Is "change for Africa by Africans" a myth or reality?

Reality

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by Joseph Robertson

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There are few things more damaging to the right of witnesses and bystanders to contribute to the resolution of a given problem than harboring the assumption that no one involved has anything to contribute. For western and Asian lookers on, viewing the problems of the African continent as outsiders, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by surrendering to the ugly bias of the belief that Africans cannot contribute to the change and development they both need and deserve.

First of all, it is foolish to adopt a position so far removed from the reality of the situation. Is Nelson Mandela not an African man? Was his movement not an African movement? Is his African National Congress party not still effecting change by taking up the lessons of the outside world and the real situation and requirements of the African residents of the nation they govern? This is but one example.

If we look to Mozambique, we also see that it was artists coming together in the capital Maputo who dreamed up and initiated the 'tree of life' project, taking used weapons and molding them into new aesthetic entities, in order to create an expressive world of sculpture, illustrating the possibility of creating something human and hopeful by turning the tools of war into a symbol of peace and reconciliation. This is another way forward that symbolizes the kind of mission to be undertaken in any post-war condition, where a society needs to be reborn, inspired with a new breath of life.

In some of the worst wars in recent memories, like the civil war whose aftershocks still threaten the Democratic Republic of Congo, in which over 4 million people lost their lives, much of the conflict and chaos was brought on by the interests and the interference of African neighbors (some estimate 14 different nations in the region backed one or more factions in the seemingly limitless bloodshed), and those same nations can achieve solutions that save DR Congo from the devastation they helped it to reach.

In Darfur, we have an ongoing and gathering wave of international pressure to end the genocide, but the conflict is motivated by interests that include political frictions with Chad, oil profits and the government's own policies on royalties, Khartoum's wish to end all the civil wars without ceding power or seeing the country fragmented, and by deep-seated tribal conflicts, with ethnic, religious and territorial roots.

There, it has been the effectiveness of the African Union as a negotiating body and as an international security conduit that has permitted the eventual installation of United Nations peacekeepers, albeit in modest numbers, so that even where foreign troops are brought to the continent for the sake of peace and security, it may be that African institutions are the best venue.

If we look at the intervention of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague in the Darfur conflict, with its historic move to indict a sitting head of state, Pres. Omar al-Bashir, of Sudan, for genocide and war crimes, we still see that this process cannot exist without the collaboration of African dissidents and activists seeking to protect the rights and lives of those forced to flee the campaign of ethnic cleansing waged against millions of Darfuri villagers by both military and paramilitary organizations.

Ultima tely, it is for Sudanese citizens, leaders and factionalist adherents to decide what is rebellion, what is counter-insurgency and how to achieve an end to armed conflict within Sudan's borders. And it may be that getting a grip on ethnic difference and coming to see a common fate, inherent in achieving peace or promoting conflict, will be the key moment, the fulcrum at which hope or desperation takes over for the long term.

Agricultural policy has a role to play in many African conflicts, where food or water are scarce, where several nations actively seek to divert the largest possible quantity of water away from the Nile River, for example, risking shortages for those downstream, where nations like Zimbabwe wind up with untenable systems of productive cultivation, ending up with economic chaos or mass famine. The right solutions may come from a wealth of knowledge shared globally, but the implementation of the right policies must be local, executed by the stakeholders, and kept up by a commitment to the policies that fit the place and the population's needs.

We have to consider that the entire meaning of democracy and of international laws that support and uphold democratic principles, is that people are able to choose for themselves and decide their own fate. What kind of Africa, indeed what kind of world, can we be attempting to deliver to see come into being if we fully intend for Africa to find solutions only by way of foreign intervention or the dictates of non-African bodies?

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