As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has played out over the last few weeks, our central concern in these pages has remained to emphasize again and again, that we the African people are the only true guarantors of our strategic security. We most emphatically, yet again, make that point today. No country outside Mother Afrika owes us a living. This can only possibly change in the immediate, if a new spirit of “Ubuntu” and “Undugu” suddenly and miraculously invades every facet of the contemporary system of international relations – which remains cast in the image of the victors of the last Centuries’ two predatory World Wars!
Two weeks ago, we asserted here, “For the African Patriot, the questions must always be posed: who is conducting a war? In whose interest is it being carried out? Phrase-mongering about ‘democracy’ and ‘who started the war’ are neither here nor there in the wider scheme of things. What are the objective interests of the African people in such situations? As we relate (as indeed we must) with the ‘friends of Africa’ in all their forms, we must accurately identify the underlying material-economic and geo-strategic interests of the ‘friends’ in each instance – keenly aware that the interests may be at variance with those of the African people.”
We did not stop at flagging for the reader the imperialist and predatory nature of the two World Wars. We also provided a sketch of the international (the United Nations) and regional structures (NATO and Warsaw Pact) that were ushered in by the post-World War II armed peace.
As we earlier undertook to do, we shall now look very briefly at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), then conclude. Why does this become necessary? Possibly because the Non-Aligned Movement in the emergence and practice of international and regional organizations, comes closest to our objective African material, socio-economic and geo-strategic interests – than most such formations.
NAM “originated in the 1950s as an effort by some countries to avoid the polarized world of the Cold War between the pro-Soviet communist countries belonging to the Warsaw Pact, and the pro-American capitalist countries belonging to NATO. Drawing on the principles agreed at the Bandung Conference in 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia through an initiative of the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah and Indonesian President Sukarno. This led to the first Conference of Heads of State or Governments of Non-Aligned Countries. The term non-aligned movement first appears in the fifth conference in 1976, where participating countries are denoted as ‘members of the movement’”.
The purpose of the organization was re-stated by Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz in the Havana Declaration of 1979 as being to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics.”
“At the Lusaka Conference in September 1970, the member nations had added as aims of the movement the peaceful resolution of disputes and the abstention from the big power military alliances and pacts. Another added aim was opposition to stationing of military bases in foreign countries.”
“In 1975, the member nations which also were part of the United Nations General Assembly pushed for the Resolution 3379 along with Arab countries and the support of the Soviet bloc. It was a declarative nonbinding measure that equated Zionism with South Africa’s Apartheid and as a form of racial discrimination…”
NAM “continues to see a role for itself, as in its view, the world’s poorest nations remain exploited and marginalized, no longer by opposing superpowers, but rather in a uni-polar world, and it is Western hegemony and neo-colonialism that the movement has really re-aligned itself against …. NAM has identified economic underdevelopment, poverty, and social injustices as growing threats to peace and security.”
NAM “has been outspoken in its criticism of current UN structures and power dynamics, stating that the organisation has been used by powerful states in ways that violate the movement’s principles. It has made a number of recommendations that it says would strengthen the representation and power of “non-aligned” states. The proposed UN reforms are also aimed at improving the transparency and democracy of UN decision-making. The UN Security Council is the element it considers the most distorted, undemocratic, and in need of reshaping.”
NAM also emphasizes “South-South cooperation … the Non-Aligned Movement Centre for South-South Technical Cooperation (NAM CSSTC) as an intergovernmental institution, which enables developing countries to increase national capacity and their collective self-reliance, forms part of the efforts of NAM.
In our conclusion let us return to Mother Afrika – and borrow from the words of Yoweri K. Museveni during the Madiba (Nelson Mandela) Memorial at Makerere in 2017: “On the issue of political integration, a vital requirement for the survival of the African people as a free people if survival at all, the post-independence African leaders and the elite are in danger of being like the tribal chiefs who betrayed Africa between 1500 and 1900 by failing to unite our people for their own salvation. The political leaders should not be condemned alone. We must include the whole elite. The elite to be condemned include: professors, journalists, religious leaders, cultural leaders, magicians, teachers, etc.….”
“The only two people who escape this condemnation are Mwalimu Nyerere and Sheikh Amani Abeid Karume who united Tanganyika and Zanzibar to create Tanzania …”
“… Therefore, Mzee Mandela gave his all for Africa. He has no debt with Africa. He contributed to the achievement of emancipation, democracy and some steps toward economic integration in the form of SADC. I am sure he would have done more if he had had more time. It is you and me to do what Mwalimu Nyerere, Mandela, Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Thambo, Patrice Lumumba, I.K. Musaazi, etc., did not do to insure Africa from the threats similar to the ones we have just gone through or worse.”
K. David Mafabi
Senior Presidential Advisor/Political Affairs (Special Duties)
State House
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