Gamal Nkrumah laments this week's African Union summit's lost illusions on
the continent's capabilities that fail to excite analysts
05-02-2013 02:51PM ET
TAKE AU TO TIMBUKTU: The best that can be said for the convergence of
African leaders on the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for the 20th Ordinary
Session of the Assembly of the African Union on Sunday is that it could have
been much worse. The Mali conflict topped this week's AU summit agenda. The
AU Peace and Security Council focussed almost entirely on Mali. The Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a 16-member-state grouping that
includes Mali, and its armed wing ECOMOG, last week pledged 3,300 troops,
but under pressure from France, ECOWAS has now decided to increase the
number of ECOMOG troops deployed in Mali to 6,000. Several key African
states are regarding military intervention in Mali with grave reservations.
However, a grand bargain was unobtainable given the political reality of a
deeply divided AU and the hegemony of former colonial power France and other
imperialist powers. On political grounds, the AU got the better of a
mediocre bargain in Mali.
Going over the Malian and perilous Saharan precipice would have opened 2013
with a dangerous degree of trepidation tantamount to the loss of confidence
in the nascent African democratic process and deeply damaging to Africa's
credibility. As Africa and the world digest the political ramifications of
French military intervention in Mali in the new year with uncertainty, there
is a realisation across the continent that the real news is yet to come.
Several African leaders, most notably President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, have
warned against the dire consequences of French military intervention in
Mali. President Morsi cautioned against what he described as the creation of
a "new conflict hotspot" that would further exacerbate tensions between Arab
North Africa and African states south of the Sahara. Morsi conceded that he
would have preferred to see a "peaceful and developmental" intervention in
Mali.
The French and ECOWAS - ironically the vast majority of the economic
grouping's member states are overwhelmingly Muslim - have consistently
insisted that they will not negotiate with the militant Islamist groups over
the political future of Mali. The outcome of military intervention in Mali
is worryingly unclear. Mali at any rate needs to make headway on its
Western-style multi-party democracy. It is a torturous process that entails
the incorporation of political Islam in a predominantly Muslim country one
way or another. Quite how, or whether, this is a feasible enterprise is
impossible to ascertain.
It is quite likely that military intervention, with or without AU blessing,
will not be enough. The militant Islamists seem bent on taking their revenge
for French military intervention in Mali. Unfortunately, the Malian
government, French military might and the AU have no way of compelling the
militant Islamists' militias to act sanely.
"We should do everything possible to help restore constitutional order in
Mali, safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and
address the humanitarian crisis in collaboration with ECOWAS, the United
Nations and other international partners," says Ethiopia's diplomatically
dynamic Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn, the newly elected president of
the AU Commission.
Not to be outdone, AU Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma urged caution.
"Optimists as we are, we are mindful of the enormous challenges that remain.
We cannot overemphasise the need for peace and security. Without peace and
security, no country or region can expect to achieve prosperity for all of
its citizens," Dlamini-Zuma told participants and delegates at the AU summit
in Addis Ababa.
GAO OVERRUN: The northeastern Malian city of Gao, the once proud capital of
the Songhai Empire, was captured on Sunday by French troops and ECOMOG
forces. The militant Islamist militias that had controlled the city until
then fled northwards towards Timbuktu and the Sahara wastelands. Ansar Dine
and other militant Islamist militias had instituted strict Islamic Sharia
law in the city even though the inhabitants of Gao have long been adherents
of the easy-going Sufi Orders.
The strategic city of Gao in the far northeast of Mali, near the border of
Niger, is home to the Songhai people closely related to the ethnic Djerma of
the neighbouring Republic of Niger. Thousands of the city's inhabitants in a
jubilant mood welcomed the advancing French forces. "Mali, Mali, France,
France," they chanted exuberantly, dancing and celebrating in scenes of
irrepressible festivities.
French intervention averts calamity for the secular Malian political
establishment for the time being. In the long-term it is, alas,
unsustainable without Western powers. The United States is committed to
provide mid-air refuelling of French warplanes engaged in "Operation Serval"
in Mali. The AU pledged to create a "standby African force" tentatively
dubbed AFISMA. Whether the proposed AFISMA will prove to be effective in
similar scenarios is still unknown. What is crystal clear is that AFISMA
would have to be sheltered under the umbrella of the US-led AFRICOM. The
Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly was precise and to the point. "This
terrorist group intends to spread its criminal purpose over the whole of
Mali, and eventually target other countries as well," Coulibaly
extrapolated. His words were a warning to other West African nations.
A labyrinth of ancient mosques, Sufi saints' shrines and unique adobe and
mud-brick mosques and Muslim monuments, Gao is almost as fabled as Timbuktu,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gao, not as famous internationally as its
sister-city Timbuktu is, nevertheless, the largest, most populous and
economic powerhouse of northern Mali. The Ansar Dine and other militant
Islamist groups that had occupied Gao and Timbuktu banned music, dance,
drumming and much of the cultural specificity of this area of northern Mali
on the grounds that they were un-Islamic. Sufi Islam was also frowned upon.
The subjugation of the cities of Gao and Timbuktu and the atrocities
committed in the name of Islam are egregious, well-documented and
encapsulate the darker side of Salafist movements across the Sahelian and
Saharan region of Africa. Even now after French military intervention in
Mali, the desecration of Sufi saints' shrines and the destruction of
priceless Islamic manuscripts by the militant Islamists has attracted much
international opprobrium.
KIDAL UNCONTROLLABLE: The militant Islamist militias who fled Gao and
Timbuktu have mostly headed for the mountainous arid region in the vicinity
of the oasis city of Kidal, a desert stronghold of the Tuareg people. The
French intervention in Mali has had many consequences, but few may be as
profound as its impact on the likelihood of a backlash against the
lighter-skinned Malians, the ethnic Arabs and Tuareg peoples of the country.
Why? It has a good deal to do with domestic politics. The Islamist
insurrection in northern Mali has unexpectedly opened a Pandora's Box.
Understanding colour consciousness requires unpacking layers of
controversial historical baggage into its two prerequisite components. The
first is that the Islamists are widely viewed as alien aggressors, invaders,
ever since the Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire, which covered much
of present day Mali in 1591. Though vastly outnumbered, the Moroccan forces
flushed with a decisive victory over the "infidel" Portuguese in the Battle
of Kasr Al-Kabir when the young Portuguese King Sebastian I was slain and
his army annihilated, and armed with musketry and artillery, routed the army
of Songhai with its cumbersome cavalry. Both Moroccans and the Songhai
Empire understood that it was illegal to wage war against another Muslim
nation. Yet, the Moroccans doubted the Islam of the Songhai people and that
was a pretext to ravage the resource-rich African kingdom.
The second dimension is the most dangerous and controversial. Arabs settled
the Sahel and engaged in the slave trade. Relations between the indigenous
Africans of Mali and the Tuareg and Arab peoples of northern Mali were
historically uneasy. They shared the same land for many centuries, even a
millennium, and yet a latent animosity prevailed. Race often proved more
important to the people of this region than religion. Seen this way,
integration between the peoples of Mali is less of a problem than it is a
strategic instrument of national reconciliation.
International human rights groups cautioned that the Malian military and the
inhabitants of the "liberated" towns have embarked on a systematic
witch-hunt against Arab and Tuareg and lighter-skinned Malians. Such
violations of human rights are bound to compound the crisis in Mali. There
is a crisis of confidence among Malians of different ethnic groups at
present. Even as Mali grapples with the current predicament, the Malian
authorities should prove such assertions of racism wrong.
Far more serious is that the AU pussy-footed over this particular
controversial issue. Not only should Mali demonstrate that it is ready to
defend and project the values upon which the secular state was built, but
secure the rights of lighter-skinned Malians who risk being dragged down
with the sinister and aggressive militant Islamists. It is a touchy subject,
but one that will have to be squarely dealt with.
THE TWO SUDANS: Most of the member states of the AU have been reluctant
Africans. Their sense of belonging to the AU has been marked by misguided
assumptions and missed opportunities to create a real and meaningful African
unity. Sudan is no exception.
Just as the breaking up of Sudan into two diametrically opposed states -
ideologically and politically - was thought to represent the final straw for
Africa, the Mali crisis erupted. Sudan and South Sudan were discussed in
detail in Addis Ababa. However, it appears that delegates preferred to keep
this twin prickly question under the stewardship of former South African
president Thabo Mbeki, the AU special envoy and chief mediator on Sudan. Not
so long ago, Sudan was hailed as an African economic success story.
Africa's economic advance has not been uniform. Sudan is a case in point.
There are indications that South Sudan's economic prospects look promising.
The same cannot be said for the North. Sudan is a pariah state precisely
because it is an Islamist state. As far as the AU is concerned, Sudan, like
the rest of Africa, should champion Western powers as the indispensable
referee enforcing the rules of the international world order, just as Mali.
Mali is as Muslim as Sudan, but it is far more complacent and compliant when
it comes to taking orders from Western powers.
The AU has clarified the basic principles at stake - South Sudan should not
be stampeded by a bellicose militant Islamist Sudan. Juba should rather
strive to achieve the ideal secularist, politically pluralist state. And,
above all, South Sudan President Salva Kiir should hold his nerve.
LOST ILLUSIONS ON AFRICA: The New Partnership for African Development has
long been regarded with scorn as too narrow a continental goal. The case for
a more integrated continental economic government in Africa is now received
with wisdom in most African capitals. And yet, the political will to unite
is sadly lacking. For the foreseeable future the Pan-Africanist vision of
the United States of Africa remains an elusive dream. The resurgence of the
old colonial powers, France in Mali for instance, as the dominant actor in
African affairs remains a reality.
It is against this geopolitical backdrop that the perennial political crises
across the African continent continue to fester. The political impasse in
the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo cropped up
at deliberations in Addis Ababa this week, but they were far from topping
the agenda.
The delayed delivery of peace between Sudan and South Sudan bears testimony
to the complex issues at stake. Somalia, too, is in limbo.
So what should Africa do, and, as important, not do? Or what can African
leaders do? Above all, African leaders should speak for continent and not
necessarily country. AU summits have in recent years been characterised by
the participation of "friendly" countries - invariably with economic
interests in Africa - as guests of honour. Last year it was China. This year
it was Turkey that indicted its intention to participate in AMISOM - the AU
Mission to Somalia. Turkish Airlines was the first non-Somali carrier to
launch regular flights to the Somali capital Mogadishu.
AU Commission Chairperson Dlamini-Zuma summed up NEPAD's and Africa's
predicament. "While appreciating support from development partners, we will
need to do more about mobilising more domestic resources for NEPAD. [We]
would also like to request that the organisational structure approved be
implemented. However, in order for us to implement, we need money,"
Dlamini-Zuma conceded.
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Received on Tue Feb 05 2013 - 15:11:59 EST
