Introduction
The current story of leadership in
Africa leaves a lot to be desired at all levels. Tragic and unpleasant
narratives continue to dominate the continent two generations after most of the
successors of colonial states gained so-called independence. What is counted as
independence of nation-states are limited exclusive operations that transform the majority into victims of state aggression across the board. In this article our
limited attention is on the potential opportunities implicit in United States overreach
and decline. United States is the last form of western imperial colonial state.
Spectre of Colonial
Mentality
Many may wonder why
‘colonial’ is mentioned two generations after the colonial era. A typical critic is fiercely seeking answers to the problem of leadership in
Africa over the same period. Opposing arguments insist that the so-called independent
states were equipped in statecraft plus accruing human resources over the
generations. If so, why have the result been gross underperformance? Part of
the problem is historical amnesia that fuel the false narrative that colonial
projects were benevolent and beneficial to the people. There is no evidence in
this regard.
The idea that colonial
projects departed from civilisation mission to genuine investment in people-oriented
values is intellectually dishonest. Not a single colonial project respected the
indigenous peoples and tolerated genuine democracy, civilisation, progress and
human rights. No colonial official was ever elected. Top-down bureaucratic
operations, impunity, massacres and genocides were normalised in these
profit-making projects. The mission statement of the project were based on false
representation and devaluation of Africans. Once a peoples’ identity is
questioned, their existence is appropriated.
The British, French,
Portuguese, Italians, Germans and Spanish left horror legacies that continue to
haunt us. The atrocities of Belgian King Leopold in DR Congo left a trail of
intergenerational dehumanisation inherited by Mobutu and his successors.
Similar cases dominate most of the continent. Preference of one colonial
project over another is a testimony from the lunatic fringe. The so-called independence
never brought holistic liberation of the peoples rather a radical regressive
alteration of destinies and hybridisation of existence. People cannot give what
they lack. Hence today most Africans are victims of repression, alienation,
exclusion and marginalisation from leadership at all levels inherited and
extended from colonial projects. The
cost is high in blood.
Items of Impossible
The fall of Kabul in 2021
signalled the end of uncontested US imperial prerogative and the decline of
North Atlantic hegemony. The current loss-making conflicts in both Ukraine and Palestine
simply confirm enduring patterns of irreversible decline of a panic-stricken
ex-hegemon. With unsustainable public debt, decline of the US dollar, defeat in
Ukraine, establishment of Iranian deterrence in West Asia, Yemeni mastery of
the Red Sea and Palestinian endurance; potentials are growing for credible African
renewal.
New Conversation
Time has come for new focus
and new collective sharing on the implications of dynamic geopolitical
reconfigurations. Young people in West Africa are already chewing over what
independence means, discerning enduring patterns for dignified existence and
taking steps to advance the sanctity of their lives. For those who are
still undecided, deep conversations are needed for sober assessment of the last
two generations in an authentic embrace of histories. A people without active
historical agency cannot stand.
US decline is significant in
clarifying US citizens place in the world as normal people without exceptional
qualities or manifest destiny. They built an empire with an expiry date that activated this decade for another empire to take the stage. Hence North Atlantic domination of the world for almost half a millennia is over.
African discussions must be
honest, truthful, hopeful and trustworthy. Independence, dignity and sanctity
doesn’t come from outside. No amount of intellectual and material investment
outlines existential and ontological values of peoples in their community. A
critical and deep review of the colonial project deserve penetrating exchanges because it continues to dominate conventional view of correctness and
completeness despite the absence of both.
In addition, parallel
discussions of indigenous legacies deserve utmost attention as foreign inputs have shown their cost in blood. True, no people have the monopoly of discernment,
wisdom and knowledge. However any development not anchored on the unique experience of the people in a territory is futile. Equally when people decide to sleep with blanket of excuses
for their miserable state, the status quo remains. Positive reversals don’t
take long.
Any African leader at any
level who is unable to factor in rapid change is irrelevant. Any leader without
clear replicable plan of action, key performance indicators and critical
success factors is malfeasant. Most importantly if African peoples at all
levels refuse to engage, organise and mobilise for their personal and
collective advancement in their unique experiences; current costs will continue
to mount.
Conclusion
It is time for Africans to
once again read sign of the times, take another look at ourselves in the spirit
of unlearning and relearning to exchange on our status quo. Other peoples in
other continents are defiantly taking their destinies in their hands. An
authentic historical review of our past particularly the colonial project that
unleashed our current sufferings through ugly nation-state leadership deserve
urgent attention. A new narrative is essential, a narrative of independence, dignity
and sanctity. Our existential and ontological constitutions are irreducible,
non-negotiable and indispensable.
