Open message to the AU and CEN SAD

[RWalker]

The Hon. Commissioner Konare and the leadership of CEN-SAD,

The martyred Amilcar Cabral made the statement that the PAIGC militants and movement fully understood and appreciated the source of the eagerness that Africans in the US expressed in regards to the creation of Pan-Africanism in a meeting in New York city. (See Return to the Source, by Cabral) The conditions that existed at the time of this observation still exists today. Africans in the US, Africans in the diaspora generally, are subject to severe conditions of oppression and exploitation with no redress, no options for justice within the societies in which they reside. Many Africans who have recently emigrated from Africa to Europe and North America, experience essentially similar assaults and limitations on their human and other fundamental rights.

These are circumstances that can only be remedied by the erection of a strong African polity that can speak for the Africans all over the world, a truly "effective" and "efficient" African union. Such an union will only come about when our leadership at home and the people of Africa, at home and abroad, are successful in creating the kind of African Unity envisaged by such prescient political thinkers and actors as the late Dr. Nkrumah and others of his ilk. This is why we are grateful for all the efforts of the African Union (AU), especially the AU Commission, and constituent elements such as CEN SAD, which make consistent efforts to move Africa closer to the vision and blueprint of men and women such as the great Nkrumah.

For some years, some of my colleagues in this country have suggested that it would be helpful to suggest that the leading continental forces in the major comprehensive African integration efforts hear a little comparative history from those of us in the US region of the diaspora. Specifically, history relating to the motivation and circumstances that lead to the form of post-Articles of Confederation unity created by the European colonial settlers in the US. These individuals feel that reminding our leadership of this process will contribute in a small way to encouraging our leaders to move expeditiously to create the long awaited African Union Government.

As you know the Articles of Confederation left all powers to the individual settler-created states. The national government under the Articles had no power to tax and thus could not raise a national army, could not regulate commercial, financial, monetary or other related matters between the states. From the vantage point of the leading settler colonialists, such as Hamilton, Washington, Madison and the like, such a entity was totally ineffective. It could not combat the rising militancy of the majority of poor colonialist settlers who rose up against the creditor classes -- most notably Daniel Shay's Rebellion. They could not respond to the hostile actions of the Spanish empire and the British in North America. The Articles gave then no way to effectively respond to inter-state conflict, some, such as the land dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania were on the brink of outright war. They could not engage in coordinated military actions against the indigenous nations of the continent--which hampered their goals of absorbing more of these nation's lands. Similarly, they could not adequately respond to the rebellions of the enslaved Africans within the states. There was no common currency, no common customs procedure, no national maritime structures and so forth.

It seems to us that Africa is in a similar position, in the sense that there is no common defence structures, no common diplomatic voice, no structure to facilitate the translation of Africa's immense natural material and general human resources into goods/services and assets of value sufficient to create the quality of life that African people deserve. And I could go on...but I won't as you know all this much better than I.

What I would like to contribute, on behalf of my associates, is a simple reminder. The settlers in the US, people who were and are not even indigenous to the land, were able to move from an ineffective loose confederation to a strong centralized governmental structure, with aspects of both the federal and national systems, in less than ten years! They lived in a period when communications, transportations and everything else was much more complicated, cumbersome and extremely slow...we live in a period of virtual communication -- communications that are almost instantaneous, fast rail systems, jet airliners, comfortable ocean liners, and a host of other technological advantages. Yet, since Dr. Nkrumah's first call for an African Union Government in the initial OAU meeting in 1963 to this day - August 2006, we are still debating and "considering" the efficacy of a continental government for Africa and her people scattered, suffering and dying all over the world.

As I have taken enough of your time already, I would like to close with a simple question: Isn't there something amiss here?