Page 77 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

21 century Africa
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It’s a different world now!

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Togetherness of African nations

“ Africa is one continent, one people and one nation "
Kwame Nkrumah
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At the time of African Independence, many m'zuŋ u would assume that such cries were
born out of an allegiance to socialism. And even more mistakenly assumed that only
reflected a political alliance with communist USSR.

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That was a mistake. It still is one of the biggest mistakes m'zuŋ u make.
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Africans have long thought of themselves as differing from the m'zuŋ u. Of having their
own African ways. The post-colonial period has produced an underlying sense of anger if
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not bitterness toward the m'zuŋ u, and in particular, with the way they feel that the
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m'zuŋ u 'look down' at them. Always telling the African what's good for them, that the
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m'zuŋ u knows best.
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You can see this resentment even amongst those moderate Africans the m'zuŋ u
supposedly admires.
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" If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for
observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers."

Nelson Mandela

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Africa could not speak as one voice in those decades of post-colonial chaos. No newly

independent African nation was able to determine its own internal affairs. But the

groundwork for a 21st century unity has been laid down bit by bit over several decades.
• Steps were taken years ago to reduce the problems related to a continent with over 2,000
spoken languages. One result has been that Kiswahili is now taught to schoolchildren
across many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• There are already several regional economic communities within Africa. Soon there will be
an effective pan-African economic bloc.

• The African Union (AU) increasingly asserts an authority over individual African nations. It
has notably intervened to resolve difficult issues related to the change of government.

• Whilst for obvious reasons the figures will vary from year to year, at the time of writing,
Africans form 65,000 of the 100,000 personnel involved in peacekeeping missions within
Africa