, push the agenda I believe in beyond a shadow of a doubt, Africa’s Freedom from foreign dependencies and “support”.

After returning home I realised how disconnected the Diaspora really is from what takes place on the continent. Having been “on the other side” I understood how so many in the Diaspora feel intrinsically and intimately connected to their African roots as they daily morphed into western ethnic minorities. The difficult choices all in the Diaspora must make is to either graft themselves into the foreign societies they find themselves in or do what I did and come back to the continent and take a seat at the table. 

It is impossible to have one foot on either side of that scenario as the realities are so far removed that even the individual trying to live this life will find themselves lost…and after all we cannot serve two masters, now can we?

Pan Africanism

African Politics is demoralising at best…The African Union is like a white-washed-tomb rather than the heartbeat of a brave lion its citizens need it to be. Dependent on western countries for aid to support its work, its curious if there is anything independent about this body, after all it is not polite for one to bite the hand that feeds it…

President Kagame of Rwanda put it best when he said;

“…Without an African Union that delivers, the continent cannot progress, and we face the likelihood of yet another generation of lost opportunity.

This shows that Heads of State were correct to push to accelerate the institutional reform of the African Union as part of the effort to make it financially independent.

Yet it has always been Africa’s moment. The demeaning anecdotes that infect the portrayal of Africa deepen cynicism amongst our own youth who internalise the idea of a helplessly dysfunctional continent.

We should take responsibility for the part we have contributed to these negative images and work to change perceptions by coming together in real solidarity to transform our approach to the business of developing and protecting this continent.

The question at any given time is whether we choose to be present and put in place the institutional capacity needed to seize whatever advantages are available.

Continuing to defer necessary reforms to the future is an implicit decision to do nothing. It means accepting our conditions as inevitable and Africa’s subordinate place in the community of nations as natural.

Looking around Africa, any of us can give examples of situations that hurt deeply because we know they would not exist if we had acted much earlier, as we agreed to do so many times over the years.

There are lives lost in childbirth, villages filled with uneducated children, people locked in refugee camps for decades because of who they are, and countless families who lack the means to guarantee basic dignity.

As noted in the report submitted to you, tens of thousands of young African bodies have been swallowed by the sea, or abandoned in the desert, in pursuit of a decent life for which they are prepared to risk everything, because they believe there is no hope at home.

They testify to the urgent need to act…”

The question therefore that should rest on the lips of every African, passionate about this continent and determined to see us stand tall among the giants is; ‘What are we waiting for?”

Africa Rising

I realised that it was the self-destructive nature of Africa’s leaders that was hindering Africa’s genuine unity and socio-economic freedom, not from Kagame’s speech but rather from his actions to seek an unconstitutional third term in office following many of Africa’s sitting Head’s of State today.

As Kagame rightly points out, there are many examples where we have acted correctly, in time and done well as a continent the challenge is when these acts are few and far between and non-individually amounts to any significant change on a continental level for Africa’s people.

With every surge towards rising out of poverty and disease, an African, ‘Life Leader’ is created and proceeds to supress and pull her down…
 

How then can Africa rise?

And if she rises, to what end?

If Africa lacks the political will to give the shoots of change she experiences an opportunity to take root and grow into the oak trees we need to support a new dawn for our continent – A dawn that sees poverty and disease spread only as a folk story like the black death (bubonic plague) is for the descendants of the Eastern and Western nations – Then She CANNOT Rise in a way that will bring her people true freedom, empower their voices and give them the financial capacity to sustainably change their circumstances.

Read President Kagame’s full speech here.