Online Reporter
We have been told again and again that the modern world revolves around Western democracy, good governance and accountability, and that Africa has a dearth of these.
Like toddlers in pre-school, this narrative has been repeated to us, and before even thinking about it, we found ourselves regurgitating it and even singing it in our media and little everywhere else.
But is this mantra right and legitimate?
We have found ourselves being taught, and subsequently examined, on how well we govern ourselves, and the examiner is Western Europe, our most benevolent teacher, who chooses to be both a referee and a player in one match.
But in the thriftiness of time, we have learnt that the devil is preaching sanctity and is loving our singing along. The devil is running away with the Bible, while we watch with awe.
From Cape to Cairo, and from Horn of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea, colonial imprints are still there for all and sundry to see. The former colonisers are not letting go. No!
One does not have to sweat or open his eyes widely to see the contempt, the blatant disregard for what Africans want to do for themselves, the condescending attitude, and the rabid desire to keep trampling on the African vision alive and prop up the independence and liberation trajectory.
Zimbabwe, for instance, has a whole generation disenfranchised because the people’s party, the ruling Zanu PF, decided to do what is right by addressing a long-standing historical land tenure imbalance.
Western Europe’s response to the land reform was to punish Zimbabwe with its economic might, and what Zimbabwe lost since 2001, cannot be replaced, and it is folly for Western Europe to teach us about tolerance and human rights when the right to our land resource formed the basis of our being punished. Fusty!
It is hard to forgive Western Europe.
Today, Zimbabwe has done exceptionally well in agriculture, surpassing previous records with much ease, without former colonial white farmers.
In another case, the French turned the Sahel region into hell, ignoring all facets of democracy, good governance, tolerance, and accountability, disregarding the birthright of the people of that region. The French still see themselves as superior.
Like during the liberation struggle against colonialism in the 1960s and 70s, it took brave Russia to assist the progressive forces in Sahel region to realise their dignity and independence.
To date, the French remain adamant and wish to maintain hegemony on the resources of that region at the expense of the original people who are the rightful beneficiaries.
Is it not blatant cruelty for the French government under Emmanuel Macron, to take money from the Sahel and invest in propping up Ukraine’s in its war against Russia.
In France’s thoughtless and brazen disregard of its former colonies in Africa, it believes Africans in the Sahel should have their resources taken from them and send to help the Zelensky administration. Are Ukrainians superior and more in need that the Africans in the Sahel?
There is a shortage of schools, health facilities, food and many basics in the Sahel, hence there is no justification to take money from there and abuse it in Ukraine.
That can only be done by racists, who have a blatant disregard of Africans. The Sahel needs its resources and deserves to cut economic win-win deals with countries of its choice outside Western Europe.
Thank God, Russia is a worthy friend for the progressive thinking people of the Sahel and now that Africans there are realising their full independence. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are now totally different countries, and more countries in the Gulf of Guinea and central Africa should follow suit and shame the French. In their unity is strength. France has proved very scornful.
The US has smelled the coffee and is withdrawing its Africom from the region because its intelligence has told it that the times are changing. The US is now using more subtle guerrilla tactics there, playing hide and seek to avoid brazen detection.
The current crop of progressive-thinking African leaders is very clever, highly educated, and connected. They understand this is not the time for piecemeal independence. Life is real. Servant leadership is sacrosanct.
In one of the latest moves that proves that the West is not resting on its laurels when it comes to controlling Africa, the West is making frantic efforts on behalf of Ukraine to railroad the Global South in its broad totality to get rid of senior Russian officials from the region, by creating a Special Tribunal outside the statutes of the United Nations.
The conflict in Ukraine is not ours, it is not for Africa and Africans. Besides, there is no such international legislative framework to railroad Africans in all this.
What is there for us if we support Ukraine? Africa and the Global South have no clear understanding of how the decisions under such a tribunal will have legal effect and the tribunal’s link to the decisions made under the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Global South has more teething issues, there are issues of hunger to deal with, infrastructure development, health, food security, and the tribunal does not in any way bring food to the table.
The Global South knows how Russia has provided life-changing grain supplies in hunger-stricken areas and into the coffers of FAO, despite the war. Europe should fight its own wars, without involving Africans, until such a time when they allow us to decide their own destiny.
After the said tribunal sounds more like a fallacy because it is not being done under the United Nations. This raises the question of legitimacy and jurisprudence. What will make the court independent and just?
The biggest worry is that the tribunal will be a kangaroo court, very private and subject to abuse. It is illegal, it’s judgments will be a legal nullity.
Should senior Russian officials be a problem to Africa and its ethos, Africans should chase them away on their own. African do not need Western Europe to deal with transgressions.
Should senior Russian officials become a problem in any part of the Global South, those countries have the right to deal with them and do not need to be lectured upon by Western Europe. Why should a devil incarnate be treated with holiness?
Africans are not stupid. They see things, and over the years, they have been learning a lot from Western Europe’s attitude towards developing nations.
Many Africans, in particular, and those in the Global South, are aware that the special tribunal, which is not as special as they want to put it, is a tactical distraction from the real issues raised against Israel in its massacre of Palestinians and the crimes committed by the new Syrian leaders against the Alawites.
Western Europe wants the Global South to rubber-stamp its projects and sanitise them, but this has very serious consequences and implications to the nations involved.
The Global South has its critical issue to solve the Ukrainian conflicts, which is the least of the list, that is, if it there at all.
Isdore Guvamombe is a Zimbabwean journalist known by the sobriquet The Villager.
