WICI Africa

 The African Context

There has been a constant fear of history repeating itself in the continent due to the unpleasant post-colonial Africa’s human rights record. This is because human rights have been the basis for evaluating the future progress of the continent. A United States of Africa which the continent’s megalomaniac rulers pledged in 1963 is a broken promise a half-century later. Recalling the seemingly hopeless situation, one commentator observed that “like Nero’s Rome, African leaders fiddled while the edifice called “Africa” was engulfed in conflagrations. Increasing political repression, denial of political choice, restrictions of freedom of association, and other human rights violations met with murmurs of dissent from within the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Constitutional governments were routinely overthrown in many African countries, while opponents of autocratic regimes were imprisoned or banished and, in some cases, physically eliminated.”

It is widely acknowledged that Africa’s integration efforts have thus far failed to bear satisfactory fruit. While other regions have successfully used their integration mechanisms to improve their economic welfare, Africa lags behind with respect to GDP growth, per capita income, capital inflows and general living standards and quality of life. This is a problem across most of the continent, in spite of the existence of policy plans and grand visions. The African continent today has no comparable equal in the global family of nations and continents. This is well-evident in the collective continental history from the 1990s and 2013. For instance;

•     In 2009, in Nigeria, the insurgence of religious intolerance and rise of conflict at oil mining regions has seen an aggregate of no less than 200,000 people in the last two years alone.
•     In Egypt, before 2009, at least 444,000 people had lost their lives due to political agitation and curtailing of human rights by the government. With the rise of the Arab revolution, the reported death toll ranged between 250,000 and 1 million dead, injured or displaced in the revolution. 
•       In Kenya, in the post-election violence that ensued following disputed general election results saw the displacement of over 500,000 people and the death of at least 2,000 people between December 2007 and February 2008; and the loss and damage of property of unknown value.
•     From 1997, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, begun a civil strife that is yet to show any signs of abating; spilling refugees into neighbouring nations
•   In 1994, negative ethnicity led to death, displacement and loss of livelihoods for hundreds of thousands-including whole populations- in Rwanda. 
•    In 1992, civil war in Mozambique led to displacements, riots and death of over 500,000 people.
•    In 1991, a civil strife begun in Somalia that by 2013 had claimed no less than 6 million lives, displaced twice the dead, and divided the country along tribal lines, leading to mistrust and continued instability.

These are just but examples of conflicts that have dimed the African star since the advent of colonialism in the continent.

Meanwhile there are no less than 200 organizations in the continent that list regional integration and conflict prevention, peace and peaceful coexistence, cultural preservation and total African unity as programs in their list of activities. In view of the fact that the plans that were articulated by the first generation of the post-colonial leaders failed to materialise, what gives force to the new found optimism that characterise today’s proponents of Africa’s integration? Could there have been something fundamentally wrong with the initial casting of this vision that today’s Africa can successfully rectify, so that Africa can be set on a promising developmental trajectory? This begs the explanation as to whether the current efforts in place are yielding any good, and if so, how much? If not, then why not?

What is the continent missing?