African leaders, youth are sick tired of manipulation, plunder of continent
By Janet Karim
34I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’ ” 35That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 2 Kings 19:34, 35
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a luxuriant native tree, 36 but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found. 37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace. – Psalm 37:35-37
Rulers and the people of nations outside Africa (made up of people that do not look like us (Black folk) in 1619 waged an undeclared war on Africa and its people.
The war rages on, and African leaders and youth are on a “war cry of wolf,” such that the undeclared war against Africa, this week escalated with the entry into the fray of the BRICS Summit, a familiar to but not doing things like the NATO alliance.
BRICS, a giant of another kind this past week at the BRICS Summit has commenced its addition strategy by adding six very influential players in world politics (Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) to its membership.
The BRICS, a bloc made up of the world’s top emerging economies, has taken a major step in expanding its reach and influence with the membership increase.
The three African countries, with rallying points from vocal African leaders, whose voices are being championed by African continent media choristers like Swahili Nation Network and Cool Buzz, and young African populations that makeup close to two-thirds of the continent’s 1,465,715,361 (in other words, 1.5 billion) people.
China and India trail Africa with 1.41 billion each. These are no mean statistics. But of all the colonial powers that colonized Africa and other areas, France is the worst of the cruel, demeaning, and plunderers such as the British, the Dutch, Portugal, and Germany. These past weeks, African leaders and youth have spewed venom and screams and shouts of “get out of Africa.”
AS African leaders continue to make front-page headlines (appearing mostly in African media), young people or the elders who chose to forget, is it good to remember how Africa got to where it is now?
How is it that the European Union can have the temerity, the deception of helping Africa when all it is doing is entering through the back door to recolonize it and other areas? What urgent action can be taken to STOP this daylight plunder, abuse, and manipulation of the continent and its vast empowering mineral resources?
The first step is that of Africa taking back the narrative about Africa, its leaders, and the story of Africa. The general narrative about Africa is the widespread poverty and corrupt leaders.
As for poverty, the recent coup in former French colonies highlights the way the French have been plundering its colonies like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. France came in to take from the bellies of the African soil such precious minerals like uranium, and turn it into electricity, making billions of dollars; it then turned around and threw some pennies to its former colonies.
On how Africa continues to wallow in poverty complicated by West-inspired corruption, it would be good to recall the lineup of Africa’s connection with imperialist European nations.
As explorers “discovered” lands in the new world, their need for labor turned them to Africa, plundering human resources. This was followed by colonialism, independence complete with propped-up dictators, and the call for democratization of nations on the continent.
The latter was a weak excuse for the Western allies to redirect vast resources of the World Bank and IMF from Africa to the newly formed East European nations (former Soviet Union satellites).
Africa is home to the world’s poorest nations the world, it is also home to some precious minerals including, gold, diamonds, bauxite, uranium, rubies, iron ore deposits, and oil.
The Western allies, joined in recent decades by China, India, and Russia, have come to Africa like it their backyards, and excavated the resources, in many cases causing in-country factions to fight each other. Not a single one of these foreign nations police or cautions each other, the smoke screen of human rights in Africa is a call that is hypocritical and only serves as the screen hiding their own inhuman treatment of African nations.
With the African leaders and youth all fired up with the empowering BRICS, the One Africa advocates are in a sense calling a cease and desist to the wanton plunder of Africa’s resources. Joining this frenzied call is South African President Cyril Ramaposa, advocating for Africa to process its resources, Africa to join hands, and solve its own problems.
In other words, stop plundering Africa, stop improvising Africa, and stop trying to recolonize Africa through deceptive means like the ACP-EU post-Cotonou Agreement; most of all African nations should no longer allow any foreigners to the continent to demean humiliate, disgrace, or lower the respectability of Africa’s leaders.
Africa must stand together to stop the European Union from forcing African leaders to sign the deceptive ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement. The agreement is seeped with all the signs of corrupt richer nations taking advantage of poorer nations.
The time has come that African nations are truly regarded as equals on the global platform, with respect for their people, with their own social values.
In this, the West must stop bullying African nations on the calls for human rights that are advancing elements that are not in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
As a youth in Africa, write to your members of parliament and other leaders requesting them not to sign the ACP-EU, which is a devious move to amend African laws on abortion, sexuality education to minors, and the LGBTQ agenda.
Your action matters:
1. Brief your government, parliaments, colleagues within the AU, RECs, and your UN delegations about the harmful ACP-EU Agreement elements by sharing this document and other resources that will soon be posted (by Oct. 31) on a new site at www.DeviousEUTreaty.org;
2. Request the European Commission to provide written assurances that no provisions in this binding Agreement will be interpreted to promote abortion, CSE, or LGBT rights that have not achieved consensus at the UN; and
3. Clarify with the European Commission whether this treaty is to be understood to trump national laws and clarify who will be the custodians of the financial aid.
CONCLUSION
13For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.- Isaiah 41:13
