The Complete Woman

TRIPPING OVER A POT OF ‘PITO’ –THE AFRICAN SITUATION

One day when Amara Bangura woke out of bed, he was in a state of dilemma as his uncle warned him not to go to school. As a focused 19 year old boy, he was preparing to write his high school examination in a small town of Makeni in North Sierra Leone, when the civil war broke out.

Just when Bangura fled and thought he had escaped from the rebels, he was captured on his escape to Guinea by gun fighters who had earlier caught his school mates. “We were to be trained and forced to fight alongside the rebel,” he said. However, Bangura managed to climb through an opening in the roof and run for his life.

Today, Amara Bangura, a JHR trained journalist has been featured by the BBC for his wonderful work as a human rights reporter during the civil war in his country and his coverage on the Charles Taylor trial. 

Wars have been fought, lives have been lost, dreams shattered and hopes lost with the outbreak of civil wars in Africa, in the midst of penury, disease, hunger and utmost fear. Is the future of Africa still undefined, what are the causes of these problems in Africa and will there ever be a solution to the African situation? What are the implications of modern democracy, and finally, what does power mean to Africa?

Clashes in Nigeria, Sudan, Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Cote D’Ivoire have left thousands of people homeless, who tend to seek refuge in other parts of the continent. A significant majority of these wars affects women and children whose husbands and fathers flee for their lives, rendering them helpless and their future unknown.

In the wake of time, effective democracy is struggling to gain roots in many parts of the continent as an effect of colonial antecedents. Conflicts in Africa are part of what can be termed; a global issue that cannot be overemphasized in the midst of the fast rate of industrialization and modernization.

To commence with, western democracy in Africa is leaving many countries on this continent in a state of dilemma as they seem not to understand and appreciate the real essence of democracy. Many African leaders, who claim to be ruling under a democracy, are reluctant to hand over power for a peaceful transition. Mentioned can be made of Abdul Wade of Senegal, Togo’s late dictator Nyasingbe Eyadema, Zimababwe’s Robert Mugabe among others who will always twist the constitution of their country to favor their long stay in office.

It is disheartening to admit that Africa is in a state of penury because of its politically unstable environment.As the world’s second largest continent, Africa’s poverty can be said to be as a result of failure, as the continent can undoubtedly be defined as the world’s richest in materials and human resources needed for the survival of the continent.

Undeniably, the economic situation of the continent can also be linked to colonial antecedents which include the arbitrary nature by which the continent was demarcated, leaving some countries such as Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana very rich with natural resources and others such as Burundi and Togo very poor. Some countries are landlocked such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger while others such as Democratic Republic of Congo are left with as much as ten borders, resulting to large amounts being spent on security.

One critical message that held significance in the visit of the US president Barrack Obama to Ghana was that the development of any country was highly dependent on how the institutions function effectively and not stronger persons.

From the philosophical point of view, Karl Popper, one of the greatest philosophers of Science and Politics in the 20^th century said the best political question to ask is not who is the best person to govern but rather what institutions are put in place to check the acts of leaders and limit the damaging effects of bad and incompetent leaders. We live in a century where we do not need great philosophers as leaders to survive in a democracy as in the case of the ‘theory of the philosophizer king’ , were Plato states that, unless kings become philosophers and philosophers become kings, cities will not have rest from evils. 

What power means to some African leaders is a situation of personalization of authority and leadership which usually creates a platform for Coup d’états and conflicts over who controls the national purse or resources. This is evident in countries such as Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire and Libya where thousands of men flee, leaving women and children at the mercy of armed rebels and starvation. It is sad to say that, similar to Amara Bangura’s case, many children and people in their youthful age are forced to fight as rebels in their country. By mid August 2012, out of about 48 people killed from ethnic violence in Kenya, the victims included 31 women, 11 children and 6 men, depicting the vulnerability of women and children in the conflicts that characterize Africa.

The youth of Africa, who hold the key to the seat of leadership in the future, are undoubtedly monitoring events and are likely to be influenced by the present political atmosphere in the continent. This is perhaps hard to admit, but still remains an undeniable fact. Young people contribute a significant percentage of the labor force in every African country with ideals capable of building a new and refined Africa to catch up with the fast growing rate of competition in the world, especially with the Asian tigers, Europe and the Americas.

The future of the youth and the next generations is highly dependent on the exemplary actions exhibited by the present leadership, so as to be proactive and set the pace for a generation worth living as in the likes of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah , Desmond Tutu, Shaka Zulu ,Jomo Kenyatta , John Evans Attah Mills including great African Americans such as Martin Luther King. These great leaders have left great legacies on their nations and on the African continent as a whole. In retrospect, the Africa of today is not the Africa that was fought for by past freedom fighters who put their lives on the stake for this continent. Therefore it is the responsibility of the present generation to fight a good cause to rid Africa of the negative influences and effects of bad rule and leadership.

Indeed, it is about time we come to terms with the fact that, some African leaders are materialistic and do not care about the welfare of their people. The youth who have to fight to survive in most of these African countries have just two options to survive; fight alongside the rebels for leverage or flee to neighboring African countries and starve as refugees or engage in illegal activities for survival. Sad to say, those who are too ambitious or perhaps driven by misconceptions about the western world either die on their escapade to other continents by illegal means or end up arrested and sometimes fall into the traps of the police with no counsel to defend them simply because of their race.

In as much as some African countries such as Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Cape Verde and other relatively peaceful African countries are striving to maintain a democratic and peaceful atmosphere, they have challenges with internal management. A case in point is the country on the west coast of Africa, Ghana; first to have gained independence in Sub Saharan Africa whose vision to end graduate unemployment is yet to come to a complete reality.

As it exists now majority of political parties in Ghana based their manifestos on promises to end the struggles of the youth when they gain political power. However, it is disheartening to know that even though the youth play an integral role in the social and economic development of the country, they are not empowered enough to take up their mantle to contribute to the development of the country.

As noted by his Excellency the late President of the Republic of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Ghana as a country needs to develop herself in terms of infrastructural and economic development, and help solve the plight of needy women and children in the country. This shows the concern of few African leaders such as the late president of Ghana who would strive to ensure the comfort and satisfaction of his people. The MDGs are development goals that United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by 2015.

Efforts made by the several African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are underway, while others are still in the shackles of instability. The United Nations Population Fund office in Ghana is one of the few organizations pursuing MDG 5 and putting in effort to help get rid of Maternal Mortality and seeking the interest of young people, women and children in Ghana.

Ghana as an independent democratic country is setting a perfect example to other African countries to strengthen their democracy. A classic case in point is the concerns of the current president of Ghana when he gave his maiden address to the Ghanaian people. The president urged young men and women to believe in themselves to be able to compete with the outside world. He said, Ghana will continue to be a beacon of hope for the African continent and the world at large. The Ghanaian president assured to give his best to maintain peace in the country.  This is a binding duty for all African leaders who seek to maintain peace in their country.

On the celebration of the International Youth Day 2012 in Ghana, a press statement by the national youth authority in, signed by the National Cordinator, MrsSedinaTamakloe said that youth participation has become a key tenet in national development.  The question now is, what opportunities are there in most African countries to be explored and utilized by the African youth?

In truth, the development of Africa is highly dependent on the youth, who constitute majority of the labor force, therefore a need for the consolidation of policies and investments aimed at empowering the youth .The hopes and aspirations of the youth vary, but one thing stands still; they want their voices to be heard and to be involved in the policy formulation process. Thus African leaders need a listening ear to end the struggles of the youth for the development of the continent.

It is of little wonder however those ambitious political party leaders therefore take their financial situation to their advantage and ‘motivate’ them with some monies to get them on their sides.

One might say this in the case of the unfortunate youthful class who has had little or no formal education. The incident that characterized the 2012 annual delegates congress of the National Union of Ghana Students is a clear indication of a continent that might have doubts in the future generation. The greediness for power therefore can be said to start at the youthful stages of these so called leaders and politicians.

In a country like Nigeria where religious clashes have become the order of the day, the country’s instability is threatened likewise Ghana, where the youth constitute a huge percentage of criminals being arrested in both countries. What is the reason for this? As children, we’ve all had dreams of becoming a doctor, lawyer or a carpenter. No child has a dream of being an armed robber or a rebel

.

Africa in the wake of modern democracy is striving to gain grounds in the fast growing world. It is about time that the African people learn to be independent and cast their votes for the right people irrespective of race, class or religion. The concept of democracy is indigenous to Africa and should be managed with ingenuity as democracy reigned and succeeded in pre-colonial Africa.

Moreover, the African people are taken for granted by the so called leaders who only grieve for their own loss and not for the loss of their country. Therefore, it is about time that the concept of leadership is redefined and the mentality of the African reoriented positively for the full development of perhaps the richest continent in the world.

The western world plays a great role in the future of Africa, as the continent has become a friend to any foreign country seeking to be a first world country or increase the rate of industrialization. This is a problem Africans themselves have been aware of since the era of the slave trade, colonization and now neo colonialism, as described by Dr Kwame Nkrumah. It is therefore incumbent on any African to know their history and help in the fight for African liberty even in this so called era of independence because Africa is the cradle of civilization.

The struggles of Africa’s democracy if not well handled can be likened to a hypothetical situation of brewing a pot of ‘pito,’a local beverage brewed in Northern Ghana, which when tripped over does not only cause pain to the person who trips over it, but affects largely the brewer’s effort having wasted time and resources to prepare the drink.

Just like AmaraBangura, most Africans need peace to survive and develop their potentials. Africa needs peace to survive which is the first step to the development we so yearn for. If Africa does not seek peace in the midst of her darkness, she will surely remain hungry and fall into a ditch of her own blood that could bring her the heat of war and sorrow, just like tripping over a pot of pito.  

Though in his sick bed, I pray African leaders draw inspiration from Nelson Madiba Mandela's commitment in seeking the interest of his people to help develop their country.