AU needs to gravitate towards self-sustenance
togetherness inherited from such nationalists as Kwame Nkrumah who after Ghana’s independence remarked that the independence was insignificant and could not be celebrated as long as the whole of Africa was not free.
“President Mugabe still carries the real values from where the struggle for African liberation was premised,” said Mr Mukusha.
He pushed for self-sustenance during his tenure as AU chairperson and fulfilled his promise to the AU. He demonstrated in no small a measure that he is indeed a man of action.
His actions, Mr Mukusha said, dovetails into the Nyerere philosophy of self-reliance and hard work marked by his famous statement, “mgeni siku mbili; siku ya tatu mpe jembe” which in English means “treat your guest as a guest for two days, on the third day give him a hoe!”
He added that while there was nothing bad in Africa getting assistance from development partners, there was supposed to be a certain basis — a foundation from where it intended to build its funding from. Mr Mukusha said it was unfortunate that some African leaders lacked the consciousness of their consciousness as Africans.
Another political commentator Prof Nhamo Mhiripiri said Africa’s problems should be located in the premise of colonialism where there is perpetual attachment to the structures thereof. He said from that premise the West had a moral obligation to fund some of Africa’s developmental programmes, adding that this was not to say Africa should not work to find sustainable mechanisms to fund its own progress. He said it was not always the case that funding from the West comes with strings attached.
“What we should understand is that the problems of Africa emanates from colonialism and its structures. So I think beyond humanitarian, the West has a moral obligation to fund some of Africa’s development programmes. In as much as Africa may want to divorce and disassociate itself from the West, there seem to be a historical perpetual attachment and it’s not always that the funds comes with strings attached. It is important however, that Africa develops its mode of funding but the problem is that how significant and how much of our own resources as a continent can go towards funding the programmes,” said Prof Mhiripiri.
He contends that there is no logic in refusing donor money and humanitarian assistance because to be humane means to transcend some narrow economic, social and political boundaries. He added that what was important was to evaluate whether the aid comes with conditions.
“If the aid comes with strings attached which strings would be against our values as a people then we can refuse it but there is no logic in saying no to aid just because it comes from the West,” said Prof Mhiripiri.
Political analyst Mr Richard Mahomva demonstrated how much the continental body relies on donors saying the AU was conceived in 1999 — and launched in 2002. The construction of its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2011, he said, was fully funded by the Chinese government and built by the China State Construction Engineering Corp and was handed over to the AU in 2012. He said Africa needed to look from within itself if it was to detach itself from the perpetuated dependency on donor funding.
He posits that the donors always construct their epistemology aligned to certain trajectories, such as issues of homosexuality.
Mr Mahomva said the attachment of conditions to the aid was something that Africa had to worry about as the West always safeguards its interests in African countries without necessarily striking a balance with the indigenous people’s interests.
He added that the President’s gesture was supposed to be taken as an example of what the continent should do if it was serious about self-sustenance.
“We have countries that have always disappointed other African countries and are viewed as extensions of Europe in Africa.
“Botswana for example has positioned itself in pseudo neo-liberal trajectory and has always been found guilty of flouting and promoting real Pan African values while South Africa bears the tag of being another Western extension because of its failure to promote real Pan African centred ideas,” said Mr Mahomva. He said as the continent celebrates Africa Day this week, it should take stock of its achievements and reflect on its journey towards selfsustenance and drifting away from the dependency syndrome if its objectives
were to be met.