Despite Afrca Union’s failures, we must transform our continent

As I pondered over the goings on at the just ended Africa Union summit, my mind was drawn back to David Lamb’s book – The Africans – that I read several years back. Whereas I found his analysis of Africa hilariously true and very eye opening, there is a paragraph that cut me to the quick and has never left my mind whenever I think about Africa and Africans.

Reviewing Africa’s way of doing things, Lamb wrote: In Africa, you quickly realise that those things you learned in the West about punctuality, efficiency and rational thought process don’t have much to do with Africa. Africa can only be explained in terms of Africa. It is a different world where the shortest distance between two points is seldom a straight line, where patience is more than a virtue; it is a necessity for survival.

Africa has taken all the worst aspects of European bureaucracy, combined them with ignorance and indifference, and come up with a system that is as undirected, as lethargic as a rudderless dhow in a rough sea. Niceties aside Africa just doesn’t work well.

Whereas Lamb is quite right in his commentary, there is yet another perspective from which Africa must be viewed, and especially by Africans. For though Africa may not work as well, it is a pity that the only standard by which Africa has been judged is the West – wherever that is. Furthermore, this comparison is almost always made between our worst and their best. And thus we prove Steve Furtick right when he said: The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. For example, most times we take Africa’s poorest child and compare her with others healthiest – as if there are no poor children in those nations.

I happened to be in Addis during the AU Summit, attending an annual leadership conference that brings together leaders and practitioners from the church, government, and corporate sectors from across Africa. The conference focus was on Africa’s destiny and what we can do about it. During some informal discussions on the sidelines, it was interesting to sample people’s reactions to some of the issues emanating from the floor of the AU summit.

As expected, the appointment of President Mugabe as the new chair of the AU drew very mixed reactions. For some, this just confirmed David Lamb’s argument that Africa just doesn’t work well. For them, President Mugabe represents the dark side of Africa’s leadership that we are better off hiding under the bushel than placing on the lampstand.

However, there was yet another perspective, and a strong one at that. This group took the view that Mugabe might just be the leader AU needs at this time. In their view, President Mugabe is almost the only African leader who has stood up to the West, albeit at great cost to his nation’s economy. While acknowledging that Mugabe could have been wiser in the management of his national affairs, the feeling was that the tenacity and backbone the Mzee has shown may be what Africa needs to pursue her destiny.  

In this regard, the introduction of special taxes to fund the bulk of the AU budget could only be seen as a step in the right direction. For unless and until Africa is economically independent, our leaders will remain toothless bulldogs at the negotiation table with the international community. With over seventy per cent of its budget supported by “development partners”, the hard stances often taken by AU collectively and by individual member nations on critical issues have mostly come a cropper as soon as sanctions are mentioned and grants are threatened. Listening to these debates and discussions, I have been left with the strong feeling that Africa and Africans are at sea. On the one hand we cherish the thought of charting our own course and determining our own destiny. On the other, we remain captives of foreign thought and practice. But as Nelson Mandela correctly observed, there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. And I agree – we must collectively and sacrificially determine to make Africa work and work well.