By Dr. Samuel B. Artley, DMD. FAGD
Patriotism in modern day Africa is at its lowest. African patriotism will become a phenomenon for every African when unification is reached. At that point it will not matter what the racial orientation is, whether it is Arab, Caucasian, Indian, or black African; the bottom line is African will be the nationality. That will be a patriotic phrase that is simple and straight to the point. Hence the unnecessary need for further explanation, such as X-Y-Z lies next to Ghana or is that West, East, South, etc.
On the flip side, today we are Africans, we have African physical features, we have African accents and many other attributes associated with Africans. The people of Africa however do not carry an African passport nor do they have a single African voice that represents Africa’s interest in the global arena. Instead, we have many little voices that attempt to represent the interest of Africa.
These many little voices often represent the interest of the individual enclaves whose interest are usually in direct relation with the interest of donor nations. This is “drive through imperialism” and it describes the practice of donor nations, whenever they find themselves in a situation where they need international approval for their policies. Such donor nation will literally drive or fly through the African continent buying up support for their cause as they go. Drive through imperialism will forever prevent the interest of the African people from coinciding with the interest of the African governments. African unification will bring about a coincident of all African interest.
50+ years post-independence, we as Africans have chosen to stay on the path of multiple African identity instead of a unified African identity. Our pride of national identity is our badge of insults and dishonor that all these independent African enclaves and nations must carry. When negative perception of any African enclave does exist, to the average African, such perceptions will be pushed into the category of a specific nationality identity issue but to all extra-Africans, the same issue will be categorized as a collective African issue. At some point, we as Africans will have to come to grips with reality. While the whole world sees, describes, and categorizes Africa in the collective, we as Africans have been busy trying to emphasize the national identity. With the most recent public insults to Africans in the collective, coming from the Saudis and indeed Arabs. We as Africans cannot expect to halt and reverse these trends when we have not done anything or position ourselves to increase our leverage in our bilateral or multi lateral relationship. With a population of 900+ million to 1 billion Africans, we have failed to galvanize and convert these demographic advantages as an economic leveraging chip either during negotiations for fair trade contract or in this case to demand apology or possibly repercussion to the Saudis. We at this stage must beg the Saudis to apologize for insulting Africans. Our proud ancestors the Shaka Zulus, the Mansa Musas from the depth of their graves are weeping for their pride less, patriotic less grandsons and daughters that we have become in modern day Africa. A unified African identity will pave the way to African patriotism. Unification therefore is a path to African patriotism.
As for our leaders, we would all expect African leaders to be the most patriotic of all Africans. However, a closer look into the behavior pattern of these leaders have left many wondering why an increasing number of these leaders have been opting to invest heavily in the lands of extra-African countries. The obvious follow up question is why not the other 53 African countries? Surely any one of the 53 will gladly accommodate these ex-leaders while at the same time granting them all the bells and whistles that come along with such a status. These African Leaders often save their hard earned millions or embezzled millions in the banks of extra-African countries, when will these leaders get the obvious point. Monies saved in these banks will always be subjected to being frozen. Worst of all, these monies could be better used to support domestic African institutions. After all, African based banks have proved themselves to be quite reliable, perhaps even more reliable than most African governments.
Though it is fair to question the patriotism of African leaders on the final analysis, they indeed are patriots who are swimming upstream against the current of a flawed African design.
The author does understand African unification is not about to happen anytime soon; similarly all of us inhabiting and carrying the identity badge of Africa must understand. Respect from extra-African nations and citizens will not be coming our way any time soon. The most we can do at this stage of our African development is to take solace from the words of the great Shaka Zulu “we must put a stone in our stomach and swallow our prides.”