http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/africa-should-be-place-to-flee-to-not-from-1.1693016#.U39C5ajD-70
Africa should be place to flee to, not from
May 23 2014 at 12:25pm
The search for better lives away from Africa is incredibly sad to watch,
says Makhudu Sefara.
Johannesburg - About two weeks ago, 36 people drowned, more than 40 were
declared missing and 56 others were rescued after a boat carrying scores of
Africans capsized in the Mediterranean Sea en route to Italy.
It was not the first time that Libya's porous 1 600km borders were used to
ship migrants from various African countries to either Italy or Malta. And,
sadly, it's not the last. The Italians even have a name for an operation
focused on the rescue of Africans and others from the Middle East -
Operation Mare Nostrum.
The Telegraph reports that this operation was launched after 350 Eritrean
migrants drowned when their boat capsized at night when they were within
sight of the Italian island of Lampedusa.
So far, states the paper, about 25 000 people have been rescued this year
alone, putting immense strain on the Italian military as well as civilian
refugee reception centres in Sicily and the Italian mainland.
The paper quotes Libya's representative on the International Organisation
for Migration, Othman Belbeisi, as saying the country is home to more than
2 million migrants in search of jobs and a better life, many of whom end up
braving and perishing in the Mediterranean.
The BBC reports that these migrants rely on unseaworthy and overcrowded
vessels that carry "people who hope for better lives in Europe after
fleeing war and poverty in various parts of Africa and the Middle East".
This is troubling.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a writer and philosopher of the 18th century,
credited for his influence in the French Revolution and the shaping of
modern political thought, notes: "Man is born free, and he is everywhere in
chains".
>From Libya on to Nigeria: we must, in a month since the kidnap of over 200
girl children at a boarding school, ask why it is that all of us, including
the major powers, are unable to locate them. Is it really the impotence of
global security structures?
In The Origins of Political Order, Francis Fukuyama writes that human
beings subordinate themselves to a greater power (the state) in exchange
for a level of security the state ought to provide as its principal task.
Or words to this effect.
Now, when a group of people such as Boko Haram think it not only possible,
but go ahead and abduct so many girls, and for a long period, no one, no
power in the world, is able to free the girls - that must say something
fundamental about all of us. Is it that many can't be too bothered because
these are African children, or is it mere impotence?
Man was born free, but...
When African leaders Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Paul Biya of Cameroon,
Idriss Déby Itno of Chad, Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin and Mahamadou Issoufou
of Niger look to the Élysée Palace in Paris for solutions about this, and
not the AU, is this not another case of Africa's leaders in colonial chains?
Sure, politicians and the rich, much less the wealthy, might spiritedly
protest they remained chained to colonial masters only because they were
unable to see the finite nature of their "power".
But Rousseau's retort is most apt: "Those who think themselves the masters
of others are indeed greater slaves than they."
A long time ago, people of this continent were forced off their land into
ships in their millions to become slaves in what was termed the Atlantic
slave trade.
Today, off the Libyan coast, many wilfully climb aboard, to quote the BBC
again, "unseaworthy, overcrowded vessels" of death because they wish not to
be on this continent anymore.
Why? What are we doing wrong to force our kith and kin to risk their lives
on the high seas? Is Africa that bad? On Monday, the African Development
Bank, UN Development Programme and OECD development centre released the
African Economics Outlook (AEO), which projected that Africa's development
will accelerate to 4.8 percent this year and possibly reach 6 percent next
year.
"In order to sustain the economic growth and ensure it creates
opportunities for all, African countries should continue to rebuild shock
absorbers and exercise prudent micromanagement," said Mthuli Ncube, chief
economist and vice-president of the African Development Bank.
Last year, AEO stated that Africa's economic growth was 6.6 percent, owing
to "the rebound of oil production in Libya". Without it, this growth slowed
to 4.2. That, clearly, shows how central Libya's own growth is to Africa.
The irony is that it was in Libya itself that locals and other migrants
attempted to flee from Africa. So it is in spite of the growth about which
Ncube speaks that about 25 000 other Africans risk life and limb in vessels
of death.
Recession-addled politicians in Italy say they have no resources to keep
rescuing Africans and are threatening to leave them to "drift for days in
the middle of the sea". While it is correct to say some of these economies
that can't afford to accommodate these Africans were built on the back of
millions of Africans enslaved between 1650 and 1900, the bigger question
is: Why do some of our own keep searching for better elsewhere? Should we
not make Africa better so that Africans in the diaspora may wish to return
home to Mother Africa?
The search for better lives away from Africa is incredibly sad to watch.
These Africans are tired of the many challenges in their lives: tired of
wars in Central African Republic, of famine in South Sudan, of the abuse of
the justice system in Egypt, tired of simply not having food to eat and
also tired of intermittent bomb blasts sponsored by Boko Haram. Man was
born free, but everywhere he is in chains.
Here at home, we are witnessing South Africans tired of exploitation in the
platinum belt to the point they insist on remaining on strike for four
months. They collapse because of hunger, they queue for food, kill each
other, and their hope for a better life is in the R12 500 they are
demanding.
Nelson Mandela taught us that those who attain democracy must work to free
those without it. We all carry the responsibility to alleviate Africa's
burden, pain and hopelessness that force fellow Africans to face the
Mediterranean; pay $1 000 to bands of criminals and hope to make it to a
place called Lampedusa.
These Africans may not know how Lampedusa looks or how life is there, but
they know they need to leave this place called Africa for something they
hope ought to be better. That is a shame, especially for most of us who
have it easier, but who aren't doing much to free up much of our continent.
As our parliamentarians took their seats this week, may they look in the
mirror and ask themselves whether their conduct helps Africa in its march
forward, or if they contribute towards making people feel they must risk
drowning in the Mediterranean rather than proudly proclaim their
Africanness, especially this Africa Day.
Man is indeed born free but...
* Makhudu Sefara is editor of The Star. Follow him on Twitter _at_Sefara_Mak
Received on Fri May 23 2014 - 08:51:13 EDT