Africa is worth more than this

THIS was supposed to be the week Africa shone, South Africa in particular. The AU summit was under way in Sandton, the leaders of the continent were gathering to reflect on what’s been achieved and to recommit themselves to the empowerment of women in the context of agenda 2063.

It’s an auspicious date, because it marks the centenary of the AU’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, and breathes life into philosopher Frantz Fanon’s hope that the Third World, as represented by Africa, would be a beacon for the rest of the globe to aspire to, a benchmark upon which to measure themselves against.

All of that was rendered irrelevant by the Omar alBashir saga when our government effectively helped him do a midnight flit to avoid being arrested in terms of a Pretoria High Court ruling.

And, when it couldn’t possibly get any worse; Dylann Roof who murdered nine worshippers at an AfricanAmerican church in the US, was found wearing a jacket emblazoned with the flags of apartheid South Africa and the old Rhodesia on Facebook.

We lost a golden opportunity to change the narrative this week. We should have been telling the story of how Africa will be the new cradle of hope for mankind, explaining in the process how the International Criminal Court is flawed and structurally unfair and what we need instead.

Instead, this week we showed that Africa is still a place where the role of “The Big Man” holds sway, where dictators literally get away with murder and existing laws, even court orders are suborned to achieve this.

And we discovered how South Africa is still the bespoke reference point; the inspiration for racists and haters worldwide.

How very sad.