African Union’s version to ‘Black Lives Matter’
A series of shootings of unarmed blacks (African Americans) by mostly White police officers led to the emergence of the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the United States of America. This movement has sought to highlight the fact that black lives cannot be taken for granted. But it seems from the perspective of the African Union (AU), this is not the case.
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The African Union (AU’s) Day is celebrated across the length and breadth of the continent. The question, however, is whether this is an event worth celebrating by Africans. Is the AU an organisation of any relevance to the African people? It is argued that the African Union, as it stands now, is simply a club meant for the interests of the leaders of Africa. Most do not represent the interests of their citizens. For them, there is a different understanding of “Black Lives Matter”.
Situation before independence
During the struggle towards independence, black or African lives mattered a lot. In this country when defenceless ex-servicemen were marching towards the Christiansborg Castle in 1948, the colonial police opened fire and killed three of them. This resulted in protests in Accra and many towns across the country which eventually led to the country’s independence in 1957.
Similar incidents took place in other African countries. All Africans across the continent were united in the struggle for liberation, for as stressed by Kwame Nkrumah, “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of Africa”. Ghana played a leading role in mobilising the rest of the continent for the total emancipation of the peoples of Africa. We sent troops to assist Patrice Lumumba in the then Congo after he became President. When the Sharpville massacre took place in South Africa in 1960, we organised demonstrations in solidarity with our African brothers and sisters in that country.
Post independence
After independence, the African governments became the new colonial masters and haunted the opposition or anyone outside government down to extinction.
African leaders have formed the African Union (AU), which strictly should be “Association of Unconscionables”. They have nothing to do with the peoples they are supposed to lead. They are preoccupied with their own selfish interests in staying in power at any cost to the extent that even Donald Trump could ridicule them – “Look at how those African leaders change Constitutions in their favour so that they can be life Presidents. They are all greedy and do not care about the common people....The only thing they are interested in is accumulating wealth from poor tax payers”.
For them, Black lives do not matter. The late President Banda of Malawi would openly taunt his opponents in jail, “They would rot and they would rot”. Here in Ghana, our first President, Kwame Nkrumah was jailed by the colonial regime, but was allowed to contest an election while in jail and was released to lead the country to independence. But once he was in power, Dr J.B. Danquah was jailed and died in prison. Incidentally, Mandela was jailed by the apartheid government for 27 years and lived to become the first black President in South Africa. It is doubtful if this would have been the case if he were jailed by a fellow African.
Post election violence in Kenya after the 2007-2008 polls resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. This led to the indictment of President Kenyatta and his deputy by the International Criminal Court ( ICC). In Darfur, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir is also indicted by the ICC for direct/indirect involvement in the killings of thousands of civilians.
AU leaders seek to absolve their fellow leaders by a flimsy claim that the ICC is targeting African leaders, and is threatening to withdraw its cooperation with the ICC. At its summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2014, the AU, by subterfuge, voted to grant immunity to heads of state and other senior government officials, exempting them from prosecution for crimes committed during their term of office.
Similar abuses and atrocities have taken place in other parts of Africa - Matabeleland massacre in Zimbabwe, the Marikana massacre in South Africa, Museveni government in Uganda treats opposition leader Kizza Besigye like an animal in a circus. Here in Ghana, when the “Let my Vote Count” pressure droup went on a peaceful demonstration, the police opened fire and caused injury to the eye of one of the protestors. When an African was beaten to death in India there was a huge outcry and African leaders refused to participate in African Day events.
The only logical conclusion that we can draw from the state of affairs is that “even if one African life is touched by a colonial or a white person, or by another race, then that African life matters, but when thousands of Africans are brutally assaulted, brutalised or maimed or even murdered by African leaders then sorry, Black lives do not matter”.
Congratulations to the leaders of the club of the “Association of UnconscionableS” (AU)
The writer is a Professor of Law and Consulting Dean, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA)