EAC to help achieve spirit of Pan Africanism, end neocolonialism

By Anyang’ Nyong’o

On February 24, 1972, Osegyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah died in a Rumanian hospital after a brief battle with cancer. He was only 63 years and could have easily lived on for another 30 years.

But in the short time that he lived the Osegyefo left behind a legacy to Africa and the world that only a few past African leaders can match.

If we exclude the living icon Nelson Mandela, the following stand tall in having contributed immensely, in theory and practice, towards the African revolution and the development of post independence Africa:

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania; Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt; Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau; Eduardo Mondlane and Samora Machel of Mozambique; Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria; Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Patrice Lumumba of Congo.

Nkrumah also inspired the spirit of Pan Africanism in many African nationalists leading not only to the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity, but also to the support of the African liberation movements in Southern Africa by the Front Line Countries as well as far flung neighbours, which were prepared to sacrifice politically and economically so that Africa could be completely decolonised.

From the presidency of Jomo Kenyatta to this very day, Kenya has been home to African liberation fighters. SPLM/SPLA militants know Kenya as their second home, thanks to the pan-African spirit of the people and the leaders.

We have one of the biggest refugee camps in the world today full of fellow Africans and neighbours escaping from bad governance and still waging struggles for self-determination. Nkrumah would have been very proud of us were he to be alive today. But all Africa still owe the Osegyefo one unfinished agenda. And this is the defeat of neo-colonialism and the unification of Africa into one polity, one economy and one people.

In his book Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, Nkrumah defined neo-colonialism as "the conditioning and control of Africa’s independence by the social, political and economic forces of imperialist powers and former colonial masters so as to continue with, and perpetuate, the exploitation and pillage of African resources and labour power for capital accumulation and the building of military strength in these countries."

This pattern of relationship between Africa and the advanced capitalist countries has not changed much structurally and qualitatively since Nkrumah died. The Democratic Republic of Congo, 50 years since the assassination of her founding father Patrice, still wallows in abject poverty, lack of basic infrastructure and an underdeveloped, rudimentary and unintegrated home market notwithstanding her 24 trillion dollars worth of mineral deposits.

It is, however, common knowledge that western multinationals, private firms, fortune seekers and mercenaries continue to pillage the mineral wealth of the Congo. Some even have private airfields from which they fetch crude minerals without paying a single cent to the Congolese treasury.

Not too long ago President Kabila came to Nairobi in pursuit of the looted Congolese minerals by these fortune seekers. If this is not part of the pillage of Africa that Nkrumah associated with Neo-Colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, then nothing else is.

Gabon, another oil rich and mineral laden African country from which the West has for years extracted both cheaply and unfairly, is just now waking up to the need for defending the wealth of her people.

But within the next 25 years the oil wells will run dry while 35 per cent of her people who currently live under the poverty line may still have not escaped from their socio-economic backwardness.

We in Kenya have for a long time prided ourselves of a thriving tourism industry as a major foreign exchange earner. The truth is: the tourists pay for their African safari out there in Europe and only use our hotels for boarding.

Any hiccup that leads to cancellation of safaris is borne mainly by our hotels, which must bear running costs whether or not the tourists come. This is a non-sustainable economic relationship, which can hardly be the backbone of national development.

Nkrumah called for Africa to unite so as to defeat neo-colonialism as well as imperialism. With the integration and expansion of the East African Community we are going the direction of Pan-Africanism that will help to reduce the crude effects of neo-colonialism on our economies. Sooner rather than later we must arrive at a political federation that will help to institutionalise even further the much bigger Eastern Africa home market.

This is not a pipe dream. It must be part and parcel of our Vision 2030.

The writer is Minister for Medical Services