kenyaimagine.com

Home

Society

Africa unite

Written by Open Thread

Wednesday, 25 July 2007

One of Bob Marley's most famous songs, 'Africa Unite' called for the unity of the continent, describing this as a move, for the benefit of its people and its children.

It's an infectious tune, and an infectious theme. Every so often, the Organisation of African Unity, and now its son the African Union meet in some African capital and egged on by the indefatiguable Muammar Gaddafi declares yet another attempt at contiental unity.

How does this sit with you? Is it merely an attempt at forging a camaraderie among the heads of government who attend these meetings? Is bigger always better? Are the parallels with the USA and Europe at all sensible? Does Africa as an idea even exist at all?Â

Open Thread
		About the author:
		Please send the editors an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on suggestions for topics on Open Thread.

Related Articles:

Terrorism: Religious and Cultural Intolerance
Kenya: histories of hidden war
The lion and the fox
Uhuru's great bet; is he the new Professor of Politics?
Bloodsport!

Articles by this Author:

International Women's Day
A progress report: Tales on how much remains to be done

View all articles by this author

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

what is an African?
written by Stephen Wanyama , July 25, 2007

Imagine all the money spent on AU meetings, on the AU parliament, on the AU secretariat. Imagine all of that going into infrastructure projects.

There's a romanticism to the idea of africa, pushed on us by the likes of Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Du Bois and Bob Marley. The descendants of slaves, for whom Africa represents both dignity and an identity. For the rest of us, living in the reality it is so much more like a pipe-dream.
I find myself drawn to the idea of a very loose continental federation, with the member states dismembered to their core constituents. No reason why the people of the Coast for example should be a part of a Kenya that ignores and oppresses them. Look how well Singapore did after leaving its Union with Malaysia, look at the progress of the Baltics. Disunity works.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

re: what is an African?
written by a guest , July 25, 2007

There's a romanticism to the idea of africa, pushed on us by the likes of Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Du Bois and Bob Marley. The descendants of slaves, for whom Africa represents both dignity and an identity.

When a black American visits Africa for the first time, he or she will often be both eager and apprehensive to visit the country of hir ancestors - hir ancient "homeland", so to speak (and not in the Apartheid sense).

And one of the first culture shocks that she or he is apt to suffer - shades of Keith Richburg ! -, is the sobering discovery that sie is seen there not a black brother/sister finally among siblings, but as an (often ugly) alien American among Africans.
Duh.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

rabble rouser
written by kamau , July 25, 2007

I think it’s safe to argue that, the type of Pan African vision of the mid 20th century was driven more by reactionary ideological interests than practical and pragmatic ones. Economic integration should be the primary driver and basis for any practical pan African movement. The cultural and political integration is a very long way off if at all possible; we should take lessons for the EU and the issues in their pan European vision.

It’s funny; I have been a Bob Marley fan since my pre-teen years. 25 years on, I find his music that speaks on love and internal third world political issues most insightful and creative. His pan Africanists message themed songs now as an adult sound naïve and un-informed.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

self-determination
written by Tim Norwood , July 25, 2007

I believe in the fundamental idea of self-determination. Many of the people of Africa are uncomfortable being memebers of their present states, will not African unity make this even worse? Imagine having decisions foisted on you from Addis Ababa our spiritual capital, how much worse than having them forced down our throats from Nairobi?

The example of the USA, is really irrelavant here. Many people do not realise just how full of hatred and blood the US's conquest of the Wild West was. Anyone heard of the Seminoles?
The EU is much closer to what we should aspire to, but it shows clearly also why this would be such a bad idea. Unless we are ceding continental authority to a strong central organisation, unless richer states are prepared to dole it out to poorer ones, then we must heed the old warning about too many cooks.
If that is the template we would like to follow, I must ask where we think the global West is going to be sitting while we redeem the Namibians, Batswana and so on from the colonial jackboot.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

Show/Hide comment form