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Lovemore Ranga Mataire
On August 12, 1998, the soon to be president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, delivered a speech that challenged African politicians at the dawn of the 21st century. In his speech, Mbeki pointedly noted: “An ill wind has blown me across the face of Africa. I have seen the poverty of Orlando East and the wealth of Morningside in Johannesburg. In Lusaka (Zambia) I have seen the poor of Kanyama Township and prosperous residents of Kabulonga. I have seen the slums of Sirulere in Lagos (Nigeria) and the opulence of Victoria Island. I have seen the poor in Mbare in Harare (Zimbabwe) and the quite wealthy of Borrowdale.”
Mbeki’s speech was and is still a landmark address given its incisive characterisation of the dire situation that Africa finds itself in the post-colonial period.
His contention is that liberation movements still have a burden of delivering economic prosperity to the previously marginalised black communities.
It is this realisation of the myriad of complex problems besetting post-colonial Africa today and the need to revisit the principles and values that coalesced nations to fight to dislodge colonialism that has naturally bonded former liberation movements to form a pact to once again remind each other of the unfulfilled promises of that struggle.
It is against this background that southern African liberation movements once again met in Tanzania a fortnight ago to exchange notes on the best strategies to turn political independence into real economic independence.
Buoyed by its landslide victory in the harmonised elections, Zanu-PF attended the meeting with the vigour of having vanquished the might of Western imperial nations that were routing for their proxies in the mould of the MDC.
The meeting which was attended by secretaries-general of former liberation movements in the southern African region met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to map the way forward in the face of the resurgence neo-colonialist forces that continue to threaten the peace and independence of the region.
The meeting brought together Zanu-PF of Zimbabwe, ANC of South Africa, Frelimo of Mozambique, MPLA of Angola, Chama Cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania and Swapo of Namibia.
While the forum must be commended for concretising their deliberations by initiating plans to establish a party school at Iringa in Tanzania, which played host to many liberation movements during the independence struggles of southern Africa, a lot still needs to be done to ensure that the past does not die in the present.
Although the construction of this school could have come much earlier, there is no ambiguity about its symbolical importance. Among other fundamental issues the school is meant to immortalise our shared historical heritage of colonial resistance and triumph and this will act as an inspirational reference for future generations.
It is with no doubt that one of the core factors that led to the consummation of the forum by liberation movements was to ensure that the liberation map is not rolled back into the hands of puppet regimes.
It is a known fact that most Western nations are wary of former liberation movements running affairs of their country given their inflexibility and indefatigability in protecting their political independence and sovereignty.
Unlike most post-liberation parties that have sprouted in most African countries, former liberation movements have generally remained resolute and impervious to Western machinations designed to have unfettered access to resources of their former colonies.
So what is the significance of such gatherings and what are the challenges confronting former liberation movements in the present epoch?
In the words of Paul T. Shipale, the challenge facing liberation movements is to reinvent themselves into vanguard progressive centre left-mass parties that provide informed analysis of a strategic transformational ground and ensure that we don’t play into the hands of those who want to implement regime change in Africa through intellectualised exclusive oligopolistic cartelised elite parties.
The reinvention is crucial in as far as it seeks to find ways of keeping the memory of the liberation struggle alive- its essence and its noble values especially for the young generation clearly lacking an inert emotional attachment to the struggle in the advent of new information technology that has replaced both oral and written record as a primary source of information.
Clearly, it is not enough just to meet and reminisce about a glorious past and issue statements devoid of concrete course of action?
Is it not Chinweizu Ibekwe (Nigerian critic, author and journalist) who contends that we must discuss and debate and criticise everything, including ourselves, so as to minimise error through harvesting our collective wisdom?
Is it not true that truth is but a distillation of error and the only way for us to establish the truth is through a thorough evaluation?
No one benefits from non-discussion when it obfuscates our weaknesses. Liberation movements must not pretend that they are homogenous but must thrash out their differences for in the words of Mao Tse Tung, “thrashing out our differences is part of the active ideological struggle and a weapon for ensuring unity within the movement.”
It is my fervent view that liberation movements must walk the talk and must clearly define the paradigm that governs their meetings including clearly defining the ideological framework within which they have continued to exist.
It is inevitable for them to talk about unity without any reference to pan-Africanism for Pan-Africanism or African renaissance must find expression within the framework of using it as a rallying tool and as an ideological basis upon which future struggles must be anchored.
Liberation movements must be cognisant of the fact that there cannot be any economic independence before the construction of a pan-African identity derived form a shared goal and common social historical experiences struggling to lift Africa from its current status as marginal, oppressed and largely written off continent.
Just as it was a rallying point in the liberation of Africa, pan-Africanism must continue being the major adhesive component in gluing together liberation movements and ensure that the feeling of defeat is defeated in the minds of Africans.
The challenge facing liberation movements is not just to safeguard the ideals of the liberation struggle but through it build an African confident of himself and be able to exist as an equal being in the community of nations.
Another challenge facing liberation movements is that whilst they were able to craft among people an anti-ethnic common identity during the struggle, the post-colonial period has seen people asserting new identity interests.
There is therefore an urgent need to develop a shared sense of identity that recognises these multiple identities and multiple claims without destablising the essence of that pan-African unity.
Liberation movements must be able to build fortresses strong enough to deal with Afro-pessimists who stress the enormity of the problems that divide us rather than those things that unite us and start with the presumption of self-defeat thereby clouding their judgment and limit their imagination.
Since liberation movements have their history dating back to the formation by Julius Nyerere of the Pan-African Freedom Movement of East, Central and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA), they must continue to reassert their having strong footholds in the ideological structure and direction taken by such regional bodies as Sadc.
Safety nests must be put in place to monitor the emergence of reactionary forces whose main aim is to undermine the sanctity of the armed struggle as the basis of nationhood.
It is also significant for liberation movements to devise ways and means of synergising their economies through various ways including coming up with a single currency with the sole aim of uplifting the once marginalized black majority.
Already, Zimbabwe has led the way through its land reform programme and the indigenisation programme whose main thrust is to make the black man the owner of the means of production. While it is acknowledged that individual nations have varying economic dynamics, the imperative of equitable land reform is more than apparent.
Even if different influences have shaped our thinking, our basic frame of reference should always be our unique African heritage anchored on the ideals of Pan-Africanism.
One of the issues that most liberation movements have failed to do in the post-colonial period is to speak in unison at international forums. As a result the African voice has always come out as very fragmented and largely ignored.
The lack of unity has made it easier for agents of neo-colonialism to entrench themselves in our political system and in turn threatening our own survival as individual nations.
It is also my view that in the long run southern African liberation movements must find common ground with other former liberation movements in and outside the continent. This will make our continued struggle for political and economic autonomy have a global appeal.
Online Reporter