News that Africa will provide all of the 26,000 peacekeepers to be sent to Sudan's Darfur region mark a historic chapter in African politics. According to the BBC, “AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said enough African troops had been promised for no outside help to be needed.” While the UN had expected to call on Asian troops from Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, the announcement that the AU and Sudan have received sufficient commitments from African countries that they will not have to resort to non-African forces comes a surprise given the lack of specifics on where these troops will come from. Of the 26,000 troops required for this mission, there are only 7,000 of the existing AU force. Senegal has pledged 1,000 while Malawi has pledged 800. Other countries that have pledged include Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Egypt.
Critics argue that Africa lacks enough trained troops for an effective force, while others contend that Sudan's government, which has long opposed the involvement of non-African soldiers, will manipulate AU troops - as they had been doing with the 7,000 AU troops already in Darfur.
--------------Though the idea of the All African Force is very encouraging especially if we are ever going to realize the vision of a United Africa, I wonder whether this initiative was borne out of the fundamental need for having African solutions for African problems, or simply conceived as a way to keep Western oversight and Westerners out of Sudan. If this was conceived as a way to simply keep the West, this whole endeavor will not only be a sad chapter for the victims in Darfur, but will also be a pile of excrement on the already tainted image of the African Union. For one, the African Union already suffers a credibility problem because of the nature of its membership and its lack of a collective voice condemning some of its member states who continue to violate all known human rights provisions. Though some critics are out against an All African Force because of their vast ideology of superiority and the belief that Africans cannot do anything successfully without outside help, it is difficult to fully support this idea of an All African Force given that given that the number of forces required does not seem to be in place. Instead, all we have are commitments, which we know to not have brought about anything concrete in the past.
That the AU and Sudanese government should bring about and protect peace in Darfur must not be an exercise that rises from an inferiority complex and the need to prove to the World that we are a sovereign people who can police ourselves. Instead, the mandate to protect the people of Darfur should be fulfilled because it is the right thing to do. There is no need to prove anything to anybody, but to do what is right for our people. It would be a great shame for us to continue talking sovereignty while our brothers and sisters continue to die in Darfur. Matter of fact, the very notion that 200,000 black Africans are believed to have died at the hands of the Sudan's Arab dominated government, and the pro-government Janjaweed militias while more than two million have been left homeless in Darfur since fighting broke out in 2003, is a sad testimony to both the heartlessness of the perpetrators and the weakness of our African Union, Countries, and leaders.
Why do we fail to resolve our own problems without having to answer to the UN and its owners? Can't we hold each other accountable, not out of the need to be parted on the back by foreigners in the form of aid, but because doing so is the African and right thing to do?
Holding each other accountable, not just castigating each other publicly to show off-would be a good step toward a united Africa. And these are the things we must be doing before we get carried away with the humongous task of creating the United States of Africa when we cannot agree on settling disputes amongst ourselves. The mandate of bringing and enforcing Peace in Darfur should be done, not for the donors, but for the African children alive today and those yet to be born.
Monday, August 13, 2007
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I appreciate the call for accountability on this issue. While it is understandable that the recent news of an all AU force might be considered an expression of autonomy or another delay by the Sudanese administration, what is most important at this moment is garnering "Peace in Darfur".
ReplyDeleteIt is tough to consider what may seem abstract notions of sovereignty and self-determination given the very real indefensible atrocities committed against our people at this very hour. Peace in Darfur is a must - by any means. That being said, while a practial examination of AU forces reveals weakness that may prevent this goal from coming to fruition under all-AU direction, one must not overlook the importance - albeit at times symbolically - of an African response to African problems. This response is more than just a "show to the West", it is a demonstration to ourselves and posterity that, like EU, China and the rest of the so-called developed world, we can define and carry out that which is in our best interest. It is the stand all nations and nation conglomerates make when establishing their positon on the world stage to others and to themselves. We should not underestimate the power of such statements and indeed of such actions in re/building of a new Africa. Such stands translate into increased self-determination in countering unjust trade practices, collectively addressing corruption from within and from without and framing an educational system that does not promote a neo-colonial mentality. Heaven knows it is easy to speak these words and my immediate life is not in danger or my next meal is accounted for, but, we must, on some level, begin to understand that the one who feeds us (or in this case defends us) leads us. Mungu akubariki Afrika.
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