Kwame Nkrumah

'It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems,and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world'.
I Speak of Freedom, 1961

(click on to read)

Ahmed Sekou Toure

"Our first and essential need is that of our Dignity. However, there is no Dignity without Freedom, because any domination, constraint, the very force imposed and undergone degrades that on which it weighs, withdraws a part of its humanity and in fact makes him arbitrarily a lower being. We prefer Poverty in Freedom with the Richness in Slavery".

"The imperialists utilize cultural, scientific, technical, economic, literary and moral values to justify and maintain their regimes of exploitation and oppression. Oppressed people, on the other hand, utilize cultural values of a nature contrary to that of the imperialists, with the aims of better combating imperialism and escaping the colonial regime"

"... we restore to the term 'democracy' its actual meaning: power to the people."

Jomo Kenyatta

* I want you to know the purpose of K.A.U. (Kenya African Union) It is the biggest purpose the African has. It involves every African in Kenya and it is their mouthpiece which asks for freedom. K.A.U. is you and you are the K.A.U. If we unite now, each and every one of us, and each tribe to another, we will cause the implementation in this country of that which the European calls democracy. True democracy has no colour distinction. It does not choose between black and white. We are here in this tremendous gathering under the K.A.U. flag to find which road leads us from darkness into democracy. In order to find it we Africans must first achieve the right to elect our own representatives".

Exerpted from : Speech at the Kenya African Union Meeting at Nyeri

Also

A Response to Imperialism
by Jomo Kenyatta

Nelson Mandela

""None of us, while acting alone and selfishly, can reach success""

Nobel Lecture
Acceptance and Nobel Lecture.

"...Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates.
Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.
Let the efforts of us all, prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. Let a new age dawn!..." ..MORE

THABO MBEKI

STATEMENT AT THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE

"..Thus, I believe that we cannot speak of an African Renaissance where we permit that corruption remains an endemic feature of the private and public sectors on our Continent... " ....... "

....As part of this, clearly we must also respond to what Nelson Mandela said a week ago when he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations, that we must fight against and defeat what he described as the deification of arms, the seemingly entrenched view that to kill another person is a natural way of advancing one's cause or an obviously correct manner by which to resolve disputes...". Full statement

THABO MBEKI

THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE, SOUTH AFRICA AND THE WORLD

"....I think in part the problem is the persistence of particular images in people's minds about the negative things about the continent. I think, in part, it is to do with a tendency to look at Africa as one whole. So that if something goes wrong in South Africa, people further afield do not say; "Something has gone wrong in South Africa"; they say, "Something has gone wrong in Africa...." READ THE FULL ARTICLE

"It is the socio-historic significance of men’s concrete actions which will serve as a sound criterion for their classification into useful mean and harmful men in relation to the society"

Enhancing the People's Power of President Ahmed Sekou Toure

New Partnership for Africa's Development

A pledge by African leaders, to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, on a path of sustainable growth and development and to participate actively in the world economy and body politic.

Certainties on Renaissance, Unity, Integration and Development of Africa.

(RUIDA)

A: No one other than Africa will be able to take in hands its own destiny. Africans, and they above all, must take the initiative to solve their problems. Africa is neither a "continent lost" nor a "continent in distress".

B: For as long as we (Africans) do not rely on ourselves, our brothers and sisters, our culture, our capacities andour values, we will never exploit our continent's wealth and the layer of creativity and inventiveness which lies in us.

C: Our continent is not poor contrary to a generally accepted idea. We are all aware that Africa is the continent which has the most natural resources. Hence, with good willing and qualified women and men we can overcome our difficulties.

D: Any confiscation of power by a minority, a tribal group, a single party or a party-state is harmful and an act of dictatorship. It must be fought. Africa needs Democracy because it is the missing link between development and peace. Democracy should be understood not like a model to copy but like an objective to be reached.

E: As long as the idea of peace is abused and threatened in our continent (Africa) by civil wars, frontier litigations, ethnic- tribalism conflicts (!), leadership quarrels and political exploitation of religion, efforts of development will never know all the expected benefits. We can reverse this tendency but we will need an inflexible political agenda, goodwill and elites unity.

F: Europe, the Americas, countries of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, are committed in forming strong and competitive economic blocks. Hence, micro-states have a greater chance of economic survival if united. With 640 million inhabitants today, forecasted to be more than 1,200 billion consumers in 23 years, Africa with its abundant natural resources and cultural potentialities, should not be marginalized if its elites were to manage efficiently such assets.

Extracted and adapted from "Bases of Africa. The social development: Priorities of Africa, BRX-95/conf.006/7, Paris, March 2, 1995.

History of the schism of Africa

Map of Africa (below) magnifying inherited borders from Berlin Conference at which world's leader sit down (without African of course) to determine some game rule for Africa in order to strenghten their imperialism and cohesion.

The General act of Berlin Conference (October 1884) signed on February 26, 1885, which provided that any power that effectively occupied African territory and duly notified the other powers could thereby establish possession of it. The Berlin treaty, along with other accords signed during the next fifteen years, defined "spheres of influence", which partitioned the continent among European governments and reduced their rivalry for domination.

The effect of Berlin conference was to divide, not to unify Africa. The colonial boundaries were artificial and illogical. They ignored the colonial cohesion of tribal Africa and separated the peoples of ethnic mini-nations held together for centuries by their common heritage and langauge. No sensible grouping of people remained.

The Massai, a proud, nomadic, warlike trib, was split between German-ruled Tanganyika and British-ruled Kenya. And on the other coast, right through the middle of french-speaking Senegal, a narrow strip was inserted that followed the Gambia River from the Atlantic Ocean into the interior; that wormlike intrusion is the Gambia, an English-speaking country smaller than connecticut. The protugese sold trade rights to the river to English merchants, and England later formalized its presence in a treaty with France. The accord divided the Mandingo and Wolof peoples into colonies with different languages and different European masters.

The whole African continent has been blooded by this balkanization for centuries and it is in the will of us (African peoples) to reverse the unjustice (tragedy) even given the depth of the linguistic, ethnic, cultural, philosophical and religious schisms in Africa.

How do we explain a continent where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed for no other reason than that they belonged to the wrong ethnic groups/tribe, wrong political culture, for expressing different religious beliefs or simply voicing their concerns?

How to understand that resistance to Occidental colonialism finishes today by an African neocolonialism, with neo-colonial leaderships characterized by the duration of the reigns to the head of micro states, the promotion of a anti social middle-class trough the illicit accumulation of public monies as mean for subversion, pacification and corruption of the mass. The true national unity and the development of these micro states should rather be the logic of the continuity of the fight for the justification of past resistance, independences and prides for the continent?.

For every corrupt and callous "leaders", office holder stashing million of dollars in their national bank, Swiss bank or foreign account, there are million of children dying from preventive deseases and million of children education is handicaped.

As Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia said in 1963: "The Union which we seek can only come gradually..." No one today would contest the wisdom of that comment. But we must at least be committed to it, allowing generations to remmember and follow up the path. "Africa Dream have been only mislaid, not lost".

Map of Africa (below) magnifying inherited borders from Berlin Conference at which world's leader sit down (without African of course) to determine some game rule for Africa in order to strenghten their imperialism and cohesion.

Edited and Adapted by Dr. DRAME, H.., from "the Africans" of David Lamb.

Economic REVOLUTION!
Source of prosperity
It exhorts the working classes
To produce more
To increase
The riches of the Nation.
It liberates the productive forces.
As well as their initiatives
Organizes co-operatives and trade unions
Whose dynamic activities
And progressive impulse
Will harmonize the interests
Through struggle,
A merciless struggle
Against selfishness and exploitation;
It suppresses under-development
Together with its share of insufficiency,
Misery and suffering.

President Ahmed Sekou Toure

READ MORE

THE STORY OF AFRICA

Who Should Tell The Story of Africa?

The Story of Africa tells the history of the continent from an African perspective. Africa's top historians take a fresh look at the events and characters that have shaped the continent from the origins of humankind to the end of South African apartheid. See the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, experience the power of religion, the injustices of slavery, and chart the expansion of trade between Africa and other continents. Hear what it was like to live under colonialism, follow the struggle against it, and celebrate the achievement of independence... More

"Africa Dream have been only mislaid, not lost".

FELIX HOUPHOUET BOIGNY

"Peace, it is not a word, it is a behavior"

"The fundamental for us, Africans in charge is, I repeat to live in true peace which each others, without arming us and avoiding conflicts. While seeking friendships, co-operation, to always make prevail African view and interest, to practice in our States democracy and tolerance, to defend in any time and any place, justice and freedom. Let us make so that Africa cleared of the fear, be the only likely continent, starting from the reconciliation of his/her own children, invite the other people towards the reconciliation. Opened to all nations, Africa will reconcile all nations. Under its hot land will grow thick the democracy, the new democracy which by removing the fights, sordid selfish wars, will make reign forever fraternity between nations". One can slow down an evolution, one cannot stop it. Our freedom will be illusory as a long time as we will not be able to exploit by ourselves, organize, and harmonize the resources of our various countries to overcome gradually foreign intervention in our economy.

Gamal Abdel-Nasser

"Brothers, we must distinguish between friend and foe, friend and hypocrite. We must be able to tell who is making requests, who has ulterior motives and who is applying economic pressure. We must also know those who offer their friendship to us for no other reason than a desire for freedom and peace".

Exerpted from : statement by President Nasser to Members of the Egyptian National Assembly. 29 May 1967:

Modibo Kéïta

“Let us not be under any illusion! We will be helped certainly, but a country never builds only with foreign aids. Let us be convinced therefore, that such country will never be independent!"

"... We denounce, and will fight with excess the neocolonialism. Neocolonialism? It means for an "independent" country to see itself being managed indirectly by its colonizing ex-power, by intermediate of the traitors that it has helped to be elected, and who constitute no more than bridges between this country and exterior. We denounce not only the neocolonialism, but we denounce and condemn also the tendency of the powers which express their will to dominate politically and economically developing countries. We denounce and condemn imperialism, for the contempt it express with regards to men and institutions which refuse to conform to its point of view."....<<<MORE

Patrice Eméry Lumumba

"The only thing we wanted for our country was the right to a decent existence, to dignity without hypocrisy, to independence without restrictions... The day will come when history will have its say." ..MORE

THOMAS SANKARA

"It is necessary to proclaim that there is no way out and safety for our people only if we radically despised and reject all the models that the same charlatans have tried to sell to us during 40 years. There should be no escape and safety apart from this refusal. No development is possible without this denial. It is necessary to revive the confidence of our peoples by pointing out to them that they were great yesterday, today and they will be even more tomorrow. Seed hope and pride."..More

Articles submission

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How Africa Develops Europe And the Rich World

Public Agenda (Accra)

Ghanaian weekly independent newspaper

Antoinette Ntuli
Accra

Increasingly attention is being given to documenting the extent to which Africa (and the rest of the developing world) is in fact providing development aid, as opposed to being a recipient of aid. This aid is being provided through myriad ways including financial relations, subsidising ecological resources, provision of ready trained skilled labour and, increasingly, providing holiday resorts of unbeatable value. more>>

African Language as a Tool for Regional Integration

Although Africa is often described as a modern day "Tower of Babel", Kwesi Kwaa Prah argues that 85% of all Africans speak one of 15 "core languages". In effect, language has been used to divide, rather than unite Africa. Prah has developed an orthographical project which breaks down barriers by using a 'mutual intelligibilitiy' principle to group languages in different parts of Africa.

RELATED: Language, NEO-COLONIALISM AND the African development challenge

African Union

Union Africaine

African Union was founded to acceleratete the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation.

The main objectives of the OAU were, inter alia, to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity among African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and to promote international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations.

Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle and the fight against apartheid.

United Nations

(New York)