• Africans are equal to anyone and it’s time we believed it
I am a proud Pan-Africanist and, for the longest time, I have been waiting for the African continent to properly assume its proper role in world affairs.
From March 6, 1957, when Ghana led the way, to July 9, 2011, when the republic of South Sudan was born, our continent has had a lot of time to progress from learner status to a point where it is fully confident of itself.
Why are we not there yet? How will we know that we have arrived?
The second question is easier to answer. In fact, it came to me from the words of a friend with whom I was discussing the shocking state of British politics.
We will know Africa has truly arrived when it is normal for the African Union, or in this particular case its ambassador at the Court of St James's in London, issues a statement expressing concern about the stability of the British government.
In this statement, the AU should also wag its finger at Wesminister and tell the British government off about the shameful lack of transparency and democracy in their selection of Prime Ministers.
We have absolutely as much moral right as the British and their North American friends and European neighbours to do to them what they are always doing to us.
Imagine if it was Kenya where there had been four Finance Ministers in as many months, or where the elected President had been replaced via selection at Kasarani?
The EU and its ambassadors would be constantly on TV and in the opinion columns, telling Kenyans how far they had fallen from democratic ideals.
What I want to know is what stops the AU, or even the EAC or SADC or Ecowas, for that matter, from telling the UK to get its act together, or from warning Italy that it is headed down a very dark road?
In the words of the song: It’s time for Africa.
Meanwhile, I hope you had a great Mashujaa Day and that perhaps you managed to fit in some reflection about whomever your shujaa is and what you can do to live their dreams and values.
This year, my heroines are some great women pan-Africanists that I mostly had never heard of until I read about them in a paper on the Unesco website.
We all know about the men pan-Africanists and trot out the obvious names, such as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Robert Sobukwe, Ahmed Touré, Kwame Nkrumah and even Jomo Kenyatta.
But how many women pan-Africanists can we name at the drop of a hat?
These women tried in their own way to be good pan-Africanists and in the words of the AU charter, “to promote unity, solidarity, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African states”.
My research led me to pioneering African women, such as Aoua Keita (1912-1980) from Mali. A midwife by profession, in 1958 she became the first woman in Africa to be elected to Parliament. She was also one of the leaders of the General Workers’ Union of Black Africa (UGTAN).
Then there was Funmilayo Kuti (1900-1978). The first Nigerian woman to be a school principal and in 1953, the only female member of the Nigerian delegation to the Constitutional Conference in London.
Then there were the women who had participated in the anti-colonial struggle, helped to liberate their countries and supported the election of the leaders of an independent Africa.
In July 1962, a group of such women met in Dar es Salaam, where they set up the Union of African Women. This was a whole year before the birth of the OAU.
The moving spirits behind this initiative included Aoua Keita (mentioned above), Jeanne Cissé from Guinea and Pauline Clark from Ghana.
Then of course there are more recent pan-African heroines, such as Winnie Mandela, Miriam Makeba, Ellen Sirleaf, Wangari Maathai, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Micere Mugo, Ama Ata Aidoo and Angelique Kidjo.
I am sure there are scores of others, but hopefully you get the drift.