Blogs
Where is Africa's centre of gravity? An open letter to President Museveni
While African states like Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Botswana make centrifugal leaps forward, I am concerned that nobody has answered the clarion call you made in your May 12, 2021, inauguration speech at Kololo: “Where is Africa’s centre of gravity?”
John Kabagambe. (Courtesy)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
________________
OPINION
By John Kabagambe
Mweshimiwa Rais, I thank you for your insightful speeches and writings on Ugandan, Pan-Africanist and global issues throughout the years. Since my formative years, I recall listening to your speeches on Radio Uganda and later watching them on television, where I learnt a great deal. I learnt politico-historic phrases like the ‘abrogation of the constitution’ from you. I vividly recall you once asking, “Obote, son of Opeto, how could you abrogate the constitution!?”
From you, I also learnt words like ‘red herring’ and ‘disenfranchisement’, when you described the rigged 1980 elections whose fraudulent outcome disenfranchised voters because it did not reflect the will of the majority. I recall attending your rally at Bakijjulula, Bulera sub-county in 1987, where you advocated for mechanisation to spur commercial farming. At that rally, you spoke of rehabilitating the country. You said, ‘Uganda yagwa mu ttaka’ and likened the process to peeling dirt from a piece of cassava once it falls from the cooking pot.
From the days of rebuilding after a five-year civil war, ‘Uganda yagwa mu ttaka’, to attaining lower-middle-income status, ‘Uganda etandise okumpomera’ as you put it post-COVID, to the current plan to grow a $66b economy to $500b by 2040, the country has surely come a long way.
While African states like Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Botswana make centrifugal leaps forward, I am concerned that nobody has answered the clarion call you made in your May 12, 2021, inauguration speech at Kololo: “Where is Africa’s centre of gravity?”
Borrowing from physics, that question hit me harder when I thought of the symbolism behind the ANC’s military wing, ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’, Spear of the Nation. So I ask: Where is our Spear of the Continent? Unfortunately, that question still hangs. This huge, resource-rich continent of 11.7 million square miles, home to 1.6 billion people, has no centre of gravity.
No defence formation
Where Europe has NATO, the largest, resource-rich continent in the world is without a ‘centre of gravity’. Everyone knows what happened when NATO declared a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011 and rained bombs that destroyed the country, totally ignoring African leaders. Western aggression on Libya and the assassination of Gaddafi sent echoes of the abduction, torture and murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. Despite those glaring lessons, it is still business as usual. Africa has no standing defence formation.
From the days of rebuilding after a five-year civil war, ‘Uganda yagwa mu ttaka’, to attaining lower-middle-income status, ‘Uganda etandise okumpomera’ as you put it post-COVID, to the current plan to grow a $66b economy to $500b by 2040, the country has surely come a long way.
While African states like Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Botswana make centrifugal leaps forward, I am concerned that nobody has answered the clarion call you made in your May 12, 2021, inauguration speech at Kololo: “Where is Africa’s centre of gravity?”
Borrowing from physics, that question hit me harder when I thought of the symbolism behind the ANC’s military wing, ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’, Spear of the Nation. So I ask: Where is our Spear of the Continent? Unfortunately, that question still hangs. This huge, resource-rich continent of 11.7 million square miles, home to 1.6 billion people, has no centre of gravity.
No defence formation
Where Europe has NATO, the largest, resource-rich continent in the world is without a ‘centre of gravity’. Everyone knows what happened when NATO declared a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011 and rained bombs that destroyed the country, totally ignoring African leaders. Western aggression on Libya and the assassination of Gaddafi sent echoes of the abduction, torture and murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. Despite those glaring lessons, it is still business as usual. Africa has no standing defence formation.
No unified foreign policy
Does Africa have a unified foreign policy in dealing with the rest of the world? Does Africa form a united front in pushing and negotiating for African interests? For instance, you are opposed to foreign military bases in Uganda, yet President William Ruto has hosted French military cooperation in Kenya. We speak of African solutions to African problems, yet DRC’s President has actively sought American intervention in the conflict with Rwanda, offering mineral deals to Washington, whose intelligence agency was complicit in the murder of DRC’s most revered leader, Lumumba.
No reparations front
Is Africa united in holding the world accountable for reparations for slavery, or is it scattered voices from one or two countries? A continent exploited as one entity negotiates as fragmented states.
It is ironic that the only union we speak of in Africa exists in the name ‘African Union’. One can say there is no unity in the African Union.
Your Excellency, while it might still be polarising to push for the Nkrumah-Nyerere-Gaddafi line of a United States of Africa, we should not repeat the mistake of pre-colonial African chiefs who failed to take defence measures to protect territorial sovereignty against invasion, slavery and colonialism. With your able leadership of the East African Community, I am confident you could reach out to IGAD, ECOWAS and SADC with an idea whose time has come: the African Defence Treaty.
Since NATO was formed by treaty, Africa can execute a defence treaty. Member states can raise funds to train and equip a standing army, a navy, a coast guard and air defence to deter external aggression. An African navy and coast guard would deploy to fight piracy in our waters and help prevent the tragic loss of Africans who drown in the Mediterranean seeking illegal passage to Europe.
The writer is a lawyer
Does Africa have a unified foreign policy in dealing with the rest of the world? Does Africa form a united front in pushing and negotiating for African interests? For instance, you are opposed to foreign military bases in Uganda, yet President William Ruto has hosted French military cooperation in Kenya. We speak of African solutions to African problems, yet DRC’s President has actively sought American intervention in the conflict with Rwanda, offering mineral deals to Washington, whose intelligence agency was complicit in the murder of DRC’s most revered leader, Lumumba.
No reparations front
Is Africa united in holding the world accountable for reparations for slavery, or is it scattered voices from one or two countries? A continent exploited as one entity negotiates as fragmented states.
It is ironic that the only union we speak of in Africa exists in the name ‘African Union’. One can say there is no unity in the African Union.
Your Excellency, while it might still be polarising to push for the Nkrumah-Nyerere-Gaddafi line of a United States of Africa, we should not repeat the mistake of pre-colonial African chiefs who failed to take defence measures to protect territorial sovereignty against invasion, slavery and colonialism. With your able leadership of the East African Community, I am confident you could reach out to IGAD, ECOWAS and SADC with an idea whose time has come: the African Defence Treaty.
Since NATO was formed by treaty, Africa can execute a defence treaty. Member states can raise funds to train and equip a standing army, a navy, a coast guard and air defence to deter external aggression. An African navy and coast guard would deploy to fight piracy in our waters and help prevent the tragic loss of Africans who drown in the Mediterranean seeking illegal passage to Europe.
The writer is a lawyer