Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s recent statements on western hegemony are being debated across the world. Vaccine nationalism allegedly engaged by the developed world, may be an immediate trigger, but the hard hitting discourse of the powerful African leader resonates issues much beyond the jab polemics. Conspicuously, Kagame chose to give vent to his ire at a platform provided by The Guardian, a publication revered by the West.
What has compelled the politician from Kigali to use harsh discourse to drive home supposedly collective feelings of the Africans, especially when his counterpart in South Africa-Cyril Ramaphose’s tone and tenor to convey the same thing-vaccine nationalism of the West- in a diplomatically couched mellowed narrative. The wily and experienced politician in Kagame would have realized the new genre of Africans- the youngsters and middle agers-are the votaries of Africa for Africans. The Rwandan strong man attacked a number of paradigms including inequitable distribution of wealth, growing mistrust by the Western forces, double talk, and hypocrisy etc that are in sync with the thought process of the young African population, who are looking forward to usher in a new architecture for African brotherhood. Indeed, these are forceful appeals that can take the young African nations to rally around for unleashing their collective potential.
Kagame’s narratives are also aimed at the rich nations to change their outlook on the poorer countries, particularly in Africa. The coinage “Africa does not need any adult supervision” is aimed at the the developed world including the US, which impose sanctions on poor African countries for one reason or the other, which squarely translate into hardships to the common man of the country that have to undergo the agonies of the imposition of sanctions. African leaders feel that these countries are cherry-picked, depending on the whims and fancies of the rich nations as is evident from the way such sanctions are lifted. The overriding consideration is what suits the rich countries. What about those individuals and countries committing crimes against Africa and Africans? Most often they go scot-free irrespective of the intensity of the crimes they commit. Do crimes have any color, creed, or nationality?
Admittedly, the new awakening and the courage that is shown to express the anguish without any fear or prejudice is a good augury and can be a precursor to craft a larger movement for Africa for Africans. Yet, these loftier ideals can be more effective if plans to bring about those goals are implemented in letter and spirit. Notwithstanding some of the exemplary case studies, when African nations have succeeded in breaking new ground for creating edifices for their self-development, there are gray areas where the progress is tardy and excruciatingly slow. Poverty alleviation is one among them. In the post Covid-19 recovery phase, every country in the region-big, medium and small – is looking at largesse, succor and concessional aid from the West and multilateral organizations including loan write offs. Such loans or accommodations come with a lot of strings attached. In other words, that makes the countries in the region more dependent on the West.
That way, there is merit in saying that Africa for Africans should not be rhetoric, but backed with positive actions to bailout the region through collective efforts by the stakeholders and not through crutches borrowed from outside. Understandably, that underscores the need for a change of mindset.
