By Stephen Asiimwe

May 25, 2024, is African Liberation Day (ALD), the day that honours the signing of the charter that established Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on May 25,1963, now renamed African Union (AU).

It is the day that Africans continue to pledge their solidarity for liberation of Africa.

Our forefathers, the heroes of independence struggled for African independence in the diaspora. They organised and mobilised a number of compatriots and heroes, who participated in the African Congress in Manchester in 1945.

The likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Touré, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, Abdul Nasser, Kenneth Kaunda and many others on the African continent participated in the liberations and later moved to liberate countries beginning with Ghana in 1957.

 Later in December 1958, Nkrumah convened the All African Peoples Conference (AAPC) to discuss issues related to Pan Africanism, among them, a United States of Africa. The conference chaired by Tom Mboya, the secretary general of Kenya Federation of Labour, was the first of its kind on African soil and brought together black delegates from all over the world.

Nkrumah used it as a platform to outline his bold and passionate vision of a United States of Africa. He stated in his opening speech that there was a burning desire among African people to establish a community of their own; we further hope that this coming together will evolve eventually to a union of African states, just as the original 13 American colonies developed into 49 states (by then) constituting the American Society.

One of the resolutions passed at the end of the conference called on the independent nations to lead the people towards achieving a United States of Africa.

According to Nkrumah, it was through Africans coming together in a union that they could guard their freedom and avert the greed and avarice of the imperial powers. During that period the push for one United Africa was met with mixed results.

Therefore, as we celebrate African Liberation Day, the African Union must be receiving a lot of ‘insults’ for doing “nothing” most especially on democracy, poverty alleviation, conflicts and the wars that have not stopped in Africa.

It was successful on liberation front in many countries and the last was South Africa in 1994, Bravo to comrade Julius Nyerere who led the frontline states and we salute our comrades who supported the liberation of South Africa.

The contribution of Uganda government led by Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is well documented, who helped South Africa from the racist settler regime of Apartheid led by Declerk and his cronies. African Union should be a symbol of how Africa has fared in the past six decades, assuming that Imperialism and Neo- colonialism has drastically reduced on the continent.

African Union should stand as an affirmation of the Independence freedom and progress on the continent.

Those who run the affairs of the African Union should account to Africans, wherever they are in the world, how the continent has fared politically, economically, culturally and socially, the African Union Agenda 2063 with seven pillars, should be fully implemented so that Africans can start recovering from the psychological torture created by slave trade, colonialism and imperialism, otherwise, the Africans will continue referring to Africa Union as “a lame duck”

The Agenda should be concrete and be able to improve people’s livelihoods, we cannot remain in the current situation of exporting primary commodities that are detrimental to economic development and undermines our ambition for greater Integration and prosperity.

We salute our heroes of independence who were full of ideas, mobilised fellow Africans through writing and trainings for the betterment of our continent. As Nkrumah said: “Backward Never Forward Ever.”

The writer is a Pan Africanist.