Given what is transpiring across Africa in terms of political dispensations, one is tempted to wonder if we are not moving back to barbarism of dark ages that threatened the forward march of civilization.
Colonialism made Africa lose independence and Africans had to struggle to regain it. A wind of change swept across Africa and fora got created to address this issue. OAU was one of them.
Emerging independence leaders sought one another across the board from the south to the north and east to the west.
The imaginary lines (the white corridor and the blue belt) ,one running south from Tripoli to Cape Town and the other running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean through the great lakes, drawn by the imperial world for effective strategic control of the African continent got conversely used by freedom fighters in quest of African liberation.
Nelson Mandela before being tragically getting incarcerated on the infamous Roben Island had met leaders in various calibers across Africa seeking political, military and moral support to end Apartheid in South Africa.
Indeed the African countries got independence one after the other. Even South Africa whose ANC had to struggle for 82 years finally got it.
However, ambivalences dawned in majority of countries because the leaders who took over the mantle of leadership immediately after the colonial rulers continued with the tactics of divide and rule employed by the colonialists.
This engendered movements commonly called liberation phase two. This was an attempt to break away altogether from the policies above.
In some cases it entailed engaging in armed struggle either to remove military dictatorships or civilian governments that were using the same tactics as military rulers.
The politics obtaining now on the African continent is a bit baffling because one wonders whether the common ideals pursued by leaders of independent Africa are not being jeopardized.
The politics of Ambivalence Costing Lives
Joseph Kony of Uganda has lingered on for more than 20 years unleashing mayhem.
He started with Uganda and now his diabolism has engulfed Central African Republic, The Sudan, DRC and it is affecting the socio-economic development of surrounding regions who do not know his history.
Al-Shabaab are said to be a youth movement otherwise known as “movement of striving youth”.
An off-shoot of Islamic courts union, they subdivided into smaller groups and have been in control of South Somalia. They are said to have imposed a strict form of Sharia law.
They have of recent caused Kenya to get involved in effective combat since the Mau Mau struggle. They are not only focused on removing the Somali transitional government but are said to wage jihad against enemies of Islam hence their mission transcends boundaries.
Al-Shabaab members are said to have at one time or another intimidated, kidnapped and killed aid workers.
This caused suspension of humanitarian operations and some relief agents to move away hence humanitarian catastrophe.
Boko Haram in Nigeria is said to be against western education which they equate with sin.
That they are not only opposed to the western education but western culture and modern science so is wearing of pants, shirts and voting in elections.
In 2009 BBC interview, according to en.wikipedia.org, Mohammed yusuf, then the group’s leader is said to have stated he would reject the fact that the earth is a sphere, rain comes from water evaporated by the sun and Darwinism if they were contrary to Islamic teaching.
They are an Islamist group that aims at imposing Sharia law throughout the whole of Nigeria with attendant Jihadist tendences.
They are said to have come to international attention during sectarian violence in Nigeria in 2009. In 2011 at least 327 people have been killed by the group according to the associated press
According to Reuters,the sect is widely considered to be the biggest security threat in Africa’s biggest oil exporter. That it has been blamed for more than 1,000 deaths since its insurgency – which is aimed at carving out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria – intensified in 2010.
FDLR/FNL
According to Afro America Network as informed by sources in Bukavu on August,8,2011,Burundian(FNL) and Rwandan(FDLR) rebels intensified attacks And moved closer and closer to the major cities of South Kivu, especially Fizi and Bukavu.
The coalition of FDLR/FNL is said to operate in the area connected to the region surrounding Bujumbura, the Burundian capital.
They are alleged to have on the night of Saturday to Sunday, August 7, 2011, attacked a vehicle carrying passengers and goods killing or wounding several people including FARDC soldiers.
According to en.Wikipedia.org, for the leadership of the FDLR, the movement is both a structure that protects them from a life in prison and a vehicle that allows them to acquire enough wealth to purchase a new identity, home and retirement allowance.
For them, it is of utmost importance that the rank and file combatants of the FDLR do not find out about this hidden agenda.
Consequently, the FDLR leadership invests a significant amount of effort in propaganda, and continues to develop plans for military operations to overthrow the Rwandan Government.
The leadership, however, knows that these plans are unlikely to succeed in the current environment, and they recognise that the Rwandan Government is unlikely to weaken in the near future.”
According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, the FDLR is believed to be responsible for about a dozen terrorist attacks committed in 2009. These acts of terrorism have killed hundreds of civilians in Eastern Congo.
That FDLR after getting a tough blow when their top command(leadership) got almost decimated, is has been trying to move towards the north of Northern Kivu province.
That one may not rule out the fact that they are moving towards Kony and other diabolical forces so that they can live longer. They intend to continue unleashing havoc just as Kony is doing.
FNL are an extremist Hutu rebel outfit that has refused inclusive government in Burundi. FDLR are an extremist Hutu outfit that has refused to join the inclusive government in Rwanda.
These are the major extremist groups operating across boundaries. Leaders who sought to end colonialism on the African continent looked for one another across Africa. They did not see the solution in divisions.
Although there are huddles yet to jump, the AU is in place as a successor to the OAU.
There are regional groupings that are a precursor to the true African unity which can work through the frame work of African union and achieve real socio-economic development of Africa.
There should be oneness of purpose on the part of African leaders and peoples and struggle to end the diabolical destruction of innocent lives.
For these groups to receive support of any sort is absurd. How can someone who opts to destroy oneself and innocent lives struggle for the socio economic progress of Africa and the world which has after all become a village due to advancement in information technology.
