Introduction
Observation is an empirical art influenced by complex
variables connected to different
observers. Nevertheless general patterns do emerge over time despite the
fact that they are limited in terms of offering specific answers to current facts
on the ground. Using long durée approach, patterns of less than 500
years old carry lightweight. This is the case with observing the West i.e.
United States including her protectorates (Germany, Japan, South Korea etc),
United Kingdom and her underlines (Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc). Viewed
from Africa, these states loom larger than life with an almost intellectual and
metaphysical suffocation disconnected from reality. A critical reflection of
the same data from Africa (of the rolling 500 years) in the last decade (contrary
to daily fake news) reveal patterns that have been in place all the time
suggesting that these capitals and their chancelleries are rather expressions
of enduring human condition.
After 2011
2011 is an important year for Africa and Africans because
this is the year when the last shred of collective dignity and potent
sovereignty evaporated with the murder of Col Ghaddafi and the destruction of
Libya. The result has been a reinforcement of regressive unjustifiable leadership
across the continent but also an explosion of enormous pressure on the minority
voices clamouring for true enduring change for the majority.
The intellectual class formed on uncritical ideas and
poisonous hand-me-down theories from western thinkers continue to froth
passionately their assumed solutions without evidence. Most in the religious
sphere excluding indigenous religions continue to peddle their conflation of
fake Christianity with rationalist European mantra plus gaps in true Islam. For
these, salvation is Western Europe and United States. Alternative voices
continue to struggle to be heard despite the absence of clear ideological
footprint. Prior to 2020, celebration of stagnation and consolidation of ontological
poverty turned into national treasure in Egypt, Senegal, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia,
DR Congo and South Africa.
On the economic front the capital sin of international trade
took a divine right posture where domestic currencies are eliminated for the
enthronement of the dollar and euro. In the case of Nigeria, headlines bloom
with findings of billions of foreign currency in officials’ homes. Evidently
the owners validate their inability to redirect resources for common good.
Capital flight is most evident from the same officials that wire huge number
abroad to invest in foreign economies for the wellbeing of foreigners.
Apparently, governments don’t work so anything the powerful elite do in private
suffices. Nothing trickles down and none will trickle down. Is it just an
African problem? The same human right champions of the West look the other way
as their affirmation of ‘justice’. Let us see how they have performed so far?
Western Unravelling
As Africans continue their’ suffering and smiling’ in
victimhood imposed by their own leaders over the decade, the Western elite
radically advanced the integration of African economies through financial
technological means. This consolidation of capital accumulation and
financialization is underpinned by unlimited exploitation of Africa’s mineral
resources. Geopolitically, the so-called independent states were further
balkanised without fixed geographies to enable seamless illegal transfers at
the cost of millions of lives. All profits, blood money, capital and precious
resources go north. This is the pattern. Even the French-speaking countries
must obtain Paris’ approval on their central banking, fiscal and monetary
policies. A comfortable place to be across generations!
Then came December 2021 when Moscow sent 2 treaties to the
United States to codify the cessation of NATO eastern expansion. Moscow was
rubbished with condescending impunity. This is the same smart elite that ran
with legs touching the back of their heads from Kabul earlier. From February
2022 a new mechanism arrived through the barrel of the gun, the first
peer-to-peer exchange between nuclear powers in the battlefield. A geoeconomic
settlement of accounts rather than a geopolitical consolidation by means of war!
With the onslaught entering its 3rd year the gloss
has worn off digital pretence. This is the first conflict where the profits
yield in limitation for the US. It is certainly making profit off its European
vassals and satraps. Its vaunted weapons, military tactics and strategic
initiatives have unravelled. In the economic heartbeat of Europe, the German elite
stabbed their national interest with radio silence at the Nord Stream pipeline
destruction. United Kingdom is hollowed out by funding NATO conflict while
France’s compounding problems improved with expulsion from former African Sahel
and the first sacking of a prime minister in generations. In South Korea
recently, the president rushed to martial rule in the absence of credible
national threat.
Plain Truth
Africans are observing these emerging patterns with complex
dispositions. They are real and undenied. Many questions, numerous lack of
answers and certain volume of daze. What is the difference between Mobutu Sese
Seko of Zaire and Olaf Schulz of Germany? What is the line between Kier Starmer
of UK and Mohammed Said Barre on Somalia? What is dissimilar between Jean
Bokassa of CAR and Emmanuel Macron of France? Nothing. They are united in unleashing
destruction on their country and peoples.
This is the point that most Africans need to recover from
fast. There is no such thing as civilised people, advanced populations,
superior nations and all sorts. Human dignity human condition are universal. Both
are irreducible. Error, impunity, corruption, glory, abuse and excellence are
never up for monopoly. Development can never be imported. The first development
law is the admiration of one’s being, family and people rather than material
derivatives. No people need permission to stand up, to remain standing and to
die standing. The same western elite that seem invincible to Africans have no
qualms subjecting their own peoples to oppression and death in the name of
national interest.
This is the simple lesson of our reflection.