Celebrating African Freedom Day

By Peter Madoda Bungane

Africa celebrates fifty one years of unity this 25th May 2014, at what price was our independence fought for? Our first African country to receive independence was Liberia on 26th July 1847 and the newest nation, South Sudan in a succession vote, independent from repressive rule and sub-human treatment. Alas, today in some of our African countries torture still prevails as a form of deterrence. Political intolerance remains a thorn in the flesh of many governments in power and can lead to the current South Sudan impasse, the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the Kenyan post election violence, notwithstanding the 2013 Arab spring that swept across North Africa and spilled over into Syria.
Today the continent of Africa has a total of civil wars, conflicts arising from ethnic divide and sectarian violence. Who is ultimately responsible for these atrocities? We are to some extent to blame, by maintaining bad colonial systems and laws designed to oppress the people, but it has always been principally the struggle to control our vast natural resources . There are Cartels that fund politicians to do their dirty work, these Cartels are interested in exploiting the wealth of Africa and fund campaigns for these unscrupulous politicians, who in turn provide ‘aid’ to warring factions in Africa. This aid comes in form of food , medicines, tents and in many US Congress approved interventions, weapons. They argue that defense -less communities should have the available means of defending themselves. We are the world’s biggest reserve of timber, minerals, oil and gas wealth. Our raw materials are under- valued at export stage and returned to us as finished products at higher prices which poor African governments borrow from the IMF and World Bank to pay for. The Western powers that were our colonial masters come from centuries of feuds and brought that ingredient to fuel divisions in Africa.
We have the highest numbers of illiterate persons as compared to other Continents, we are constantly being told what to do, we have no seat in the UN Security Council. We are permanently indebted and our debt is always guaranteed. Our leaders cowl in shame at international summits and are rarely taken seriously by the International Community. We are in state of confusion. As we try to celebrate or commemorate Africa Freedom Day, let us for salute our gallant freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives for our independence. Without them I would not be writing this article and let us be reminded of the many challenges that independence has brought us, we can only say we are truly free, when our economic, cultural and social values as well as spiritual beliefs are respected and fulfilled respectively.

Posted by Kunda on May 25, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry