HON. ODINGA - THE PLACE OF AFRICA IN 21ST CENTRURY

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THE PLACE OF AFRICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
By Raila Odinga, Member of Parliament for Langata, Nairobi, Kenya; Member, Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya

31st Pan African Student Leadership Conference
Minnesota State University at Mankato, February 22-24, 2007
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“We all want a United Africa, United not only in our concept of what unity connotes, but united in our common desire to move forward together in dealing with all the problems that can best be solved only on a continental basis . . . If Africa's multiple resources were used in her own development, they could place her among the modernized continents of the world. But her resources have been, and still are being used for the greater development of overseas interests.”
– Kwame Nkrumah

I thank the organizers of the 31st Pan African Student Leadership Conference at Minnesota State University at Mankato for inviting me to share with you my thoughts, reflections, ideas and vision about Pan Africanism.

I also extend my deep and sincere appreciation, specifically to the Minnesota State University at Mankato administration, and generally to the entire university community for making it possible for my trip to occur and for the warm welcome you have given me.

Despite the chilly weather, my heart is buoyed and warmed up by your generosity.

The issue of unity – real, genuine and practical Pan African unity – is close to my own heart, and is the main topic of this paper. I am not here talking about African “assembly” or “organization of Africans and/or of African states”.

My primary focus and interest is on true African unity, conceptually, at its most genuine and practical sense. This is akin to the unity that you experience – and have experienced here in the United States of America – since the end of the Great American Civil War of 1861-1865, and after the introduction of confederation.

I am here talking about the kind of unity that will render our national boundaries irrelevant as geo-political instruments and transform them into pure administrative lines. Essentially, in this vision I am attempting to articulate, the current borders separating African states and dividing African peoples into sub-tribes and clans will no longer be a hindrance to thriving commerce, free movement of people and positive social interactions. In stead, the borders will resemble your super highways (here in the U.S.A.) - separating different states but injecting no negative ills into the society. Lines of freedom and prosperity if you will!

My Pan African vision for the 21st century is an Africa with no hyphens. An immutable union of peoples unremittingly focused on the Great Continent’s economic prosperity, political stability and technological advancement; an Africa ready to take off and resume its deserved place among the world’s developed and civilized continents.

I am talking about a united Africa that will reclaim its lost glory and pomp.

It reminds me of Dr. Kwameh Nkrumah’s rally in Accra in 1960 when he unequivocally termed African Unity the sine qua non of African progress, prosperity and development. He stated that “all independent states in Africa should work together to create a Union of African States”. Shortly after that, he courageously declared in a radio interview that Ghana was prepared to surrender its sovereignty in the interest of a Union of African States (U.S.A.) as soon as that union became practicable.

The declaration was audacious! Akin to what others are saying about Barack Obama’s presidential candidature here in America. It has left a long-lasting sizzling effect.

The Pan African fire is still burning
The patriarchs of Pan-Africanism – George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Chancellor Williams, Kwameh Nkrumah, W.E.B. Du Bois and C.L.R. James - may be gone, but the fire they ignited is still burning. Over the decades, both Pan-Africanists and the movement of Pan Africanism have experienced and encountered challenges, contradictions and temporary setbacks. However, the sprit of Pan Africanism remains alive, restless, active and potent.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was the most forceful, eloquent and coherent Pan Africanist that ever lived. He consistently and persistently made the case for continental integration like no one else before or after him. He pursued the vision of a United States of Africa with vigour, determination and courage. In fact, many believe that he sacrificed his presidency and ultimately his life because of the Pan African dream.

Although many African leaders regard (and have regarded) the idea of a United States of Africa as naïve, impractical and unattainable, the debate, dream, vision and hope have been kept alive through Nkrumah’s books, the continuing influence of his ideas and a regeneration of young idealistic minds like those who have organized this conference.

In his book, I Speak of Freedom (1961), Dr. Nkrumah reminded all Africans that imperialism had so thoroughly distorted and disarticulated African social formations that only continental unity could save the region from further decay, deterioration and possible subjugation.

In Africa Must Unite (1963), Dr. Nkrumah presented a clear agenda for the establishment of an African common market to complement the Union of African States and put in place institutional structures of continental integration. Nkrumah envisioned a united and non-aligned Africa as not just necessary for the realization of its economic and industrial development, but also capable of contributing to world peace.

The amount of interest, discussion and attention Pan-Africanism attracts and generates demonstrates its functional relevance to this day. It also proves the validity and relevance of the political, economic and strategic considerations behind the philosophy.
At its most developed, Pan-Africanism is a coherent ideology in its own right. It is a vision of the past, the present and the future, and a guide to policy and political action. However, at a different level, Pan-Africanism identifies with and captures the essential elements of African cultures.

In the exchanges between Nkrumah, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and others, we were able to see a glimpse of both structural and social obstacles to Pan-Africanist consciousness and to African unity.

Those opposed to Nkrumah’s ideas for Africa baptized his vision “personal ambition.” According to Nkrumah’s detractors, he was purportedly interested in African unity as a convenient selfish leverage for his ambition to become the first president of the United States of Africa. And, of course, these accusations were mostly baseless.

Except for one concession: Nkrumah, like the majority of the first generation post-independence leaders, mistakenly equated the quest for African unity with the notion of a “classless” society.
This was to be given greater expression in the ideas of Nyerere who refused to admit that social classes with irreconcilable differences existed in Africa or Tanzania until a decade after his Ujamaa experiment was rendered ineffective.

When Nyerere eventually but reluctantly abandoned the Ujamaa experiment in Tanzania, African states jettisoned the spirit of Pan-Africanism, and followed their seemingly individual and individualized selfish ways. In reality, the ways they took were those of subservience to imperialism.

In the context of the pressures of the Cold War as well as poverty, food and technology dependence, underdevelopment, foreign manipulation and intimidation, African states struggled amongst themselves to provide better concessions and conditions to imperialism – even when it was openly inimical to their peoples’ interests.

Consequently, both imperialistic interests and the African elite became major obstacles to the realization of African unity.
Being a creation of imperialism, the African elite shamelessly betrayed the ideals of Pan-Africanism and African unity in addition to undermining the ideals for which the independence struggles were fought. They used, abused and misused state power they had inherited, acquired through deceipt or collaboration to terrorize, suppress and oppress progressive and patriotic Africans.

The newly inducted elites drove popular forces underground, suffocated civil society, closed all democratic avenues for positive change, neglected workers, peasants, rural areas and rural producers, and escalated the class divisions in society with themselves at the very top, producing nothing but enjoying all the products of the majority’s labour, sweat and their countries’ resources.

The ruthless and exploitative character of the colonial state was preserved and new so-called security services created to terrorize scholars, journalists, students, professionals and activists.

The result was that a monolithic and unresponsive bureaucracy was conceived and imposed on the people; essential infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and roads were neglected, poorly managed, allowed to run down, while the elites accessed similar facilities abroad.

They privatized the state and all its instruments, public resources and means of coercion, and visited untold violence on all popular and progressive. They watched their peoples become economically poor, disillusioned, angrier and more alienated, as they lined their pockets and feathered their nests. Their personal foreign bank accounts threatened to explode with looted public wealth. Their irresponsible politics precipitated civil wars, strife, rivalries, ethnic and religious violence.

The reckless, irresponsible and criminal tendencies of the new African elite instigated insecurity as some people resorted to armed banditry, robberies and other criminal activities either as the only avenue for making ends meet, or for the justification for expressing their disappointed and rage at the failures of their respective states.

Showing a total disregard for the ideals of Pan-Africanism, the retrogressive African elite forged new – or strengthened old – unequal and exploitative alliances with transnational corporations and opportunistic states, and unashamedly adopted total dependency and subservience to the west as their foreign relations policies, presumably as a way of obtaining technological, political, military, financial support or “aid.”

In short, this opportunistic, corrupt, decadent, parasitic, subservient and ideologically barren cabal ruined Africa and mortgaged the future of the vast majority of our people to imperialistic interests. A cursory glance at their record in Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Benin will suffice.
The whole spirit and ideology of Pan-Africanism moved miles away from what George Padmore, Chancellor Williams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and C.L.R. James had originally articulated. The struggle for the true liberation of Africa became atomized, subverted and misdirected with the result that it lost direction of the essential Pan-Africanist philosophy and action that would have been consistent with those of Patrice Lumumba, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sekou Toure, Samora Michel, Eduardo Mondlane and Modibo Keita.

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The First Pan-African Congress was organized by a Trinidadian Lawyer, Chancellor Williams in 1900. Since then, six other Pan-African Congresses have been held. The Seventh Congress was held in Kampala, Uganda in April 1994, after an unnerving inactivity lasting for decades. The themes in all these congresses were the same: African unity, African liberation from western imperialism, African development, peace and progress.

The 7th Pan African Congress poignantly extolled organization as the basis of change rather than agonization. It is a timely challenge to the African youth, in particular, and to all Pan Africanists generally, to take up the mantle and continue the struggle for a complete and final liberation of Africa.

Why has Pan Africanism had such an enduring appeal?
Why has Pan-Africanism had such enduring appeal? The answer is simple. Whenever we have united and worked together to overthrow tyranny or oppression, or to pursue prosperity, we have done better than facing these perils as individuals.

Whenever we seek to realize our full potential as a people, banding together and uniting helps us to achieve this goal than if or when we seek individual glory. We have learnt that we become prosperous faster when we collaborate with each other than when we resort to lone-ranger tendencies.

Throughout history, whenever Africans or people of African heritage have united and worked together for a common cause or aspiration – be it against slavery, colonialism or post-colonial oppression - they have become stronger, more formidable, potent, intelligent, freer and more prosperous than when they go it alone.

Like all human beings, we have learnt and continue to learn from our historical experiences, whether negative or positive. Through it all, we have recognized that real African Union will not just succeed; it is our only remedy against political, economic and technological oppression and backwardness.

Although the African Union was established in July 2002, the idea that brought it into being was the Pan-Africanist movement and its philosophy. In my view, the African Union represents an institutionalization phase of Pan-Africanism. Nkrumah’s 1960 declaration of a United States of Africa will only become a reality if we move this debate from lecture theatres to the fields, ridges, valleys, mountains, villages, towns and cities of Africa. The dream requires action, consistent and courageous action, to become a living reality!

The new, united Africa envisaged now is based on the principles of Pan-Africanism; Afro-Arab unity, the solidarity of the underdeveloped and undeveloped world; South–South co-operation; the democratization of international relations and politics, institutions and the international trade; the entrenchment of progressive and democratic internationalism; domestic socio-economic and political pluralism and democracy; free, frank, fair and open debate on all public issues; and maximum mass participation in the decision-making processes.

This kind of Africa would also be based on people-oriented and environmentally sustainable development; the enhancement of collective self-reliance, economic and social human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, minority rights; responsible, transparent and accountable freedom in all spheres; religious and ethnic tolerance, equality; and the rule of law.
I call that true liberation!

Pan Africanism and the economy
How do we attain this United States of Africa? I have provided an answer to this crucial question above.

While some Pan African scholars and commentators have proposed a federal state derived from the present states; others have suggested a confederate state from the five regional groupings formed by the Regional Economic Communities, which include the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). But let us always remember Nkrumah’s insightful guide that was freely given to us more than forty-five years ago.

Nkrumah stated that no independent African State can successfully follow an independent course of economic development without having first or concomitantly achieved political independence. Many have tried, in defiance of Nkrumah’s caution, to their peril. This position will not change unless we have a unified policy facilitated by a unified and coherent institutional structure working at the continental level.

In the past seven years, we have witnessed many efforts to address Africa’s vast developmental, socioeconomic, peace, security and governance challenges. Key drivers of these efforts, such as presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olesugun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abulaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Abdulaye Wade of Senegal and John Kuofor of Ghana, and former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano, called termed this new focus “the new African agenda”. This ‘new’ African agenda, or new Pan-Africanism, has sought to establish the African Union and has a purported socio-economic development plan – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). It has also introduced an African Peer Review Mechanism to promote democratic behaviour by African states. Other building blocks include the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad).

With increasing pressure of economic competition from international trade blocs of North America, Europe and Asia, the achievement of economic and political unity on the African continent remains a viable and urgent quest. It is well known that in terms of natural resources, Africa is by far the richest continent in the world. It also has the fifth of the world’s land mass. Moreover, Africans are a resourceful, creative, intelligent and hard-working people. And since no economic development can take root and grow without a resourceful and hardworking population, Africa cannot fail in its quest for economic prosperity.

Just ask American business owners about African workers and you will never doubt the point I am making here.

A critical factor in ensuring economic integration and prosperity is through Africa’s leaders – both within and outside the continent – selling Africa as an investment destination.

On this note, I wish to mention a number of opportunities in Africa that international investors can explore both for their benefit and the benefit of Africa. The development challenges facing Africa, including that of meeting the Millennium Development Goals, require considerable investments, and they call for the use of innovative sources for financing, including the mobilization of financial resources from the Diaspora.

The role of the African Diaspora
In the early 20th Century, Pan-Africanism revived a concept of unifying consciousness that linked all the communities of African descent with the emergent nation-states of the African continent. It is important at this stage to fully acknowledge the contributions of the African diasporic communities to the cause of African unity and liberation. In terms of the struggle for independence from the forces of western imperialism, and the subsequent quest for nationhood and unity, the diasporic community has been in the forefront.

Pan-Africanism is a political philosophy to encourage unity among African-Americans, African-Europeans, African-Latinos, Caribbean Blacks or African Caribbeans and Africans from the continent of Africa.

Peoples of African heritage around the world face a number of similar cultural, socioeconomic and political challenges as they strive to create better futures for themselves and their descendants. These peoples’ international co-operation and shared strategies for bringing about social change is what necessitated and produced Diaspora Pan-Africanism.

By working together, we can accomplish much more. We can harness the limitless potential of a strong partnership between Africa and its Diaspora through institutionalizing the partnership through discussions, debates and negotiations between Africa and its Diaspora.

The Diaspora must go beyond remittances to devising specific financial instruments and institutions that enable them to invest in the major infrastructure and other projects for which large financial resources are needed. This is a task where the Diaspora on Wall Street in New York, the Cities of London, Minneapolis, Paris, Toronto and Nairobi, to name a few examples, are well placed to make an important contribution.

Openness is often viewed in terms of trade liberalization and receptivity to foreign capital. An equally important factor, however, is the existence of a vibrant private sector. Many small and medium-scale businesses in Africa have been established and are operating on the basis of the wealth of ideas and skills learned in the Diaspora, thus facilitating the transfer of technology and good business practices to Africa. Good cooperate citizenship is a culture that the African Diaspora can and must assist African acquire and entrench for its present and future prosperity.

Through strategic business contacts in their respective host countries, the African Diaspora can also help African businesses link to production and supply chains. When Africans themselves start to invest massively in their own countries of origin, this will encourage other potential investors to explore or consider the possibility of serious productive investment on the continent.

Where the Diaspora can also play a significant role is in advocacy for the African continent. Africa continues to be portrayed negatively in the international media, notwithstanding some fundamental improvements in the continent or in specific countries. Such negative portrayals scare or chase away real or potential investors.

The African Diaspora can and should play a substantial role in shifting the negative general international perception of Africa as a violent, insecure and unpredictable environment. Africans living in the Diaspora themselves can act as role models for those in the continent.
Those who occupy strategic positions can also be useful and effective advocates for Africa.

Through building partnerships with key stakeholders and lobbying, as well as incisive research on topical African issues, the fledgling Diaspora ‘think tanks’ can play a crucial role in influencing the policy debate and direction in their host countries on a range of issues of interest to Africa.

Africans in the Diaspora can also use the experience gained in their host societies in order to engage in advocacy in their countries of origin, helping to impart best practice in the formulation of public policies and strengthening political institutions, as well as developing mechanisms for the creation of partnerships between the government, civil society and the private sector, and thus sustaining democracy, and being instrumental in peace-building and reconstruction processes. Impossible to measure but nevertheless important are the intangible flows from the Diaspora of positive new attitudes to work, human rights, gender empowerment, rule of law and healthy life styles. Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, is a good example of a Diaspora Liberian who has returned home and brought her rich experience to bear.

The African Diaspora needs to be proactive, effective and organized in order to make significant and practical difference in or about Africa. The African Union (AU) and its Nepad programme provide a crucial platform for Diaspora contributions to the development of Africa.

The quest for the renewal of durable partnerships between Africa and its people in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and other parts of the world is receiving renewed attention for several reasons.

First, because of the formation of the AU and the implementation of Nepad’s economic platform.

Second, because members of the African Diaspora are now moving to position themselves as influential political and economic powerbrokers in their adopted countries.

Third, because globalization is accelerating the quest for connectivity among people of shared lineage and history.

Fourth, the decision of African leaders at the AU meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February 2003 to eventually recognize the Diaspora as the sixth region of the AU has put a sense of urgency into organized efforts to develop a durable partnership between Africa and its Diaspora.

The first major promise arising from the conference is the increasing wave of information, education and communication about the African Diaspora. Historians in universities, think tanks and other entities are now documenting the earliest lives of Africans in the Diaspora, their contributions to the political, economic, social and scientific development of their adopted countries, and their ongoing, unresolved political and economic issues. In particular, the history and contribution of the Diaspora in Latin America is largely unknown and is now the subject of numerous scholarly inquiries.

Fifth, political leaders of countries with African Diaspora populations are now focusing on the limitless potentials of these communities. Governments of the Caribbean and Brazil in South America are keenly aware of their historic role as independent Africa-Diaspora countries and the need to play a leadership role in the emerging Africa-Diaspora partnerships, a role they had played admirably in the early 20th Century when some of their nationals such as Marcus Garvey and Dudley Thompson were instrumental to the earliest decolonization efforts in Africa.

The role of Nigeria in sending thousands of its professionals to work in various African and Diaspora countries through the Technical Aid Corps was also recognized as a good example of verifiable partnership strategies.

Sixth, one of the most remarkable outcomes of the Addis Ababa conference was the education of many participants on the political and economic plight of Africans in the Diaspora in countries where they are in the minority. Their plight is now better recognized.

Seventh, it appears that there is a growing recognition that the future of Africa-Diaspora partnership lies in creating and sustaining specific collaborative ventures. For instance, African countries with high HIV/Aids burdens can benefit from the expertise of Brazil in the manufacture of cheap anti-retroviral drugs. Caribbean countries can send their nursing staff to African countries with acute shortages.

Business men and women from the Diaspora can go into profitable business ventures with their African counterparts; African countries and countries with Diaspora populations can implement joint undergraduate and graduate exchange and scholarship programs. Think tanks in Africa and the Diaspora can collaborate on issues of mutual interest.

And finally, there is a growing realization that a united African government, perhaps in the mode of the European Union, will help move forward the institutionalization of Africa-Diaspora partnership.

However, these potential areas of collaboration, cooperation and fruitful economic interaction also face challenges. A looming obstacle is how best to develop a shared vision between Africa and its Diaspora, which will require frank debates and discussions, and positive concerted political actions on both sides.

Another obstacle is the difficulties of developing structures and institutions that will move the Africa-Diaspora partnership forward. Canvassed ideas include Africans in the Diaspora creating a common organization to deal with Africa through the Africa Union Commission; the creation of an African Diaspora Economic Community to join the existing regional economic communities in Africa as the focus for regional development; the creation of a distinct Africa-Diaspora Organization independent or horizontally related to the Africa Union; and for countries with Africa Diaspora populations to jumpstart the envisaged partnership by establishing relationships with their African counterparts. Ghana, for example, now has a ministry of tourism and the Diaspora. Such independent Diaspora ministries and departments will be a must if we are to confront all these challenges effectively.

The language barrier remains critical and any Africa-Diaspora partnership would have to navigate through the major European languages spoken in Africa and the Diaspora – English, French, Spanish and Portuguese – and other major African languages.

Ultimately, a strong Africa-Diaspora partnership would require financial, technical and logistic resources. How these resources would be sourced, harnessed and utilized has yet to receive serious consideration. In addition, discussion on how to manage joint resources for an enduring partnership has not taken place. But we cannot sit idly by and wait any longer.

These are very urgent matters that deserve our prompt and serious attention.

The need for strong and durable partnership between Africa and its millions of those who trace their heritage to Africa but reside outside the continent is now widely accepted, and despite obstacles, the course for an Africa-Diaspora partnership appears irreversible.

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When Salim Salim, former secretary-general of the OAU, and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, together with 53 of Africa’s 54 independent nations, formed the new African Union, they created six districts: District One (North Africa), District Two (East Africa), District Three (Southern Africa), District Four (Central Africa), District Five (West Africa), and District Six – African-Americans, Afro-Caribbean people and Afro-Europeans.

This design recognized the dream that people of African heritage that were kidnapped and brutally taken into slavery in chains like animals have cherished for centuries – ever since they were taken from Africa. For many decades, they have sought recognition, acceptance, and a legitimate place in African affairs, and finally this has become a reality.

Nyerere had argued for the building of regional unions and then using these as building blocks to later create the United States of Africa. As stated before, Nkrumah thought otherwise. Dr. Nkrumah restlessly wanted the United States of Africa instituted without undue delay.

Needless to say, if either the Nyerere or the Nkrumah methods are implemented, then the dreams of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Nkrumah and all Pan-Africanists everywhere will finally be realized in its most potent form.

I am urging that the African Diaspora should be directly represented in all the organs of the AU, especially the Pan-African parliament.

Malcolm X clearly understood the connection between Africans in the Diaspora and Africans in Africa. On December 12, 1964, he stated:

“When the African continent in its independence is able to create the unity that’s necessary to increase its strength and its position on this earth, so that Africa too becomes respected as other huge continents are respected, then, wherever people of African origin, African heritage or African blood go, they will be respected–- but only when and because they have something much larger that looks like them behind them.”

Pan Africanism and leadership
The challenge for African leaders is to ensure governmental and institutional legitimacy and accountability. There is a critical need for exceptional leadership in order for the successful implementation of all Pan-African ideals.

Africa needs charismatic leaders with considerable personal magnetism; mobilizers of mean repute; action oriented leaders; peace makers; and committed progressive liberationists to take charge of this crucial process.

Deliberative policy-making is about the challenge to citizens and civil society actors in engaging and influencing government decision-making processes, about proactively taking the mandate to participate and play oversight and representative roles in governance and decision-making. It seeks to bring about a new paradigm in governance and policy-making, where public participation in public policy decision-making is not a favour by governments to citizens – it is a right, and governments have a duty to effect and protect it.

This calls for accessibility, openness and representation, and a move away from policy and governance processes dominated by governmental and NGO elites. It must be conceded that we currently have weak institutions, weak mechanisms and weak structures for public participation in decision-making processes on the continent and in the region. Executive policy-making processes in Africa still remain inaccessible; there is very little public engagement.
The challenge is transformation, and this can only happen by means of critical and independent engagement by the opposition and civil society actors.

Education and Communication
A worldwide look through history will reveal the crucial involvement of students in sparking positive changes. Kwame Ture (formerly Stockley Carmichael) stated, in an address entitled, ‘Education as a Tool for Liberation’, that the purpose of education is “to lead one out of problems”. Once armed with the educational tools and an understanding of the problem as well as the solution, the student is prepared to use his or her youthful energy to unite with others and struggle against oppressive economic and political systems.

African students - both continental and diasporic ones - have left their mark on history with their involvement in the struggle to liberate African people from various forms of oppression. In South Africa, students sparked and led many of the struggles against settler-colonialism, including the Soweto Uprising in 1960.

In the United States of America, student organizations such as SNCC were key in providing people-power for the various boycotts, protests and demonstrations that took place in furtherance of the civil rights movement and the demand for “Black Power”.

The 1970s saw students from Soweto to the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Senegal and Kenya struggling on the African continent against oppressive conditions, both internal and external to the university setting.

Communication has also always been the key to dissolving borders. The oral storytelling tradition was the way in which we Africans shared our news, preserved our history, ensured social cohesion and stability, and charted our future. We should see the media in Africa today as a continuation of our traditions. The African media is critical to fostering regional integration because it can enable the sharing of knowledge among people in different countries who are linked by common problems and common goals.

Perspectives on Africa in the 21st Century
Two important lessons from Africa’s development experience have been that failure to mobilize the resource-allocative functions of the market can only contribute to the inflexibility of the economy; and failure to recognize the weakness of market forces in a number of fundamental areas can lead to failed adjustment. Development policies will therefore have to be keenly responsive to the capacities and weaknesses of both states and markets in Africa and seek to mobilize the former while correcting the latter. Dogmatic faith in either planning or markets will simply not do.

The search for alternative paths to development in Africa today is much more entrenched than ever before, given the changes in the global political economy of the 21st Century. There is need to find a model of a prototype African democratic developmental state to guide the continent’s progress. While other regions such as South-East Asia have managed to make a leap forward, Africa seems to be regressing and the big question is: Why?

Can Africa not learn from the East Asian experience of a developmental state model and use this to guide its own progress?

Many have offered their explanations but, in the end, it is African states and their leaderships that have dismally failed to capitalize on bountiful resources. The continent continues to register the highest levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality, and is characterized by famines, civil wars, trade imbalances, low industrial and agricultural productivity and, in recent years, the HIV/Aids scourge.

At independence, countries such as Uganda, Kenya and Ghana were at the same level as the Asian tigers. Today, they have all been left behind. Economic growth is crucial to poverty reduction, and private sector-led growth is fundamental for Africa.

A few African countries have so far managed to transform good political intentions into sustainable changes that have created an enabling environment for the private sector. The informal sector of Africa’s economies is still substantial (often equal to 50 per cent of GDP) and encompasses a large share of both agricultural activities and micro-enterprises and self-employment in urban centres.

The agricultural sector constitutes the economic backbone of most African countries, and this sector will remain the mainstay of economic growth benefiting Africa’s poor for years to come. Increased agricultural production is necessary to fight starvation and malnutrition, and rapid growth in agricultural production and productivity is a precondition for economic take-off and sustained poverty reduction. The agricultural sectors constitute the largest part of the private sector, with agriculture accounting for more than 50 per cent of GDP, more than 50 per cent of export earnings, and more than 70 per cent of employment for the workforce.

Poverty and environmental degradation mutually reinforce each other. The environmental aspects of growth have to be addressed in order to implement sustainable solutions.

The HIV/Aids pandemic represents a major threat to economic development in Africa. Of the 38 million people in the world living with HIV/Aids, approximately 25 million are in Africa. Recent estimates of the macroeconomic costs of HIV/Aids suggest that HIV/Aids-related falls in GDP range between 0.3 and 1.5 per cent. Although this appears modest, it will translate into larger effects over time.

Globalization offers an opportunity to integrate Africa into the world economy, yet some barriers remain for increased international trade in African products.

Industrialized countries’ requirements to meet sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards and related food safety regulations are probably the most difficult hurdles among the many non-tariff barriers confronting African exporters. African countries and African exporters need to develop capabilities that ensure conformity with these standards.

Closer coherence between trade policies and development and security policies is still needed at global, regional and national levels. While the liberalization of world trade is expected to generate a large global-welfare improvement, it is less likely to reduce poverty in Africa. Free access to industrialized markets is not sufficient to reduce poverty.

Preferential arrangements for the next 10-15 years could provide Africa with the window of opportunity to improve the productivity and competitiveness of African businesses. There is a demonstrated demand in Europe for African products. Europe imports more manufactured goods from Africa than the U.S.A. and Japan combined, and European firms are the primary source of foreign investment in many African nations.

The European Union is also the largest single most important market in the world. Although there is no market in Europe like the African-American market in the U.S.A., because the black population in Europe is relatively very small; currently, there appears to be renewed interest in the African continent and, more generally, interest in authentic ethnic products.

Four difficult challenges confront Africa today, namely, the need to accelerate economic growth, the need to secure political peace and social stability, the need to promote social development, and the need to strengthen capacity and leadership.

In the decades ahead, we will live in a predominantly urban Africa; an Africa of business, media and science; an Africa where governance is more localized and more shared with civil society.

And we can be optimistic about Africa’s future because of new possibilities for leapfrogging development, especially where the leapfrogging possibilities are rooted in science and technology.

However, if we do not prepare for a development based more on science and technology, the marginalization we will feel in the future will eclipse what we experience at the moment, and historical experience of other countries indicates that, on this issue, intelligent public policies play a tremendous role, particularly policies in education.

To produce the innovating societies necessary for the next generations, there must be very active setting of incentives, fostering of industries, facilitating research and development and literally a myriad economic, investment, patent, finance and technology policies. The range of policies involved is too complex to detail here. But it is worth noting that new alliances are always necessary between an enabling public sector and a competitive private sector. Clear short-term and long-term goals will have to be set and implemented through a range of public policy incentives and rules.

It is within this context of science and technology-led development that I see the necessity of Africa striving mightily to be an information society. The image is not just of students sitting behind computers. It is of economies having innovation capabilities, production capabilities and network and service capabilities in information management.

As a start, we must at least have the ability to repair and maintain systems. We must also give much greater urgency to creating the basic telecommunications infrastructure necessary for an information economy.

Governments that give their telecommunications portfolio to their most dynamic and enlightened public administrators will have a much brighter future. At the same time that I see an information society as a critically important part of science-based development, I see it as essential to creating Africa’s economic community.

Business and Investment Opportunities in Kenya
The financing of economic development has posed serious problems in Kenya for the past three decades. At present, Kenya has 600 manufacturing organizations, most of them operated by private individuals. Private investment is broad-based and well established.

Local and foreign investment ranges through agriculture, horticulture, light and heavy manufacturing, services – including tourism, finance, transport and shipping. There is also the informal sector, known as Jua Kali (literally translates into: “working in the hot sun”), which makes its own very important contributions to employment and economic growth. Most of these sectors have organizations to represent their interests and maintain dialogue with government on experience and issues of concern to them.

An increase in net national product and improvements in the standards of living and well-being of the population can only be achieved through an increase in industrialization, as compared with the exclusive reliance on agriculture alone.

To attract investment, the government has espoused economic policy objectives designed to create an environment that will both attract and provide protection for foreign investment. They include:
• minimizing government participation in economic activities (investment);
• identification of the private sector as the engine of economic growth;
• the determination of price levels by market forces of supply and demand;
• the provision of security and order for private investment; and
• allowing partnership between government and private investors.

There are numerous opportunities available to potential investors in Kenya – both domestic and foreign.

The top-ten leading sectors for exports and investment are: telecommunications equipment, agricultural machinery and equipment, computers and peripherals, construction equipment, aircraft and aircraft parts, agricultural chemicals, management consulting services, medical equipment, cosmetics and toiletries, and electric power systems.

Major projects anticipated include the upgrading of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the launch of a major e-government project by the Government of Kenya.

Various business and investment opportunities exist in tourism, agriculture and manufacturing. Investors are also encouraged to consider using Kenya as a base to access and penetrate the larger combined Eastern Africa and Central African market.

In addition to the opportunities listed above, there are other areas for business investment, such as in retailing, hospitality, pharmacy, printing, legal services and so on.

Once private investors have undertaken these opportunities, the government will continue to ensure that the incentives offered to investors are appropriate and competitive.

We all have a duty to push forward Africa’s development agenda, building capacity, managing peace and reconciliation, developing strong institutions and working together to ensure prosperity for our peoples. Only such efforts will ensure that Africa and its Diaspora take its proper place in the world family of nations/continents in the 21st Century.

Thank you.

-END-

[politicalmaniac]

Wow
R is simply put brilliant
Whever he speaks he sends chills down my spine.
I am glad I will get a video of this event. Its a pity his events are not archived on video online

[miguna]

P/maniac,

I'll ask techono savies to post you video links.
MM

[miguna]

P/Maniac:

I've checked with those responsible and here is the response: Because some "Change For Kenya Raila 2007" teams are currently using various vedios for fundraising (i.e. they have recorded them and are selling them to raise funds for Hon. Raila's campaign), it is not possible to release them for general public consumprion. Write to me or the Minnesota team for copies of their vedios, for example. Alternatively, those interested can purchase them at the various stops Hon. Raila is making in the US before returning home.

Meanwhile, please view the following short clip:

www.keyc.tv:80/article/view/116665/


MM
===============================================================

[politicalmaniac]

MM
Ya I bought one.
R arrived in DC and was in a friends house for dinner. He will be in NCarolina and Fl Talahassee where I will have a face to face chat with him.
Thanks for the update!

[kamalet]

Looks like the organisers in DC are not as efficient as those in Minnesota!http://www.mashada.com/forums/index/show_topic/22/128654/index.php

[job]

Kamale,

What the heck! Where are you coming from and what's your destination with that! Pili pili usioila yakuwashia nini bwana? Why the obsession with internal ODM affairs, more so Diaspora ones,.....I thought your own Narc-K nyooba is already smoking with raging personality battles.

I can feel you buddy and I know exactly where you are heading with that. Since the other DC bwana kubwa who peeks in Jukwaa belongs to your Narc-K camp, it can be assumed quite obvious whom you are trying to indirectly address. Eh?

Only problem with your veiled jab is that you are relying on cheap info. And by the way, I've been temporarily out of my DC base, I'll be back in town later this month from South East Asia.

Plucking juvenille rantings from Mashada and using them here as a benchmark holds no substance at all Kamale. Relying on biased information from disgruntled Mashada elements who were probably turned away at the door for lack of the paltry entry fee won't sway a thing. It would be more honourable to get some perspective from inside, not from those who peek from the gate/door.

Even from my temporary vantage in Bangkok, Thailand, my report indicates that things went quite well in DC where Raila accomplished multiple tasks. As for the dinner, (1 event out of more than 10),...... it went perfectly well, considering that 100 guests is a relatively big number for DC. (Can't compare this with Minnesota where much.... much..... more... Kenyans reside). He then proceeded to North Carolina for yet another superflous trip before heading to Florida to get his well deserved honour.

Get a slight peek from here;
agwambo.com/

And lastly,..... worry not about the efficiency of ODM diaspora organizers,...if I were you, I would worry about your own base in Dagoretti Corner and Riruta, ...... since you know very well what blitzkrieg is coming that way.

unedited.
Enjoy buddy.

Job

[job]

By the way, another ODM luminary Hon. Omingo Magara gave briefings on his perceptions of local siasa at home.
www.publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=109

and

publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=111

[kamalet]

Job,

Predictable as ever. See no wrong, Hear no wrong, Speak no wrong as far as Raila is concerned....!!!!

You just like me are not in DC, so we can only rely on information that we glean from the net or what we are told.

Perhaps you may want to dismiss Mashada, and you are entitled to it, but will that take away the possibility the event was a flop? As we have seen and heard a lot of positives about Minnesota even in Mashada, it is strange that the usual Raila hangers on in Mashada are not being very vocal about the success of this event!!! But then this is not Mashada, it is Jukwaa!!

What is this about me and pilipili nisioila? Raila is a public figure like Karua and Karume. If I think he is an idiot and the party he leads is made up of fools, you can be certain you will not muzzle me when I stand in Jukwaa and shout at the top of my VOICE!!!! Come to think of it, those are my exact views ;D

[denno]

Kamalet,
The event in DC was not as successful as MN. The MN crowd is always better organized.
I agree with you that you should be able to express your views...pls continue to do so. If it were not for folks like you offer differing opinions we would be singing "Raila ni baba na mama".

I admire R however the cult following has to stop.

[miguna]

Raila’s new dream: The United States of Africa (EA Standard, Sunday April 1st, 2007)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Dennis Onyango

Thrice in less than a month this year, ODM-K Presidential aspirant Raila Odinga has addressed gatherings to sell what he says has been a life-long dream; the creation of the United States of Africa.

At the East Africa University Students Forum held at Kampala International University last week, Raila delivered a talk on Pan-Africanism, Regionalism, Sub-Regionalism and Nationalism. He was expressing the hope that Africa would one day unite and spelling out why it should.

In the last week of February, Raila addressed the 31st Pan African Student Leadership Conference at Minnesota State University in the US.

His speech, The Place of Africa in the 21 Century, ended with his vision of "real, genuine and practical Pan African unity."

"This is akin to the unity that you experience – and have experienced here in the United States of America – since the end of the Great American Civil War of 1861-1865, and after the introduction of confederation," Raila told his audience in Minnesota.

"I am here talking about the kind of unity that will render our national boundaries irrelevant as geo-political instruments and transform them into pure administrative lines. Essentially, in this vision I am attempting to articulate, the current borders separating African states and dividing African peoples into sub-tribes and clans will no longer be a hindrance to thriving commerce, free movement of people and positive social interactions. In stead, the borders will resemble your super highways here in the U.S.A."

About a week later, Raila took the same theme to the Sixth Annual Africa Awareness Month, in Florida, USA. There, too, Raila talked of the possibilities open to Africa should it unite.

"The patriarchs of Pan-Africanism – George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Chancellor Williams, Kwameh Nkrumah, W.E.B. Du Bois and C.L.R. James - may be gone, but the fire they ignited is still burning. Over the decades, both Pan-Africanists and the movement of Pan Africanism have experienced and encountered challenges, contradictions and temporary setbacks. However, the sprit of Pan Africanism remains alive, restless, active and potent," Raila said in Florida.

Before he embarked on presidential campaigns, Raila introduced himself to the Continent as a Pan-Africanist during the World Cup in Germany last year in adverts that aired across Africa.

Pan-Africanism may have died with founding Ghanian President Kwame Nkrumah, its greatest proponent. But in Kampala last week, Raila was categorical that it should not have been allowed to die. In all the three gatherings he has addressed on the issue, Raila talked of the Africa that should have been.

Letting go of Pan-Africanism, Raila said ensured a continuous surge of imperialism on the Continent, long after independence was won.

"Nkrumah’s ideas and vision for Africa were reduced to a simplistic matter of personal ambition. From this point onwards, African states jettisoned the spirit of Pan-Africanism, and followed their seemingly individual ways. In reality, the ways they took were those of subservience to imperialism," Raila said.

Raila’s speeches in the US and in Kampala coincided with the celebrations of the 50 anniversary of Ghana’s independence.

The Langata MP does not see himself as the last true believer in the Pan-Africanist spirit that his father, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga fervently shared with Dr Nkrumah.

A number of African leaders have emerged in the past seven years to pursue efforts to unite Africa as was envisaged by Nkrumah. Those leaders, whom Raila describes as "Nkrumah’s heirs," are out to address Africa’s vast developmental, socio-economic, peace, security and governance challenges.

He counts presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abulaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Abdulaye Wade of Senegal, John Kuofor of Ghana and former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano, termed their new focus as modern day believers in Pan Africanism, which they called "the new African agenda".

He counts Libya’s president Muammar al-Gaddafi as another of those African leaders who in recent days has been a dominant and active organiser of African unity and has proposed the formation of a united Africa, based on Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah’s dream.

Talking of Africa that would have been, Raila talked in Kampala of the role of Ethiopia’s emperor Haile Sellassie whom he says was also a key figure in Pan-Africanism, with his call for greater unity among African Nations.

The Pan Africanist spirit, Raila said, allowed Egypt’s president Gamal Abd-El Nasser to accommodate independence movements from all over Africa which to set up offices in Cairo during the 1950s and 1960s.

Raila blames the post-independence leadership of Africa, which failed to sustain the dream. But they left the Continent in poor shape.

"African leaders, having destroyed the foundations of their societies, having alienated the populace, and having mortgaged the future of their respective economies have been singing the same song: "Increase foreign aid, forgive our debts, and please, don’t marginalise us."

Raila says he is not alone in seeking to revive a dream that was thought to have died with its founder.

He says Nkrumah, in pursuing Pan-Africanism, may have been far ahead of his contemporaries.

This ‘new’ African agenda, or new Pan-Africanism, Raila says, has sought to establish the African Union and has a socio-economic development plan – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).

"It has also introduced an African Peer Review Mechanism to promote democratic behaviour by African states."

Absence of a Pan-Africanist spirit, Raila argues, has left Africa exposed to exploitation particularly with increasing pressure of economic competition from international trade blocs of North America, Europe and Asia.

"It is well known that, in terms of natural resources, Africa is by far the richest continent in the world. It also has a fifth of the world’s land mass. Moreover, Africans are a resourceful, creative, intelligent and hard-working people. And since no economic development can take root and grow without a resourceful and hardworking population, Africa cannot fail in its quest for economic prosperity."

Raila believes the building blocks for a continental union are already in place, and a united Africa may yet emerge.

He cites the creation six districts when Salim Ahmed Salim, former secretary-general of the OAU, and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, together with 53 of Africa’s 54 independent nations, formed the new African Union.

In the new formation, District One has North Africa, District Two has East Africa, District Three has Southern Africa while District Four Central Africa. District Five of the new formation has West Africa and District Six has African-Americans, Afro-Caribbean people and Afro-Europeans.

"This design recognised the dream that people of African heritage who were kidnapped and brutally taken into slavery in chains have cherished for centuries – ever since they were taken from Africa. For many decades, they have sought recognition, acceptance, and a legitimate place in African affairs, and finally this has become a reality," Raila said in his speech in Kampala.

The original Pan Africa map advocated by Nkrumah left out North Africa.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Raila says, has already mapped out the process for transforming the way Africa trades. But that trade is targeting external partners, which the Langata MP says should not be the case.

"Africans must also learn to trade among themselves. A market of 600 million people is not a small market. With better economic and social programs, more stability, and democracy, the buying power of Africans will increase."

Right now, Raila says, about 85 per cent of Africa’s total exports are marketed to the industrialised countries of the North.

[adongo12345]

Miguna

Raila's vision for One Africa is quite inspiring. Sadly, it is in sharp contrast to this other vision, which is the tragic reality in Kenya today.

www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143966774

www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143966773


www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=1143966752

To reach the dream of a One Africa, we will have to start by fulfilling the dream of One Kenya or risk the disintegration we witness in Somalia today. Tribal warlords come in many forms. We have a group of them running our country today. Their days are numbered with or without Steadman polls.

Adongo

[miguna]

The vision of One (Liberated) Kenya is within reach, hopefully, in a few years from now.

That of One (Liberated) Africa, as Raila clearly articulates, is "A Work-in-Progess."

If we don't keep that in mind and in proper perspective, we will never achieve it. There were various times in history when both German and Italian unifications were considered fleeting dreams. We also know what brought China together. We can go on. The lesson? We must keep the struggle going if the United States of Africa will become a reality, hopefully in our lifetime. The sooner the better.

Let's not get bogged down and distracted by confused and retrogressive forces/elements amongst us. These have always been there. [unedited]

Miguna
===================================================================

[aeichener]

miguna said:

There were various times in history when both German and Italian unifications were considered fleeting dreams. We also know what brought China together.

Quite true.
So which wars of unification should Africa fight now (as if not enough Africans had died in the 19th and 20th century), and against whom?

Alexander

[miguna]

I didn't actually realize how deeply asleep some people are and have been.

Some people don't know that we have BEEN FIGHTING MANY WARS OF LIBERATION ever since the encroachment of Europeans onto the African shores?

So, what do you (tomatoe head) think all our struggles have been about if not "wars of liberation?"

What was the first and second wars of liberation about?

What did Dedan Kimathi, Odhiambo Mbai, Pio Pinto Ghama, Argwings Kodhek and all the millions of Africans (and Kenyans) have fought, die for?

Haven't some of us been fighting this same war for liberation for decades while the sheepish retrogressive elements have been sleeping?

Raila Odinga, George Anyona and others were sent to long detentions without trial for participating in the same wars. Patrice Lumumba, Cabral, Sankara, Mondlane, Machel, Sabelo Pharma, etc perished in the course of the same war for the total liberation of Africa. I can go on...

Well, well,...we shall win the war for the total liberation and unification of Africa before some people wake up!

That's good for us because we need some of these sheep to continue their slumber.

Don't even bother to answer me. I won't respond any more. You are a pathetic lost cause.

[unedited]

Miguna
=======================================

[kamalet]

I say tomato

you say tomatoe

Hillarious stuff!!!

[miguna]

Lots of fun. That's why "unedited" goes at the end of each post. [unedited]

MM

[aeichener]

miguna said:

Lots of fun. That's why "unedited" goes at the end of each post. [unedited]

You mean, like in this splendid example above:

[unedited]

Miguna
=======================================
« Last Edit: Yesterday at 10:38pm by miguna »

;D

[miguna]

I urge you to discuss R's Pan Afrikan vision, not your own delusions. R articulated it in more than ten pages and all you see are ghosts? What a shame that Kenya wasted its resources to educate some of you! [unedited]

MM
=========================================================