In
1966 a day after he was overthrown by Ghana’s generals, Kwame Nkrumah sent a
telegram from Beijing to his former secretary, Erica Powell, in London, saying
“Take heart. I am well and determined.”You know how happy I am in such times
and occasions; He remained confident that he would soon return to Ghana,
blaming his downfall on the machinations of imperialism. “Don’t forget that
world imperialism and neo-colonialism hates my guts and all I stand for. They
know I am in the way.”This was the utterance of
the third icon who spearheaded the
Pan-African
movement. He had the urge to unite all Africans within the sphere of Economic,
Political and Social-cultural variable with the aim of a united Africa. Was his
intention pure? Is a united Africa a world enemy to imperialism and neo-colonialism?
These are some of the questions that linger my mind as I follow keenly through
the 50th Anniversary of the African Union summit with the rhetoric’s
of Pan-Africanism from all state parties. So many crimes, so many atrocities,
so many killings, so many cases of violation of rights have occurred in the
past fifty years. How do we redress them?Will prosecution be a solution? Will
Pan-Africanism be the twenty first century problem solution? These are some of
the ideals that have pricked my ego to date. Therefore I ask. Is the
International Criminal Court (ICC) a new threat towards reviving Pan -
Africanism?
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| Press Conference Chairperson during the AUC summit 27th of May 2013 Photo/AU Website |
The mantle of Pan-Africanism movement was
founded around 1900, to secure equal rights, self-government, independence, and
unity for the African people. It is based on the belief that unity is vital to
economic, social and political takeoff for the developing African states. Never
again should anybody be killed because of divergent political opinions. Never
again should public led and other resources be privileged by the ruling class.
These were some of the issues that the movement spearheaded, but is this the case?
How did we end up again so stormily raising the cry of Pan-Africanism? Is it
for the greater good or did we have a contra ‘agendum’?
Kenya failed in its previous efforts to have
Africa government’s withdraw from the ICC after the move was rejected by the
African Union. Since then, lobbying and counter-deals on diplomatic alignments
have been featured within the top Kenyan diplomats with the view of salvaging
“our people” from prosecution by the ICC. This is the cry for a new Africa to
unite against the threat of the new western “project”; to launch their
ideologies to the African state parties through the ICC. Those pushing for the
common African Union position were banking on the mantra that the ICC has
politicised the Kenyan cases and that the country has jurisdictions over the
two cases on account of the reformed judiciary. The good news on the Kenyan
citizenry is that these cases have made the newly elected president Uhuru Kenyatta
as the man who “calls the shots” amongst the African states in response to the resolution
that was passed with an overwhelmed support from State parties who lobbied
against the “western court”. Is this the new foreign policy framework for Kenya?
Is Uhuru Kenyatta the new kingmaker in Africans’ foreign policy or the ‘new kid
on the block’ considering the echoes of the Africa leaders during the Africa
Union Summit? Furthermore during the swearing in ceremony for Uhuru Kenyatta
one would think that a "new kind of Bob Marley" revolution has been launched by African leaders. An ally
of mine laughed facetiously that president Omar al-Bashir did not have to attend
the inauguration that he had already emailed Yoweri Museveni his fair share of the
speech, but this is a topic for another day. I recall vividly when Malawian president
Joyce Banda stating from the yesteryears forthcoming African Union summit that
she will initiate arrest and forward president Omar al-Bashir of Sudan to the ICC
if he steps foot in Malawi to attend the
African Union summit. Since then Malawi has been sidelined by the state parties
as a pariah to the extent that a transfer of the African Union headquarters
from Malawi to Ethiopia was initiated by a unanimous resolution. Is this the
new kind of dilemma that ICC is creating within the African Union state parties
?
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| International Crriminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during a press conference Photo/AP |
Lastly, whereas all state
parties acknowledge the above political tête-à-tête judicial quandaries.
African states have been keenly restructuring their trade partners with the aim
of trading with the Eastern blocs or rather softening trade policies towards
the East. Notwithstanding the current headquarters offices of the African Union
at Addis Ababa – Ethiopia was fully constructed and funded by China a partner
also to the BRICS (Brazil ,Russia, India, China and South Africa) State parties.
These facts have contributed to calls from all quarters “whispers” that the new
emerging trade block referred to as the BRICS is molesting African states to
join them as trade partners. A paradigm shift is on the rise considering a
change of foreign policy from the western
blocs by limiting funds to African States which have questionable human rights
track records. On the other hand, BRICS have realized this ideological gap and
the existence of ICC plight which they are now banking on to woo African states
to join them. These colligate was attributed to the extent that Brazil president
Dilma Rousseff openly declared that they will scrap or restructure debt
amounting to nine hundred billion dollars accrued by the fifteen or so African States.
Is the question of ICC a nexus that the BRICS have realized to capitalize to the
extent of chipping in incentives? Will we see a future merger from the African
blocs such as the East Africa Community, ECOWAS and SADC inter alia considering the ‘big
threat’ on their table? These realism reminds me of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
when he jokily stated “If you have tight teeth, you can chew meat properly, if
your teeth are scattered throughout your gums you cannot chew meat properly” in
reference to a United African regional State blocs or preferably the call for
a united African Union. What will the ICC actuate considering they do not have
a standing army to initiate any arrest? Will the arrest warrants be nugatory
considering the “political dilemmas” and coup by African states? Is the ICC a
new dilemma for a call of a United African Union? Let’s wait and see whether
the newly passed African Union resolution will bond pressure to the United
Nations Security Council to the point of deferral, referral or terminating the
current Kenya cases at the ICC. Only time will tell...........
End................//
By Ombado Obado
