African Leadership in the Post-United States Era

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.