Online Reporter
Nyore Madzianike in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
VICE President Kembo Mohadi has called on African nations to unite and fight for economic emancipation.
He also implored Tanzania to once again take the lead in the quest for economic independence, as it did during the liberation struggle.
The VP said Africa has all the required resources to win the fight for economic freedom.
Speaking on the sidelines of his visit to Bagamoyo Training Camp, located in the Coast Region of Tanzania, Vice President Mohadi said the liberation war cannot be declared over until Africa achieves total economic emancipation.
Bagamoyo Training Camp, which has since been transformed into Kaole Wazaza School of Agriculture, gave sanctuary to liberation war luminaries such as President Mnangagwa, the late national heroes-Josiah Tongogara, Herbert Chitepo, Solomon Mujuru and Vitalis Zvinavashe.
The late Cde Samora Machel and Joaquim Chissano were also sheltered at the same camp.
The Vice President said the legacy of the freedom fighters and the history of the liberation struggle must be preserved to give youths an opportunity to understand how it was waged and how it ended.
The Vice President said preserving such history is important for the prosperity of young people and future generations.
He noted that forthcoming generations can also learn from that history.
“Africa is liberated politically but we are still in another vicious struggle, war, against those that oppressed us and that is of economic independence, economic emancipation.
“Africa has to be free. Africa has to free itself from the shackles of economic bondage. We have to fight together. Africa has to be united. We have all the resources that we require as Africa,” VP Mohadi said.
He said after Tanzanians attained independence in 1961, they decided to subject themselves to “all sorts of problems, with those that were persecuting their fellow Africans in Southern Africa”.
“Indeed, we became, as the (former) President of Tanzania puts it, we became the headquarters of the liberation struggle in Southern Africa, and we played a pivotal role, and which we will always cherish.
“So, Tanzania, you have freed Southern Africa. Southern Africa obtained its political emancipation through your efforts. I would like you, as well, to take the lead, as you have done before, to lead us in economically emancipating ourselves,” he said.
“We look upon you to give us a hand in that one. So, it is our struggle together. We are not free yet. We don’t own the means of production,” he said.
The Vice President bemoaned the lack of value addition in Africa, saying most raw materials are exported abroad and return as expensive finished products.
“While the little bit that we have we produce in our countries, we send it out of our countries in raw form to be beneficiated by other people, and then sold back to us at very exorbitant prices.
“So, it is a high time that we do it ourselves. Beneficiate whatever we have in our countries and sell that as finished products,” he said.
“We will never be free as Africans, as long as our economies are controlled by other people. We need to take charge. We need to control our own natural resources”.
The Vice President said it is none other than Africans who will economically liberate the continent.
He implored other nations to take the lead in the fight for economic freedom.
Vice President Mohadi also toured the African Liberation Heritage Centre where liberation war artefacts and history are documented.
At the centre, the Vice President watched a short documentary chronicling the history of the struggle, featuring the late former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and other liberation icons.
