Pan Africanism and Global Transformations – Aklog Birara’s Presentation

Pan Africanism and Global Transformations: the past, present and future of an idea

Aklog Birara, PhD

“The Quest for Dignity, Freedom and Unity”

Symposium on Pan Africanism, Howard University, January 13,2012

Appreciation:

Aklog Birara (PhD)

I like to thank the organizers of this important conference in general and Dr. Alem Hailu, a friend for many years, and Ato Tamirat, the chair of this session in particular.  Over the past couple of hours, I have learned a great deal from distinguished speakers and look forward to more. Knowledge is fundamental to meaningful change. I am heartened by the fact that the history of Pan Africanism traces its roots in Ethiopian history, culture and identity. This ancient country whose evolution and history have come to be questioned by some quarters is a symbol of black history, identity and resilience.

The topic I have been asked is vital not only for Ethiopians and other Africans, but also for people of African origin around the globe: here in the United States, in the Caribbean and in Central and South America where millions of people of African origin live and work.

Pan Africanism is an idea. I believe that it should be a destiny. As in the past, Pan Africanism and the ongoing struggle for African unity are about control of our destiny, including mastery over Africa’s vast natural resources.  I will tell you the reason why? I start with the premise that Pan Africanism is still an unfinished business. The vast majority of Africans do not yet enjoy their own natural resources. There is a consensus that Africans are nowhere closer to genuine continental unity today than they were when I was in elementary school.  For example, indicators show that the African Union initiated transformation for the region by 2025 or the Millennium Development Goals of the UN by 2015 are not likely to be reached. It is not because Africans do not work hard or do not aspire to achieve economic prosperity that others have or will soon achieve. It is primarily because of repressive and poor governance. This is not the narrative that is compelling to me; and I am sure to you. It is also some of the progress that is taking place in the region. It is increases in incomes and the middle class. We need to note progress where this exists without forgetting hurdles where they also persist.

Enormous physical and social changes have taken place throughout the continent and the rest of the world that defy the imagination. I know. In travelling and working in a number of African countries, I am amazed by the rapid physical and social changes throughout the region. The formation of larger and larger middle classes in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Cape Verde, Kenya, Mauritius, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia etc. are among the indicators of these changes. For sure, progress is uneven. There is income and wealth concentration in some countries that is shocking. These divergences and anomalies can be traced to history and the distortions that emanate from slavery, colonialism, the Cold War and multinational corporate and elite greed.

What are the roots of these changes?

I like to take you back to history and try to connect the dots in the march for human dignity, freedom, equality and social justice in Africa. These principles and values are fundamental in the formation of Pan Africanism. There were powerful political, ideological and economic forces that shaped history at the time. Equally, there were imaginative and visionary leaders behind these ideas.

When I was in elementary and secondary school in Ethiopia, there were only two independent countries in Africa: Ethiopia and Liberia. Ethiopia had established a continuous independent identity, culture and sovereignty spanning thousands of years. It is ironic though that this glorious past that black people around the globe also share, has been assaulted by external and internal groups that do not wish to see a unified, prosperous, multiethnic, multi-religion, fair, just and pluralist Ethiopia that will continue to serve as a symbol of African identity and pride. Ethiopia served as a beacon or at least a symbol of African and black independence and dignity. This cannot be denied regardless of how one feels about the history of political and social governance in the country.

Let me turn to the forces that shaped Pan Africanism

1. Slavery and the presence of blacks in North America and the Caribbean; and to some extent central and South America. The roles of intellectuals such as Marcus Garvey, Frantz Fanon were pivotal. Africans had its global advocates and still does.

1. The Berlin Conference sponsored by Bismarck that carved African like meat into pieces. Africa’s continued ethnic, religious and other sectarian based conflicts that cost billions of dollars per year and keep millions destitute and poor and intractable to resolve emanate from this division. Interests linger and divisions baffle outsiders.  
2. 3.    The Cold War and intense rivalry between the USSR and the West led by the United States. Independent and liberation movements as well as newly independent countries played the Superpowers against one another; and the Superpowers tried to use their military and financial muscles to influence events in Africa. Hidden behind the façade of support is national interest. I remember, while at Johns Hopkins University, a heated argument with a Professor who almost derailed my doctoral program. The contention was this. Does Portugal have a right to occupy Angola and Mozambique by force using NATO weapons? His response was of course, yes. Mine was no. The debate on legitimacy to occupy and hold a nation against its will was part of the Western legal argument at the time. Razing villages and killing innocent people and exploiting their resources were accepted. In some measure, this is also the case today; except it comes from African governing elites. This is why I suggest that Africans need to commit themselves to be masters of their own national resources and destiny.

1. 4.    The intellectual left in many Sub-Saharan African countries that rejected colonialism and Imperialism and sided with liberation movements across the globe was critical. It boosted the confidences of nationalist leaders in places such as Guinea Bissau, Algeria and numerous others. There were more interfaces of knowledge and experience than before. A sense of belonging prevailed over a sense of division.

1. The Second World War and the brazen invasion of Ethiopia, the only independent African country. The atrocities inflicted on civilians, napalm etc. enraged Africans and people of African origin everywhere. International public diplomacy is largely rooted in the atrocities committed by fascism and Nazism. The League of Nations failed to prevent aggression. It is this naked aggression and Emperor Haile Selassie’s enduring plea that history recalls.

1. 6.    Here, I like to highlight the roles of African intellectuals and emerging leaders. People can differ on Emperor Haile Selassie’s domestic and national legacy for a variety of reasons. What is incontestable is that his vigorous diplomacy following Italian invasion is a turning point. In 1936, he addressed the League and said this: “I am here today to claim justice which is due to my people….There is no precedent for a people being victim of injustice—the systemic extermination of a nation by a barbarous means.” He then warned thus. “Apart from the Kingdom of the Lord there is not on this earth any nation that is superior to any other.” He continued, “Should it happen that a strong Government finds it may with impunity destroy a weak people, then the hour strikes for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgment. God and history will remember your judgment.”

Collective security failed to respond to the weak. Aggressors exercised their superiority over the weak, this time involving others in the superior camp. The world was soon after engulfed in one of the most brutal wars ever fought.

1. 7.    The key theme that I gain from this appeal to the League is that “weak people” all over Africa and the rest of the colonized world suffered unimaginable atrocities physically, emotionally; and lost decades of opportunity to advance their own development.

1. 8.    The struggle against colonialism and for national liberation and independence started in earnest after the Second World War. Ethiopia regained its independence and immersed itself in global diplomacy and collective security: sending troops to Korea in the 1950s and the Congo in the 1960s. Its participation was not solely based on the ideals of collective security. It was principally driven by national interest and close ties to the United States and the West. This has its own pluses and minuses that I do not wish to diagnose or speculate. It is vital though to remember that Ethiopia’s technological backwardness and material poverty did not prevent it to exercise a determined effort in support of African dignity, honor and soul. The African spirit of Pan Africanism is ultimately about the African soul that no one can take away. It is this soul and spirit that people of African origin took with them to Argentina, Brazil and many other places.

Emerging Africa and Transformation

Following the end of the War, the wave of decolonization accelerated. Independence of African is among the most substantial transformations of the 20^th century. What colonialists designed and imposed on the peoples of Africa crumbled in succession not because colonial powers saw the injustice they caused; but because of the determination of oppressed people everywhere to free themselves from the yoke of colonialism and regain their honor and soul.

Between 1958 and 1960 alone, 16 African countries had achieved independence. By the late 1960s, 48 countries had become independent. Between 1974 and 1990, another 12 African countries joined the family of independent nations. A few such as Algeria, Angola and Mozambique gained freedom after bloody wars that cost the lives of millions. The latest addition is South Sudan. External factors helped too. For example, newly independent African nations helped others that were still under colonial domination. Given the Cold War, the Socialist camp was instrumental in supplying arms and logistics to numerous liberation fronts.

Leftist orientation among a few newly independent African countries was pivotal in influencing attitudes from ex-colonial powers and the US. Rivalry has its own pitfalls and merits as I will show in the last part of my presentation. The ideological rifts among newly independent African countries forced different alliances: market and Western oriented countries such as Ethiopia, Liberia, Kenya and others had strong ties with the West; while left leaning and ultra nationalist countries such as Egypt, Somalia, Ghana under Nkrumah and others has closer ties to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. One thing common that I deduct from these orientations and alliances is that African countries did not establish indigenous based socioeconomic and political governance that mirrors their own cultures, history and aspirations.

African countries have yet to develop indigenous culture and blend it with the best from any other country or region to serve their interests.

Military Dictatorship

These tendencies and the slow pace of development within newly independent African countries led to another phenomenon from which many countries have not recovered. This is emergence of an era of military dictatorship. This form of dictatorship is not much different from others forms in that new African countries were not able to achieve peace that would in turn lead to sustainable and equitable development for their populations. I will be specific. In post-independence, 33 countries experienced some form of military dictatorship. The consequences are immense. I will mention only two:

i)                   Massive resources were squandered through corruption and illicit outflow of precious foreign exchange; and,

ii)                Military dictatorships undermined the formation of civil society and civic and democratic culture.

The expectations of Africans were dashed by their own leaders. Foreign domination was replaced by domestic oppression. The most educated people left their countries and immigrated mostly to the West.

Africans suffered from another equally devastating phenomenon—this one a legacy of the colonial past. I refer to civil wars that emanate from the colonial inheritance of ethno-linguistic fragmentation and divide and rule. At least 20 countries (40 percent of Sub-Saharan African nations) experienced horrific civil wars, including genocide in Rwanda and Darfur. It is this phenomenon that led to the formation of South Sudan as an independent state.

When there is oppression and discrimination, there is a huge price to pay. Oppression and discrimination are not cost neutral.

The “Lost Decade.”

Political instability, constant civil strife, dictatorship and corruption led to what is called the “Lost Decade” in Africa. Let me mention a few attributes of this devastating period. These include “political instability, violent civil strife, economic and social stagnation, unbelievable destitution and hunger, failed states, total economic collapse.” Africa’s nascent middle class was hit hard. Gold, diamonds and other resources were smuggled out. People resented their governments and wanted out. This led to one of the largest immigrations of social capital in the world and compounded the devastating impact of slavery that took out millions of Africa’s ablest sons and daughters. This is institutional and social capital de-capitalization—a source of dependency.

Between 1960 and 1987, 100,000 of the most highly educated and best trained Africans left the continent. Between 1986 and 1990 alone, 60,000 middle level managers followed. Africa’s brain drain is central to this decade and to the struggle for sustainable and equitable development. No country can achieve sustainable, equitable and indigenous development without human capital. What did African governments do? They went to the IMF and the World Bank for bailouts and received a hard pill to swallow. This is the so called structural adjustment program that created more havoc, reducing budgets for schools, teachers, health facilities, sanitation and electricity and so on. The panacea became the problem. It seems that it was acceptable to treat the African continent as perpetually dependent and an experiment of all sorts of development programs dictated by donors.  Political elites exploit this condition to advance their interests.

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