Sunday, May 12, 2024

Gibson Nyikadzino

Africa’s Coup Governments: When Elections Become An Exhausted Idea Confirming Democratic Fatigue

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Africa’s Coup Governments: When Elections Become An Exhausted Idea Confirming Democratic Fatigue

The trending successful military coups in West Africa today indicate the continuation of political processes and leadership by another method. Their executions have been systematic; citizens protest against the ruling elites’ failure to ensure economic, political, social and security provisions, then the military moves in.

West Africa is regarded as one of the most unstable subregions on the African continent. Between 1991 and 2011, some of the most brutal civil conflicts in the continent’s history wrecked West Africa. Another contributor to instability in West Africa has been the continuing role of the military and the phenomenon of military regimes. Of the fifteen ECOWAS states, only Senegal has not witnessed a military coup.

The first military coup in Africa was staged on the night of January 13, 1963, when Togo’s President Sylvanus Olympio was shot dead by rebels. The scourge of military coups has further infected other parts of Africa. Moreover, military coups are contagious. A successful coup significantly increases the probability of military coups in that country or its neighbors.

The reactions, actions, and inactions of African public intellectuals, activists, academics, and other opinion leaders to these coup developments have not given enough ground for consensus on whether military coups are the needed form of governance in Africa. However, the agreed-upon common position is that democratic gains in Africa are slowly diminishing.

In April 2019, the government of Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir was deposed in a military coup that was backed by some of its civilian allies. The civilian-military alliance overthrew the interim structures and effectively ended al-Bashir’s rule, and General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan became the head of the transition that incorporated civilians.

Since then, statistics have been going southward. Since August 2020, Africa has experienced eight military coups. These have been in Mali, which witnessed two coups in nine months; Guinea in September 2021; Sudan in October 2021; Burkina Faso had two coups in eight months—in January and September 2022; Niger in July 2023; and Gabon in August.

Such political developments have brought historic turning points. State weakness has played a key role in these incidences. In other jurisdictions, they have occurred in part due to the government’s failure to prevent the development of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups throughout the Sahel.

Besides the coups being ‘people-driven’, what is striking is that the most complicating scenario that restricts efforts by African countries or the West to reverse these takeovers is that it is young men who rally in support of military coups and their leaders. With such support, coup makers have resisted regional and continental norms against unconstitutional changes in government and, in Niger, have shunned engagements.

The cases of military coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Guinea provide key insights on the changing nature of relations between citizens and military men.

Are Africa’s elections an exhausted idea?

Africa is going through “democratic fatigue and coloniality rupture” that is requiring an alternative to the Western liberal lens of looking at issues, says Dr. Alexander Rusero, a scholar on decolonial thought leader and lecturer at the Africa University in Zimbabwe.

Dr. Rusero argues that events in West Africa’s coup belt are indicative of the need to recognise the role of military men in Africa, as democracy through elections is now an exhausted idea.

“Democracy expressed through elections is now an exhausted idea, as there are certain alternative modes of installing governments, and the military heading that government is just but one of those modes. What we are witnessing is also what we can call the coloniality rupture. There is a rupture of the colonial grip by France over erstwhile colonies. So there are certain circumstances where the military becomes the last resort because there are certain powerful men who preside over states but fail to deliver public goods.

“There is therefore a recession to the extended influence of France in these establishments to the extent that all military men are calling the French government off whenever they assume military power to say, France, you no longer have any business in the affairs of our country; please leave. This talks to the coloniality rupture. Coloniality which has been sustained over the years is slowly depleting and depreciating,” argues Dr. Rusero.

The ECOWAS bloc and the African Union (AU) have been at the forefront of condemning military and unconstitutional power changes in the coup belt but have been silent when elected officials use the military to suppress dissent, civic society organizations, and political opponents using the armed forces.

Dr. Rusero further emphasized that “power consolidation in Africa is through the military, which remains the extension of a political appendage of power. As long as the military is the appendage of political power, the military man also wants to be in that seat because they know the dividends that come with that seat.

“It is hypocritical for the African Union to insist that it does not recognize these unconstitutionally placed governments, yet they hardly say anything whenever there are certain internal dynamics that result in repression, precisely by the incumbent using military force. So as long as the peer review mechanism does not call states to order whenever democracy is in recession, there will be no cure to the coups in Africa.”

Second social contract, covenant

The academic contributions by Western political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau see a social contract as the legitimate consent that those elected officials leading government policy require from those they govern.

However, a contradiction now exists where non-elected officials are given the mandate and consent to govern by the people. There is evidence of an urgent need to renegotiate and redefine models of a social contract throughout a continent where vast sections of the population feel estranged from real citizenship when led by elected officials.

Pro-coup Nigeriens
Nigeriens supporting the July military takeover led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani are seen holding Russian and Chinese flags as they gather in Niamey on August 20. Credit: AFP via Getty Images

To endear themselves with the people, the coup leaders in Mali (Col. Assimi Goïta), Guinea (Col. Mamady Doumbouya), Burkina Faso (Capt. Ibrahim Traoré), and Niger (Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani) promised to institute enough fundamental change to lay new social, economic, and political foundations for their societies. In other words, the military leaders are seen as promising social justice.

Thus, there has emerged an implicit agreement, a new social contract, between the people and their military men and armed forces. Under the new social contract, the citizens and the armed forces have committed to recalibrate the foundations of the state, fight corruption, and expunge French influence and neo-colonialism in Africa’s Sahel region.

Pan-Africanism, neo-colonialism, Russian flags

A new Pan-African spirit is being reincarnated in young African opinion leaders and modern activists who share the values of the first generation of the continent’s liberators. 42-year-old French-Beninese Pan-African ideologue and anti-Western activist Kémi Séba has been the leading voice of reason to endorse the military leadership in Niger, at a time when it has not been fashionable to do so.

Pan-African Activist, Kémi Séba
Kémi Séba, one of the leaders of the Pan-Africanist movement, advocates for the collaboration and integration of African states against Western imperialism. In Niger, he urged pro-coup protestors to stop raising Chinese and Russian flags. Credit: Acotonou

In September, he addressed thousands of pro-coup supporters in Niamey, Niger, rallying people to support the military leadership borne out of the July coup.

“We support General (Abdourahamane) Tchiani (as the head of the regime), we support the military who have taken their responsibilities,” he said after meeting General Tchiani. He observed that the military had listened to the people and “decided to stop the mechanism of neo-colonialism,” hammering that France and the West will not stop the ongoing revolutionary process.

“The Nigerien authorities are counting on us to continue this work of deconstruction of Françafrique and the propagation of Pan-Africanism. We will not disappoint them,” claimed Seba.

On his official X handle (formerly Twitter), he reiterated: “No Pan-Africanist can count on the flawed laws of the institutions of Françafrique to destroy the latter. Only a radical rupture, characterized by the mobilization of the people, allied to the army, and to a powerful geopolitical partner opposed to Western imperialism, will be able to do so.”

He urged positive alliances with geopolitical partners and advised Nigeriens against waving Russian flags.

“Every African leader who collaborates with French neocolonialism is politically on borrowed time. We have started work in the Sahel, and we are going to finish it. Military bases, CFA Franc, cooperation agreements, incestuous relationship between corrupt African and French elites—we are your terminal; know this well,” warned Seba.

From Seba’s advocacy, it is desirable to see Africans free from neo-colonialism, but it is also important to realize that the end of neo-colonialism is likely impossible as West African governments and their economies are not only stimulated by foreign aid but also require it for their own survivability. Unity in breaking this bondage is what Africans require.

Western thought, wrong prescriptions

Experiences in the coup belt resemble the demystification of the Western liberal lens that the military man must not be anywhere close to the political menu. This is fast becoming a myth, as the military man is in essence at the center of the scheme of things in as much as the political dynamics and the political balance of forces in a country are concerned.

The success of military coups in Africa indicates one variation. It is now clear that elections alone are not able to deliver an equitable system of governance. Elections, modeled on the Western liberal system, have alone been unable to correct and address post-colonial challenges in Africa.

Without partaking in any democratic contestation, coup leaders in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger made military interventions responding to the deteriorating security situations and poor economic and social governance of their elected officials. Also, citizens need to be politically conscious, as political leaders create false expectations in their bid to win power. They know they cannot deliver on election promises. Part of this explains their rejection and the embrace of the military.

Decolonizing democracy and development

Prof. Last Moyo, a scholar at the British University in China, doubts the sincerity of the coup plotters and urges citizens to be cautious when they try to embrace them. He describes the military leaders as “opportunistic elements being used to depose governments” and desires that Africa develop its own version of democracy that is not supported by the structures of neocolonialism as they are today.

“The problem is that Africa’s politics is in service to the modern commercial empire that is non-territorial but is still there; that is neocolonialism. Africa’s institutions are not delivering. That is why it is easy for Western countries to interfere in Africa because our politics are not serving the people’s interests. There is a need to reconstitute politics in Africa and answer the fundamental question of who our politics should serve.

“The tragedy that Africa has is that these coups are not necessarily the panacea to African problems. Once they (coup leaders) are given the mandate, unfortunately, they begin to degenerate into the corruption they were condemning. So these cases in West Africa need some time to be understood,” submitted Prof. Moyo.

As the military coups are also partly showing, neoliberal models of democracy and development being implemented in Africa only pander to the interests of Western corporations and global capital. They are not people-driven and oriented in their implementation.

Political Instability, Intra-state Conflicts, And Threats To AfCFTA Agreement’s ‘Made In Africa’ Aspirations

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Political Instability, Intra-state Conflicts, And Threats To AfCFTA Agreement’s ‘Made In Africa’ Aspirations

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is arguably the African Union’s (AU) biggest project since the launch of the continent’s Agenda 2063 in January 2015. Launched in March 2018, the AfCFTA agreement connects 55 African economies and is the largest free trade area in the world in terms of country membership.

When the AfCFTA agreement was initially proposed at an AU summit in 2012, it had two goals: to build a Pan-African agenda in trade and cooperation, and secondly, to lift a large percentage of people out of poverty by instituting structural economic changes and cooperative legislation.

AfCFTA is understood to be a groundbreaking opportunity to both create an industrial revolution within and across Africa and opt out of the types of deals like the United State’s Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) that keep the continent at the bottom of global production, trade, and investments.

But little of this has yet been achieved. The rising number of conflicts, military coups, terrorism, ethnic violence, warlordism, and the presence of mercenaries on the continent is dimming the hopes of the trade renaissance expected to have “Made in Africa” goods dominate world markets.

Hindrances to these aspirations were manifest in 2022. Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), northern Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Cameroon’s north-west and south-west regions were six African conflict hotbeds that year, against expectations that the continent would silence guns by 2020. In other circumstances, democratic backsliding continues, with insurgencies, insecurity, and weak governance leading to military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Niger, and Gabon, further restricting the prospects of sustainable trade practices and the successful implementation of the AfCFTA. Alongside dire humanitarian costs, the absence of peace in Africa is disrupting economic activities.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, in 2022, the number of Africans who were forcibly displaced by conflict stood at over 40 million people. An additional 3.2 million Africans have been displaced due to conflict over the past year. This is impacting Africa’s intra-trade potential.

Though it aims to provide broader and deeper economic integration across the continent as well as attract investment, boost trade, provide better jobs, reduce poverty, and increase shared prosperity, in 2022, intra-continental trade share in Africa stood at only 12 percent, compared to 47 percent in North America, 53 percent in Asia, and 69 percent in Europe. This makes Africa the only bloc with the least trade among its 55 members.

What others are doing

The EU is considered to be the most advanced model of regional economic integration. In facilitating smooth trade, the bloc identified three categories where barriers needed to be resolved: physical, technical, and fiscal.

In terms of physical barriers, the bloc acknowledges that border posts entail additional costs that pass on unnecessary delays. In the end, the countries streamlined their procedures to abolish border controls within the EU.

For other concerns about technical and fiscal barriers, what is certain for the EU bloc is that the headway made is far more comprehensive and satisfactory to member states. This explains why the EU is very actively pursuing its goal of gradual irreversible progress on a worldwide scale on how it engages other partners in trade initiatives like the EU, Chile, and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). This has helped the group adopt positions in favor of having binding multilateral rules in relation to the facilitation of trade.

Defining trade in African terms

Dr. Levious Chiukira, an expert on trade and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, thinks Africans need to redefine what they term trade and highlight at what level and capacity trade should be considered as such by African businesses and entrepreneurs. He fears Africa might be defining trade on the basis of blue-chip companies that might benefit alone from the AfCFTA, as it appears to be a platform to anchor white monopoly capital while substituting home industries or backyard start-ups, which contribute more to Africa’s economy.

“We need a new discourse that redefines what we call African trade. We have allowed trade to be defined by some blue-chip companies. African trade has to be redefined because the bigger elements of our trade lie in what has been labelled informal trade, yet that is what constitutes small and medium enterprises (SMEs), cross-border trade, and backyard industries. We need to break the hegemonic definition of cross-border trade as if African trade is illegal. By calling our people informal traders, they are being illegalised and their trade is not being recognised,” said Dr. Chiukira.

Working on upgrading the border management systems
Zimbabwe’s revenue collection authority has invested in modern border equipment to plug loopholes necessitated by the evasion of formal tax collection systems in the movement of goods. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

The World Bank (WB) estimates that small businesses represent 90% of all businesses and that Sub-Saharan Africa alone has 44 million SMEs. While acknowledging their importance, the WB confirms that small businesses, especially those in Africa, are poorly understood due to a lack of or fragmentation of data.

Dr. Chiukira sees infant industries or SMEs promotion in the framework of AfCFTA as only developing not on the basis of free trade policy but of understanding the needs of what facilitates African trade.

“Sustainable African trade has to be done in the precept of understanding what facilitates trade. We have failed to address the needs of the African people, and we have failed to understand the challenges of trading within Africa. Conflicts are hampering trade. In the end, human capital will not be functional as conflicts might trigger movement of refugees,” added Dr. Chiukira.

Deepening regional integration and cooperation

Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are central to the AfCFTA agreement’s implementation. However, in every REC, there are one or two cases of internal or intra-state conflicts. In the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mozambique and the DR Congo are facing upheavals; in the East African Community (EAC), Kenya and Somalia are fighting Al-Shabaab terrorists; in the Economic Community of West African States and the Sahel, military coups, terrorism, and internal conflicts are key characteristics.

The AU and RECs have a common goal of achieving regional integration. However, little progress has been made, and one of the challenges and criticisms of the institutions’ efforts towards achieving the African integration agenda is poor coordination. Achievement or failure to achieve regional integration for the AfCFTA agenda is highly dependent on these supranational bodies.

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's President
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa (left) shares a moment with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) after launching a joint Border Management Authority (BMA) at Beitbridge Border Post in October to prevent the illegal movement of goods, a key principle for AfCFTA. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Mr. John Bosco Kalisa, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the East Africa Business Council in Tanzania, believes that promoting deeper integration through regional economic communities is a starting point to ensure the success of the AfCFTA.

The failure to silence guns is a concern.

“Every region is grappling with conflicts; these conflicts are hindering the ability of individuals and firms to produce goods and services that are required to stimulate economic growth and prosperity that are aspired to under the AfCFTA. Our leaders need to make concerted efforts to silence the guns, as espoused by the AU, the agenda of an Africa we want.

“Our African economies have been for so long depending on global supply chains, especially on essential food stuff such as rice, wheat, barley, fertilisers and others. The current Russia-Ukraine conflict which we are not party to creates negative spillover effects. This serves as a wake-up call for policymakers to design appropriate policies to build resilience within their systems and RECs,” argues Mr. Kalisa.

So near yet so far

Indications enunciated in the Agenda 2063 and AfCFTA policy documents make Africa appear as if it is progressing. To be so close and yet so far implies that in the AfCFTA agenda, policy documents, plans, and coordination may reflect as if the continent is nearing its goals, but realistically, Africa is far apart in attitudes, emotions, understanding, or meaning of the goals it wants.

“We talk of the AfCFTA, but countries that experience unconstitutional changes of government through coups or other means are automatically suspended from participating in the AU bodies, including the AfCFTA. For instance, the AU and ECOWAS closed their airspace and borders to Niger after the July military coup. Conflict resolution and prevention are essential for creating a conducive environment for trade integration and development in Africa.

“The effects of conflict can have lasting consequences on the skills, capabilities, and opportunities of the current and future generations of Africans,” says Mr. Tanatsiwa Dambuza, an intra-African trade knowledge management expert for Development Dispatch and co-founder of the Zimbabwe Institute of African Integration.

The AfCFTA project is showing signs of difficulties for the AU, and soon, without good political commitment by leaders, it will be realised soon that a miss is as good as a mile.

Russia-Africa Relations: Africa’s Entanglement With Politics Of Patronage Without Liberation

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Russia-Africa Relations: Africa’s Entanglement With Politics Of Patronage Without Liberation

There are intense political and intellectual debates unfolding in Africa. Since February 24 last year, when war broke out in Europe following Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the presence of Russia in Africa has been politically extensive through mercenaries from the disbanded Wagner Group (WG) under the pretext of fighting neo-colonialism. Africans have questioned the developments even so, without getting a satisfactory consensus guided by a framework of the continent’s interests.

While abhorred, the occurrence of unconstitutional government changes through military putschs in Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso in the past two years and recently in Niger and Gabon has birthed a new fascination towards Russia among the young and old supporting the military leaders in their countries. Russia has embraced these military governments, mainly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, providing them with diplomatic backing and security assistance.

The backing of the military governments in Africa by Russia is changing the nature of relations between the two parties and has affected Africa’s relations with its former colonizers. To some, it is a partnership of unequals, a coalition with imbalances, and a patron-client relationship advancing the interests of the dominant party. To others, Africa is moving from one global giant to another to influence the operations of politics at a global level. This remains true with Africa’s relations with the United States, the European Union (EU), or China, where most outcomes are tilted in favor of partners other than Africa.

African leaders attending the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Part of the African leaders who attended the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia this year expressed their solidarity with Russia in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

The advancements of Russian interests in Africa are not following the traditional carrot-and-stick policy of the West, but soft power enticements channeled through scientific and technological transfers, knowledge, and expert skills to be acquired through Russian language at schools to be set in Africa. This was agreed at the Russia-Africa Summit held from July 27 to 28 this year in St. Petersburg, Russia. Some African leaders who agreed to this were charismatic Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traore, Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, and Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa, among others. This was confirmed by the current African Union’s (AU) chairperson, President Azali Assoumani of the Union of Comoros.

Director of Research, Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Maryland, Dr. Joseph Siegle, has noted that “none of Russia’s objectives are about making Africa more prosperous or stable. Rather, the continent is primarily a theater to advance Russia’s geostrategic interests.”

In light of this, public intellectuals and academics remain divided.

Coloniality and Colonization 3.0

The agreement on a cooperation action plan by Russia and Africa for the establishment of institutions in Africa that will use Russian as a medium of instruction has been interpreted as an attempt to colonize the being of Africans, take away their power, and replace their knowledge.

International relations analyst and principal researcher at the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI), Mr. Bekezela Gumbo, says Africa needs to assess Russia’s actions and measure them on the yardsticks of “being, power, and knowledge.”

Engaging to exchange and share ideas
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa participated in a business conference at the Russia-Africa Summit in July. African leaders called for more collaboration and cooperation in the fields of scientific research and development, technology transfer, and innovation. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Mr. Gumbo sees Russia as a country keen on enjoying what Africa’s former colonizers enjoyed, but without using brute force.

“When you look at educational institutions, you see that the coloniality of knowledge comes from education systems. When the Russian language is used as a medium of instruction, it means Russian ethics and standards of education will be used.

“This will reproduce Africans that are better placed to serve Russia’s interests. The Russia-Africa Summit was not neo-colonization but was colonization 3.0, where instead of using brutal force, anticipated force is used to effect colonization 3.0, where Russia is now in charge as a new colonizer who uses covert and not brutal force,” says Mr. Gumbo.

The situation presents Africa as a desperate player who needs Russia to protect her from the former colonial system.

Heads of State at the Russi-Africa Summit
President Mnangagwa was welcomed by his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, before the bilateral meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. Besides donating a helicopter, Russia also donated a consignment of 50,000 tons of maize to Zimbabwe to help ensure food security at national and household levels. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Mr. Gumbo added that “this is not different from what happened during the colonial era. It is either you join Russia or you face the wrath of your former master or colonizer. The impression being built is that without Russian support, you might not be safe, despite being an all-weather friend. They may sponsor a coup and work with the young generation fascinated by pro-Russian ideology.

“Essential pillars of coloniality are in what Russia wants in Africa, that is power. Russia is now wanting to get to power by accessing the mind and being of the African man.”

Assessments by Mr. Gumbo have been reinforced by Dr. Felistas Zimano, who is convinced that what Russia is doing in Africa equates to “100 percent neo-colonialism.”

“This is 100 percent neo-colonialism. The interest that Russia has in pushing its language to Africa is the issue that should make Africa mostly worried. This defeats any stride towards the unification of Africa.

“A people’s glue is in its culture; a people’s culture is retained in its language. Once that is eroded, then there will not be any Africa to talk about. If anything, this reinforces the notion that all they see of Africa are mere pawns,” she said.

Missing the Point

Senior politics and international studies lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), Dr. Prolific Mataruse, believes there is a protracted effort to smear Russia as having imperial designs in Africa. He emphasizes that by engaging with Russia and other countries like China and learning their languages, Africa is subverting the colonial businesses and thought.

Dr. Mataruse concluded by adding that “in all fairness, talking about Russia having imperial designs is missing the point. The whole point of African relationships with Russia, China, Turkey, India, and other countries and learning their languages is an issue of promoting a multiverse approach away from the monoverse dominance of Anglicized language. Learning other languages besides English is subverting colonial systems of business and thought.”

Africa’s Rebirth At 60: Carrying Noble Ideas That Nobody Is Willing To Implement

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Africa’s Rebirth At 60: Carrying Noble Ideas That Nobody Is Willing To Implement

To most academics, intellectuals, and pragmatists advocating for a genuine Pan-African renaissance six decades after the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, later renamed African Union in 2002) in Addis Ababa in 1963, the continent’s aspirations as highlighted in Agenda 2063 might fail to materialise as overwhelming evidence point to Africa’s lack of creative framing, knowledge and thought leadership in global affairs.

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, Western global media corporations have put Africa at the tail end of post-industrial development by formulating narratives that befit Western ideology, markets, history, values, and perspectives at the expense of Africa’s existence. Even so, the outbreak of monkey-pox in Western countries got giant media deflecting the source and linking it to Africa.

When Russia launched its special military operation on Ukraine on February 24 last year, DSTV’s Multichoice shut down Russia Today (Russian television) Channel across Africa in the view that Africans must not listen to anything balanced or sympathetic to Russia, and even so, they decide on what information should be made available to Africans across the continent.

In the face of the hegemonic and dominant Western media organisations’ onslaught, Africa’s political leaders have not reacted with relevant material and content to diffuse narratives against the continent. Theirs has been an unresponsive and less committed call to action while thought leadership is needed.

The effect of the failure to provide African thought leadership has now seen African journalists writing stories about Africa without targeting the African audience but writing for a Western audience. The news framing is the same.

Dealing With A Distorted Image

Internal conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, and the war in Ethiopia that ended last November give hard lessons on the dangers of leaving foreign media corporations with the responsibility to frame Africa’s events.

African media houses have not done much to tell the African story, in most cases, they have allowed the dominant media from the Western countries to lead the narratives, and because Africa has become a ground of military, political and economic contests between the West and East, media companies such as China Global Television Network (CGTN) and Russia Today (RT) have also taken a side in framing Africa.

Instead of using hard power in Africa, both Western and Eastern countries now prefer soft and smart power, a component that infuses foreign values, principles and norms in which they assimilate and graft Africa into the phenomenon of their narratives.

At the 60th anniversary event to commemorate the founding of the OAU on May 25, 2023, at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed restated a position he made last year before African heads of state that “Africa needs to tell her own story”.

PM Ahmed said, “On this same occasion last year, I called on all of us to tackle typically the negative portrayal of Africa by the global media. I stressed the need for Africa to tell her own story and not allow others to tell it in the service of their own interests.

“In this respect, please allow me to reiterate yet again the need to establish an African Union Continental Media House. Until Africa tells her own story, her image remains distorted. And distortions affect not how others view us, but also how we view ourselves. We owe it to ourselves and our children that Africa’s truths need to be told as they are, untainted with external interests and bias.”

Without a doubt, Africa’s leaders are not oblivious to what they need to do to reconstruct the image of the continent through having a devoted African Union Continental Media House.

Ahmed’s Old Suggestion

Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, Admire Mare says the proposal by Ethiopia’s Ahmed is old as African leaders like Ghana’s independence President Kwame Nkrumah and Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi made the same.

“The proposal by the PM of Ethiopia is not new. Similar proposals were made by Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gaddafi. It is an attempt to turn the gaze and use technological infrastructures controlled by Africans to speak back and showcase their own stories.

“Similar attempts have been seen with Al Jazeera, CGTN and Russia Today. The role of the media is still seen in instrumental ways, that is, as an enabler to speak back and speak out. On paper, the proposal is appealing but media sustainability and editorial interference are teething problems.”

According to Mare, African governments will face serious challenges in relation to financing models to fund the African Union Continental Media House, at a time when the AU is also failing to fund its operations.

He made reference to the closure of The Southern Times newspaper, an initiative set up by the governments of Namibia and Zimbabwe in 2004 to provide alternative narratives to Western views that targeted Zimbabwe at the height of its land redistribution programme. The Southern Times announced in 2019 that it was closing operations due to “dwindling financial resources”.

Prof. Mare adds, “We have seen the closure of The Southern Times (a Zimbabwe-Namibia) initiative, so there is no guarantee such a proposal by PM Ahmed will not close shop. To make it work, there is need to come up with a solid business model, strong and accountable board of directors and hiring of media professionals from all African countries. The media house should have bureau chiefs or correspondents in all the countries in Africa.”

Media and Journalism senior lecturer at Limkwokwing University in Lesotho, Mr. Tawanda Mukurunge shared similar thoughts with Prof. Mare that PM Ahmed’s proposal is old and documented in the 1980 MacBride Report also known as Many Voices, One World sponsored by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Findings of the MacBride Report were in response to the 1970s New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) debate on the non-equitable access to information and media imperialism.

“There is nothing new about this concept. We have the Pan-African News Agency that was formed in 1979, with headquarters in Senegal, to produce content that presents and preserves the voice of Africa. The essence of NWICO was to counter the reports that Global South countries should be in the periphery of information access,” said Mr. Mukurunge.

According to Mr. Mukurunge, the key challenge to the full realisation of this proposal is the lack of unity between African countries.

“Some of the Francophone countries rely too much on their former coloniser, France, to the extent that as African leaders might agree on something, but when it comes to voting and execution they tend to get directives from France, and that is problematic.

“Remember when Zimbabwe was seeking to galvanise African leaders through having support on its land reform programme, it was Senegal’s former leader Abdoulaye Wade who opposed Zimbabwe’s position to please the French. As long as some of our people are controlled by external forces, as a continent we will not go anywhere,” added Mr. Mukurunge.

So Much Work To Do

There is so much work to do. African journalism needs to go beyond the simple problem of news framing to epistemic framing. Epistemic framing is about the locus of enunciation of the story, that is, the body political and geopolitical of the subject that speaks.

When one listens to or reads African print and electronic news, there is no difference to tell whether the news is meant for an African or Western audience. This tends to show that African journalism seems to be preoccupied with lower-order ethics shaped by the social and epistemic location of the storyteller.

Politics and Journalism lecturer at the Africa University in Zimbabwe, Dr. Alexander Rusero says African journalism will never see an authentic framework as long as it remains in the shadows of the West.

“We (Africans) are still hunters and gatherers of information. We have no authentic African journalism or media but rather colonial mimicry,” says Dr. Rusero.

Lumumba’s Tooth: A Symbolic Caricature Of Afrika’s Continued Political Toothlessness

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Lumumba’s Tooth: A Symbolic Caricature Of Afrika’s Continued Political Toothlessness

The western media’s campaign in 1960 to discredit the first democratically elected prime minister of the Republic of Congo (modern-day DRC), Patrice Èmery Lumumba, make a sad ending as the burial of his golden tooth last week Thursday, 30th June shows the continued pauperisation of Africa’s heroes in both life and death.

On June 30, 1960, Lumumba’s independence speech after the country untangled the shackles of Belgian colonialism inspired great confidence in the other countries that were fighting for independence.

For him, the Congo’s victory over Belgium was a victory for Africa. His plan for the struggle for political independence and economic emancipation of the Congo was to have a far and wide-reaching impact on the whole of Africa.

“The Congo’s independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent. It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us.

“That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten,” Lumumba said in his independence speech.

While his yearning for African independence was a wholesome commitment to the sprouting movements of freedom in other countries like Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, western media was planning to erase Lumumba’s historical contributions to Africa’s independence renaissance.

With high tensions fostered by the Cold War, many from the western bloc that was led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the USA’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) described and labelled Lumumba as the “man who has the head of Lenin which has to be crushed.”

Lumumba’s boldness in preaching the socialist ideology in the face of capitalism made those who want to monopolise the world kill him.

In his book, The Assassination of Lumumba, Belgian academic Ludo De Witte highlighted that no person of African extract was expected to speak against Europeans like the way Lumumba did on independence day because they were masters of all humanity.

Lumumba’s Flame Of Consciousness Dying

For Africa, the recorded last words of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary President Thomas Sankara in 1987 when he was facing his assassins that “ideas cannot die”, speak in contradiction of the actions shown by Africans at the arrival of the continent’s hero’s golden tooth that was kept as a trophy in Belgium.

While “ideas cannot die” has been a popularised way to speak for independence and post-colonial freedom by Pan Africanists and nationalists in general, the silence of Africa on Lumumba’s demise on January 17, 1961 poses a loud betrayal and dissipating appetite of continental togetherness.

Lumumba, just like Sankara, had the vision to see Africa independent of all manacles that were impeding its growth. A reality that is difficult to envision today under the new continental leaders who, mostly, have sacrificed principle on the altar of political expediency.

Burying An Incomplete Hero As Atonement

Lumumba fought for the Congo’s independence as a complete man. The burial of his golden tooth, his only remains, on Thursday 30th June at the 62nd independence anniversary of the DRC invokes the colonial prejudices and an unfair post-colonial setting where Africa’s former colonisers show no remorse over their past misdeeds.

In November 2002, Belgian authorities who had deliberately engineered the elimination of Lumumba released a report of his murder, an inquiry that was carried out by a parliamentary commission by examining archival and testimonial evidence.

The accounts examined were porous and evidence also showed that many witnesses were not subjected to rigorous cross-examination. It was a stage-managed inquiry to allow for a “national consensus” over the matter, critics said then.

Even those who participated in Lumumba’s violent death, most have used Cold War rhetoric to their defence and have died a reluctant death. One such man is Gerard Soete, a Belgian police officer who directed Lumumba’s assassination and threw his chopped pieces into acid, later said the Congo’s independence Prime Minister “had beautiful teeth” before his death in June 2000.

Gerard’s daughter, Godelive, reportedly shared images of the tooth with Belgian media following pressure from Lumumba’s family.

Without bringing the matter to justice, DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi, while presiding at the 62nd independence anniversary said the “Congolese people can have the honour of offering a burial to their illustrious prime minister.”

“We are ending mourning we started 61 years ago,” said President Tshisekedi.

In 2011 while speaking to The Gambia’s exiled former president, Yahya Jammeh, Lumumba’s youngest son, Roland, disclosed that his family was trying to follow the good ideals and practices of his late father towards the liberation efforts of Africa.

“We must know exactly who did it, how and why. We have the right to know and it is our duty to pass this knowledge onto the future generation. The answers to these questions should be known by all Africans,” said Roland.

Now that the answers are clear for the Lumumba family, the Congolese and African people, the burial of Lumumba’s remains without a formal apology from the Belgian political and monarchical establishment project a tainted Africa-Europe future relationship.

In a letter read at Lumumba’s funeral by one of his granddaughters, it painted a picture of an Africa that has not been shocked but expressed a silent satisfaction with the burial of Lumumba’s tooth as a historical victory for Africa by the return of his remains.

“With you, today, Africa is writing its own history,” read Lumumba’s granddaughter.

Africa’s Painful Path To Recolonisation?

In his lecture on The Past, Present and Future of Pan Africanism at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa last October, renowned Pan Africanist and public intellectual Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba said Africa is weak hence no one wants to pay attention to its progress, if it has any.

P.L.O. Lumumba on the Past, Present and Future of Pan Africanism
Pan-Afrikanist, P.L.O. Lumumba is one of the vocal figures whose call for Pan-Afrikan political leadership has largely been ignored by neocolonial African political rulers who are merely complacent with being political figureheads in the gross destabilization and maladministration of Afrika. Credit: Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia

He said the issue of Pan Africanism and African unity is a basis for the continent to come together and avoid yesteryear pitfalls that came with colonisation.

“If you want to know how weak we are look at how we are treated. When our leaders even if they are saying something, it is something that can be ignored. The world does not listen because we are weak and disunited. So we have a weak continent because the spirit of Pan-Africanism disappeared.

“We are weak. That is the reality of our mother continent. It is because we are politically weak, economically weak and socially we are disorganised, culturally and spiritually we are confused. That is the continent in which we are in today. We unite or we perish.

“We need to use our Africanness as a building block to talk about African unity. Sometimes when we talk about Pan-Africanism and African unity, people think we are being simplistic about it. No, it is not being simplistic. It is recognising that as long as we remain the way we are, then African in the next 25 years will be recolonised. So the question that we can ask is what is the state of Pan Africanism as we speak today?” asked Prof. Lumumba.

He said the weakness of the continental body, the AU, stems from the manner it acts.

“The African Union, which is weak, says the right things and does the wrong things nine out of ten times,” he added.

Potential Security Risks In Southern Africa As Zambia Hosts AFRICOM

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Potential Security Risks In Southern Africa As Zambia Hosts AFRICOM

The United States of America’s military footprint has been felt in Southern Africa after a security pact signed between Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema and the US embassy in Lusaka on April 25 received both condemnation and commendation across the regional political divide.

There are fears the presence of US forces through the Africa Command’s Office of Strategic Cooperation in Zambia will create new insecurities for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region than those that existed before, both traditional and non-traditional threats.

When AFRICOM was formed in 2007, two African countries, Botswana and Liberia, considered hosting it before Thabo Mbeki, then South Africa’s president and his Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota opposed the idea.

“That would constitute an unacceptable violation of Africa’s sovereignty,” Mbeki said then.

On August 29, 2007, SADC announced its position “that it is better if the United States were involved with Africa from a distance rather than be present on the continent.” Then SADC Defence and Security Ministers further stated “that sister countries of the region should not agree to host AFRICOM and in particular, armed forces since this would have a negative effect. That recommendation was presented to the Heads of State and this is a SADC position.”

Then Zambia’s president Levy Mwanawasa reaffirmed Zambia’s stance on October 2, 2007, when he stated “none of us is interested” in hosting AFRICOM forces.

The move by Hichilema, nine months after winning the presidency in 2021, is the first by a SADC member state to go against the bloc’s strategic culture.

“We are pleased to announce that US Africa Command will open an Office of Security Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Zambia. Visiting AFRICOM Brigadier General Peter Bailey made the announcement during a meeting with His Excellency President Hichilema,” read the tweet on the embassy’s official handle.

The US military footprint in the horn of Africa and its central command’s military operations in the Middle East, Asia and South East Asia and North Africa have exacerbated, not ameliorated insecurity and instability.

Disclose Contents Of Cooperation Agreement

Political leaders have called on Hichilema, who campaigned on a ticket of transparency and accountability, to publicise the contents of the cooperation agreement entered into between his country and the US.

Setting the record straight
Following the furore created by Zambia’s decision to allow the US’ Africa Command to open an Office of Security Cooperation at its embassy in the Southern African country, on May 3 at the World Press Freedom Day commemorations President Hichilema defended Zambia’s position by telling the press to stop “spreading falsehoods.” Credit: Joanne Mwale / Ubuntu Times

Acting secretary-general of the former governing Patriotic Front (PF) party, Nickson Chilangwa, in a statement on May 1 demanded “that President Hichilema and his Government make full disclosure of the content and nature of the agreement he has made with the Americans.”

Chilangwa said president Hichilema acted unilaterally without constitutional authority, consultation and consensus from the citizens.

“Why were the Zambian people not consulted before such a monumental decision with far-reaching consequences was made? America is at war with several nations and allowing them to set up a military base here in Zambia directly puts Zambia in harm’s way with all those fighting with America.

“We demand that the President rescinds his decision to allow America to set up a military base or a military command centre on our soil.

“Allowing a foreign power to establish a military base on our soil does not only put us in grave danger of deadly repercussions from those opposing America but deeply compromise our own national security and leaves us bare to attacks and manipulations by others,” said Chilangwa.

Chilangwa said the speed with which President Hichilema and his United Party for National Development (UPND) government are “turning Zambia into a colony or appendage of the West is a great source of concern to all well-meaning Zambians.”

The PF’s position and reprimand on president Hichilema have also been buttressed by Zambia’s Socialist Party. A statement by the Socialist Party rejected the establishment of the Office of Security Cooperation with AFRICOM citing five reasons.

“There is a real danger of the country’s military doctrine being hijacked through this form of security cooperation. It will be extremely dangerous and fatal to turn the Zambia military into some extended arm of the American military.

“The US military operates not only to provide an advantage to the United States and its ruling elites, but it functions, along with the armies of the other NATO nations, including France, as the guarantor of Western corporate interests and the principles of capitalism,” read the Socialist Party statement.

Firefighting! No Smoke Without Fire

Both the President and Zambia’s ministry of defence have come out dismissing claims that there are no AFRICOM bases soon to be set up in the southern African country.

No military bases to be established by America in Zambia
Zambia Defence Minister Mr. Lufuma said his office will work with the US Africa Command force to enhance military to military relations, expand areas of cooperation in-force management and modernization, as well as military professionalism. Credit: Joanne Mwale / Ubuntu Times

“There are only Zambian military bases in Zambia. Let’s not be debating falsehoods,” tweeted president Hichilema two days after his defence minister Ambrose Lufuma played down the talk of AFRICOM military bases in Zambia.

Said minister Lufuma: “The AFRICOM being referred to on social media platforms is based in Germany and the Zambian government has not at any given time agreed to move to Zambia.”

Lufuma also warned those fanning misinformation.

“The ministry of defence would like to take this opportunity to warn all perpetrators of such misinformation meant to tarnish our existing cordial relationship with our neighbours and strategic partners to desist from issuing alarming statements which hinge on the security and territorial integrity of our nation,” he warned.

Who Can Turn Down US friendship?

Zambia’s governance expert McDonald Chipenzi argues that the position taken by Zambia is within her national interest in the face of an ever-growing threat from Islamist militants in neighbouring Mozambique. He says no country would turn a blind eye to partnering with the “mighty US.”

“The hard fact is that there are very few countries in the world that would not like to partner with the mighty US in broad daylight or in the night (daylight or behind the closed doors).

“Let us not only look at security from the physical aspect, but also logically too and we have to ask ourselves a few questions such as who controls the space? Who controls our technological portals, our cyber highways? Who controls the Electronic City?

“We use the Windows on our computers as our operating systems in our offices or even in Vulnerable Points (VP), our would-be High Valued Targets (HVT) but who has the back door details of these gadgets if it is not America?” asked Chipenzi.

Chipenzi added Zambia’s interests are a priority in an ever-changing global environment.

Security Headache For SADC

University of Zimbabwe International Security and Strategic Studies lecturer Dr. Lawrence Mhandara said the presence of the AFRICOM in SADC is the continuation of the US pursuit of influence in the midst of competition from other global powers through other means.

“The competition is expanding in spatial terms. International influence can be achieved through economic, diplomatic, military and informational means. In this case, the US is making a rational decision to use its military capabilities to impose itself on Southern Africa, in particular extending its approach of international basing, and security cooperation.

“The bilateral arrangement validates the long tradition of US statecraft whose cornerstone is a militarized foreign policy. History has ineffaceable evidence showing a proclivity by the superpower to implement foreign policy through coercive instruments in a sequenced fashion,” said Dr. Mhandara.

The anticipated presence of the AFRICOM in Zambia leaves regional leaders with more to think about, given the affluent history of American interventionism and its colourful brand of intrusive politics.

In this regard, the militarization of US foreign policy is seen as the substratum of its status as a superpower yet an agonizing and tragic reality with the potential to supply complicated security risks and instability in Southern Africa.

SADC, indeed Africa, is likely to be afflicted by a host of security challenges as great power competition for influence and control intensifies.  The move by America is likely to elicit responses in kind from other global powers keen on counteracting the undesired influence.

The US is furthermore attempting to regain influence in a region dominated by Chinese allies. But the choice of the military instruments to mediate this competition may have cataclysmic outcomes.

Towards The Progressive Acquisition Of Consciousness

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Towards The Progressive Acquisition Of Consciousness

Africans and other blacks abroad need to develop a historical consciousness that enables them to revisit their forefathers’ history to validate the true journey of the black race. Slavery, colonialism, Christianity and the colonial education systems have created dominant narratives by the west that have registered successes in whitewashing African and black history.

This erasure continues to systematically act towards whitewashing the history of Africa through European hagiography. As a result, Africa has become a victim of European historiography that exclusively acknowledges its own cultural and historical contributions, dismissing the successes of Africa and the black race along the way.

Before slavery, African progress in the fields of nationalising African knowledge systems was remarkable. More so, through slavery Africans who were forcibly removed from their birthplaces to the United States through slavery, also succeeded in various spheres. Unfortunately, their contributions remain unnoticed despite their importance.

Some blacks taken from Africa participated in the United States war of independence against British oppression. Others also contributed through architectural designs which are today still visible in America. Through information suppression by the white establishment, the heroic adventures and contributions of blacks remain in the periphery. The first person whose blood was spilt in the revolution which freed America from British oppression was a black man named Crispus Attucks. Another black man, Benjamin Banneker,  was amongst the team that designed the capital of the United States, Washington DC.

In 1721, the United States went through a perilous phase when it faced a smallpox outbreak.  A black slave named Onesimus, who had been bought in 1706 by one influential Boston minister Cotton Mather, shared significant knowledge with his master on how to treat smallpox. According to black tradition, before being enslaved in the United States, Onesimus, whose name means Useful, and his people had knowledge on treating smallpox through variolation. The treatment of smallpox in the United States was not a white man’s discovery, but a knowledge system that was passed by a black slave.

From Onesimus, Mather learnt that in Africa, blacks took pus from the wounds of an infected individual and inserted it into a cut made on a healthy person. This process, while adjudged not to be entirely effective, caused a mild reaction that gave people a degree of smallpox immunity for the healthy individual.

Because of mistrust in African remedies, Mather shared information he acquired from Onesimus with a white physician named Zabdiel Boylston. Recorded history informs one that Boylston tried the technique on several people, including his own son, and was pleased to ‘discover’ that Onesimus’ procedure was a largely successful one.

Through the misrepresentations of white supremacy, Mather and Boylston were hailed as heroes and the African, Onesimus, was nowhere close to securing a place in this important milestone in medicine. And despite his life-saving contribution to the smallpox outbreak, he was still not a free man.

Countless blacks have been unjustly stripped of their rightful recognition as vital contributors to science and medicine, among other disciplines. These also include Lewis Howard Latimer, the black man who invented the carbon filament board that made the light bulb give its glow, continuously. Today credit on who invented the light bulb has been given to Thomas Edison.

While nothing can undo the damage done by such cruel omissions from defining moments in history, Africans need to work hard and do their part to acknowledge these innumerable contributions to humanity by continuing to share these important historical discoveries… Unfortunately, blacks are not told and taught this in school; instead, end up praising the white man.

These past lessons by Africans, slaves and descendants of slaves are never told because they humiliate the white man. To get into the future, the past has to be studied to get new perspectives, unlike the white man’s narrative that continues to brainwash black people by developing false narratives that even other races continue to believe.

Western Philosophy ‘Unimaginative, Even Xenophobic’

In his book Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto, Bryan Van Norden, a Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College in Singapore writes that the way the west projects African history is “narrow-minded, unimaginative, and even xenophobic.”

There have been ‘discoveries’ through exploratory excursions and military conquests done by white ‘explorers’ through the displacement of Africans in their territories. Statues have been erected in honour of these white ‘explorers’ and places renamed in their honour.

History shows that Africa, originally called Alkebulan, was named after a Roman general Scipio Africanus who had defeated Ethiopians. More so, one of the world’s seven wonders in Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls, was ‘discovered’ by Scottish ‘explorer’ David Livingstone in 1855. Livingstone named the place Victoria Falls in honour of the British Monarchy’s Queen Victoria.

Livingstone named the falls after the queen, but the Kalolo-Lozi people in Zimbabwe had their own name for it, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders.”

Western ideology and narratives have morphed into a false white knight in shining armour, itching to swoop in and enforce their model of “progressive” Eurocentric history over black successes.

Van Norden: “The west has written Africa out of the history of philosophy and black success, presenting all of Western philosophy as a linear progression from the ancient Greeks.”

Professor of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Claude Mararike said the black race needs to record, research, teach and distribute literature that praises black successes under the “patriotic history” platform.

“We need to teach patriotic history, which is the interpretation of history in our context as blacks and Africans. There has to be more funding into research, publication and circulation of such information. The media (personnel) should be able to dig more into the archives because some history has been distorted,” says Prof. Mararike.

The academic also blamed religion, both Christianity and Islam for enabling colonialism and oppression of the black man through slavery and colonialism.

“The revolutionary patriotic history of Africa also has to be understood from the context of Christianity and Islam as the two religions that have also done a lot of distortions to African history.

“Missionaries are the greatest culprits and the church has been distorting African history and culture. So writing about that is not opening old wounds, but that is the correct interpretation of history and Africa should know these things,” added Prof. Mararike.

Undermining Western Intellectual Foundations

The African Union (AU) and its governments ought to invest in knowledge that shakes the western foundations.

Strides by Africans and blacks from all over are written, the continuous recording of their successes are there. There is evidence that shows that black movements like the #BlackLivesMatter are giant testimonies to undermine racially skewed Western interpretation of history.

History has been white-washed so severely that often, African philosophers who generate ideas about Ubuntu, colonial independence and sovereignty are only regarded as public intellectuals. In the textbooks of Europeans, these African heroes are not incorporated.

The white race seeks to amass all the historical glory, incentives and talents for itself while consciously and voluntarily disadvantaging strong black constituencies.

This is a key matter of national and intellectual independence in which “woke” black students need to raise in order to undermine the intellectual foundations of the West and expose them for their desire for “multicultural inclusion”.

As the West gets away with murder on white-washing history, this continues to reinforce false assumptions that black history is substandard to other cultures in general, but to the dominant white culture in particular.

It is not ahistorical to remind people that Christianity was evil colonial machinery that was used to evangelize Africa.

“Areas of concern are schools and universities. It is unfortunate that in some African countries, they do not want African history to be taught. In the United States, Britain and South Africa, they do not want to teach African patriotic history,” Prof. Mararike continued.

It is time for African governments and the AU to put more funds to promote the Afro-centric movement. This, in the long run, will effect change from the enlightened grassroots.

Freedom For Arrested Journalist Placed On Hold

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Freedom For Arrested Journalist Placed On Hold

A court in Zimbabwe has further delayed passing a ruling in a matter in which Ubuntu Times correspondent Jeffrey Moyo is seeking refusal of remand.

The ruling which was expected to be passed between July 22 and July 25 has been indefinitely postponed and the matter remanded to September 10.

Moyo’s lawyer, Doug Coltart, has said the postponement of his client’s ruling is a typical example of how the courts in Zimbabwe deal with politically sensitized matters.

“We are yet to receive the ruling and the matter has been remanded to September 10. We were anticipating the ruling between July 22 and July 25 but the court has not communicated to us what has prompted the delay,” said Coltart.

Presiding magistrate Rachel Mukanga previously told the court that Moyo is facing serious charges that could see him spend a decade in prison if convicted.

According to the State, Moyo allegedly contravened the country’s immigration laws in May when he facilitated the accreditation and entry of two foreign journalists without following due procedure.

He has denied the charges.

Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana recently told this publication that Moyo is neither a victim of political persecution nor free expression but should face the law.

A recent report showed that Zimbabwe has dropped two places on the World Press Freedom Index from number 129 to 131.

Market Reacted Positively As Zambia’s New President Took Oath

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Market Reacted Positively As Zambia’s New President Took Oath

Zambia’s newly elected president Hakainde Hichilema assumed office last week Tuesday as the economy showed a positive reaction to his victory over outgoing president Edgar Lungu.

The 59-year-old was declared by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) winner of the August 12 presidential election with 2,810,757 of the votes while Lungu got 1,814,201.

Hichilema has prioritized resuscitating Zambia’s economy which struggled under the stewardship of his predecessor. Since Hichilema’s victory, the country’s currency, Kwacha, has firmed against the United States dollar.

Executive director of Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) Vusumuzi Sifile told Ubuntu Times from Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, that there are high expectations among citizens following Hichilema’s victory.

“The inauguration is raising hopes among ordinary citizens because in his acceptance speech Hichilema said the right things and as he takes office, we now expect action. What is immediate for everyone is access to employment opportunities and decent livelihoods because the levels of inequality had become wider under Lungu and access to service was not balanced. We expect equality,” said Sifile.

The election had a high youth voter turnout and many unemployed youths cast their ballots wearing their university graduation gowns. Zambia also has many ethnic groups that Sifile said need a reasonable representation as the incoming president formulates his cabinet.

“One of the visible things during the election was the high turnout of youth voters who wore their graduation gowns. To the youth, Hichilema is quite interactive and uses Twitter to engage them. The youth gave him the name ‘Bally’ and we expect this online interaction to turn to offline engagement.

“Zambia has 72 ethnic groups and citizens expect a balanced representation when the president gets down to work,” he added.

A Lusaka resident who also spoke to Ubuntu Times, Joanne, said there is hope among Zambians.

“There is peace and excitement among many Zambians who are expecting a lot from the new government. The immediate expectation is the reduction in the cost of living which is currently beyond the means of many Zambians,” said Joanne.

Unemployment, corruption, and economic mismanagement were perceived as key features during Lungu’s presidency. Under his watch, Zambia became the first African country to default its loan repayment during the Coronavirus pandemic as it is currently writhing under a US$12 billion dollar external debt.

Intimidation, Machete Violence Reported As Polls Open In Zambia

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Intimidation, Machete Violence Reported As Polls Open In Zambia

Voting starts today (Thursday) in Zambia in a tightly contested election between incumbent Patriotic Front (PF) candidate Edgar Lungu and main challenger Hakainde Hichilema.

Allegations of vote fraud and intimidation of supporters have been raised by Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND) after reports of violence in the capital Lusaka between supporters of the two main parties.

Two PF supporters were last Friday hacked to death with machetes by attackers suspected to be from the UNDP, police said.

A Lusaka resident Kelvin Musunga yesterday told Ubuntu Times that the security situation stabilized after president Lungu deployed the army to help police quell pre-election violence.

“So far the situation is calm and stable. Soldiers and police have been in the streets. During the campaign period, we had reports of violence and police arresting suspects. They have been doing a good job ensuring there is peace.”

“However, some houses were burnt, and to maintain peace, I think people should not wear political regalia with their preferred candidates,” said Musunga.

UPND supporters
UPND supporters hope for change and expect Hichilema to win the presidency. Credit: Kelvin Musunga

Another citizen working in Kitwe only identified as Paul said “it is very peaceful here.”

The elections come as Zambia has a US$12 billion dollar external debt and becoming the first African country to default loan repayment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lungu’s government has managed to embark on infrastructure projects but has failed to manage the economic welfare of citizens followed by a depreciating Kwacha currency.

Added Musunga: “Under the ruling party, the currency Kwacha has depreciated and it has been difficult for Zambians to buy basic commodities. The PF has developed roads and infrastructure but the cost of living has been high and we do not know what the ruling party will do if they get back in office.”

“Many youths are not happy with the ruling party and are hoping for a new government. Most of the youths are really looking forward to change in the country.”

South Africa’s Violence Shows It Is Just Another African Country

Gibson Nyikadzino
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South Africa’s Violence Shows It Is Just Another African Country

The South African government on July 14 confirmed it was deploying 25,000 troops in its two provinces, KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, after police failed to quell violence and looting following the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma on July 7.

KwaZulu-Natal is Zuma’s province of origin, home of the Zulu people, South Africa’s largest ethnic group. Protests had erupted after the ex-leader handed himself over to police to serve a 15-month jail term for contempt of court.

Zuma, 79, defied a constitutional court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.

When South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on July 11 on new COVID-19 regulations, he condemned the protests as “acts of violence based on ethnic mobilization.”

Zulu nation prime minister prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi slammed President Ramaphosa for his “defamatory remarks about Zulu people.”

“I don’t understand what is meant by ethnic mobilization. It’s not about Zulu people against other people, even in the case where they mobilized support for our former president Zuma. Mr. Ace Magashule is not a Zulu and the leaders of Mpumalanga who came here to support Zuma were not necessarily Zulu. This has nothing to do with Zulus, so I don’t know what is meant by ethnic mobilization in what is happening now,” Buthelezi said.

By July 12, South Africa’s currency (the rand) tumbled against major currencies as the riots sprung up, disrupting public transport services and forcing businesses to close. The currency dropped by as much as 2% against the United States dollar. More than 200 shopping malls had been looted by mid-Monday afternoon and the economy lost an estimated US$3.4 billion dollars, according to the Gauteng Premier. Over 150,000 jobs have been placed at risk by the protests.

On July 16 over 2,100 arrests had been made and the death toll stood at 337 with many people trampled to death during looting at stores, while the police and the military fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to try to halt the unrest.

Black Poverty Is Not An Accident

The protests in South Africa are most likely a result of the deep-seated grievances that have not been resolved since the end of apartheid in 1994 like poverty and inequality. While the incarceration of Jacob Zuma has been cited as the turning point to the protests, the lack of ownership of the means of production among blacks is also an attribute to the chaos.

At the time of the end of apartheid in 1994, more than 80% of the land was in the hands of the white minority. According to the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies,  suggestions are that just under 60,000 white-owned farms accounted for about 70% of the total area of the country in the early 1990s. The country’s land reform program has been slow with some indications that less than 10 percent of the total land has been redistributed from white to black ownership since 1994.

When former president Zuma left office in 2018, unemployment was at 27 percent and he emphasized that his party’s incoming government embark on what he termed “radical economic transformation” to address the economic imbalances created during apartheid. Under President Ramaphosa, the overall unemployment rate has risen to 33 percent, with 46 percent of those unemployed being below the age of 35.

As a result, white people continue to be more skilled than their black counterparts and also they attain higher education levels. Therefore, they are likely to attain higher positions in the job market, and on average, earning higher wages. The crisis in South Africa can therefore be understood as the white population’s extensive control over the country’s economy.

South Africa-based political analyst Rutendo Matinyarare said the anger shown by the protestors is symptomatic of the failure of the political economy in addressing the needs of the black majority.

“The violence goes beyond the Jacob Zuma arrest. The Zuma case was just a spark for the anger of people that includes lack of transformation from apartheid, the maintenance of an apartheid economy that is exclusionary in that it excludes black people from participation. The fact that black people have been left in the very exact position they were during apartheid where they had no factors of production, no land to put their own houses, no land to produce food, and the only way they had to survive was to work for capital,” said Matinyarare.

On July 16 President Ramaphosa visited KwaZulu-Natal province where almost 155 people were killed during the protests and acknowledged that the violence was “planned”.

Matinyarare also indicated that South Africa’s three-year recession and the lockdown imposed accentuated the looting and at the moment is difficult to come up with the total cost of damage incurred during the chaos.

“It is difficult to come up with a total cost of the losses incurred but the cost of violence is that there are deaths that have been reported. It has cost the nations unity. There are now divisions along racial lines. This is now set to create a big rift between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ who are the whites and blacks, respectively. A few blacks have been co-opted into the system, but when you look at it their wealth is not a result of legacy but debt because black people never had the opportunity to create wealth. It is just a bandage being put on a rotten wound,” added Matinyarare.

The South African government needs to do more to address widening inequality, rampant unemployment and deliver on the promises of development for all and not just a few. It needs to prove its detractors wrong – that its pursuit of what it terms “radical economic transformation” fulfills the promise of addressing the country’s skewed economic ownership patterns.

Haiti: A First Black Republic Denied Right To Thrive

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Haiti: A First Black Republic Denied Right To Thrive

Haiti is reeling from a new crisis after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home last Wednesday morning by mercenaries. The gruesome act which has been condemned by the United Nations (UN), opens up new ways to understand the instability, poverty, and diminishing power of the country’s central government in contemporary times and for many years to come.

Upon hearing news of his President’s assassination, Haitian Ambassador to the US Bocchit Edmond said: “It seems this horrible act was carried out by well-trained professional killers.”

The police said it has killed and captured Colombian mercenaries. Colombia’s Defense Ministry also confirmed that among those captured are its citizens who retired from its army but “will cooperate to verify with Haiti officials.”

Haiti was already going through a crisis and Moïse’s assassination has taken it to another level. Moïse’s presidency was contested from the start. His government, in May 2019, postponed parliamentary elections and he started ruling Haiti by issuing decrees.

“I don’t see how there is anyone, after God, who has more power in the country than me,” Moïse said in 2019.

The political vacuum his death has created in Haiti is extremely dangerous. In Haiti, when things like this happen, citizen violence comes quickly. Citizens have burnt vehicles and exhibited an eagerness to mete justice on the captured mercenaries

“I Prefer To Observe The Tragedy”

The Senate – the upper house of the Haitian parliament – has nominated Joseph Lambert as the interim president bestowed with a huge task to take Haiti to legislative and presidential elections scheduled in September.

Haiti has not recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake, the effects of the 2016 hurricane Matthews and it is the only country in the Americas said to have not initiated vaccination against the COVID-19 pandemic amid a surge in cases. Inflation, food, and fuel shortages are tasks Lambert is expected to tackle to avoid more chaos from the fragile constituency he is leading.

The situation is a desperate and hard episode for the nation to stay afloat and the president’s assassination raises a possibility of more lawlessness.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph asked the US to deploy troops and protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation,” the Prime Minister has been quoted as saying. The Biden administration said it is sending a team of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers to help with investigations.

People have also gathered at the US Embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince pleading for a way out.

Haiti has a history of political instability and Moïse’s time was no different. As the crisis unfolds, a resident in the capital told Ubuntu Times: “I cannot give you any information (about developments going on) I prefer to observe the tragedy.”

Haitians protest against gang violence
In December 2020, Haitians held protests in Port-au-Prince against growing gang violence. Leading to the assassination of President Moïse, gunfire exchanges between police and armed gangs in the capital’s streets led to civilian deaths. Credit: Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

Since February when lawyers, citizens, and politicians contested Moïse’s “unconstitutional” stay in power after the end of his term, armed gangs started fighting for control of the capital’s streets. Gang violence in June led over 8,000 people to flee their homes.

At one point President Moïse offered a glimmer of hope.

“In no country on earth is it possible to talk about development unless there is political stability unless there is social peace,” he said.

The Past Has The Answers

Answers as to the crises in Haiti are in the past.

The tiny French and Creole-speaking country is the poorest in the western hemisphere yet it possesses a rich history. A rebellion by self-liberated slaves between 1791 to 1804 against French rule in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) made the country the first black republic in the world.

The victorious former slaves expelled the French and other slave owners who made a fortune through the inhumane practice. As punishment, Haiti was occupied, sabotaged, and embargoed into poverty and instability by the United States of America (USA).

On the other hand, France forced it to pay 100 years of reparations for “daring to kill their former colonizers” as the French, American, and British governments could not allow a self-created black nation to thrive.

The assassination of Moïse scarcely impacts or shapes the global developments in the minds of those nations that have colluded to put Haiti in this situation. The White House through its press secretary Jen Psaki has insisted that there should be “elections in Haiti this year in order to have a smooth transfer of power.”

The chaos that was created by countries that undermined Haiti’s revolutionary victory in 1804 is the one that continues to haunt citizens even there are claims of “independence.”

The reasons behind the president’s assassination must be looked into carefully because a misstep at the start makes everything all too wrong. Moïse’s death is not an isolated event that has happened over 200 years after the American and western undermining of true Haitian independence.

It is not a coincidence that events in Haiti are turning out this way, they are an occurrence that is designed for long to be such. The Haiti situation remains regrettable and answers becoming more elusive if citizens turn a blind eye and fail to learn on what made their fore-bearers emerge victorious against past slave masters.

Aid To Africa: A Deceptive Neo-Colonial Tool Enforcing Mental Slavery Without Restraint 

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Aid To Africa: A Deceptive Neo-Colonial Tool Enforcing Mental Slavery Without Restraint 

“The root of the disease was political. The treatment could only be political. Of course, we encourage aid that aids us in doing away with aid. But in general, welfare and aid policies have only ended up disorganizing us, subjugating us and robbing us of a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political and cultural affairs. We chose to risk new paths to achieve greater well-being.” These were the remarkable words from Burkina Faso’s iconic leader Thomas Sankara.

The issue of aid in Africa, which Sankara was vehemently against, is topical and today used in determining how alliances are built and strengthened between the continent and its former colonizers. From the western world, Africa should get military, humanitarian, emergency and charitable aid to promote growth and security among other issues. In these times of the Coronavirus pandemic, giving alms to Africa has gone a gear up through a new phenomenon called “medical aid.” Global players have also joined the race to aid and rescue Africa. After the 2018 Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China pledged aid worth US$15 billion to Africa between 2019 and 2021.

Aid is a new form of colonialism. it is friendly but vicious. It is the new face the west and other global players are using to subjugate Africa because of its friendliness. Nearly four years after Ghana’s independence and realizing colonial defeat, then United States of America (USA) president John Fitzgerald Kennedy announced a new plan to address Africa’s ‘needs’.

“AID represents a very essential commitment. As important as any work that is being done by anyone for this country,” said President Kennedy in 1961 at the launch of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative.

Emergency rescue
Food donations by non-governmental organizations create a dependency syndrome that will see citizens expecting more handouts even when they have the land to grow crops for self-sustenance. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

According to a 2019 report by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of wealthy donor nations, the value of international development aid in the world reached a new peak of US$152.8 billion, a slight increase over 2018. Africa has received more and this is not mere generosity.

Giving A Crumb After Taking A Loaf

The amount of aid which the west or east call important for African countries is not commensurate with what the global powers are exploiting and shipping out. Resource exploitation and plunder, slave labor and under-pricing of Africa’s resources have become key characteristics of what multi-national corporations are looting, and later return the crumbs in the form of aid.

Africa’s resources were plundered by the Europeans many years before they agreed to formally colonize Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1885. Slave trade stole the continent’s human resources. According to historians, over 12.5 million Africans were shipped out of the continent due to the slave trade. While it is a complex exercise to calculate the monetary value of what was stolen in Africa, but a decade before the American civil war, in New Orleans, a healthy African male slave was auctioned for $1,200. A girl aged nine or ten was auctioned for $1,400 considering her ability to bear more children for resale.

The value of the resources even after independence continues to bring slave wages in Africa. In Ethiopia, one of Africa’s biggest exporters of coffee, farmers are made to sell the coffee at US$4 per kilogram while large coffee companies sell the same at US$200 per kilogram on the international market. The same goes for cocoa in Ivory Coast. As a result, multi-national corporations continue making profits that run into millions while ‘independent’ Africa remains poor. Africa is strategic to global powers because of their reliance on its natural resources and economic opportunities.

The imposition of colonialism on Africa altered the course of the continent’s history. Its impact is felt entirely. The settler regimes had a poor and worse record for poverty reduction, considering the mineral resources of South Africa and then Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe).

With a continued pouring of aid in Africa in the name of “transforming lives” failing to meet the continent’s demands, economist and author of Dead Aid says the issue of aid in Africa is “one of the greatest myths of our time.”

“The state of postwar development policy in Africa today is one of the greatest myths of our time. That billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth is false. In fact, recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse – much worse,” wrote Dambisa Moyo.

Road To Hell Paved With Good Intentions

Humanitarian or emergency aid through drugs and food, charitable aid through scholarships and non-governmental organization (NGO) work, and other interventions have not been sufficient to transform African societies. In the longer term, these are not going to help Africa develop. Public goods such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure are in many instances being financed in most instances through donor funds. What donors are providing are goods that African governments should provide their citizens.

In 2010, in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakariya, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said the role of aid is to support the socio-economic transformation of people and help people achieve things they want and ultimately wean off aid.

Europe's Top Diplomat
Ambassador Olkkonen says the wealth Zimbabwe has is enough to transform the country’s socio-economic condition and in the long term wean it off dependence on aid. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

European Union (EU) head of delegation to Zimbabwe Ambassador Timo Olkkonen acknowledges that Zimbabwe has wealth of resources and that in “the longer term we should move away from dependence on aid.” “Zimbabwe is a wealthy country in terms of natural resources and touristic and agricultural potential. In the longer term, we should move away from dependence on aid. Concurrently with providing development cooperation we are building our trade relations with Zimbabwe based on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) we have. We are in the midst of negotiating an expansion of that agreement to cover other areas than trade in goods,” Ambassador Olkkonen says.

According to a 2019 CSO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa prepared by USAID, the US government pledged to give NGO’s financial aid to “empower and transform livelihoods of citizens in all sectors.” Despite reports of mismanagement of donor finances, Ambassador Olkkonnen said his bloc has mechanisms in place “to avoid any un-procedurally benefitting from our funding” adding that “the thousands of beneficiaries of EU support all over Zimbabwe will disagree” that EU aid is “just plain wasteful”.

Decolonize The Mind And Return To Freedom

Africa’s modern leaders have abandoned the self-sustenance philosophies of leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, and Thomas Sankara. Zimbabwe’s media scholar and academic Dr. Lyton Ncube said aid will never develop the continent, but will only avail short-term benefits.

“That issue is a complex one and we need to understand the political economy of aid from the Washington Consensus and taking it from either the eastern or western blocs. When we look at the role of aid in transforming lives of Africans, perhaps the benefit is short-term sustainability and not for the long term. The main problem is those who fund have their own interests, goals, and ambitions. I would refer you to some of the revolutionaries when you look at the philosophies of Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, and Kwame Nkrumah they managed to embark on what I would call the return to freedom,” said Dr. Ncube.

According to Dr. Ncube, the issue of aid resembles the problem of coloniality in Africa and urged governments to take the lead from Zimbabwe when it embarked on the land redistribution exercise in 2000 that benefitted over 300,000 households. Before 2000, only 4,500 former white commercial Zimbabwean farmers owned an estimated seventy percent of the country’s prime land.

Dr. Ncube adds: “To have long-term development we need to own the means of production and be masters of our destiny by value-adding our products. Zimbabwe’s land reform program is a starting point to self-sufficiency. Are you telling me those donors have no people who need help from their countries? Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o says the problem that we suffer from is the problem of the mind. We need to cleanse our minds from the colonial system.”

An ‘Illegal’ Economy Fortified With Blessings Of Ruling Elite

Gibson Nyikadzino
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An ‘Illegal’ Economy Fortified With Blessings Of Ruling Elite

On April 18, Zimbabwe celebrated its 41st independence anniversary from British colonial rule amid a presidential promise that the country’s mining sector will contribute US$12 billion dollars in revenue by 2023.

The country’s over sixty mineral resources ranging from diamonds, platinum and gold remain under-explored. According to the country’s minister of Mines and Mining Development Mr. Winston Chitando, “Zimbabwe does not know the estimated value of its mineral wealth.”

Despite the huge wealth in mineral deposits, the lives of many Zimbabweans have not improved. In his independence speech, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa reiterated his government’s plan to have the mining sector contribute hugely to the economy and improve the lives of citizens. By 2030, Zimbabwe seeks to achieve an upper-middle-income economic status.

“The mining industry is projected to rebound by eleven percent this year. Guided by the strategy to achieve a US$12 billion industry by 2023, programs that include increased exploration, expansion of existing mining projects, resuscitation of closed mines, opening of new mines, mineral beneficiation and value addition are being prioritized,” said President Mnangagwa in his independence speech.

Zimbabwe's leader since November 2017
Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa addresses the nation in his Independence Day speech revealing that the country’s mining sector will be a US$12 billion dollar industry by 2023 despite Zimbabwe losing over one billion dollars through gold smuggling and illegal trade of the mineral. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Zimbabwe’s goldfields and other mineral fields are today a contested terrain where even the elite and state institutions including the country’s Defence Forces are scrambling for a slice of the cake. In 2008, Mr. Farai Maguwu, the director of Center for Natural Resource Governance was arrested for bringing to attention the abuses committed by Zimbabwe’s security forces in the Marange diamond fields.

The gold sector has not been spared. According to a 2020 report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) gold buyers linked to President Mnangagwa buy the precious mineral on a premium, deterring the gold panners from selling the gold to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the sole authorized gold buyer.

Resources Plunder By An Intemperate, Predatory Elite

After his dismissal then as Vice President in November 2017, Mnangagwa was accused of amassing wealth by grabbing mines belonging to small-scale miners. “Mnangagwa also grabbed many mines which belong to small-scale miners. He was abusing his authority as the Vice President to grab whatever he wants. We say Mnangagwa must be arrested because he is corrupt, he must face the music,” said then party official Mr. Dickson Mafios at a rally.

In 2018 former Higher Education Minister in Zimbabwe Prof. Jonathan Moyo also revealed that President Mnangagwa’s activities and those of his close circle are despicable that even the United Nations (UN) had to publish a report about their activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) second civil war.

“The person who led the plunder of resources in the DRC leading to the United Nations (UN) investigating and coming with a report that is still there is Emmerson Mnangagwa along with the military cabal of General Chiwenga and SB Moyo. The person who brought the Chinese to plunder Chiadzwa Diamond Fields up to a point to which we had at the very least from 2007 to 2014 some US$12 to US$15 billion in diamond revenue that remain unaccounted for that went into the pockets of individuals is Mnangagwa,” Prof. Moyo said.

The report titled Plundering of DR Congo Natural Resources: Final Report of the Panel of Experts (S/2002/1146) was published in October 2002.

Chief beneficiary
President Mnangagwa’s name has been implicated in a scandal of six kilograms of gold that were recovered by the police destined for Dubai, allegedly involving his wife Auxillia, son Collins and close relative Ms. Henrietta Rushwaya. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Today President Mnangagwa and his family’s name continue to ring in illegal gold deals. Illegal gold mining or artisanal small-scale mining in Zimbabwe has been a launchpad for many illicit financial flows and gold smuggling out of the country. Home Affairs minister Mr. Kazembe Kazembe in February this year admitted that smuggling and illegal gold deals are costing the country between US$1.2 billion to US$1.5 billion dollars annually.

In October last year, Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president Ms. Henrietta Rushwaya, a “close Mnangagwa relative” implicated Mnangagwa’s wife Auxillia and their son Collins after she was arrested at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport attempting to smuggle six kilograms of gold worth over US$360,000 to Dubai.

The First Lady distanced herself from Ms. Rushwaya’s arrest. “I have no dealings nor involvement with Ms. Rushwaya of any illegal kind,” she said. The gold sector in Zimbabwe has become a vital cog in foreign currency earning with many entrants using President Mnangagwa’s name to make inroads.

A US$12 Billion Election Campaign Promise For 2023?

Mr. Maguwu doubts the sincerity of the Mnangagwa administration in reaching the US$12 billion mining sector contribution to the economy by 2023. He further notes “Zimbabwe has far surpassed that mark.” Late Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in 2015 claimed the country had not received much from its diamond industry and lost about US$15 billion in the sector.

“We have not received much from the diamond industry at all. Not much by the way of earnings. I don’t think we have exceeded US$2 billion or so and yet we think that well over US$15 billion dollars have been earned in that area,” President Mugabe claimed then.

Zimbabwe is scheduled for general elections in 2023 and according to Mr. Maguwu, the government initiative in the mining sector is a campaign tool similar to the 2013 elections.

In 2010, Zimbabwe had an Employee and Community Share Ownership Scheme (ECSOS) in which foreign-owned companies were expected to cede some of their investments towards employee and community empowerment. After the 2013 elections, the scheme has been dumped.

“To me, it sounds like a political statement targeting the 2023 election, similar to the 2010 community share ownership scheme that was going to empower communities, and it led to the 2013 elections. After that election the whole thing died a natural death, now they are talking about a US$12 billion dollar economy by 2023, which is another election year. There is no feasibility study as to what is wrong with our mining sector. You cannot fix what you do not know. So there is no research carried out to say what is wrong and how do we correct it.”

“This government is silent on mining corruption. They are not talking about it and that is where the money is. It is not about making big statements and making promises to the nation,” Mr. Maguwu said.

Meeting target
Mines Minister Mr. Chitando dismissed critics for insinuating the US$12 billion dollar mining industry sector target by 2023 is a political campaign strategy. In his admission, he said Zimbabwe does not know the cumulative value of its mineral wealth. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Minister Chitando dismissed Mr. Maguwu’s assertion. He says the expected US$12 billion dollar contribution by the mining sector will be revenue streamed into the national fiscas.

“The US$12 billion dollars is the revenue that will be coming to the fiscas from the mining sector. There are projects happening now in the platinum sector, we have three new projects taking place. We have expansion projects taking place and all projects are taking place in reality. The fact that we took a five-year window is because that is the target we are working on,” explained Minister Chitando.

Uphold Rule Of Law To Plug Leakages, Illegality

Mr. Wellington Takavarasha, the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF), an organization owned by President Mnangagwa’s close relative Ms. Rushwaya, highlighted that artisanal small-scale miners contribution to the US$12 billion contribution is dwindling as some miners are being arrested.

Between 2017 and 2020, artisanal small-scale miners contributed a total of sixty tonnes of gold to the sanctioned government buyer, Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Because of arrests of the artisanal small-scale miners, gold output has declined from 60 percent to 47 percent. In 2019, small-scale miners contributed 17 tonnes as opposed to 9.8 tonnes in 2020.

“This year’s first quarter, our output has declined but we have the potential to contribute to the US$12 billion target. Our strategies include having our ventures formalized, mechanized, and have government resuscitate the mining industry loan fund,” said Mr. Takavarasha.

ZMF estimates that a tonne of gold is traded illicitly outside the formal market, which is fuelled by more than 1.3 million unregistered artisanal small-scale miners against its membership of 40,000.

Zimbabwe’s Gold Trade Act prohibits people without licenses to trade in the precious material. “Illegal mining is a livelihood activity that needs to be formalized. As it is, government is not benefiting but the middlemen and police are benefiting,” added Mr. Takavarasha.

Illegal gold dealings and smuggling is no new phenomenon in Zimbabwe. Successive ministers have raised the issue but their principals have turned a blind eye to their calls. Economist Mr. Nyasha Muchichwa says for government to stop the leakages, it needs to “uphold the rule of law and offer a competitive price to stop arbitrage.”

Government sanctioned buyer Fidelity Printers and Refiners is currently buying gold at US$45 per gram while on the illegal market it is US$54 per gram.

“The fact that we can quantify the money we are losing means we know that it is happening and when it has happened. The law should take its course and to those caught on the wrong side to be used as an example on what not to do.”

“When paying for those mining or selling gold, let us pay competitive rates so there is no arbitrage. As long as we have different prices this is when you find people making other means to get more money from the mineral they are holding. We need to address the price, laws that govern the selling, and the issue of our porous borders,” said Mr. Muchichwa.

US Military Presence In Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Making SADC Volatile

Gibson Nyikadzino
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US Military Presence In Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Making SADC Volatile

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) might have been defeated, but its ideas and followers did not disappear. It has since reappeared in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado Province, transformed as the Islamic State’s Central African Province (ISCAP). In August last year, the group attacked and ran over Mocimboa da Praia, a port town lying on the Indian Ocean coast, declaring it its capital and raising the ISCAP profile to the world.

The situation at present is threatening a major military and humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which has so far internally displaced at least 700,000 people. By June, the number is projected to be around one million.

Raouf Mazou, UNHCR’s assistant commission for operations recently said: “If one looks at the speed at which we are seeing the number of internally displaced persons rise, we know that the window of opportunity that we have is closing.”

Fleeing conflict
People fleeing the violence in several districts in Cabo Delgado are seen here homeless as they arrive in Pemba, the provincial capital. Credit: IOM / Matteo Theubet

The roots of the insurgency in Mozambique on October 5, 2017 can be traced to Kenya’s city of Mombasa and spreading along the coast in Tanzania to Mozambique. Where a combination of resources and conflict pan, the United States has presented itself as a counterterrorism partner. Over 2,000 US forces are active in over 40 counter-terrorism training missions in Africa.

Mozambique, a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), on March 15 confirmed the presence of US Commandos in the country for the next two months. A statement by the US embassy in Mozambique revealed that the arrangement is a government to government arrangement in which “US Special Forces will train Mozambican marines for two months to support Mozambique’s efforts to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism.”

This marks the entry of the US-Africa Command in a region that has enjoyed relative peace. On the other hand, Mozambique’s former colonizer, Portugal, confirmed it will send “a staff of approximately 60 instructors to Mozambique to train marines and commandos.”

Is Mozambique Choosing A Wrong Ally?

The SADC bloc has a counter-terrorism strategy that underscores the desire to mete out terrorism and violent extremism under the collective belief that “a threat to one country threatens the peace and stability” of other countries.

University of Zimbabwe (UZ) lecturer in the Department of Politics and Administrative Studies Dr. Lawrence Mhandara says the decision by the Mozambican government to invite US forces “indicate a vote of no confidence” on the regional bloc.

“The lack of action on the Mozambique issue by SADC demonstrates a lack of collective capacity in the region. Though SADC has a counter-terrorism strategy, it lacks dynamism in dealing with collective security threats. For instance, Angola and Zimbabwe lack counter-terrorism capabilities,” notes Dr. Mhandara.

The SADC protocol to assistance from other nations is based on the “invitation by the country that needs help” so that other countries intervene. In the case of Mozambique, the country only sent an invite in August last year after it had approached individual countries, which did not yield results. The choice of the US by the Mozambican government, according to Dr. Mhandara, “could be based on the USA’s combat experience” on several conflicts fighting terrorism.

US forces have notably been to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and now in Syria in the name of “fighting” terrorism.

“The obvious implication of this action by the government of Mozambique is that it envinces a vote of no confidence in the collective will and capability in SADC. There could be some incentives for the USA in this arrangement, but it is damaging to SADC,” added Dr. Mhandara.

Resource Protection At The Heart Of Foreign Intervention

The involvement of the US in Mozambique is part and parcel of the political-economy of war. It cannot be refuted that there are incentives for the US in this conflict. In Afghanistan and Iraq, American companies have benefitted from defense contracts through conflicts.

There are double standards coming through over the past ten years, oil companies have discovered the largest gas reserves that push several multi-billion dollar projects that have the potential to turn Mozambique into the next energy giant. As of 2019, statistics indicate Mozambique holds 100 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves, and ranked 14th in the world. In 2011, economic projections from the World Bank pointed that in the next ten years, the biggest investments were going to Cabo Delgado.

In the Cabo Delgado region, Montepuez ruby mine is said to account for 80 percent of global gas output. Besides Montepuez, a myriad of private gas companies have also emerged and protecting their interests by hiring private security companies to protect their interests. When ISCAP ran over Mocimboa da Praia last year, the Mozambican government and French oil company Total announced a strengthened agreement to protect gas installations including the Rovuma LNG gas project led by Italy’s Eni and the USA’s ExxonMobil.

The US and Portuguese troops coming to Mozambique are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) keen to “stop terrorism and extremism.” Simultaneously, they are protecting the economic interests of French’s Total, Italy’s Eni, and USA’s ExxonMobil, exploring gas in Mozambique. France and Italy are also NATO members.

“After this conflict, aims could be economic for the US government and after the mission, certain benefits will accrue to the USA,” further notes Dr. Mhandara.

Mozambique’s President Fillipe Nyusi has also been accused by his critics of pushing the neo-liberal agenda that prioritizes business over ideological principles as enunciated in the SADC framework to solving conflict, ending poverty and ensuring economic development. According to the World Bank, half of rural people in Mozambique live below the poverty line, a figure barely reduced since 2003.

ISCAP Using Religion To Tap Into An Illegal, Neglected Economy

Cabo Delgado has corridors that can improve trade between Tanzania and Mozambique, and the province is said to have an illegal economy used for heroin smuggling from Asia worth an estimated US$100 million which ISCAP is tapping into.

Makeshift shelter
Hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced by the ongoing conflict in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado Province. The UNHCR expects the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to be around one million in June. Credit: UNHCR / Martim Gray Pereira

The conflict in Cabo Delgado also has a religious twist. The region is one of the country’s poorest and mostly resident to Muslims. It has the lowest literacy rate, too. The Muslims in Cabo Delgado have over the years felt neglected as the natural gas in their province has not generated any benefits in their communities. ISCAP is using this to promote its anti-State agenda.

US Unwanted Yet Welcome In SADC Region

SADC Executive Secretary Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax is of the view that the region is “collectively committed” to supporting its member States, including Mozambique, in dealing with matters of insecurity that threaten the stability of the region at large. She confirmed the region has a robust policy, institutional and implementation framework to deal with issue of insecurity, including violent extremism and terrorism in Mozambique, without explaining why Mozambique invited the USA and by-passing SADC.

“Terrorism is a global challenge, as such, solutions to the insurgency require collaborative efforts among member states, regional communities and international partners. SADC has taken a multi-sectoral approach in ensuring that such challenges are addressed comprehensively and sustainably at national and regional levels. This is done through a number of policies, strategies and programs,” she said.

SADC committed
SADC Executive Secretary Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax says the region is committed to supporting Mozambique in fighting insurgents and all efforts being undertaken collectively are done considering regional and bilateral cooperations with Mozambique. Credit: The Herald / Zimbabwe

There are some issues the SADC region is not addressing, the spill-over of the conflict to Mozambique’s neighbouring countries. Because of the spatial proximity, conflict and threats of terrorism are likely to be huge in Malawi and Tanzania as neighboring countries.

SADC has long and winding borders that are not policed and monitored, hence for a long time have been porous and conducive to move contraband. The threat of refugees moving from Cabo Delgado into Tanzania and Malawi is great and this can be an opportunity by the ISCAP to export the terror operatives in other countries embedded as refugees.

Regarding possible outcomes to the conflict, Dr. Mhandara argues there is a possible spill-over of the conflict that is set to welcome US military presence in SADC.

“Because of the conflict going on in Cabo Delgado, the immediate issue is that the military presence of the USA will be immediately welcome though unwanted. The USA will then influence and capture the region through counter-terrorism and counter-insurgence experience and in the long term there will be presence of the USA in the region,” added Dr. Mhandara.

According to SADC, there is provision of a Standby Force for the Mozambique conflict if member states pledge support. This has however not happened except for the “collective solidarity” rhetoric by the regional leaders. The response by the region remains a feeble and futile adventure that should be quickly addressed to ensure regional stability.

Vaccine Diplomacy: Exposing Africa’s Untapped Human Resources

Gibson Nyikadzino
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Vaccine Diplomacy: Exposing Africa’s Untapped Human Resources

The receipt of Coronavirus vaccine donations by African countries from China increasingly expands the Asian giant’s Road and Belt Initiative (RBI) in the continent at a time the world is in turmoil. As the Coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of slowing, China’s influence is growing more scientific, sophisticated, and technological. With China’s influence in Africa growing, the dangling of the Coronavirus vaccine has reconstructed the sovereignty of African states that no longer demand transfer of scientific technology but giving in to advances from China.

China’s RBI concept, also known as One Road, is an idea it uses to strengthen its connectivity with the world and expand its geographic influence in Europe, Asia, and Africa through increased cultural ties. Zimbabwe has already received two consignments of a total 400,000 vaccines from China. Equatorial Guinea and Senegal were also among the first countries to administer China’s Sinopharm or Verocell vaccine, and the list continues to grow.

“The fact that we are the only country in Africa that has to date received the second batch of the vaccine doses from China, attests to the strong, comprehensive and strategic nature of our partnership,” said Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangangwa last Tuesday while receiving the second batch of 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines. Besides the donations, Zimbabwe has also purchased 200,000 vaccines from China’s Sinopharm.

China’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun confirmed that in his country’s 14th five-year development plan, technological innovation is the torchbearer of his country’s global cooperation while dismissing the term “vaccine diplomacy” as a term by the West to discredit China.

“Western politicians and media discredit China’s vaccine assistance as “vaccine diplomacy”. Such a term shows their poor morality and intelligence or sour grapes. China’s aid has never been attached political strings. This is the most essential difference between China and the West in their aid to Africa because both China and Africa believe in national independence and liberty; both believe in sovereignty, equality, and fairness; both believe in solidarity and mutual support,” he said.

Vaccine diplomacy
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and China’s Ambassador Guo Shaochun share an elbow greeting after Zimbabwe received the second consignment of 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

But Africa’s lack of thorough investments in scientific knowledge in the medical sector continues to reveal the continent’s shortsightedness and expose the strengths of China’s RBI, which is becoming farsighted and strategic in the post-pandemic cooperation.

Last March Madagascar became the first African country to produce a herbal tonic, COVID Organics, as a preventive and curing method to combat Coronavirus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that the tonic be clinically trialed. In another development, Tanzania last year stopped publicizing its COVID-19 cases as President John Magufuli, who was announced dead on March 17, declared his country was Coronavirus-free “thanks to God.”

The Coronavirus vaccine donations have given China power to becoming a kingmaker for new political alliances at the expense of Africa’s inability to develop and lead in science. The donations further create an imbalance that has overlooked Africa’s potential in fighting the Coronavirus using locally developed and scientifically certified vaccines. While Chinese vaccine donations continue to come, their formulas are patented in their countries, rendering Africa’s investments in scientific research weak.

On March 12, an inaugural quadrilateral summit by the United States of America (USA), India, Australia, and Japan pledged to checkmate China’s growing global influence and also in the way it is fighting Coronavirus. Africa has not been refuting advances by China, but embracing it as a way to salvation and redemption from the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2013 and 2014 the USA and China established partnerships to help Africa fight Ebola in Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Liberia. Today, the cooperation no longer exist as China continues to buy alliances in Africa through the vaccines.

In the case of Zimbabwe, besides receiving vaccines from China, in January the country also received a donation of twenty ventilators from the USA. In a statement, the embassy said “the ventilators, produced in the United States, reflect cutting-edge technology customized to Zimbabwe’s needs and requirements.”

These donations are not simply acts of kindness, but a lack of preparedness on the continental leaders in responding scientifically and technologically to Africa’s problems. The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed Africa and Zimbabwe’s slow pace in stimulating and up-scaling scientific investment and research.

Frontline workers vaccinated
An essential service or frontline worker receiving a first Sinopharm vaccine jab at Wilkins Hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is among the first African countries to administer the Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19. Credit: Gibson Nyikadzino / Ubuntu Times

Zimbabwe’s Acting Foreign Affairs minister, who is also the minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Amon Murwirwa says the much spoken “vaccine diplomacy phenomenon is a conspiracy theory” that is “problematic” in understanding China’s relationship with Zimbabwe.

Between Zimbabwe and China, there currently is no “active program going on” in terms of scientific research exchange.

“China and Zimbabwe are strategic partners. In terms of scientific research between the two, it is not transferred but exchanged. I am not saying there is an active program (on scientific exchange) going on, but there is active cooperation.

“After the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe is going to emerge from this crisis with improved capabilities,” said Murwira.

A government-commissioned report last month showed Zimbabwe has a 95 percent skills deficit in the medical and scientific sector hampering the provision of effective services. Qualified personnel leaving the country for better incentives, more opportunities, and good infrastructure in other countries are among issues triggering the skills deficit.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) recently identified institutions in its sixteen member countries that it can capacitate to develop Coronavirus vaccines. In Zimbabwe, only the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and Sable Chemicals were identified.

Tinashe Mutema, the director of Communications and International Relations at HIT said his organization is not “interested in developing COVID-19 vaccines” because it has “no capacity in that regard.”

“We never indicated interest in vaccines but we have an interest in ventilators. If you speak of vaccines that is something remote to us,” he said.

China is making inroads in Africa at a time the West is too busy to attend to Africa as it is combating the virus in their backyard. On the medical front, post-COVID-19 China has strategically positioned itself on the dual basis that they give Africa vaccines for free on the premise that Africa buys from the Asian giant and turn a blind eye to its scientific research.

Academic and writer on China-Africa relations Alexander Rusero notes that what China is doing forms part of its One Road initiative and is harvesting the “dividends of COVID-19 using vaccine diplomacy.”

“There is nothing for Africa in this setting. I would not want to call these developments alliances but the current COVID-19 arrangement is one strategically positioning China as dominant in terms of investments in Africa.

“So these are some of the dividends of COVID-19 and vaccine diplomacy that the Chinese modeled because it came at a time when Chinese investments in Africa were being questioned. The remodeled global political and social order post-COVID-19 is one where power is not restricted to the traditional attractiveness but on who helped us in time of need. It is leverage for China and there is nothing for Africa but China and its entire national interests,” said Rusero.

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