United States of Africa

Forum: Is African unity a dream worth pursuing?

2007-04-01T01:02:00.000-07:00

Forum: Is African unity a dream worth pursuing?

Gamal Nkrumah argues for a renewed political commitment to the African unity that his father envisaged
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Osabutey Anny in Tema, Ghana writes
Those calling for African unity are just making a mockery of themselves.
Look at the continent today, every so-called president wants to stay in power till death so the question is, who should head the union?
This alone is enough for those advocating African unity to stop before their throats run dry.
Emmanuel Thompson writes
In unity lies strength. African unity can be traced back to the formation of Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 now the African Union (AU) has two main agendas.
The first is to ensure the decolonisation or political emanicipation of the African continent, and the second is to ensure the economic intergration of the continent.
It is only with the achievement of both of these that one can confidently say that the dream of African unity has been realised.
The decolonisation of the African continent has been achieved; what is yet to become a reality is economic integration.
In my opinion African unity is still a dream worth pursuing, however problems such as ethnicity, quest for power, amassing of wealth by corrupt leaders, diseases, ethnic conflict, manipulation of data on Africa by African leaders, unhealthy rivalry between ruling governments and oppositions, and international trade conditions are likely to delay this dream.
Atina Ndindeng in Manchester, England writes
African unity is just a mirage because of greed, dishonesty, and corruption among the executive whom we hold in such high esteem and should be setting an example, but they are all failures and political demagogues, shame to most African heads.
Cornelius Adjetey in London, England writes
I am the founder of the AFRICAN UNITY MOVEMENT (Uniting people of African origin for economic progress) University of Westminster. I salute any persons who share this dream. This is the ONLY way forward for Africa.
Whoever says this is not possible is a big failure. We need to educate ourselves, friends and people around us about Africa unity.
We have started with an awareness programme and we need support from all believers.
Checkwell Tom Siwa in Kampala, Uganda writes
For the sake of catching up with the West, I believe Gamal is ultimately correct.
If we are to be on an equal footing with the rest of the world, we have one choice, UNITY. THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA.
It will expand our markets, bring harmony among Africans and a give us better bargaining power when dealing with the West.
Musa Kalawa in Los Angeles, USA writes
Yes, it is worth pursuing: To support my thesis, we most first look at the prospective benefits presented by the idea of a united Africa.
With unity, there will surely be less conflict in the continent.
With unity, we will be able to better understand and respect the diversity in our cultural differences.
With unity, there will be fewer borders thereby allowing most Africans to assimilate into other cultures which will help us better understand each other.
John Moi in Khartoum, Sudan writes
A majority of people will accept that the question of who is an African is still problematic.
Culturally, the guys in North Africa including our own Sudan consider themselves as Arabs.
In secondary school days we learned about the map of the Arab world to really emphasise that my country belongs to that part of the world.
Pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism oppose each other to the effect that North Africans have very little to do with the rest of sub-saharan Africa.
We cannot subscribe to the idea of united states of Africa without answering this genuine identity question in clear terms.
Aturjong Abraham in Khartoum, Sudan writes
Come on African leaders, give your response to the idea of African unity. Please make it meaningful and credible to the next generation and all people around the continent.
We look to you to hear how you support the vision of Mr Gamal Nkrumah.
Philip A Boldit in Texas, USA writes
A United Sates of Africa is a dream that is attainable. I think that eastern Africa, together with South Africa will be the first to achieve this dream.
But what Africa needs now is the assurance from the big powers, like UK, France, USA and China that a united Africa is not a threat to their interests.
African Arab countries of Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, and Mauritania will have a difficult choice: They will either look more to the Middle East or accept the political reality of being Africans ahead of anything else.
Dagnogo Bakary in Abidjan, Ivory Coast writes
Africans must keep in having faith in the African unity. Africans' efforts will be rewarded one day thanks to God. May our dream come true despite the hardships we Africans encounter.
Okey Aligbe in Niamey, Niger
Gamal Nkrumah should return to Ghana and first unite with his kith and kin before preaching African unity. Action speaks louder than words!
Sieh from Marietta in the USA writes
Which religious principles will a united Africa be founded upon?
I am one hundred percent in favour of a United States of Africa, but there is a catch. The United States of America was founded on Christian principles, that is why we have United States of America today, what principles will Africa be founded on?
We have got to look in that area also. Right now, the world has been poisoned by Christain and Islam religions - Let's take that into account.
If we do unite, which principles are we going to follow?
My mother once said, "asking to know something doesn't make you stupid", therefore, I would appreciate it very highly if someone could enlighten me on the possiblity of Africa been one country.
Dennis Turner in Middlesex, England writes
It's time Africa unite. With Africans putting aside selfishness and greed, religious, tribal, and cultural differences, then a united Africa would be one of the most powerful states on earth. Otherwise I foresee an extinction of the African race purely because of selfishness and greed.
Abednego Majack in Rumbek, Sudan writes
United States of Africa? The phrase sound good but the question is, do we really see ourselves as African regardless of our colonial boundaries, religions and regional groupings?
Here in Sudan our problem is greed that hides behind religious claims such as a non-muslim cannot rule a muslim. What is so much special with our creeds that we totally failed to understand that we are all still Africans living on the African continent?
Kwame Nkrumah's vision of a united Africa is at threat unless the Pan African Ideology is fully understood in Somalia, Sudan, Mauritania and Egypt so that people in these countries see themselves as African and not Arabs, see themselves as brothers and sisters not Muslims and Christians.
Aquiring an Arab naturalisation either through birth or by religion is fine but does it mean creating an Arab continent within the African one?
The AU must be very serious when considering how to make African unity attractive otherwise the continent will still remain in two halves, sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and problems will develop along that fault line.
Mustapha Shehu Barnoma in Khartoum, Sudan writes
USA sounds a great idea.
It is surprising that Africans are still refugees in their own countries and some people from another continents claim our countries and kill our brothers for their skin colour or just because they are Africans.
I would love a United States of Africa or a new Africa that represents Africans and their interests - an Africa for Africans.
C. Alexander Brown in Rockcliffe park, Canada writes
I want to say three things. First, yes, African countries should definitely unite. But an African united states is not possible. Too much ego stands in the way, too many regional interests, and also outside interference would prevent it. Would the USA want to see a truly united Africa? Would the leaders of northern African countries, [with the notable and admirable exception of President Ghadaffi], who admit to being African only when they need votes at the UN or for some other geo-political purposes, want a United Africa? Dream on!! So let us be realistic and practical and think of a Federation of African States along the lines of the European Union. And we should get on with it now. Right now.

Current African leaders are far lesser men that the African leaders who fought for independence... Nyerere had the guts to invade Uganda to get rid of the homicidal maniac, Idi Amin.

Second, most of the current African leaders are far lesser men that the African leaders who fought for independence from colonialism; N'krumah, Luthuli, Nyerere, Kenyatta, to name just a few. Would these leaders stand by impotently, while Arab racists in Sudan rape black women and slaughter 200,000 black Africans? Nyerere had the guts to invade Uganda to get rid of the homicidal maniac mass murderer Idi Amin. I have nothing but contempt for most of today's African leaders who specialize in getting rich, attenting international conferences and making fine speeches - the blood of the victims of the Darfur holocaust is also on their hands as because they won't intervene overtly or covertly to save their black brothers and sisters.
Third, I want to point out what we ALL know, but do not speak about. The continent of Africa is the richest continent on planet earth with oil, gas, minerals and brilliant hard-working people. So why are the millions of ordinary people of Africa the poorest, sickest, most hungry and deseased folks on the face of our Earth? Every right-thinking, moral and proud African must declare personal war against this present situation. Otherwise we will continue to remain poor and miserable while making the rest of the people on earth, including those who have nothing but scorn and even hatred of us, rich. Surely, surely surely, we are better than this?
Malachy Osunwa, a Nigerian in Uganda writes
Africa can unite when we are able to accept each other as brothers and sisters and stop licking the boots of the 'white' people. When we begin to believe in our capacities as human beings, and not as 'slaves' of Europe.
When we begin to think and think hard, not just believe that our land is cursed by some non-existent deity. When we can build up some self-esteem before other continents and see ourselves as 'images of God'. These are some basic steps towards the unity of Africa.
The heads of states who form the AU are there planning to perpetuate themselves in power, they have little time to think of Africa. They seem to be united in criminal oppression of Africans and a sell-out of the cream of Africans due to poor infrastructural developments. They must repent to pave way for greater unity of the Africans.
Africans must get away from the deep-seated mutual distrust of their fellows that they nurse within their hearts, believing that these others are just there to "pull them down". Mutual distrust cannot give Africans unity. That is the fact!
Irving Baysah in Austin, Texas writes
I've always been a proponent of African unity. I sincerely believe it's the only way forward for all Africans.
Based on recent African history, I like another Ghanian's idea better; he's Edward Oppong, a construction worker in Texas.
He proposed that we start small communities of countries that would do more than just meet at ECOWAS meetings. I like his idea, because people with common interest will unite around that objective.
Instead of getting in big debts, I say - let one nation have a great science program (say Nigeria space program), another have a great electricity supply (say Ghana's dam) and have another have a great rice/yam farm (say Liberia) and find a way for mutual cooperation.
Let's face it, being black is looked down upon everywhere (including Africa). The Arabs will never respect us until we rise above the immense poverty and bring back our dignity from the days of Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Ashanti empires.
People from around the world came to study at Timbuktu, we need to go back to those days. I BELIEVE THERE WILL BE NO UNIFICATION WITHOUT MUTUAL BENEFITS!!
Ibrahim Abubakar in Accra, Ghana writes
We have left our food unwatched and now that it is burning look at us complaining.

Saying and doing are two differents things; Nkrumah did not only pay lip service in the independence speech of Ghana, he also went a long way to walk the walk.
How many African leaders after him were ready to shelve their countries interest for all of Africa? Nkrumah was accused of serving the interests of Africa to the detriment of Ghana, but at the end of the day it did benefit the whole continent.
In this day and age where we as Africans cannot draw a line between where skin colour, ethnicity, religion and culture end and where Africanism and so-called hypocrisy of democracy begins, unity will continue to elude us.
We have left our food unwatched and now that it is burning look at us complaining.
All we are good at is ranting and raving about racism, Africanism, united Africa and African unity but we fail to show any political will to work towards that AFRICAN UNITY!
Israel Ambe Ayongwa in Bamenda, Cameroon writes
Lofty as this idea of a United States of Africa is, one major barrier towards this is the colour factor.
Maghrebian states more often than not will prefer to side with their Arab siblings in the Middle-East to the detriment of black Africans in sub-Saharan Africa.
Immigrants using north Africa as a conduit to Europe have often decried the mistreatment they are subjected to in this region and the situation is deteriorating to a stage where every black African found up north is viewed as a potential migrant to Europe.
If we can overcome this colour barrier, then we will have initiated a crucial step towards fostering African integration.
Godlove Stephen Mbisse in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania writes
"United African States" sounds brilliant! However I think the unification was much easier then than now.
It is a lost opportunity for African presidents have already tasted the sweetness of being in power and most of them are drunk from it.
I don't think African heads of states are ready to sacrifice their power and sovereignty at the altar of unification.
Betty July in Juba, Sudan writes
It is imperative for Africa to unite only if we Africans accept ourselves as African and genuinely support each other.
While we still identify ourselves by our boundaries, religions or denominations, I am still sceptical about this united Africa.
Dela Folie in Tema, Ghana writes
A lot has been said about the whole of Africa uniting - how great that would be!! How do we get it all started?
The first step I believe is to have the majority, if not all, of Africans being in favour of it.
Then where do we go from there? We've talked a lot, let's act and keep discussing. This beautiful continent Africa needs to unite.
Ebrima Sankareh in Raleigh, USA writes
I am glad that you are working towards your father's fantastic dream of continental unity. I am an admirer of your father's political philosopy and share the same view that African unity is a must.
I am originally from the west African state of The Gambia and had worked as a high school teacher and journalist before I fled Yahya Jammeh's tyranny.
"TYRANNY' & "CORRUPTION" are barriers to African unity and any effort at continental unity must tackle these evils.
Aturjong Abraham in Khartoum, Sudan writes
African leaders must take it seriously about what African unity will bring to the continent.
I do agree with Mr. Mark Wood for his comment (below) it is true that if African leaders and citizens commit themselves to unity then I think Africa's development will accelerate.
Johnny in Monrovia, Liberia writes
The idea of unity if great. I think it will enable peace and agreement for God's sake and the world.
I strongly oppose war lords recruiting child soldiers to satisfy their selfish gain.
Harun Mito Daudu, a Kenyan living in Richmond, USA writes
I totally concur with Kwameh's dream of African unity but I don't think that he managed to prepare other Africans to have the same vision that he had.
There are certain places the guest or the child can't go without permission, even though they share the house.

We talk of free movement and doing business among ourselves without impediments, that's fine but first we must put infrastructures in place to support these schemes so that it is not just rhetoric.
In the USA or EU, a child or a guest in a house has no absolute freedom and right to just wander about wherever and whenever he feels.
It never happened back then in Africa and it will never happen right now. There are certain places the guest or the child can't go without permission, even though they share the house.
Limits must be set and enforced. Let us put our "house" in order and seek with humility what we can and can not do in order to attain the freedom and respect for one another that we all yearn for.
Ernest, an African living in Nashville, Tennessee, USA writes
Did we have the Soviet Union fulfilling its commitment of creating a highly developed society for its people?
Didn't America fight a civil war to preserve the union - the super power that is the United States of America today?
Don't we have the European Union today that is growing into such a powerful socio-economic, cultural and commercial and political block that commands world attention?
Why would some Africans and their leaders not have embraced Nkrumah's idea of a continental union? Tell me they are poor souls with small minds who do not see further than their own shadows, and I am your man.
Speak up Gamal, and certainly the time will come when the truth and sanity of the idea of a union will overwhelm spineless, selfish, and pitiful skeptics who refuse to see the big picture. That day will surely come.
Moorish Nubian in Marrakech, Morocco writes
The AU - a healthy outcome
No! Africa Unity is not a dream rather a reality.
After 50 years it is a shame that the planted tree has not being watered for long enough to see the full bloom of its agenda of a union of African states.
But the healthy outcome is the renowned Africa Union - a new birth to give this generation stability and economic reforms.
Black Africans have always shared the platter with their Arab counterparts. The establishment of the O.A.U. and the creation of the Arab League; both bodies' agendas seem parallel.
Today what is happening in Darfur and what is happening in the West Bank are equally painful to both parties keen to seek peace.
Sauli Swai in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania writes
Recently, Kwame Nkrumah's dreams of African unity have faded because the continent is free from so-called colonialism.
Before independence, unity was an attractive option and Africa was open to any allies which showed any indication of helping them to overcome colonialism. That is why Russia and China, whom helped some African countries and treated themselves as the same, provided a more clear road to unity.
But now there is no symbol of unification, everyone is concentrating on saving their citizens from living on the less than a dollar a day breadline.
Mark Wood in Greenwood, California, USA writes
In a United States of Africa, a citizen could freely travel anywhere on the continent to seek education, opportunity, commerce or the simple pleasure of tourist travel.

A United States of Africa can prevent an African apocalypse on the horizon if unification does not happen NOW!
In a United States of Africa, a citizen could freely travel anywhere on the continent to seek education, opportunity, commerce or the simple pleasure of tourist travel within their vast country.
A common African currency much like the EU model affords the ability to buy and sell throughout the continent with a reliable backed currency.
Much of Africa's debt could be relieved if freedom and capitalism were able to thrive in any African state from taxes paid by companies involved in business in any African location.
An immediate positive effect would arise from and establish local, municipal and federal levels of the united African infrastructure throughout Africa. A United States of Africa debate must begin at once, in the media, on the airwaves, in discussions and editorials.
Clement Kuol Biong in Mahe, Seychelles writes
A veteran Sudanese politician, once compared the Sudan Socialist Union of Jafaar Numeiri's rule to a shadow tree where we come just to share the shade but what each person under the the tree is thinking about is not necessarily the same.
So how can Africa be united when we are still tribally fragmented and no African leader is interested in uniting his own people?
How can African unity become a dream come true when different groupings of the AU have their own hidden agendas.
The Arabs have never stopped their dream of imposing Islam culture on African masses by the sword, a practice which is still widespread in Sudan up to today.
Cherno Bah in Cardiff, UK writes
Gamal Nkrumah's feature on African continental unity, on the occasion of 50 years of independent nation states in that most beautiful of continents, is poignant, insightful and piercingly honest.
Indeed, Gamal's father knew that the only way Africa can assert its identity and strategic relevance, in a world of economic and political blocs, is by the creation of a unified continental governing body, empowered to formulate and implement a common foreign, defence, economic, health and social policy.
Nkrumah's vision for Africa has been and still remains the only plausible and holistic approach to the continent's numerous divisons and conflicts, and perhaps the only hope to front the ever-increasing exploitative and pimping advances of a neo-colonialist so-called 'G8 camp'.
Bethel Okara in Owerri, Nigeria writes
The decline in African/Arab co-operation is having adverse effect on Africa. It has created enemity between Arabs and non-Arabs in Africa; what is happening in Sudan is a clear example.
The AU should find way to promote African/Arab co-operation cos it will help to minimise the conflict in Africa.

Summit to focus on 'United States of Africa

2007-04-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

January 31 2007 at 03:56PM
Addis Ababa - The next African Union summit to be held in Ghana's capital Accra in July will see a new push from some leaders to build what has been dubbed a 'United States of Africa', diplomats said on Wednesday.Several participants in a two-day AU summmit in Addis Ababa that wrapped up late on Tuesday said west African states were broadly supportive of a closer union, while countries from the south had been more sceptical.According to one delegate, South African President Thabo Mbeki told his peers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that "before you put a roof on a house, you need to build the foundations."
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By contrast, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade wrote a letter to his fellow heads of state at the summit urging that moves to draw up a constitution for a "government of the union" should be accelerated.And, Senegalese Foreign Minister Sheikh Tidiane Gadio said the next AU summit would be exclusively devoted to the idea of forging a closer union."This is an historic victory," he said. "Following the demand of President Wade, the next summit in Accra will only be about the issue of bringing about a United States of Africa."Ghana's President John Kufuor, who was elected the new AU chairman after member states rebuffed Sudan and will host the Accra meeting, said in closing remarks Tuesday that African states had much to gain by forging closer ties."Divided we are weak," he said. "United, Africa can become one of the world powers for good." - Sapa-AFP

Scholar Explores Problems And Challenges Of "United States Of Africa

2007-04-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

March 05, 2007
Scholar Explores Problems And Challenges Of "United States Of Africa
Dr. Molefi Kete Assante, an African scholar, presents "Toward the African Renaissance: The Problems and Prospects of a New Africa" at 7 p.m. on March 8 in the Cooperage. The event will be streamed live on the web. To view visit http://streaming.sonoma.edu/.
Asante discusses the dream for a United States of Africa, a movement that begun by Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president. Ghana celebrates its 50th year on March 6.
He examines the prospects for an African Renaissance based on the idea of an African Federative Union and present the prospects and problems of a continental government in Africa.
Asante is a professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University where he created the first Ph.D. Program in African American Studies in 1987.
He has published more scholarly books than any contemporary African author and has recently been recognized as one of the ten most widely cited African Americans. Black Issues in Higher Education recognized him as one of the most influential leaders in the last 15 years. As an activist scholar, he believes it is not enough to know, one must act to humanize the world.
The African Union honored him as one of the twelve top scholars of African descent when it invited him to give one of the keynote addresses at the Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and the Diaspora in Dakar in 2004.

AU to consider ‘United States of Africa’ at July summit in Accra

2007-04-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

AU to consider ‘United States of Africa’ at July summit in Accra

Category: africa Dated: 27/03/2007 Forty-four years after Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah called for a United States of Africa at the founding conference of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, this summer African leaders will once again debate the issue. Email Godwin Read & Reply Discussions [1] Alerts Godwin's Archive RSS - What is RSS? Share Story Print
Godwin Nnanna
Kwame Nkrumah thought a united Africa could break the chains of colonialism
Not one of us working singly and individually can successfully attain the fullest development. Kwame Nkrumah, at the first conference of the AU in 1963
Forty-four years after Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah called for a United States of Africa at the founding conference of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, this summer African leaders will once again debate the issue.The proposal is being put forward by the incumbent chairman of African Union (AU) and will be considered by leaders of the 53 countries of the continent as they gather in Accra in July for this year’s AU summit. Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nana Akufo-Addo, announced this in a presentation to the Ghanaian parliament on the event. The proposal is to have a common African country that will be run federally, mirroring the formation of the United States of America. According to Akufo-Addo: “All member states have been asked to critically examine the issue ahead of the summit and to come up with steps needed to ensure its actualization.” Ghana’s parliament will debate the matter in during its sittings in May.Making the proposal in his speech at the Addis Ababa conference in 1963, Nkrumah had noted: “Not one of us working singly and individually can successfully attain the fullest development. Only a united Africa functioning under a union government can forcefully mobilize the material and moral resources of our separate countries and apply them efficiently and energetically to bring a rapid change in the conditions of our people.” Nkrumah’s idea of a united Africa is one with a union government with headquarters in a central place in Africa, (he actually suggested Banqui in the Central African Republic or Kinshasa in Congo), that will among other things have: a common economic and industrial development programme, a common currency, a common foreign policy, a common army and a common African citizenship.“The people of Africa call for the breaking down of the boundaries that keep them apart. They demand an end to the border disputes between sister African states – disputes that arise out of the artificial barriers raised by colonialism. It was colonialism’s purpose that divided us. It was colonialism’s purpose that left us with our border irredentism that rejected our ethnic and cultural fusion,” Nkrumah told participants at the conference.
Hope for Africa lies in a united continent
Work for unity with the firm conviction that without unity, there is no future for Africa. Julius Nyerere, Former President of Tanzania
“No independent African state today by itself has a chance to follow an independent course of economic development, and many of us who have tried to do this have been almost ruined or have had to return to the fold of the former colonial rulers. This position will not change unless we have a unified policy working at the continental level,” he added.Reflecting on that proposal by Nkrumah at a special lecture in Accra in March 1997, former president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere noted: “Nkrumah was opposed to balkanization as much as he was opposed to colonialism in Africa. To him and to a number of us, the two – balkanization and colonialism were twins. Genuine liberation of Africa had to attack both twins. A struggle against colonialism must go hand in hand with a struggle against the balkanization of Africa.” Nyerere charged the new generation of African leaders with a charge. “This is my plea to the new generation of African leaders and African peoples: work for unity with the firm conviction that without unity, there is no future for Africa. Africans should spit in the face of anybody who suggests that our continent should remain divided and fossilized in the shame of colonialism, in order to satisfy the national pride of our former colonial masters.” The Accra Summit will also seek to address the composition of the AU Executive and a replacement for Alpha Konare who has indicated he intends to step down as a AU President. The African Peer Review Mechanism will also be on the menu of the summit and the unresolved business of pockets of conflicts in parts of the continent.

AU Summit to consider ‘United States of Africa’

2007-03-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

A major proposition of whether Africa will need to form a United States of Africa in the bid to promote greater integration will be on the table when Ghana hosts the African Union Summit in July. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nana Akufo-Addo who announced the subject in his briefing of Parliament about the upcoming summit, said there will be need to consider the issue.The proposal is to run Africa federally as pertains in the United States of America.AU members states have been asked to deliberate on the issue ahead of the summit and to come up with steps needed to be taken to reach the goal. Ghana’s Parliament will debate the matter in May.The Accra Summit will also seek to address the composition of the AU Executive and a replacement for Alpha Konare who has indicated he intends to step down as a AU Presient.The African Peer Review Mechanism will also be on the menu of the summit and the unresolved business of pockets of conflicts in parts of the continent.Also in Parliament, President Kufuor’s recent round trip to Britain, Portugal and Algeria also came up for mention with the Minority raising issues about the President's failure to inform Parliament of his visit to Portugal.

Mozambican president urges prudence on 'United States of Africa'
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Mozambican President Armando Guebuza has said it would be precipitate to simply declare the existence of a "United States of Africa" at the current stage.
Before reaching any such stage there were the existing agendas (national, regional and international) to which countries had committed themselves, but which had not yet been implemented, a report of Mozambique News Agency from Maputo quoted Monday the president as saying.
Guebuza advised a great deal of careful consideration before embarking on such an ambitious project when he spoke to Mozambican journalists shortly before leaving the Libyan city of Sirte, where he had attended celebrations of the seventh anniversary of the African Union on.
The abolition of the current African frontiers would depend on each of the peoples of the countries concerned, he said.
It is not so much African leaderships that should decide on transforming the continent into a single state with a single government, he said.
He said that when sub-regional bodies such as Southern African Development Community had become successful, they might serve as platforms for the much broader integration of the entire continent into a "United States of Africa."
It is the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who has championed the idea of a "United States of Africa." During Saturday's anniversary celebrations he called for the establishment of this new continental body by a simple decree from the existing African heads of state.
He openly condemned those who regard the idea with skepticism, and said they should be forced to accept it. He claimed that those who oppose the "United States of Africa" are motivated by a wish to maintain their current privileges.

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Are you talking about the USSA (United Socialists States of Africa)?
My topic bears the message.
Posted By Pur'gu Sarpe

ideal concept
Before europe could even think of EEC Dr Nkrumah had already proposed this idea to the African community.Ofcourse it would been easier due to less conflict and economic strain in most newly indepent African countries count. However we have to interpret the concept to suit present day realities on the continent. Unity didnt come to America and Europe on a silver plata. My suggestion is, if two or three African countries are ready to uinte their economies and political systems they should proceed and I believe the benefits will attract other nations. In terms of economic and political stability, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa can set the ball rolling towards forming the first united countries. I also want to point out that, Real Modern Africans are those living in sub saharan Africa. North Africans are Africans by conquest and annexation of the African continent.They are cross over Arabs. They have formed their own alliances with other Arab countries.
Posted By yxhomma

Let's change the wheel
This call seems to be in right direction because it fruit will help in reducing the ethnicâ€™s political ideologist that has tassel in Africa political terrain. I know this will bring political disintegration going in Ghana and other part of African to curtailment and we shall see each other as one instead of decisive political climate we are witnessing today. Talking about who is going to be the head, l think this is not a big issue our leaders need to learn how to sell their opinions to the electorate colleges which will be different from tribal votes. Ethnical conglomerations in political terrain will be reviving to provide better and productive services to the whole Africa country. Qualified candidates can not canvass on tribal and pigmentation; instead they will find some thing thoughtful to tell the electorate college.
Posted By Simon

US what?
it seems our leaders in the countries have really lost focus.The idea is not bad, but how is it going to be imlemented?It is better we become innovative than alays following others blindly, if not copying them exactly.Charity I think, begins at home.Hence, we should unite ghana,first,then west africa before we move on to africa.We have to bite what we can chew
Posted By papafio

USA No. 2
"United States Of Africa" Is this a dream or a vision? This truly reveals the short-sighted, lack-of-vision leaders (or is it would-be leaders?) we have. How can you even conceive the idea of USA 2 when you cannot even deal with the strife in your own neighbourhood? As someone just said, you don't even know how to craw, and now you say you want to run. Get real, and stop talking like a child who doesn't know what he is talking about, future president of Ghana! Do you really have a vision for Ghana?
Posted By Kwaku Asiamah

MY WORRIES ARE
EVEN POLITICANS CANNOT ZIP UP THEIR PANTS.HOW MUCH MORE TO CONTROL PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT DIALETS.GOD HAVE MERCY.
Posted By NII

United States of Africa
Perhaps "Association of African States" would be both more realistic and less difficult to avoid confusion of name aith United States of America.
Posted By Norbert A. Aminzia

Be Leaders!
I will start my submission by quoting a very important statement made by someone I respect as a statesman of Africa - Margaret Johnson Hilili of Abuja. She say "A man who thinks he has good leadership qualities should first assess how peaceful his home is". Indeed, if constituting a United States of Africa is the top agenda of this year's AU summit, I register my utmost disappointment. If we cannot ensure peace and stability in our mother Africa, how do we think of constituting a union such as that of America? Not to go too far, the AU itself is a good starting point for our assessment on the prospects of such a Union. If even within the AU, Zimbabwe and Sudan do not conform to rules and regulations, how could we be thinking of a United Africa at this time? I think I agree totally with the many people who believe that our leaders should first learn to walk before they run. Actually, I'll bring it to first learning to crawl before walking. This is the reason I believe young people should concentrate on developing the leadership base of Africa for a start. At least that way, we do not stand the risk of suffering at the hands of over ambitious presidents like those who seek forming US of Africa in a time when war and disturbance plagues Africa. Let's all think about this.
Posted By A. Y. Kuwornu

US of Africa
Africa and its people have suffered and continue to suffer as individual entities. It will be a dream come true for some of us if at least Black Africa should see sense to unite. It should just take forty two or so heads of states to passionately embrace this noble idea to make it a reality. Please, Please, Please make this happen for the benefit of the children of black Africa who are the most down-trodden and most exploited on earth. Together we stand, divided we fall. Long Live Black Africa
Posted By Ekow Reperkwa

US of Africa
Who will be the President of the United States of Africa. Will we ever be able to determine without further blood shed, who becomes the president. Au cant even handle Sudan , Congo and also looks on while Mugabe is turning the continent into a laughing stock. It is good to dream big but nine before ten
Posted By Kwame Asante

Its No News
Itâ€™s no news to hear this again and again because most, if not all African leaders believe in names or names of positions more than the responsibilities they have ahead of them. Our leaders will continue to meet, wearing their well sawn coats, sit in fantastic cars, eat sumptuous food, sleep in 7 star hotels, shake hands with beautiful women and handsome men of the world with a big smile that could only be shown to outsiders or outside their suffering countrymen and women. But nothing much will happen to us unless our leaders start being responsible and consider the needs of their people first before anybody else, either blue or green from anywhere in the world. They all want to show the so called donors that all is well in the country. GOD FORGIVE US AND BE WITH US ALL AS SOME OF US HAVE STARTED COMING BACK TO OUR SENSES. Long Live Ghana, Live Africa and Long Live The Dream of KWAME NKRUMAH
Posted By Spencer

oh!
but these african leaders paaa,if they don't have anything to discuss they should just do their usual cocktail and go back to their countries.are they serious atall
Posted By alangbai

Waste of Time
People of Dagbon cannot even settle their differences and you want a US of Africa. AU! do what you have to do and stop talking trash. Condemn Mugabe before anyone takes you serious!
Posted By Nebu

Window dressing United States of Africa
I will believe it when I see it. Forward Ever! Nkrumah Never Dies!
Posted By Yaw Adu-Asare

USA ? oh mine
Please let us our leaders be realistic for once. Even how united is West Africa-ECOWAS? What about East Africa. How do you deal with North Africa states who want to be part of EU. Do you think you can have troops to deals with guys like Zimbabwe and Sudan heads of state. Realistically form regional blocks-ECOWAS, Eastern Africa Block, Southern, Northern Africa etc, Then the blocks can join after 2115 AD. Please resource SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY to deal with and eradicate MALARIA AND HUNGER. Africa leaders learn to walk before you attempt to run. I hope you guys know the history of United States of America. They have one language and one skin color, yet, it was bloody. Once again please you should think of regional blocks, strong inter trade relationship and economic growth and the rest will follow. Nana Akuffo Addo if you want to be the President of Ghana, be more serious. First speak against Mugabe and Sudan.
Posted By Akwasi, US

AU LEADERS NOT FOCUSED
What is the difference between the AU and the USA? Why won't the AU leaders try the idea of the AU for sometime before the begin to think og making changes? It appears to me that the AU leaders are not focused and come up with dreamed ideas each time. Only yersday the OAU gave birth to the AU and the pre-mature AU is expecting a new birth. This is teenage pregnancy.
Posted By Che Andrew

Bunch of jokers
African leaders, if in deed this idea is high on their agenda, must be a buch of jokers and fantacists. They even find it hard to maintain the loose union, how much more a united states. They should rather focus on what is realistic to achieve rather than trying to do the impossible.
Posted By Dankwah-London

good idea but..
Africa's quest for an accelerated development will remain a mirage if it continues to push forward in its current fragmented form. This notwithstanding, the striking divisions based on ethnic, religious, political, and ideological lines must be overcome if such a United States must work. We must learn to crawl before we begin to run.
Posted By Alim, Toronto

Konaré sees need for a 'United States of Africa

2007-03-31T23:41:00.000-07:00

A "United States of Africa" could help ensure the development of smaller, weaker African countries and the continent as a whole, according to Alpha Oumar Konaré, president of the African Union Commission and former President of Mali.
"The problems of Africa can not be solved in an isolated way," Dr. Konaré told a standing-room-only audience in the Elizabeth Rose Hall at UNU Tokyo July 24. "We need integration. We need solidarity."
He said that the continent's developing awareness of the need for integration and solidarity was not a threat to national sovereignty but rather an opportunity to face the real threats to sovereignty: multinational corporations and international financial institutions. "We cannot even draft a budget in our countries without their approval," Dr. Konaré said.
Dr. Konaré affirmed that the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) had created movement throughout Africa and had helped to put the continent back on the world agenda. He rejected the popular image of Africa as "a continent of AIDS, a continent of hunger, a continent of coup d'état. If we focus solely on the images presented by the media, we can only be sceptical if not desperate."
The lecture was introduced by UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel who described the framework developed at TICAD III within which UNU and the African Diplomatic Corps in Tokyo focus on solutions to Africa's development challenges. "The triangle of concern remains infrastructure, regional integration, and capital flows," Van Ginkel noted.
VIEW VIDEO

A.U. Leaders Contemplate a United States of Africa

2007-03-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

A.U. Leaders Contemplate a United States of Africa
[Opinion] The E.U. success story a possible inspiration for proposed federation

Amin George Forji (amingeorge)
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Published 2007-03-28 11:53 (KST)

Africa is now in the spotlight like never before, with one very crucial concern of policy makers the world over being how to make the make the continent competitive with others. Although the retardation of growth in the continent can be blamed on both external and internal factors, it's the latter that call for greater scrutiny. With all the countries in the continent now independent, it goes without saying that they have since then had the yam and the knife in their own hands to dictate their own policies. But instead, they chose to rule with an iron fist, misappropriating their own resources in compliance with foreign exploiters. In fact, Africa has for so long lagged behind that she has been characterized as the latecomer to development.

After decades of dictatorship and authoritarian rule, it is only now that the wind of change has begun to blow across the continent, and several countries are beginning to embrace democracy as a system of governance. It's increasingly becoming more and more possible to change governments through the ballot box, and moreover, the protection and promotion of human rights has now become an agenda in static policies as well. These developments are beginning to be reflected too in issues affecting pan-Africa. The six-year-old African Union (A.U.) has already been praised for making a giant step in the right direction by increasing intervention in African crises, unlike it's defunct predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (O.A.U.), which was more or less a toothless bull dog. The A.U. has also grown to become one of the most important actors in international politics, as well as taking a definite stand on prominent issues rocking the continent.In fact, one of the most ambitious projects on the table right now is to move from the African Union to the "United States Of Africa" (U.S.A.). The incumbent chairman of the A.U.'s Assembly of Heads of State, President John Kuffour of Ghana, and chairman of the African Commission, Malian born Alpha Oumar Konare have already put forward the proposal to all the 53 members of the organization for reflection before the next summit this July in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. "All member states have been asked to critically examine the issue ahead of the summit and to come up with steps needed to ensure its actualization." Akufo-Addo, Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose sitting president currently chairs the union, recently made the revelation to the Ghanaian parliament.According to the plan, loosely modeled after the United States of America (U.S.A.), all African countries would henceforth constitute just one single federal state, with 54 federated states (including Morocco which is presently not a member of the A.U.). Moreover, all the federated states would have a single integrated defense force, common currency, and all other institutions of state. Above all, the whole of Africa would be transformed into a common market, with no travel restrictions for African nationals.Each African parliament is now expected to debate it before the July summit. The Ghanaian parliament has already announced that it will begin debating the issue from its May session.But just how realistic is this dream?Realistic or Not?It is important to reflect on some of the stakes involved in this move to a United Africa. It should be recalled that this is not the first time that the option has been put on table. In fact, even before the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) was born, the Ghanaian nationalist and pioneer president, Kwame Nkrumah in 1963 had proposed during the pioneer summit of the Organization of African Unity (O.A.U.) in Addis Ababa, that Africa should defy the odds of colonialism by constituting itself under one country."Not one of us working singly and individually can successfully attain the fullest development. Only a united Africa functioning under a union government can forcefully mobilize the material and moral resources of our separate countries and apply them efficiently and energetically to bring a rapid change in the conditions of our people." Nkrumah suggested. But that option was blown aside like a candle in the wind. Why would the same same countries that rejected unification 43 years ago want to make a u-turn now? Would such unity be one of strength or weakness? If anything, I can only say that the last thing that a struggling Africa needs at the moment is unity in weakness.But how can unity be ensured in a continent where some of the worst humanitarian conflicts in places such as Darfur and Somalia are still ongoing?The answer may lie in Europe, which is a veritable success story. Before it could ever become a reality, Europe had been rocked by two bitter world wars, but the lessons of its successful "unification" has been that economic integration is the only policy that truly works. Most African conflicts will ultimately disappear if they suddenly consider unity as a means, and not as an end. Unity definitely has the potential to reinforce and accelerate the reaching of ends, provided those ends are not betrayed. On a personal note, I suggest that instead of the United States of Africa (U.S.A.), it should be called the States of United Africa (S.U.A.) to make a distinction from the current popular acronym U.S.A., which stands for the United States of America.If I were to give any further counsel, I would humbly recommend that Africans hasten this rush to achieve unity on the whole continent. It will create miracles that the authors themselves never envisaged. Long live the newfound continent Africa..

Why Kofi Annan should be nominated and elected as the 1st President of The United States of Africa

2006-10-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

Founder's note:

The USA4USAfrica since it's inception on the Internet in 1996 has backed the idea of Kofi Annan as the top choice as the 1st President of a United States of Africa by the end of his 2nd term in the U.N. the time has now come....

I truly see the vision of you leading the first United Africa, may you be wise and just.

Mark Wood
Co - Founder
USA4USAfrica
www.UnitedStatesAfrica.com
661 270 0798 GreenValleyReporter@Journalist.com

Profile: Kofi Annan
The former US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, once described Kofi Annan as "the best secretary general in the history of the UN".

Mr Annan is widely seen as an independent leaderThat however was the view of the representative of a Democratic US administration. The Republicans have been far less sympathetic.

Indeed, there was a near-open break in September 2004 when, in a BBC interview, Mr Annan declared about the invasion of Iraq, an issue that has dominated the last years of his time in office: "I've indicated that it was not in conformity with the UN Charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal."

The 2003 Iraq invasion is not a time Mr Annan looks back to fondly, recalling it as a "depressing period", and one which exposed many flaws in the world body - shortcomings he tried to tackle during his remaining time in office.

New doctrine

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, in 1938, Mr Annan studied in Kumasi, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Geneva before joining the UN in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization.

He has served with the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, the UN Emergency Force in Ismailia; the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, and at the UN Headquarters in New York where he was head of Peacekeeping Operations.
The only negotiable road to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations. Mr Annan has been pre-eminent in bringing new life to the organisation

Nobel judgesHe became secretary general in 1997 after the US had firmly declared its intention to veto a second term for Boutros Boutros Ghali.

Mr Annan faced some formidable challenges when he first came to office, not least the fact that the organisation was approaching bankruptcy.

After a trip to Washington to urge repayment of dues, Mr Annan's first major initiative was his plan for reform: Renewing the United Nations. He streamlined the UN bureaucracy, cutting 1,000 of 6,000 positions at its New York headquarters.

Nobel winner

Aside from his difficulties over the Iraq issue, the secretary general is widely admired for his efforts on behalf of Africa, where the problems of war, famine, disease, and the displacement of millions of civilians continue to blight development and progress.

He has shown personal commitment to tackling the Aids epidemic, teasing money out of the coffers of the world's richest nations and persuading many countries, particularly in Africa, to recognise the grave threat that Aids and HIV infection pose to their future.

In 2001, Mr Annan and the UN received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The judges said: "The only negotiable road to global peace and co-operation goes by way of the United Nations. (Mr Annan) has been pre-eminent in bringing new life to the organisation."

Oil-for-food

He was however criticised in a report for the mismanagement of the oil-for-food programme under which Iraq, under sanctions, was allowed to sell oil for food and medicines. The report, by the former head of the US Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, said that Saddam Hussein had been left to rake in kickbacks and illegal profits.

Kofi Annan was cleared of helping his son Kojo who worked for a company that won the contract to monitor the programme.

He has also been criticised for not acting more urgently in the crises in Bosnia and Rwanda. He was head of the UN peacekeeping operations when the Srebrenica and Rwanda massacres took place.

Reform

Mr Annan's major project at the UN was reform. In a speech in September 2003 he said that the UN was at a "fork in the road".

He pressed for a new philosophy - that of intervention. The UN must place itself above the rights of sovereign states when necessary to protect civilians from war and mass slaughter, he declared.

He appointed a panel of "wise men" who drew up a report agreeing that the UN should assume a role when a state had failed in its "responsibility to protect" its citizens.

In September 2005, a UN declaration stated that "every sovereign government has a 'responsibility to protect' its citizens and those within its jurisdiction from genocide, mass killing, and massive and sustained human rights violations."

The application of this principle remains to be worked out in practice but the principle itself might be Kofi Annan's most important legacy at the UN.

Why black Africa should resist Arab domination of AU

2006-09-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Why black Africa should resist Arab domination of AU

By ChinweizuPosted to the Web: Friday, September 01, 2006

Part I: The Arab Quest for Lebensraum in Africa“

The third of the Arab community living outside Africa should move in with the two-thirds on the continent and join the African Union “which is the only space we have’ — Col. Mouammar Gadhafi of Libya, at the Arab League, 2001

Many AfriKans take great exception to the sentiments and views expressed by Col. Gadhafi at the March 2001, Amman, Jordan meeting of the Arab League. --Prof. Kwesi Kwa Prah, 2004, in a paper to the AU [both quotes in Bankie and Mchombu eds, 2006:217, 235]Besides joining Prof. Prah and the other Afrikans who take exception to Gadhafi’s statement, I should like to point out that Gadhafi’s invitation to his fellow Arabs is nothing but a declaration of race war on Africa.

It is an invitation to more Arabs to invade and colonize Africa. Indeed, it is a call for the final phase of the 15 centuries old Arab lebensraum war on Afrikans - a war to Islamise and conquer all of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape and from Senegal to Somalia, and to then enslave or Arabise all the conquered Afrikans.

In order to make that clear, it is necessary to first put his invitation in the context of the traditions of Arab melanophobia and negrophobia, and of Arab expansionist ambitions and conquests that go back to the time of their Arab prophet, Mohammed.
Melanophobia and Negrophobia in Arab culture:

The following excerpt from The Crisis of Identity in Northern Sudan: A Dilemmaof a Black people with a White Culture, by Al-Baqir al-Afif Mukhtar, gives an insight into the melanophobia and negrophobia that Arab culture has reeked of since before the time of Mohammed: “The contempt towards . . . the dark skinned is expressed in a thousand ways in the documents, literature and art that have come down to us from the Islamic Middle Ages.

. . This literature, and especially popular literature, depicts (the black man) in the form of hostile stereotypes - as a demon in fairy tales, as a savage in the stories of travel and adventure, or commonly as a lazy, stupid, evil-smelling and lecherous slave. . . .

Ibn Khaldun sees the blacks as “characterized by levity and excitability and great emotionalism” and [says] that “they are everywhere described as stupid” . . . al-Dimashqi had the following to say: “The Equator is inhabited by communities of blacks who may be numbered among the savage beasts. Their complexion and hair are burnt and they are physically and morally abnormal. Their brains almost boil from the sun’s heat.”

Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani follows the same line of reasoning. To him . . . the zanj . . .are “overdone until they are burned so that the child comes out between black, murky, malodorous, stinking, and crinkly- haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds, and depraved passions. . .”
Arab-Muslim doctrines on Black enslavement:

The following excerpt [from Blasphemy Before God: The Darkness of Racism In Muslim Culture by Adam Misbah aI-Haqq, shows how and why Arabs incurably believe in enslaving blacks: “Classic Muslim thought maintained that blacks became legitimate slaves by virtue of the colour of their skin.

The justification of the early Muslim equation of blackness with servitude was found in the Genesis story so popularly called “the curse of Ham,” in reference to one of Noah’s sons . . . .In the Arab- Muslim version, blacks are cursed to be slaves and menials, Arabs are blessed to be prophets and nobles, while Turks and Slavs are destined to be kings and tyrants. . . .

The famous Al-Tabari, for example, cites no less than six Prophetic traditions which seek to support this story. One tradition reads: Ham begat all those who are black and curly- haired, while Japheth begat those who are full faced with small eyes, and Shem begat everyone who is handsome of face (Arabs of course) with beautiful hair. Noah prayed that the hair of Ham’s descendants would not grow past their ears, and wherever his descendants met the children of Shem, the latter would enslave them.

Ahmad Ibn Hanbal reported a saying attributed to the Prophet which in effect states that God created the white race (dhurriyyah bayd) from the right shoulder of Adam and created the black race (dhurriyyah sawd) from Adam’s left shoulder. Those of Adam’s right shoulder would enter Paradise and those of the left, Perdition. Other equally racist sayings have been attributed to the Prophet in the traditions.

Contradicting this spirit, there are the sayings of the Prophet which equate the value of a person to his God-consciousness (taqwa), and to their piety without any regard to the tribal or ethnocentric concerns of a racist purport. Such [egalitarian] reports [were overshadowed by] the more deeply rooted tradition of racial bigotry . . . [emphasized by] Muslim geographers and travellers who ventured into Africa. . . .

Al-Maqdisi wrote, “ . . . As for the Zanji, they are people of black colour, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence.” . . . Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406CE) added that blacks are “only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings.” . . . Even such luminaries as Ibn Sina considered blacks to be “people who are by their very nature slaves.” .
. . The creation or resurgence of the mythology of Ham also made darkskinned people synonymous with servitude in light-skinned Muslim thinking.

This went so far that eventually, the term abd (slave), went through a semantic development and came to specifically refer to “black slave” while lightskinned slaves were referred to as mamluks. And further on in later usage, the Arabic word came to mean “black man” of whatever status. . . .”

We can now see why, when an Arab sees anyone with black skin, all he notices is a dumb animal that he is licensed and even obliged by his religion to capture and enslave. With that background on the Arab tradition of enslaving and holding blacks in profound contempt, let us now examine the meaning of Gadhafi’s call for lebensraum.

In 2001, the Libyan leader, Gadhafi, under the cover of advancing the Nkrumahist Pan- African project of African Unity, was concluding his sub-imperial assignment to round up the African states into his Arab-dominated AU for easier muzzling and control by global imperialism. At an Arab League meeting in Amman, Jordan, Gadhafi exposed another hidden agenda of his AU project when he observed that 2/3 of the world’s [approximately 250million] Arabs now live in Africa, and he invited the rest to move into Africa and join them.

Though the Pan-African News Agency (PANA) reported it and posted it on its website, I wonder how many African leaders took note of Gadhafi’s invitation and saw the danger it poses for Africa. What Afrikans (i.e. the indigenous peoples of Africa) should particularly note is his reason for the invitation, namely, that Africa is the only space Arabs have.

This is so reminiscent of the Nazi project of seizing living space, lebensraum, for the Germans from their neighbours in Eastern Europe that any sensible Afrikan must understand it as a threat to all Afrikans.

More importantly, it spells out, for all but the willfully and suicidally deaf to hear, the grand geopolitical purpose behind Arab policy and action in Africa in the last 50 years. But first, we need to put Gadhafi’s invitation in the context that allows us to appreciate the full danger to Afrikans from this enduring Arab ambition for lebensraum. Since the death of their prophet, Mohammed, Arabs have been relentlessly seizing lebensraum – living space—in Africa.

Since their conquest of Egypt in 642, they have taken over all of North Africa, and most of the Nile valley and some of their tribes have even infiltrated as far west from the Nile as Lake Chad. Arabs have, by now, occupied supra-Sahara Africa and the Nile Valley, i.e. more than one-third of the African landmass, and they are still grabbing more and moving tenaciously to conquer the rest.

Arab expansionism in Africa, 640-1900

I wonder how many Afrikans today wonder how it came about that Arabs, whose homeland is the Arabian Peninsula, came to occupy all of supra-Sahara Africa, from the Sinai peninsula across to Morocco’s Atlantic coast. And what they did to the Black Egyptians, Black Berbers and other blacks who were the aborigines of all that expanse of land? Similarly, Afrikans need to inquire into why and how an Arab minority has ruled Sudan since 1956? And how did it come about that we hear of Arab tribes in Darfur, Chad and even in Nigeria’s Bornu State? Until 640 AD, there were no Arab settlers of any kind in all those places. But in that year, hungry Arab hordes desperate for plunder and greener pastures charged out of Arabia, flying the flag of their new religion, Islam, and conquered Egypt by 642.

Egypt thereafter became their base for invading and seizing lebensraum all the way west to Morocco and Mauritania, and southward up the Nile.

In the first phase of conquest, an Arab raiding army reached Tangier on the Atlantic in 682. Then in the 11th Century, the Fatimids who were then ruling in Egypt, unleashed Bedouin Arab tribes, such as the Beni Hilal and Beni Sulaim, into the Maghreb. These Bedouin tribes overran as far west as Morocco in the 12th and 13th centuries, and brought about the Arabisation of the indigenous Berber population of the Maghreb whom they swamped.

They reached northern Mauritania by the 14th Century. Also in the 14th Century, Guhayna Arab tribes, edged out of Egypt, infiltrated up the Nile into Sudan. In 1820, Mohammed Ali Pasha sent an expedition from Egypt that conquered Northern Sudan by 1841. In 1869, Ismail Pasha attempted to annex the region from Juba/Gondokoro to Lake Victoria, a region that would become Uganda and Sudan’s Equatoria Province. He failed, but the British who ruled from 1899 to 1956 later incorporated Equatoria into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In 1874, the Jellaba-Arab slave raider, Zubair Pasha conquered Dar Fur for the Egyptians. Also in the 19th Century, Awlad Sulaiman Arabs migrated, in the 1840s, from the Fezzan in Libya into the Lake Chad area, and Shuwa Arabs in search of pasturelands moved, in the 1810s, from Chad into the Bornu area of what became Nigeria.

From the late 19th Century until the 1950s, Arab expansionism in Africa was stopped in its tracks by the European powers who conquered and partitioned Africa among themselves. Only with the retreat of European political rule did opportunity arise for Arab expansionism to resume its march. And it promptly did.

Arab expansionism in Africa since 1956, i.e. in the era of continentalist Pan-Africanism.Continentalist Pan-Africanism was launched in 1958 at the Accra Conference of Independent African States (CIAS). It has been the dominant tendency within Pan-Africanism ever since, and it has given birth to the Arab-dominated OAU/AU. As some observers have pointed out, the Arab League, established in 1945, is the institutional organ for realizing the Arab aspirations for unity and imperial resurgence through “an Arab-Islamic empire across Africa into the Middle East.” Under its aegis, Arab nationalism resumed its expansion in Africa when, on attaining independence in 1956, the Jellaba-Arab minority government of Sudan defined Sudan as an Arab country and set out to enforce that definition on Sudan’s African majority.
Islamisation and Arabisation of Black Africa: the pilot project in Sudan:

It has been noted by Opoku Agyeman that Pan-Arabism, in its so-called ‘civilizing mission’ perceives Africa as a ‘cultural vacuum’ waiting to be filled by Arab culture “by all conceivable means” [Agyeman, 1994:30] including Islamisation, and the settlement of Arab populations on lands forcibly seized from Africans.

The assumptions, objectives and methods of this project may be illustrated from the statements of its principal implementers in Sudan:“You are aware that the end of all our efforts and this expense is to procure Negroes. Please show zeal in carrying out our wishes in this capital matter.”--Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ruler of Egypt, 1825, in a letter to one of his generals in Sudan, quoted in [Nyaba, 2002:36]

In his 1955 book on the orbital scheme [the three circles at whose center he envisioned Egypt to be], President Nasser characterized Africa as “the remotest depths of the jungle,” and as merely a candidate for Egypt’s “spread of enlightenment and civilization” via Islamisation-Arabisation.
-Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, 1955, quoted in [Agyeman,1994:34].
“Sudan is geographically in Africa but is Arab in its aspirations and destiny.

We consider ourselves the Arab spearhead in Africa, linking the Arab world to the African continent.” -Sudanese Prime Minister, Mahgoub, 1968, quoted in [Agyeman, 1994:38]. Sudan “is the basis of the Arab thrust into the heart of Black Africa, the Arab civilizing mission.”- President Nimeiry of Sudan, 1969, quoted in [Agyeman, 1994:39] “We want to Islamise America and Arabise Africa” – Dr. Hassan El-Turabi, chief ideologue of Jellaba-Arab minority rule in Sudan, 1999, quoted in [Nyaba, 2002:27]. “The south [Sudan] will remain an inseparable part of the land of Islam, God willing, even if the war continued for decades.”-Osama bin Laden, April 2006, [from an edited translation of an audiotape attributed to al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, parts of which were aired by Aljazeera on April 23, 2006]

This thrusting of Arab spears into the body and soul of Black Africa through deAfrikanisation campaigns of Islamisation-Arabisation was, of course, not confined to Sudan, but has been done wherever Arabs spotted an opportunity to exploit Afrikan weakness, such as Mauritania, Chad, Somalia, Eritrea, Uganda. In the past 40 years, Libya’s Gadhafi has been particularly active in sponsoring chaos, anarchy and civil wars in Chad, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire etc., and in trying to Islamise Uganda, Rwanda, the CAR etc.

For example, in a live broadcast on Rwanda Radio on 17 May, 1985, Gadhafi said: "First, you must stick to your Islamic religion and insist that your children are taught the Islamic religion and you teach the Arabic language because without the Arabic language, we could not understand Islam. . . You must teach that Islam is the religion of Africa. . . You must raise your voice high and declare that Allah is great because Africa must be the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad. . . .Muslim. . . We must wage a holy war so that Islam may spread in Africa. --quoted in [Bankie and Mchombu, 2006:239-240].Why do Gadhafi and other Arabisers sponsor Islamisation? S

Steve Biko pointed out the fundamental reason why imperialists make a point of converting their victims to their Christian religion when he said: It has always been the pattern throughout history that whosoever brings the new order knows it best and is therefore the perpetual teacher of those to whom the new order is being brought. If the white missionaries were “right” about their God in the eyes of the people, then the African people could only accept whatever these new know-all tutors had to say about life.

The acceptance of the colonialist-tainted version of Christianity marked the turning point in the resistance of African people. [Biko, 1987:56]. Steve Biko’s observation helps explain why Arab hegemonists like Gadhafi insist on Islamising their intended victims. Since the death of their prophet, Mohammed, Islam has been the religious cloak and entry-dagger of Arab imperialism. Islamisation is used as a prelude to the project of Arabisation.

Among the targeted victims, Islam privileges the Arabic language and culture. Arab names and customs are made obligatory, and the anathema on Jahiliya discourages remembrance of the pre-Islamic, non-Arab culture of an Islamised people. It should be noted that the core Islamic countries that stretch contiguously from the Maghreb to Pakistan are fragments of the empire that Arabs conquered and ruled from 632-1517 when the Turks, under Selim the Grim, conquered Egypt and Syria and extinguished the Arab Abbasid Caliphate. Thus, the core lands of Dar-al-Islam today are a continuation of the Arab Empire.

Just as the Commonwealth is the euphemistic PR name for the enduring British Empire, so too Dar-al-Islam is the euphemistic PR name for the enduring Arab Empire. In fact, Dar-al-Islam is simply the Arab empire in religious camouflage, and the Umma are the Arab citizens/masters and the non-Arab subjects of the enduring Arab Empire.

Gadhafi and the Arab lebensraum project in the 21st Century in furtherance of his lebensraum project, in May 2003, proposed a tripartite union of Libya, Sudan and Egypt, a move reminiscent of Hitler’s Anschluss project that annexed, in 1938, Austria as well as Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. To appreciate the menace in Gadhafi’s invitation, Afrikans would do well to consider Hitler’s drive for lebensraum and how it was stopped.

Just as Gadhafi wants to enlarge Arabia inside Africa, Hitler wanted to enlarge Germany within Europe by the acquisition of a territory for settlement, which will enhance the area of the mother country, and hence not only keep the new settlers in the most intimate community with the land of their origin, but secure for the total area those advantages which lie in its unified magnitude. [Hitler, 1971: 653] Hitler looked east for Germany’s expansion in Europe. In Nazi ideology, Lebensraum meant the expansion of Germany eastward to conquer lands for Germans to settle and peoples for Germans to enslave. According to Hitler, the ideal war was one of conquest, extermination, and subjugation; the ideal area in which to conduct such a war was in the east, where the German people would win for itself the lebensraum.

The Nazi theory of Lebensraum became Germany’s foreign policy during the Third Reich. A key element in Hitler’s plan for lebensraum was the idea of military expansion and the forced expulsion of the nations of Poland, Ukraine, Russia etc. and their replacement with German settlers. The Lebensraum ideology was a major factor in Hitler’s launching of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941.

As the German armies moved eastward, the Nazis began to turn large areas of Soviet territory into German settlement areas. The biggest obstacle to implementing the Lebensraum further was the fact that by the end of 1942, the Sixth Army was defeated in Stalingrad. After the second big defeat in the tank battle at Kursk during July 1943 and the Allied landings in Sicily, all further Lebensraum plans came to a halt.
USA, Australia, Russia — case studies of lebensraum.

Faced, from the 16th Century, with European invaders seeking lebensraum, the Native Americans in what became the USA, failed to muster the necessary will and forces to defeat and drive the invaders away; as a result, these indigenous peoples were exterminated and lost their continent by the late 19th Century. Bands of their remnants were herded into reservations and left to slowly die out. Similarly in the 19th Century, the Australian aborigines failed to muster the necessary will and forces to defeat and drive away the invaders from Europe. They too were exterminated. In contrast, the Russians in the 20th Century, under Stalin, mustered the necessary will and forces, defeated Hitler’s armies and chased them back all the way to Berlin and obliged Hitler to commit suicide.

As these contrasting examples make clear, seekers of lebensraum can only be stopped by decisively defeating and driving them away. How did the Russians manage to do that? First of all, their leaders took quite seriously the Nazi talk of seeking lebensraum in Eastern Europe, and prepared for war. In February 1931, Stalin predicted and warned his people: ‘We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in 10 years. Either we do it or they crush us.’ And he drove his people with the proverbial whip and scorpion, and forced them to industrialize at a desperate pace. And Russia industrialized in 10 years flat! Which was just in time to be ready when Hitler unleashed his armies on Russia in June 1941. And by 1943, Hitler’s lebensraum project lay in ruins as his mighty armies had been defeated by Stalin’s armies.

It took another two years of hard fighting for the Russians to drive Hitler’s armies all the way back to Berlin. Had they not done so, there would be no Russia or Poland or Ukraine etc today. All the land from Berlin to the Urals would have been taken over and settled by Germans. And any Russians not exterminated would have been enslaved as Hitler intended.

If Afrikans want to escape at Arab hands the type of fate that Hitler planned for the Russians, we need to learn from Stalin’s example. We need to build a megastate and industrialize it at breakneck speed into a modern power. And we need to defeat the Arabs and drive them back across the Sahara.

The first step is to expel all Arab League countries from the AU, or better yet, to destroy this enemy-controlled AU and organize a Black World League of States to serve as the collective security outfit exclusively for the Blacks of the World. The second step is to militarily discourage any further Arab expansion into sub-Sahara Africa.

We must firmly bear in mind that lebensraum ambitions are effected by military action, as in Sudan’s war on the SPLM, and its use of Janjawid militias in Darfur and Chad. And we must also firmly bear in mind that such ambitions are destroyed only by military action. To think of any other way is suicidal foolishness. So Gadhafi’s ambition must be finally defeated militarily by Afrikan power, and the sooner the better for Afrikans.

Part II: The Challenge to Pan-Afrikanism

First, they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up for me.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

In the last 15 centuries, Arab invaders have grabbed 1/3 of the African continent, and systematically enslaved, exterminated or Arabised the blacks they met there. How? I have already quoted examples from the mission statements of the anti-Afrikan leaders of the Arab expansionists since 1820 in Sudan.

Let us now see examples of how they’ve gone about implementing their policy on the ground since 1956 while the OAU/AU Pan-Africanists determinedly looked the other way or buried their ostrich heads in the sand. The following are instructive excerpts, about the events in al-Di’ein and Dar Fur, from Islamisation and Arabisation of Africans as a means to Political Power in the Sudan by Sudanese scholar, M. Jalaal Haashim: al-Di’ein 1987
As its civil war with the SPLM/SPLA intensified, the Jellaba-Arabist Sudan government of al-Sadiq al-Mahdi (1986-1989) used the Baggara Arabs to punish those Dinka who lived on the border of Kordufan and Dar Fur, such as the Ngog, on the assumption that all the Dinka were SPLM/SPLA.

“The Baggara tribes in Kordufan and Dar Fur are nomadic Arabs who have been greatly influenced by the Nilotic tribes, especially the Dinka, from whom they have taken the cows for livestock and the colour of blackness . . . . Until then, the hostility between the two sides was relatively kept at bay due to their historical inter-relationship. Thousands of Dinka who fled the war zone came and lived with the Baggara. This is how in a certain village called al-Di’ein in Southern Dar Fur, more than 6,000 Dinka people peacefully took refuge and lived with the Baggara.

In 1987, the government of Sadiq al-Mahdi established the infamous Popular Defence Forces (PDF) as a pretext for officially arming the Baggara Arabs to fight the Southerners. Armed in this way, the marauding Baggara squads of PDF began making incursions into the South, raiding the Dinka villages. [These] naturally sought help from the SPLM/SPLA [who] came to the rescue . . . .

In all aspects, the Baggara Arabs were unequal to the SPLA. Suffering defeat after defeat, . . . the Baggara began nursing deep hatred towards the Dinka in general, [and finally directed their revenge on] the peaceful Dinka who were living with them at al- Di’ein . . .In one day in mid 1987, at least 1,000 Dinka were massacred, 4,000 were burned alive, and the survivors - around 1,000 - were enslaved.

The massacre began early in the day. At first, the bewildered Dinka did not believe what was going on. When reality dawned on them, they fled into the houses of their hosts who were also their attackers. They were dragged by their feet like animals to be butchered outside the houses of their hosts. The Dinka took refuge in the Church; there they were killed along with the priest. Then they ran and took refuge inside the Police station, which was part of the railway station, but, alas, the Police turned out to be accomplices.

They were killed there also. Whether in good or bad faith . . . they were ill-advised to take refuge in the empty carriages of a standing freight train so they could be taken away from al-Di’ein. With the trustfulness usually shown by totally vulnerable and helpless people in their eagerness to cling to a straw, they hurriedly obeyed. Once crammed inside, they were locked in from outside.

Caged in like animals, they saw with their own eyes barrels full of diesel being rolled toward them. They were burnt alive, all of them. Only then, with the barbecue smell of that holocaust, did the Baggara come to their senses. The survivors were fortunate that they were only enslaved. Slavery was the common sense of that doomed day . . . . In the period 1989-1999, only God knows how many massacres like that of al-Di’ein took place.”
The Janjawid campaign of genocide:

“A decade after the Dinka massacre in al-Di’ein, the scenario of ethnic manipulation by the state expanded to cover the whole of Dar Fur and most of Kordufan, . . . [and] the era of terror of the infamous Janjawid had been launched. . . .

Dar Fur has been the victim of the involvement of the neighbouring Arab states in the civil war in Chad that flared up in the 1970s. Libya, an extreme advocate of Pan-Arabism with highly volatile policies, intervened in Chad with the sole aim of helping the Arab nomad tribes with money, logistics and arms. . . .

The government of Khartoum has not only backed the nomadic Arab tribes, but has also armed them and fought by land and air along with them.

All through the decade of 1982-1992, skirmishes and limited killings were commonplace in Dar Fur. The Khartoum government dubbed them ‘armed robbery’. In 1995, the massacres were launched first against the Masalit tribe of the state of West Dar Fur. The governor himself was a Masalit Muslim brother who was given orders from Khartoum to let his sedentary people host a heavily armed clan of pastoralist Baggara who were driven out of Chad to be welcomed by the Khartoum government simply out of bias for the Arabs. . . .

The Masalit welcomed the Baggara. Under the official eyes of the State government which was headed by their own son, thousands of the Masalit were butchered in mid 1995. . . . ”
Through these “gruesome atrocities . . ., which are being overtly committed by State- backed Arab tribes”, the nomadic Arab tribes of Dar Fur have been committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against the African sedentary tribes. As both the culprit and the victim are Muslims, the Afro-Arab race war nature of the genocide becomes very clear. As Jalaal Haashim points out, the conflicts in Sudan are “a racist war camouflaged with religion.”

But how exactly do these Arab marauders carry out ethnic cleansing? The next excerpt, from Singing while their men rape, THE GUARDIAN, NAIROBI Wednesday, July 21, 2004, Page 6, tells of an ongoing example of organized raping and killing and enslavement carried out by the Janjawid in Dar Fur:

According to an Amnesty International report published in 2004, “While African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy . . .The songs of the Hakama, or the “Janjaweed women” as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities which the militiamen committed. . . . During an attack on the village of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang in praise of the government and scorning black villagers.

According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: “The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be in their land.” “The power of (Sudanese president Omer Hassan) al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God.” The chief said that the Arab women also racially insulted women from the village, saying: “You are gorillas, you are black and you are badly dressed.”

The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said. The militiamen “are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish,” a 37-year-old victim, identified as A, was quoted as saying in the report, which was based on over
To be continued
*Paper presented at the Global Pan-African Reparations and Repatriation Conference (GPARRC) on 25 July, 2006, at the University of Ghana, Legon

Re: The concept of a United States of Africa

2006-09-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

PAN-AFRICAN ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA FORWARD

From: Dominic Maku <dwm598@mail.usask.ca>
Date: Saturday, August 05, 2006 6:36 AM
To: mark wood <greenvalleyreporter@journalist.com>

Subject: Re: The concept of a United States of Africa must immediately be
I am one of those who think that Africans must be respected in the first place. All my school years I have read extensively about the history of Africa before coming to Canada. Now I am a graduate with a Master of education degree of which I would like to teach history and politics where ever I go.One way of doing things could be through educating the people about the significance of the respect that human beings deserve (including Africans). We are trying to establish a Pan-Africanist University in South Sudan,but we are being constained by lack of funds.However, we are hopeful that one day it will be done.Please let me know if there will be such a help in the United States of America. We are looking for friends all over the world. Additionally, I would like to join the Pan-Africanist movement and if you could, keep me in touch.

Thank you.Dominic

Khadaffi praised for promoting a United States of Africa

2006-09-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission, Alpha Omar Konare praised the pioneering role of the Libyan Leader in promoting the march of the AU towards the establishment of the United States of Africa.

In a speech, delivered on the occasion of signing a memorandum of understanding for joint cooperation between the AU and the Republic of Venezuela in Caracas, Konare said: "The outbreak of Great Al-Fatah Revolution in Libya is the most important factor that led to the establishment of the AU as a historical strategical achievement for Africa that has begun its march in the city of Sirte on 9/9/99 and it is still progressing towards the establishment of a united Africa with its political, economic, financial, media and cultural institutions".Africa is determined to advance through the AU towards more integration, highlighting Africa's strong will and resources that entitle it to play a strategic role in the world, he added.The Minister of Foreign Relations in Venezuela, Nicholas Medora, underlined that signing this agreement between the AU and his country reflects a new direction in Venezuela's foreign policy depending on the principle of South- South cooperation particularly between the Latin and African continents.The Libyan leader is largely responsible for the creation of the new African Union which comprises all 53 states of Africa and replaced the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
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Date:
28 Sep 2006 00:39 UTC [HELP]
Comment:
The Internet coalition that prompted Gadaffi's United States of Africa mandate
Your Name:
Mark Wood (IP: Logged) HELPIP:4.245.103.156
-->

The truth should at least be known as to why Khadaffi adapted the United States of Africa mandate.Our Internet Coalition USA4USAfrica which I founded in January 1996 has copies of the original faxes and e-mails we sent to Lybia's consulate, embassy and state offices here, directly to Lybian newspapers and media links in the web internet's early days of 1996 - 1998 - some of these were forwarded to Khadaffi and gained his attention after which he immediately gave news releases to CNN which was the first worldwide media attention the current efforts of a US Africa movement have received. All documented - see the usa4usafrica website:

Absolute proof Gadaffi was inspired to a United Africa from our initial contacts
Your Name:
Mark Wood (IP: Logged) HELPIP:4.245.103.156
-->

Please understand I am not a glory hog on who statred the 3rd generation push for a United Africa, but when internet archive records prove the organization I started was the 1st Internet based coalition to united Africa as one nation to appear on the web for that purpose. Internet archive snapshots date our first website for a united Africa in 1996 a full two years before Khadaffi first gained media attention on the mandate that is now getting on the radar maps of the world's media. The major factions of which still refuse to even mention the words United States of Africa on network TV in the US let alone in print.our original site for the movement: geocities.com/unitedstatesafrica still shows on most search engines on any search regarding united africa, united states of africa, and especially on searches for mark wood, united states of africa and unitedstatesafrica period.I feel we should at least be acknowledges for our efforts that continue today at www.unitedstatesafrica.com and our sub set websites.

Libya returns to world stage

2006-09-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 8, 1999 Published at 11:53 GMT 12:53 UK World: Middle EastLibya returns to world stage Colonel Gaddafi: Hoping to become an international player again Libya is celebrating its return to the world stage, after almost a decade of international isolation, by hosting a specially-convened summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
And in a sign that Libya intends to become an international player once more, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi treated African heads of state to a display of military might on the eve of the meeting, which will discuss his vision of a United States of Africa.
Soldiers from across the continent - from countries embroiled in the Democratic Republic of Congo conflict to a contingent of women fighters from Eritrea - joined a huge military parade commemorating 30 years of the Libyan revolution.
As the Libyan leader saluted the troops, long-range missiles, warplanes and tanks passed in front of the leaders for their approval.
Pursuing the dream of a "United States of Africa"The traditional revolutionary parade was postponed from 1 September, the anniversary of the 1969 coup which brought Colonel Gaddafi to power, to coincide with the arrival of the African leaders.
The commemorations are the largest since the United Nations suspended international sanctions in April, after the country handed over two suspects in the bombing of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
Although a number of the leaders broke the UN sanctions to visit Tripoli, correspondents say the presence of more than 20 heads of state gives Colonel Gaddafi the legitimacy he needs to claim an international role.
The central issue of the summit, which is taking place in the coastal city of Sirte, 250 miles (400km) east of the capital, Tripoli, will be Libya's proposal to move towards the creation of a "United States of Africa".
Colonel Gaddafi has accused Arab countries of failing to stand by him during the sanctions and is now turning his attentions to Africa.
Polite enthusiasm
And to drive home the point, banners proclaiming that "Africa is for Africans," and "The imperialist West is responsible for Africa's backwardness" and "Yes to the project of the United States of Africa", lined the route of the revolutionary parade.
But the continent's leaders themselves appear to be treating the idea politely, but with no great enthusiasm, according to the BBC's John Simpson in Tripoli.
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said diplomatically that everyone cherished the principle that one day Africa should be united.
The Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, said the real debate should be between pan-Africanism and the need for regional union in Africa - and he made it clear he thought it was regional union that mattered.

The Internet coalition that prompted Gadaffi's United States of Africa mandate

2006-09-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Date:
28 Sep 2006 00:39
Comment:
The Internet coalition that prompted Gadaffi's United States of Africa mandate
Your Name:
Mark Wood (IP: Logged)
-->

The truth should at least be known as to why Khadaffi adapted the United States of Africa mandate.

Our Internet Coalition USA4USAfrica which I founded in January 1996 has copies of the original faxes and e-mails we sent to Lybia's consulate, embassy and state offices here, directly to Lybian newspapers and media links in the web internet's early days of 1996 - 1998 - some of these were forwarded to Khadaffi and gained his attention after which he immediately gave news releases to CNN which was the first worldwide media attention the current efforts of a US Africa movement have received.

All documented - see the usa4usafrica website: www.unitedstatesafrica.com

I wanted to give you an update on the building of the United States of Africa coalition I started back in 96 with Robert Wood - Our mission remains the same, to unite Africa as one nation and thus unite the world, in uniting Africa as one nation.God willing.* take a look at the Current sites for the movement at:

http://unitedstatesafrica.com
http://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com
http://unitedstatesofafrica.blogspot.com
http://unitedstatesafrica.tripod.com

The United States of Africa - Please forward to anyone who has cried a tear for Africa and wants to see a change."There are no words to describe what I feel about the possibility of the achievement of The United States of Africa.

The applause of the entire globe could not give this cause justice, and justice is what this cause will bring. I am sure that the US of Africa will mean the extinction of poverty and the promotion of world Unity. I know the day will come when its constitution is signed. It will be signed not with greed and power in mind, but instead with love and unity. My prayers and deepest salutations are with you all." – Jared

While we understand the beginning of the USA for USAfrica may have an unusual genesis, the heart felt reasons behind the movement are unmistakable, and the need for a United States of Africa, is Undeniable.No continent in the world is better positioned than Africa, ( a United Africa ) to contribute to the welfare of Mankind over the next thousand years. As an ABC Night Line reporter covering Africa noted, "Africa is 98% virtually the same as it was a thousand years ago."

An incredible vast land of undeveloped potential both for it's people and the world.In a United States of Africa, a citizen could freely travel from Gambia to South Africa to Algeria or anywhere on the continent to seek education, opportunity, commerce or the simple pleasure of tourist travel within their vast country.A common African currency much like the EU model affords the ability to buy and sell throughout the continent with a reliable backed currency.

A transcontinental citizenship throughout Africa will one day become the envy of the free world.Much of Africa's third world debt could be relived if freedom and security of capitalism were able to thrive in any African country - state from taxes paid by companies involved in business in any African location.

An immediate positive effect would arise from local, municipal and federal levels throughout Africa. Any and all of these possibilities can only arise from what can take place in a United States of Africa. With national borders being no more restrictive than state borders, allowing transcontinental travel, commerce and opportunity for all African citizens.A United States of Africa with the largest usable coastline in the world could one day be the country that enriches all of Mankind, feeds the world, heals the world, teaches the world and balances the world.

There is so much more involved and the USA for USAfrica is not naive to the many levels that must be addressed, our point is the dialogue must begin at once, in the media, on the airwaves, in discussions and editorials.The concept of a United States of Africa must immediately be brought into public debate worldwide and among Africans themselves.

Yours in peace and a United Africa,
Mark WoodFounder, USA for USAfrica
http://unitedstatesafrica.com

http://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com/

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1st internet based coalition to unite Africa as one nation

Reply mark836@mail.com wood-mark@sbcglobal.net
Date:
28 Sep 2006 00:53 UTC [HELP]
Comment:
Absolute proof Gadaffi was inspired to a United Africa from our initial contacts
Your Name:
Mark Wood (IP: Logged) HELPIP:4.245.103.156
-->

Please understand I am not a glory hog on who statred the 3rd generation push for a United Africa, but when internet archive records prove the organization I started was the 1st Internet based coalition to united Africa as one nation to appear on the web for that purpose.

Internet archive snapshots date our first website for a united Africa in 1996 a full two years before Khadaffi first gained media attention on the mandate that is now getting on the radar maps of the world's media. The major factions of which still refuse to even mention the words United States of Africa on network TV in the US let alone in print.our original site for the movement: geocities.com/unitedstatesafrica still shows on most search engines on any search regarding united africa, united states of africa, and especially on searches for mark wood, united states of africa and unitedstatesafrica period.

I feel we should at least be acknowledged for our efforts that continue today at www.unitedstatesafrica.com and our sub set websites.

Africa is the basket case of the world

2006-09-27T00:34:00.000-07:00

Osagyfo Dr Kwane Nkrumah: Remembering Africa’s most influential and greatest in the 21st century

Friday, 24 February 2006

24 February 1966 could be described as one of Africa’s darkest days. It was the day that Nkrumah was overthrown by a military coup with the support of the American CIA. Nkrumah was not only passionate about Africa but he was obsessed with the unity of Africa.

He put Africa’s interest above that of Ghana by declaring in one of his most emotional and moving speeches that “The independence of Ghana was meaningless unless the whole of Africa was liberated from colonial rule”.

Nkrumah’s importance to African political practice does not lie in the fact that he led the first country in tropical Africa to gain independence (1957). Its significant contribution stems from Nkrumah’s introduction tothe African political struggle, the theory and practice of “mass movement”. Until then, politics was preserved for the educated elites, lawyers, civil servants, journalists, progressive school teachers and disgruntled intellectuals. The politics of these elites was limited to the demands for equality with the colonialists, better working conditions and privileges for senior civil servants or against racial discrimination.

It was not until Nkrumah spearheaded the formation of a militant political movement with one principal and concrete political demand: Self-Government Now. He did not appeal to the British Government to grant them their demand, but he made the masses aware of the need to govern themselves. And he achieved this through mass strength and determination of the Ghanaian people to bring about the desired goal. The people in turn responded to his trust and confidence in them by giving him their whole-hearted support.It was not until 1947, when Nkrumah went back to Ghana that Pan-Africanism was elevated from the realm of an ideal, to that of a concrete, mass-based political practice.

Nkrumah launched the Conventional People’s Party (CPP) in 1942. Nkrumah’s CPP won independence for Ghana in 1957 and in 1958, he hosted the All-African People’s Conference (AAPC). It was the first post-Manchester conference, which sought to put into practice on the African continent that vision of liberation and socialism expressed in 1945.The AAPC brought together for the first time all liberation movements in Africa.

As stated by my former lecturer, Abdou Rahman Muhammed Babu when the delegations of the Pan-African Movement for East and Central Africa stopped over at Congo in 1958, they discovered Patrice Lumumba and his Congolese comrades who were not aware of the impending All-African People’s Conference, although it had been widely publicised all over Africa. For soon as Nkrumah was informed of the impending participation of the Congolese delegation, he gave instruction that they should see him as soon as they arrived, and when he eventually met them, he requested them to stay longer in Accra after the conference was over.

Ghana’s commitment to Congo’s independence henceforth was to become Nkrumah’s obsession
Only 14 months after Lumumba’s visit, the Congo was liberated. But the significance of the Accra conference was even deeper than the liberation of Congo. With the influence of Frank Fannon and the Algerian delegation, the theme of the conference was transformed from a non-violent liberation struggle to the “struggle by any means, including violence”. This was a decisive departure from the Manchester conference which favoured Ghandhian non-violence and passive resistance to colonialism.

This changed the form of the liberation struggle, and there was a proliferation of the Africa-wide Ghana-inspired “mass parties” involving entire populations. It forced the colonialist to accept, in the words of Harold Macmillan, then British Prime Minister, speaking to South Africa’s white dominant parliament in 1961 that the “wind of change was blowing across Africa.” If the 1945 Manchester meeting ushered in the epoch of hope and great expectations, the 1958 the Accra meeting concretised those hopes and expectations by making Africa no longer governable by the colonialists. One by one, African countries began to win their independence.

After inspiring the independence of most African countries, Nkrumah moved on to ensure the unity of Africa. As stated in his speech delivered in 1963, at the founding conference of the OAU, “we have already reached the stage where we must unite or sink into that condition which has made Latin America the unwilling and distressed prey of imperialism after one-and-a-half centuries of political independence. He further added that not one of us working singly and individually can successfully attain the fullest development. Only a united Africa functioning under a union government can forcefully mobilise the material and moral resources or our separate countries and apply them efficiently and energetically to bring a rapid change in the condition of our people.”

Nkrumah’s idea of African unity was conceived as a means of fighting two scourges inflicted on Africa by colonialism. One was the fragmentation of the continent, which resulted in the weak and unviable states; second was poverty, which was a consequence of the fragmentation, extensive colonial exploitation and an illogical and primitive colonial, economic structure which obstructed development.

These two scourges were inter-linked, designed to facilitate colonial domination and exploitation. It was impossible to abolish one without abolishing the other, both had to be tackled simultaneously, beginning with the institution of a basis for a continental unity.

Owing to the division between radical and conservative tendencies among independent African states at the time, the radicals had to compromise a number of their principles of unity so as to persuade the conservatives to join the organisation. Unfortunately, the inclusion of the conservative states turned the OAU into a moribund institution. The conservatives’ first success in obstructing the move towards continental unity was achieved at the OAU Cairo summit in 1964. It was at this crucial conference that Julius Nyerere, then President of Tanzania, cunningly pushed through a resolution which urged the OAU to accept the colonial borders as permanent, recognised frontiers of the OAU member states.

This move was in collaboration with Emperor Haile Selasie of Ethiopia, who one year earlier had annexed Eritrea. The underlying motive of the resolution was to frustrate Nkrumah and his Pan-Africanist ideals, though Nyerere claimed that the intention was to minimise border conflicts in Africa. The resolution was carried by a simple majority and became a key binding principle of the OAU Charter. Ironically, instead of abolishing Africa’s primary malady of disunity, the OAU encouraged it.

Secondly, the conservatives strove to make the OAU serve their interest and not those of Africa as a whole by altering the balance of forces on the continent in favour of the conservatives rather than the radicals who were still dominant in African politics. Beginning with Ben Bella of Algeria in 1965 and Nkrumah in 1966, the conservatives in collaboration with their ex-colonial masters, engineered the overthrow of radical leaders via military coups.

Henceforth, the OAU ceased to be an instrument of the Pan-African revolutionary change and became an apologist or the statusquo. Even the liberation of the remaining colonies was conceived in the context of maintaining this statusquo. It did not take long for Nyerere himself, the architect of the OAU statusquo, to publicly admit in 1972 that the OAU had become no more than a “trade union of Africa’s heads of state.”

According to Baffour Ankomah of the New African magazine, Nkrumah was not only a thinker, visionary and orator but also a doer. Nkrumah knew that Africa’s future and prosperity lay with rapid industrialisation, to create the goods and jobs that would economically empower the people of the continent. As such, he set out to industrialise Ghana in one generation as a guide for the continent.

By the time his Government was overthrown in that dreadful coup of 1966, he had established 68 sprawling state-owned factories producing every need of the Ghanaian people, and this was within the space of nine (9) short years. Among the factories were a distillery, a coconut oil factory, a brewery, a milk-processing plant, a lorry and bicycle plant, a modern oil refinery, an iron and steel works, a flour mill, sugar, textile, cement factories, shoe factory, a glass factory, a tyre factory, a meat processing factory, two canneries for fruits and tomatoes, a chocolate factory etc.

This was in addition to building the huge hydro-electric plant at Akosombo, the nations major source of electricity supply, a motorway from Accra to Tema, expanding at breakneck speed, free education and medical services that made Ghana the showcase of Africa. As Nkrumah has stated, “for unless we attain economic freedom, our struggle for independence would have been in vain, and our plans for social and cultural advancement frustrated.”

While in office, Nkrumah did not accumulate a large private fortune. His years of exile in Guinea as co-president to Sekou Toure were spent writing and tending his rose garden. Nkrumah remained modest in his private life. His relaxation was not wining and dining but the conservation of intelligent companions.

His left all his possessions to his political party and asked his wife and children to be properly cared for by the party. Perhaps one of the most significant legacies of Nkrumah to all Africa was his commitment to ending the ethnic frontiers. Tribalism he had seen as a great stumbling block to national achievement. Nkrumah’s vision of the African past was more grandiose, with an emphasis on trade and empire rather than on community and lineage.

If they had listened to Nkrumah on that faithful day in 1963, in which he declared “we meet here today not as Ghanains, Guineans, Egyptians, Algerians, Moroccans, Malians, Liberians, Congolese or Nigerians, but as Africans.

Africans united in our resolve to remain here until we have agreed on the basic principles of a new compact of unity among ourselves, which guarantees for us a continental government.” He continued, “If we succeed in establishing a new charter of statute for the establishment of a continental unity of Africa, and the creation of social and political progress for our people, then in my view, this conference should make the end of our various groupings and regional blocs. But if we fail and let this grand and historic opportunity slip by, then we shall give way to greater dissension and division among us for which the people of African will never forgive us.” Africa is divided today as it was forty-six years ago resulting in the devastation of the nations’ self-esteem and livelihood of their people.

Africa is the basket case of the world, riddled with indebtedness, Aids, war, displaced people, refugees, poverty and a colonial economy that was not in the interest of its people.

Thank you for this importnat piece of history. We must not forget what Nkrumah did for the advancement of the African continent. I was particularly pleased that you exposed how Nyerere succeeded in frustrating Nkrumah's efforts. Infact he went further by acting always in the interests of the colonial powers and further disuniting Africa with his actions. Despite being hailed as a pan africanist and champion of the southern liberation struggle.

I am researching how Nyerere betrayed the Pan Africanist movement and the southern African liberation struggle in order that he could hold onto to power in Tanzania.neema Masika, April 9, 2006 6:29

a conference titled "To the United States of Africa"

2006-09-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

Venezuela and Africa Strengthen Links
Caracas, Sep 26 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro stated Venezuela and Africa strengthen their historical links, based on mutual respect and equality among their peoples.
Maduro made an intervention before a conference by Alpha Oumar Konare, president of the African Union Commission, and he said that Venezuela builds a new foreign policy on the base of such principles.
"We dream with a equalled and multipolar world where exchanges and cooperation predominate, without an empire which does not believe in justice and international rights," Maduro stated.
Maduro said that the visit of Konare is a expression of the new international policy fostered by the government of Venezuela, building recognition of strength and the future of southern countries of the world, such as Venezuela and other Latin American nations.
For his part, Konare offered a conference titled "To the United States of Africa" in which he said that before the current challenges mankind has to face, the only possible answer is a greater justice and solidarity in a unilateral world, where human beings are fundamental.
He said that Africa is walking towards such an objective and pointed put that the situation of Africa should not be that of fatality, and doomed to suffer terrible diseases and difficulties, such as slavery.

The AU-what the people want

2006-09-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

The AU-what the people want

Written by DO

Friday, 30 June 2006

The Seventh Banjul AU summit is another landmark in the political development of our continent. The Syrte Declaration signed in Libya to establish the AU was done with a view to accelerate the unification of Africa.

This Declaration was born out of the dedication of the young leadership cadre in Africa who want to ensure the unification of the countries of Africa.

The first extraordinary session for the founding of the AU held in Syrte, Libya, September 1999 and chaired by President Bouteflika of Algeria, which also dissolved the OAU Charter set the stage for the unification of Africa and its people.

Indeed, the contribution of President Jammeh in the drafting and adoption of the Syrte Declaration was one of the most outstanding demonstration of the desire of the young leadership in Africa to make African unity a reality.

What the people of Africa want is simple and can be achieved by the new and young leadership in the African Union. Africans want a United Africa with a Continental Government and Continental Parliament, voted under universal suffrage right across the length and breadth of Africa.

What the people of Africa want is a single African Continental Passport, to be issued by the continental government that will enable and allow the people of Africa to travel freely and to settle freely in any African country. What the people of Africa want is total monetary union, with a single continental wide currency, which is backed up by the African Central Bank and that can be used as a legal tender any where in Africa.

What the people of Africa want is a continental telecommunication umbrella organisation for the whole of Africa. What the people of Africa want is the integration of our postal services as one continental postal service.

What the people of Africa want is a radio and television network of Africa that can be captured by all African countries. What the people of Africa want is to have a pan-African airline that covers the whole of Africa under a single corporate authority.

What the people of Africa want is to see a continent where road and railway network facilities run from Nouakchott to Nairobi and from Cape Town to Cairo. What the people of Africa want is to be allowed to elect the first President of the United States of Africa.

What the people of Africa want is to have a Continental Army under a single high command.The time is ripe to address these issues which are the dreams and hopes of the African People.

Africa: Guebuza On the 'United States of Africa'

2006-09-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

Africa: Guebuza On the 'United States of Africa'

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
September 10, 2006Posted to the web September 11, 2006

Sirte:
According to Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, it is not so much African leaderships that should decide on transforming the continent into a single state with a single government, but the peoples of the 53 current member states of the African Union (AU).

Speaking to Mozambican journalists shortly before leaving the Libyan city of Sirte, where he had attended celebrations of the seventh anniversary of the AU, Guebuza said the abolition of the current African frontiers would depend on each of the peoples of the countries concerned.

They had to decide whether they wanted to scrap all borders, or whether they preferred the continent to remain in the fragmented state inherited from colonial rule.
"We have to think with our feet firmly on the ground", stressed Guebuza. He thought it imperative not to rush into setting up a "United States of Africa" because, although it might bring benefits to the peoples of the continent, it was a very sensitive and complex issue.
Guebuza thus advised a great deal of careful consideration before embarking on such an ambitious project.

Guebuza made it clear that, at the current stage of Africa's development, he thought it would be precipitate to simply declare the existence of a "United States of Africa". Before reaching any such stage there were the existing agendas (national, regional and international) to which countries had committed themselves, but which had not yet been implemented.
"We have to know where we are going and how we are going to get there", declared Guebuza. For him, before taking steps towards setting up a continental government, it was first urgent to consolidate the existing sub-regional bodies. For Mozambique, that means strengthening SADC (Southern African Development Community).

When sub-regional bodies such as SADC had become successful, they might serve as platforms for the much broader integration of the entire continent into a "United States of Africa".
Nor should African leaders embark on such a project without first consulting the people they govern. Guebuza said this is why in Mozambique consultation has already started, with institutions such as universities in an initial phase.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa International Organizations and Africa Mozambique

He wanted to see such consultation expanded to the entire population, so that it would not simply be the government that took such a weighty decision for the country's future.
It is the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who has championed the idea of a "United States of Africa", and during Saturday's anniversary celebrations he was particularly strident, calling for the establishment of this new continental body by a simple decree from the existing African heads of state.

He openly condemned those who regard the idea with skepticism, and said they should be forced to accept it. He claimed that those who oppose the "United States of Africa" are motivated by a wish to maintain their current privileges.

a giant leap for a United States of Africa.

2006-08-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

Uni-visa key to a United States of Africa, (The Herald, 2005-08-05):-
Before the 1885 Berlin Conference that partitioned Africa into exploitable colonies, Africans were "lexgens sans frontiers" - people without borders.

They did not know any borders until after the Berlin Conference that carved the continent according to Europe's whims under the guise of establishing formal states. After Africa attained political independence, the crusade for a United States of Africa began in earnest.

Kwame Nkrumah, the founding father of the Organisation of African Unity (now African Union), mooted the idea, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi pursued it vigorously and the AU meeting in Sirte, Libya, last month embraced the first giant step towards real continental unity. AU leaders resolved to introduce a uni-visa system that would facilitate the free movement of people across the continent.

This move would not only boost trade, but would also enhance communication and strengthen continental integration. The system has been in place in other regions such as the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the European Union (EU) where it reaped economic, social and political benefits for member states.

The EU has fostered unity since 1952, to the extent of introducing a single currency, the euro, which is speeding up economic development. Ecowas, on the other hand, has already opened borders in West Africa. Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries agreed to speedily implement the uni-visa system. In fact, South Africa and Mozambique have already worked out modalities to enable their citizens to cross borders without visas, and Zimbabwe and Mozambique have also signed an agreement to this effect.

Africa can consolidate its power through integration of ideas, creation of one military force and one currency that would go a long way in asserting the sovereignty of the continent. The borders that African states have were carved by colonial powers to avoid conflicts at the feeding trough; but effectively delayed Africa's independence through divide and rule.

Though the Berlin Conference managed to avert settler conflicts, the colonial legacy that divided nationalities between countries like Chad and Sudan, Nigeria and Cameroon, Namibia and Angola, and Malawi and Zambia has at times brewed potentially disastrous conflicts, some of which degenerated into civil wars that retarded development.

The uni-visa system will be implemented at pilot or regional level before it spreads throughout the continent, and observers say that regional member states should be wary of the price of integration, which might see countries with strong economies like South Africa ending up with net immigration. Fear of this development forced Britain to remain outside the euro zone However, Sadc has already made huge strides towards free movement as cross-border truck drivers have been using uni-visas for sometime now.

Like what has been done with the Sadc driver's licence, there are plans to introduce a regional identity card that would allow easy monitoring of cross-border movement. All these moves will have positive spin-offs for tourism, which is incidentally the world's largest and fastest growing industry.

Sadc's immense tourism potential can only be fully tapped through greater integration. In 2003 alone, Sadc received 13,5 million tourists. However, the numbers would be much bigger if factors influencing tourist arrivals and expenditure are made more conducive. The scraping of visa requirements will also promote international tourism and, in turn, boost tourism revenue.

The common visa system is predicated on the principle that the easier a country is to visit, the greater the number of tourists. While the introduction of the uni-visa system is welcome, efforts should be made to mitigate the evils of cross-border crime as well as xenophobia, since nationals of one country may feel threatened by immigrants from other countries. If the uni-visa system is not properly implemented, it can worsen cross-border crimes like human and drug trafficking, car thefts and smuggling by criminals taking advantage of free passage.

There is need for the creation of a regional police force along the lines of Interpol. Cross-border crime has been a problem for Ecowas and the EU. Sadc countries must work towards the harmonisation of law enforcement to prevent the scourge.

There is also need to agree on certain principles before implementation. Immigration laws should be harmonised and entry points computerised. Most of the region's border posts use archaic manual methods, which need to be modernised for efficiency.

A centralised immigration database and training schemes for immigration and customs officials are also essential. Examination of immigration legislation and regulations of each member state will also need to be undertaken to come up with a timetable for the harmonisation of regulations and application forms for single and multi-destination travel within Sadc.

There is also need to agree on the format of a regional uni-visa sticker or stamp that will replace stamps of member states. On account of Africa's socio-cultural and economic dynamics, the uni-visa will be an excellent instrument in the promotion of economic development, understanding and goodwill and foster close relations between African people.

It is disheartening that in spite of the great promise that Africa has for economic unity, most of the potential remains un-or-underdeveloped, and thus does not contribute to the continent's economic growth. Since Africa in general and Sadc in particular will host the 2010 Fifa World Cup, the uni-visa would facilitate the free movement of tourist and football fans. Unhindered movement of people also paves way for the introduction of a single currency that would, in turn, stabilise the region's economies.

Africa's full potential can only be achieved through the collective and concerted action of all states by evolving clearly defined policies and strategies for development. Since the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the uni-visa is the first tentative stride that should translate into a giant leap for a United States of Africa.

Mafabi on United States of Africa

2006-08-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

Mafabi on United States of Africa

David Mafabi of The Daily Monitor, Kampala, Uganda, wrote the following editorial in response to the African Union's proposal to form a 'United States of Africa.'

Will we ever witness a real United States of Africa? Or rather will our future generations ever do so? Learning about the United Nation's millennium goals got me thinking, why can't Africa write her own goals? It does not take a mathematician to figure out that Africa is the wealthiest continent on the planet. In every corner of this great continent there is an abundance of natural resources; minerals, oil, gas, gold, diamonds; which the developed world needs.

Any economist in any western country will gladly inform you that where demand exceeds supply prices are automatically higher. Not in Africa. Let me rephrase that: Western goods sold in Africa are naturally priced higher, but African goods sold here seem to go against the demand & supply rule.

At this juncture I am in the least bit interested in trade quotas or embargos simply because they were made effective a long time ago and were very well suited to the needs of colonial rulers. When our traders (not farmers) cry foul that United States and European farmers get subsidies - thus rendering our produce unsellable within their markets - I cannot help but think 'why send them our produce in the first place?' Isn't Africa starving to the point of extinction? Why should we spend sleepless nights at the thought of the United States not extending AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) when we can make use of the clothes, let alone the export revenue we could earn from other African States?

Wouldn't it be nice for Starbucks Coffee Company to beg countries up and down this continent to sell them coffee beans? Imagine the great British chocolate company Cadbury's pleading to buy cocoa pods from Ghana based on prices that Ghana sets, not the price that was set five or six generations back.

No doubt politicians may read this and pass it off (claiming) that I am talking rubbish since I do not know how prices are set in the first place. That may be true, but I know one thing; and that is that Africans cannot be forced into selling anything that they do not want to - or be forced to sell their products at a set price. What they can do is to find buyers of their products without a set price or better still use their own products. I advocate for the latter: The U.N.'s millennium goal number Eight.

Ours would just be one: Self Sufficiency. This, in my opinion, would be best achieved once we have a united Africa. Africa has the potential to become a food basket for itself and beyond. As the world gets more disenchanted with the use of chemicals in drugs and food we could supply them with organic produce. It could also become the world's biggest jewelry shop, selling and storing gold, diamonds and other gemstones.

Why send diamonds to Brussels and India when people from those countries can come here and buy them with a sticker on them saying 'Made in Africa,' thus increasing tourism? The list is endless. But I hear many of you saying this is not new news. The only message that is new is my message of becoming self-sufficient first, before thinking about exporting.

Businessmen and politicians may say that exports bring in more revenue, but I say 'no wonder the rich get richer.' If forefathers in developed countries did not sacrifice to build their nations patriotically then future generations would not be enjoying the wealth they have today. If we treated this continent like one big country, imagine what quality of life we would have. Imagine Uganda producing only vegetables, Kenya producing only wheat, Tanzania producing only maize, etc. A place for (all) gold, another for diamonds etc. A full-fledged railway line cutting across the continent, sorting out problems of the landlocked countries. We would soon become a China or India - a place where they export more than they import - places which dictate to the rest of the world the price and quantity they send to it. Imagine the development we would enjoy.

But will this ever be achieved? I do not know about you, but my hopes are dim. If within Uganda we can oppose our own Seeya's development plans then how do we expect to co-operate with our neighboring countries? Will we be able to relinquish some of our monopolies to the neighbors? Would we be able to abandon wearing designer clothes and choose to wear our own designed outfits? The East African Community is yet to become a reality. Will the United States of Africa ever see the light of day?

Commitment to vote "YES for the United States of Africa"

2006-08-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

Commitment to vote "YES for the United States of Africa"
In order that the African people may be relieved from today's multifarious and overwhelming poverty so as to live in peace and prosperity, I pledge to participate in the process of uniting Africa politically and economically, before the year 2005, by transforming the OAU into a Confederation comprising among other institutions, an Assembly of Heads of State and Government, already in place, a Pan-African Parliament, a Pan-African Court of Justice, a Continental Government, a single Continental Market with a Common Currency(AFRI), a Common Defense System, to be instituted immediately, an African Civil Society Organization, etc. Consequently, I shall vote and help vote "YES for the United States of Africa" at the Pan-African Referendum to be organized on this issue.

The United States of Africa debate should focus on four fundamental transformations:

2006-08-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

First, African states need to adopt a policy of "first call" for Africa. Africa should put its interests first in terms of using its resources, both human and material. It is shameful for a continent that is as rich as Africa to go begging for debt relief when in essence all its resources are underutilised. Africa must make its case in the international marketplace by adopting more aggressive policies.

Second, Africa needs to conduct its foreign policies and diplomacy differently, concentrating its energies on Africa and African relationships.

Refusing to allow unsavoury regimes and wars to thrive on the continent is the third transformation. Concerted conflict management needs to be the first item on the agenda of individual states, the OAU, and regional organisations like Igad, SADC, Ecowas and EAC.

Lastly, the struggle to promote the dignity of black people and institutions both in Africa and outside it, should not be manipulated to condone black imperialism in Africa. The interventionist role played by Uganda and Rwanda in Congo is an example of just the kind of expansionism Africa does not need.

Opiyo Ododa is a post-graduate student at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi

The African Civil Rights Movement

2006-08-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

African Civil Rights Movement

2006-08-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

Resolution ofThe African Civil Rights Movement
Seconded by the Schiller Institute Conference

The African Civil Rights Movement put forward the following resolution Sept. 5, 1999, at the Labor Day conference of the Schiller Institute/ICLC in Northern Virginia. Speaking for the Movement, Godfrey Binaisa, former President of Uganda, proposed the resolution, which upon the motion of Helga Zepp LaRouche was passed by acclamation.

WHEREAS, African nation-states until now miss true sovereignty to which they are entitled by right, and which is now being denied Africa by the might of its former European colonizers with their ally, the United States;

WHEREAS, Africa ended the last century under colonial servitude and oppression; Africa is about to end this century in wars, pestilence, famine, and disease;

WHEREAS, this century has seen us attaining independence on paper. It has not seen us attaining true sovereignty;

WHEREAS, it is only our former European colonizers together with their ally, the United States, which itself was a colony of Britain, who are sovereign in the fullest meaning of that term. The United States policies on Africa, are still on the coattails of British policy.

Africa is still agonizing under the colonialism of the IMF and World Bank, both put in place at the end of World War II by European powers and the United States, and they control the economies of Africa with an iron hand clad in a velvet glove, to serve only the interests of the supposedly departed imperalists;

WHEREAS, even the paper independence we attained was paid for at a very high price of pain and suffering, incarceration and deaths of millions of African freedom fighters. The IMF and World Bank, through their founders, continue as our new colonial governors, to control all aspects of our economies and development, rendering our paper independence null and void and of no use whatsoever;

WHEREAS, all people of good will throughout the world agree with those sacred words in the American Declaration of Independence that all men are born equal and have unalienable rights, among them the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In practice at the present day, Africa is excluded; hence it is today treated as a colonial continent for the West to plunder, loot, and decimate;

WHEREAS, none of the supposedly departed colonial powers ever advised us to get rid of them. It would be unwise to hope that a day will come in the dim future whereon the same powers will advise us how to agitate and struggle for the attainment of full sovereignty, because the European powers and the United States do not yet believe that Africans are born equal with Europeans and Americans;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, AND IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, by the African Civil Rights Movement and friends to condemn in the strongest possible language the continued roles of the IMF and World Bank as at present constituted, and to undertake to spearhead any move for the early demise of these two world institutions, which to Africa mean no more than the extension of colonialism into the third millennium.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the policies of the IMF and World Bank are the two main culprits in denying us our sovereign rights as free and independent nations. Their sustainable adjustment programs have only adjusted our stomachs to hunger and our bodies to disease. We are far poorer today than before independence. And as some European Christian missionaries have written about us that we are poor because we are backward, and we are backward because we are poor, this is a trap we shall never get out of until we get the IMF and World Bank off our backs.

Henceforth, the whole of Africa has to join the agitation for sovereignty as we agitated for independence more than 30 years ago.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we stand foursquare behind the policy of Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, of Selective Exchange Controls to fight against speculators and unscrupulous currency raiders.

We note with satisfaction that Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, came out in the open to adopt policies similar to those of Malaysia. We rest confident that the whole of Africa will get together in a United States of Africa, and stop being exploited by the IMF, World Bank, or any other force that may be formed to keep Africa as a colony in perpetuity.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the African Civil Rights Movement in its fight for sovereignty shall not rest until Africa through renewed nationalism achieves:
(a) Sovereignty of every African mind;
(b) Sovereignty of every African state;
(c) Sovereignty of every African soul;
(d) Sovereignty of every African land and natural resource;
(e) Sovereignty that shall free everything we call our own from continuous looting and exploitation by the mighty and powerful well into the 21st century and beyond.

Signed, for the African Civil Rights Movement:
Godfrey BinaisaChairman

creation of a pan-African stock exchange

2006-08-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Also topical at the summit will be progress towards the creation of the United States of Africa.

A report is expected to be tabled by the Committee of Heads of State and Government on the Realisation of Political and Economic Integration which has been tasked with the responsibility to spearhead the establishment of the United States of Africa

The idea of a United States of Africa is the brainchild of Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi who has since 2000 pushed for the unification of Africa as a national and sovereign federation of states similar to the United States of America.

The creation of the federation of African states presupposes the establishment of the African Economic Community built around free trade areas (FTAs) in the continent’s four main regions.
One of these building blocks is the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is targeting becoming an FTA by 2008. Significant progress has been made since 2000 in phasing out tariffs on intra-regional trade.
The SADC Protocol on Trade was signed in 1996 but a meticulous negotiation process delayed its implementation until 2000.
The target is to have 85 percent of all products traded in the SADC region at zero tariff by 2008.
The AU is also pursuing the free movement of persons across the continent and introduction of an African diplomatic passport, a development that would quicken the transition towards a United States of Africa.

The AU leaders will also consider during the Khartoum summit a proposal by Libya to shake off the legacy of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and introduce a new logo and flag for the AU.
The AU was launched in Durban, South Africa, in July 2002 to replace the OAU but the symbols of the organisation have not changed. Libya will push at the summit that these are changed to reflect the organisation’s new identity.
Other issues expected to be discussed at the summit include the impact of HIV and AIDS on the continent, creation of a pan-African stock exchange with a seat in Egypt or South Africa, establishment of a fund to alleviate the effects of increases in oil price on poor countries.

Africa compared to the rest of the world

2006-08-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

The Dark Continent: It’s Still Dark

2006-08-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Africa, the Dark Continent. A romantic name for an unknown and underexplored region of the world to the Europeans of the 19th century. Today is different though, we know Africa and have mapped out every last mystery - even that elusive source of the Nile.
Take a look at a night time map of Africa compared to the rest of the world - yes it’s very dark.

Even Google is concerned, the number of searches from Africa compared (again) to the rest of the world is miniscule. (I apologize for not being able to get a larger and more up-to-date image, this is from 2003)

Let’s take a look at a news attention map, highlighting where the big news organizations are focusing (countries in deep red are experiencing the most attention).

Looking at the above maps, one can see that Africa is still dark infrastructurally, technologically and on top of that, the world just doesn’t care. What does that mean for Africa and Africans?
I sit in a strange place, as do many of you who read this blog. We are considered the African first-movers on web technology, the African Digerati if you will. Our insights into technology are not the same as the vast majority of those who live in Africa and our knowledge and perspective of Africa is much different than the rest of the world’s. We, currently, are the people on the bridge - maybe even the bridge - that spans the divide of both knowledge and technology when it comes to Africa.
So, in our unique position, what do we see? This is what I see:
I see young Africans gaining access to technology and connecting to the world at a greater pace than ever before. What happens when you get millions of children on $100 computers? How does that change their world view and affect the way communication happens?
I see an Africa on the verge of a technical revolution that leapfrogs years of government corruption and of condescension by the world’s developed nations. What happens when the government can’t control information or communication?
I see people who want to be recognized as more than just the hand-out junkies that their governments make them look like. Technology is giving them that voice, and will give them more over the coming years. This begs another question: what happens when the highly educated African diaspora return, or invest?
The truth is that the world is changing faster than anyone anticipated. It’s changing so fast that the governments of the West can’t even keep up. If the governments of the West are hopelessly behind the technology curve, where does that put African governments?
Yet change happens without governments. Some would say that great changes happen precisely because governments can’t keep up, they can’t even understand what is happening. Laws are passed, yet those laws mean nothing because the technology has already moved past them.
Those who create, develop and invest in new technologies are the ones who write the rules of tomorrow.
Programmers are working on the platforms and programs that everyone will be using a year or two from now - they are the front line workers. Who are the idea-men behind them? Who recognizes the potential for change and revolution in an industry? Does it matter their nationality?
Those with ideas rule the future (think Niklas Zennstrom, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Richard Barton, etc…). These people have changed industries, some have changed how governments act. All have changed the way we act and view the world.
Africa too will change, is changing. What are the ways new technology can be used to further affect change? Ideas have no nationality, yet implementation of those ideas takes an understanding of a particular region. Again, as the African Digerati we stand in a unique an advantageous position, some as idea-men and others as implementers.
Who among us are the African idea-men? Who will invest? Who will implement?

asks if there will soon be a “United States of AFrica”?

2006-08-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

Chippla’s Weblog, asks if there will soon be a “United States of AFrica”?

“Do these names mean anything to you: Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo, John Kufuor, Abdoulaye Wade, Meles Zenawi, Ahmed Ouyahia and Alpha Omar Konare? According to this report, they are seven of the most powerful men in Africa and they met in a summit tagged “Africa and the challenges of the global order: Desirability of union government” in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to discuss ways of moving forward with the political unification of their continent.” Chippla concludes that it is doubtful Africa would emerge as one country, at least not in the next 50 years which is a pretty long time.
Sokari Ekine

According to John Kufor, who by the way is the Oxford-educated president of Ghana:
"The call for a united Africa has been around for a long time...Some want to go only as far as the European Union, while for others it has to be nothing short of one central government…The emerging reality is that the rest of the world is already constituted as political unions or economic blocs."Ghana of the 1950s was the birthplace of modern day pan-Africanism with leaders such as the late Kwame Nkrumah advocating the creation of a single African nation modeled on socialist ideals.While closer political and economic ties among various African countries is laudable, its litmus test lies not in policies formulated by a ruling elite but in the response of individual citizens. Like in most parts of the world, governments of rich African countries require visas from citizens of poorer countries. This has a lot to do with the fear of uncontrolled migration which might eventually put a strain on social services.Looking at it another way however, some of the poorest parts of Africa could also be the most rewarding from a business point of view. With places like Liberia and Sierra Leone coming out of years of civil war, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or what I like to call the richest yet poorest piece of land on the planet) still trying to get its feet on the ground, business opportunities abound and the liberalization of financial and labor laws could go a long way in fostering desirable cross border migrations.Africa will likely not become a single country in the next half century but closer ties will now become the norm rather than the exception. In the 21st century, there is simply no way small nation states can survive on their own in the sea of globalization and multinational dominance – it's a good thing to see that nationalistic perceptions are being trashed away in favor of reality.The West African regional bloc (ECOWAS) allows for the freedom of movement of people. A nice gesture I would say but goods and services are still not allowed to move freely. Thus, it is not uncommon for Nigeria to ban, unban and ban Ghanaian goods. It seems there is still quite a long way to go, for if goods and services still cannot move freely in West Africa, I wonder how long it would take for this to happen in all of Africa. You see, sometimes it's protectionist government policies, under the cloak of protecting national interests, that hinder development.
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Posted by Chippla Vandu, 1:53 PM links to this post
14 Comments:
I remember hearing this idea back in the 70s, perhaps now with advances in telecommunication, health care and engineering it will finally come to pass. I think this would be the best thing for Africa.Civilizations seem to have a natural ebb and flow, from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, all sprouted numerous unique cultures which have continued the natural progression of human civilization, each making its own special contributions to this continuing cycle. It's remarkable how few people are aware that some of the earliest known organized civilization arose in Africa, we just don't have a strong record of these civilizations mostly because of a lack of written language. While some may disregard these earliest civilizations as the poor stepchildren of written history, given the cycle we've seen through recorded time, it seems highly likely that what was created by our earliest of documented civilizations, sprang from foundations laid and knowledge gleaned directly from those early Africans, who remain shrouded in the mists of unrecorded time.Perhaps in this great circle of civilizations, Africa's time is quickly approaching again.Aaron
Posted by The Dead at 9:41 PM, November 13, 2005
Thanks for your comments. There can be little doubt that Africa served as the bedrock for all modern civilizations in the world. Though modern African civilizations were often viewed as primitive by the Europeans, they did show signs of development such as having structured and organized kingdoms. Africans, like most people in other parts of the ancient world domesticated crops and animals (probably not to the same degree as the people in Europe and Asia, though this is debatable). The Aborigines of Australia did not.The lack of advancement of African civilization lies in my opinion, on their refusal to open up to new ideas from outside. For instance, no country in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding Ethiopia) was able to develop an indigenous modern writing style. No single civilization or country has managed to achieve development by remaining isolated from others. This is the time for African countries to learn that unless they open up to themselves, they will have no future. I would not advocate pan-Africanism based on socialist ideas like Mr. Kwame Nkruma but I do think that a United States of Africa will be a wonderful thing for the African continent.
Posted by Chippla at 10:03 PM, November 13, 2005
This is a very interesting concept and much of what you both (Aaron, Chippla) have written here sounds great.Economic development and social stability should be high priorities on the political agendas of smart African leaders in this century. Inter-regional trade and commerce and other forms of cooperation are very important in helping to achieve these goals.However, I cannot at this time see the people of various African nations who have been bitter rivals and enemies of one another for eons endorsing and supporting such an idea.It would be a gargantuan task to get the diverse peoples of the African continent onboard. They would have to be convinced of the immediate and tangible benefits for their daily lives and also be ready to abandon centuries of mistrust and animosity toward their neighbors and outsiders.European's constant bickering over the policies and actions of the European Union and the European Parliament re: issues such as the controversy over admitting Turkey (and other countries) into the European Economic Community are good examples of how difficult it is to create a strong and enduring union of nations working for the benefit of all members.
Posted by Black River Eagle at 1:30 PM, November 14, 2005
I think a United States of Africa is unrealistic. Too many people have power that they don't want to relinquish. Even the more ethnically and culturally homogeneous (and much smaller) Europe only has a moderate degree of integration. And even that has not been without controversy.And you have admit that while many of the some leaders have called for such a union, the actions of many are contrary to that very spirit. Even Meles, who was part of this meeting you cite, is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Eritrea thus risking of a reprise of their insane border war. Insane border wars are surely antithetical to the spirit of such unions. The best option at the time, as you said, is increased integration of a regional level. Freedom of movement for citizens and goods. Economic and political cooperation. Such improvements need to occur gradually. After all, I'm sure that in 1945, no one would have thought that by 2005, France and Germany would be each other's closest ally.
Posted by Brian at 3:43 PM, November 14, 2005
Most importantly,there's need to create a formidable economic strength that can match that of China, the EU and other markets in the world. It is then that trade talks can be taken more seriously by developed nations and exportations can soar higher.This can only be done by uniting African nations.
Posted by Anthony Arojojoye at 10:06 AM, November 16, 2005
I well appreciate all comments that were posted by each one of you. I would likie to add this comment also.I think the social side of unity between african citizens plays a major part in harmonising all other aspects of african unity. If african leaders started to address this issue, it means that they will be able to address other progressive issues. The social side is the basic element of any unity. If people are united and harmonised, it will be an unperpinning for any type of continueing integration at higher level. I think this could be by regional bodies in Africa developing similar kinds of services (like health, education etc...)among each other, and with the freedom of movement of people, like in West Africa, people are going to realise that are all the same. I will give you now an example of my social argument. In Europe, there are so many deprived ethnic minorities and clesses. Why is that? It is because higher classed people and native citizens of those European countries are not prepared to accept them. Even with the developement of equal oppurtunities policies, you still see signs of a very huge divisions in society that most of people do not notice and regards as unimportant, according to ethnicity and social class.The social side is the basic for civil peace on an individual national and at all levels up to a continental level.
Posted by Ahmed at 8:57 AM, November 18, 2005
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Posted by Ahmed at 9:33 AM, November 18, 2005
Moreover, it will play part in calming down disagreements, if it was addressed. This is because it will have an affect on political policies. If services were harmonised, then it would be difficult to contradict with others at any higher level. The other side of social harmonising is that it gives a sense of equality among citizens from other African countries. They all get the same, so there will not be any fuel for any anomisties to arise amongst them. An example of that is in Eritrea, where ethnic manorities get equal share of any kinds of development, even in media, which kept that country in internal peace and a high degree of domestic stability inbetween citizens there. This is reflected on its crime rate (Eritrea is until now a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the whole world according to global statistics, if we ignored the warfare with Ethiopia which has nothing to do with local crime rate in Eritrea). Inequality and also dominance of power and wealth by one ethnic group was a major factor in most of past war situations that the continent witnessed in the last decades. This can also be addressed as a inter-national level, but it might take different forms and perceptions. It should be addressed as a more of human basic needs issue at a more peaceful time that Africa is witnessing now. This issue will help in facilitaing the way for the upcoming steps towards more unity at higher levels. All of the above regional social harmonising (and any other subsequent developements in relation to integration) must be addressed at an AU level and each region should be given guidelines on which they act on, and these guidelines should be geared and directed at the end into harmonising the social side at a continental level. For this to happen we need to wait for the Pan-African Parliament policies to be compulsory on all AU state memebers as planned, and this must be implemented for any African unitification steps to take a real and profound effect.One of the most important social elements that I must address is the environment. We all need to live in areas, where we do not feel ill and become infected with different diseases. That is a better option for our future generations to help them have a stable growth and future prospects.
Posted by Ahmed at 9:43 AM, November 18, 2005
Counsel from elders seems to be a lost treasure. Lost are lessons learned that may contain pearls of wisdom that could have benefited the seeker. Having survived my share of hazardous crossings, I am pleased to be able to share a thought or two. The main lesson is to keep on learning. Read and seek out other points of view like visiting your blog. Finding what is ultimately important has lead me to appreciate actuality, efficiency and mindfulness. Helping others to see some of the forest through the trees is a rewarding benefit of age and maturity. discernment
Posted by Anonymous at 10:03 PM, January 07, 2006
Africa might be united, but not any time soon. Certainly not.The second largest continent has a very diverse population and several "gonogos" who don't want to let go of political power.Also, the so-called economic integration in ECOWAS (West Africa) is far from the truth, for the common people. Try travelling from Ghana to Nigeria (or vice versa) by road, and see what I mean. You'd be harrased so much... you'd hate yourself for been African.
Posted by Oluniyi David Ajao at 8:24 PM, January 14, 2006
That's where the irony lies. In principle, there is freedom of movement of people in the ECOWAS sub-region but border crossings can be a nightmare I know (except of course one travels by air).There really is no economic integration in West Africa. Individual nation states still guard their borders tightly, with Nigeria being a huge culprit in this regard—shutting out Ghanaian and Beninoise products for different reasons.But economic integration is coming on slowly. The on-going West African gas pipeline project by which Nigeria supplies gas to coastal West African nations is a step in the right direction.
Posted by Chippla at 9:30 PM, January 14, 2006
An imaginative view on the awaited African civilisation.I think when the great circle of civilisation lands in Africa, it will have a new form. This form is based on the fact that Africa is on the centre of the world. Another fact that oil supply is going to finish enventually, so there is no other option for the rest of the world except to use renewable energy sources. so africa here has a strategic position. It has sun heat during the whole year everywhere. The sun heat can mean using solar renewable energy to supply many parts of the world or any part. There are very long rivers in Africa that can also be used for water-created energy supply. The water-created energy supply is already under planning from southern African region up to northern Africa and African countries are planning to extend this energy supply to Europe. The other fact of this imaginative view of the awaited African civilisation is glass created from sand. Glass can be created in many forms and might be used in many aspects and functions if it has gone under real focus as an option for living. One evidence that glass is used in construction of buildings and towers in many parts of the developed world. I think this can give an imaginative idea on how Africa is going to rely on to create a new civilisation.
Posted by Ahmed at 11:42 PM, January 27, 2006
Can Africa be green? A quetion!I said earlier that Africa will rely on renewable energy resources (sun, water, wind etc...) to create a new civilisation. This is due to its location in the heart of the world. Green energy makes earth cool more and more and this will create the environment to new conditions that the world is not experiencing now.I think africans should not accumulate ideas and say we want to make africa green in the fastest possible way. I think we should say: Let's leave this to the maturity of the awaited civilisation.WHY? To make the african civilisation last a s long as a civilisation can last. I hope you understand the idea.
Posted by Ahmed at 11:30 PM, April 17, 2006
I wanted to give you an update on the building of the United States of Africa I started back in 96 with Robert Wood - who together with me comprise The Wood Bros. Music group. We are still at: http://www.geocities.com/thewoodbrosmusic/ - but our NEW music is at: http://www.isound.com/music/wood_brothers_ca/ Our mission remains the same, to unite Africa as one nation and thus unite the world, in uniting Africa.God willing.* take a look at the Current site for the movement at:http://unitedstatesafrica.tripod.com/http://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com/The United States of Africa - Please forward to anyone who has cried a tear for Africa and wants to see a change."There are no words to describe what I feel about the possibility of the achievement of The United States of Africa. The applause of the entire globe could not give this cause justice, and justice is what this cause will bring. I am sure that the US of Africa will mean the extinction of poverty and the promotion of world Unity. I know the day will come when its constitution is signed. It will be signed not with greed and power in mind, but instead with love and unity. My prayers and deepest salutations are with you all." – JaredWhile we understand the beginning of the USA for USAfrica may have an unusual genesis, the heart felt reasons behind the movement are unmistakable, and the need for a United States of Africa, is Undeniable.No continent in the world is better positioned than Africa, ( a United Africa ) to contribute to the welfare of Mankind over the next thousand years. As an ABC Night Line reporter covering Africa noted, "Africa is 98% virtually the same as it was a thousand years ago." An incredible vast land of undeveloped potential both for it's people and the world.In a United States of Africa, a citizen could freely travel from Gambia to South Africa to Algeria or anywhere on the continent to seek education, opportunity, commerce or the simple pleasure of tourist travel within their vast country.A common African currency much like the EU model affords the ability to buy and sell throughout the continent with a reliable backed currency. A transcontinental citizenship throughout Africa will one day become the envy of the free world.Much of Africa's third world debt could be relived if freedom and security of capitalism were able to thrive in any African country - state from taxes paid by companies involved in business in any African location. An immediate positive effect would arise from local, municipal and federal levels throughout Africa. Any and all of these possibilities can only arise from what can take place in a United States of Africa. With national borders being no more restrictive than state borders, allowing transcontinental travel, commerce and opportunity for all African citizens.A United States of Africa with the largest usable coastline in the world could one day be the country that enriches all of Mankind, feeds the world, heals the world, teaches the world and balances the world. There is so much more involved and the USA for USAfrica is not naive to the many levels that must be addressed, our point is the dialogue must begin at once, in the media, on the airwaves, in discussions and editorials.The concept of a United States of Africa must immediately be brought into public debate worldwide and among Africans themselves.Yours in peace and a United Africa,Mark WoodFounder, USA for USAfricahttp://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com/http://www.isound.com/mp3s/wood_brothers_ca/http://www.isound.com/music/blue_turban_stone/http://www.isound.com/music/mark_wood_ca/Partner, The Wood Brothers Music http://www.geocities.com/thewoodbrosmusic/Publisher,The Green Valley ReporterICQ 72195575 www.GeoCities.com/GreenValleyReporter Online and Print: Serving the Mountain Communities of the Santa Clarita, Angeles Forest and Antelope Valley Communities.GreenValleyReporter@Journalist.com
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asks if there will soon be a “United States of AFrica”?
Chippla’s Weblog, asks if there will soon be a “United States of AFrica”? “Do these names mean anything to you: Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo, John Kufuor, Abdoulaye Wade, Meles Zenawi, Ahmed Ouyahia and Alpha Omar Konare? ...
posted by united states of africa @ 1:35 AM, August 28, 2006

suggested a "United States of Africa"

2006-08-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

Alpha Oumar Konaré at UNU
The United States of Africa

Chair of the Commission of the African Union and former president of Mali Alpha Oumar Konaré lectured at UNU on Monday, July 24 on "African Dynamism: Efforts towards Regional Cooperation and Integration." Dr. Konaré's lecture was introduced by UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel and preceded by remarks from H.E. Elly Elikunda Mtango, Tanzania's Ambassador to Japan, and Katsutoshi Kaneda, the Japanese government's Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Konaré spoke to a standing room only audience on the need for a recommitted investment in Africa that helps the continent develop beyond the simple exportation of raw materials, and suggested a "United States of Africa" could help ensure the development of the smaller, weaker countries and the continent as a whole.
UNU Video Portal: Konaré at UNU

Kadhafi urges commission on "United States of Africa" to fulfill mission

2006-08-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Kadhafi urges commission on "United States of Africa" to fulfill mission

Libyan President Moammar Kadhafi participated in the meeting of a "seven- member" commission, which is aimed at taking actions toward implementation of Libya's proposals for formation of the United States of Africa, when he participated in the 7th AU summit that closed here Sunday.
The Libyan proposals cover the creation of ministries of foreign affairs, defense, foreign trade, transport and communication at the continental level.
In addition, Libya is proposing the removal of customs barriers between member states of the AU, the unification of transport and communication means and the launching of an African satellite.
The secretary of the Libyan General People's Committee for External Relations and International Cooperation, Abderraman Chalgham, said in Banjul that Kadhafi alerted participants at the meeting that time was of paramount importance to complete the mission of the commission.
Chalgham said the Libyan leader also emphasized the importance of holding the commission meeting before the AU's next summit slated for next January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in order to define practical points to be implemented.

Gaddafi's 'United States of Africa' rejected
January 22 2003 at 05:50AM
Foreign ministers from across Africa on Tuesday rejected Libya's controversial proposal for a "United States of Africa", saying the vast continent was not ready to merge into one country with a centralised administration.The two-day closed-door ministerial meeting at Sun City in Johannesburg was called to discuss an agenda for an African Union summit, and diplomats said the ministers agreed that the deepening political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe would top the list.A South African foreign ministry spokesperson said there would be no formal briefing at the end of the meeting, which is being chaired by South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
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Instead, Dlamini-Zuma will brief a full AU council of ministers and heads of state and government summit in Ethiopia next month.
The continent could become one big country with one armyThe special summit will be held in Addis Ababa on February 3 and 4. It will be preceded by a ministerial meeting on February 2.During the AU summit in South Africa last year, Libya proposed amendments to the union's Constitutive Act so the continent could become one big country with one army and centralised institutions of government.The proposal, the latest grand-scale scheme put forward by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, never drew much support among the 53-nation union, and ministers on Tuesday delicately said the idea should be dropped.Diplomats said ministers would recommend a periodic review of Libya's proposals, fearing outright rejection of the plan would hurt Gaddafi, whose oil wealth and aggressive diplomacy have won him a number of friends around the continent.On Monday, African countries pushed through the election of Libya as the new chair of the top United Nations human rights body despite objections from Washington about Libya's flawed human rights record.
'The concern is that a political solution be found to Zimbabwe's crisis'At the coming AU summit, diplomats said South Africa, the group's current chair, wanted to discuss peace moves in Burundi - where Pretoria has asked for AU help to finance a peacekeeping force comprising South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique.South Africa also wants the summit to review the implementation of a peace deal for the Democratic Republic of Congo. AU reinforcement of a plan to end the Ivory Coast war was also being sought by the ministers, diplomats said.The ministers also spoke about the food shortages in six southern African countries, but took special note of Zimbabwe."The concern is that a political solution be found to Zimbabwe's crisis. Obviously there are differences over how that can be achieved, which is why they could prefer the heads of state to handle the matter," one official said. - Reuters
This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on January 22, 2003

2006-08-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

The United States of Africa! Posted: Thursday,
By: Kirk Moss

It has been mentioned several times before, and became a heated topic that fueled the Pan-African movement during the 1960's. A time when various African countries were shaking their colonial oppressors off their backs, and becoming independent nations. They were consequently starting from ground zero. But today, the United States of Africa is still a burning issue that is been raised within the context of reparations and repatriation. This cohesiveness is the key to the survival of African Peoples as a Race and an entity of the Human Family. Presently, we are the illegitimate children of the Human planet, who were kidnapped from our homelands, and our continental families have been subdued into impoverishment. This paradigm of the United States of Africa must begin with a rigorous overhaul of our motherland in order to form a solid distinctive cultural foundation. First, Economic Power. With this unity of African States comes the economic Power to fight white supremacy and capitalist conglomerates on a global and local level. It would prevent Africa as a continent, and individual African countries from falling prey to various forms of economic stagnation. In particular, embargoes or trade sanctions initiated by the neo-colonial and imperialist powers of Europe and the Western capitalist societies. This opens the door to a new sense of self-reliance, a fundamental principle that Marcus Garvey, the great Jamaican Pan-Africanist, profoundly expressed. More

2006-08-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

GHANA
'The United States of Africa -- It May Yet Come.'

By NORIMITSU ONISHIn 1957, the Gold Coast became the first country to gain independence in sub-Saharan Africa, led by Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah's vision of African solidarity inspired independence movements across the continent, but his rule ended in a morass of corruption and an army coup in 1966.

Ryan Lash for The New York Times
Ambrose Ackah in Nkroful, the birthplace of Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to independence.

Nkrumah's hometown lies in western Ghana, a small town called Nkroful, where Ambrose Ackah was born some 64 years ago. Mr. Ackah, the son of farmers and one of seven children, was the first one in his family to attend school. He became an elementary school teacher and retired three years ago.

Also born in Nkroful, Paul Yankey, 19, has known only one president, Jerry J. Rawlings, who has brought the country stability and a small measure of prosperity since seizing power in a coup in 1979. Mr. Yankey comes from a family of subsistence farmers, and he has two sisters and a brother. Mr. Yankey struggled financially to graduate from secondary school, and he is not hopeful about the future. He would like to go to a polytechnic college, but his family lacks the money.

He also knows that Africa is filled with university graduates who don't have jobs.
Ambrose Ackah
t was very, very, very good. Many people -- everybody was happy that this time Ghana is independent.
GHANA
1902: Gold Coast's Ashanti state is colonized by the British.
1949: Kwame Nkrumah forms the Convention People's Party to push for independence.
1951: First parliamentary elections are held. Convention People's Party wins two-thirds majority. A year later, Nkrumah is named prime minister.
1957: Gold Coast becomes independent Ghana, the first West African territory to gain independence.
1966: Military coup ousts Nkrumah, two years after he established a one-party state.
1979: Junior military officers, led by Flight Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, stage Ghana's first violent coup.
1992: Rawlings is elected president in national voting. People were enjoying themselves. People from different places, they all came to celebrate.
Everybody, we all liked Nkrumah. So whatever he told them, they did it.
We were all happy that Ghana was going to be an independent country. It was thought there would be development after independence. You see, before independence, the secondary schools were very few in the country. But after independence, the secondary schools were distributed evenly in the country. Even in Nkroful here, there is a secondary school now. The educational system became very good.

I got a job teaching. There were other farmers who joined the workers' brigades. We had workers' brigades, tailors, artisans and all these things. For everybody to get work.
My grandfather promised to send me to a secondary school. But very unfortunately, before I left middle school, he died. There was nobody to help me. I was admitted to secondary school -- I passed the examination. If I had gone, I would be a very big man now.
I was disappointed.

Africans have to stop the fighting and live peacefully.
If people are peaceful, they can develop. But they are power drunk.
That is why there is a lot of fighting all over the continent.

Today's leaders? Tough -- they are trying, it's not so great. Africa is not united. If it's united, it would be the United States of Africa. You don't know. It may yet come.
Paul Yankey

There is no unity in Africa. There is always -- I'll say discrimination in the country. "Because you are not from my father's line or my mother's line, so I do not regard you as a brother or sister." Nkrumah was pleading with Africans to unite for aiding ourselves. It's not possible.

Ryan Lash for The New York Times

Paul Yankey knows his future depends on education.
He was not able to fulfill it because he was overthrown. I don't think it can happen. Even though the presidents in Africa are trying their best, we don't have the one who has tested himself to unite all Africans.

If we unite, we become one body. Lack of employment in Ghana? We can go to another place. United, we can fix prices for our resources. If it's not possible, it means our difficulty in life will continue. And our life will be poor, for ever and ever.

All of us want to leave this country, the young people. We all want to depart this country for America. Britain, America, any foreign country. Japan, German, Italy. But I would come back to help Ghana. If we get something, we must come back home to help our friends.

Everything concerning education, we must provide it ourselves. After I finished secondary, I wanted to go to polytechnic. But because of lack of money, I have to wait. If there is availability of money, I would have continued.
I want to be someone. I know that all will depend on my going to school. It is only with school that I can be somebody in the future. I believe that, because I have been able to see that that is my talent. My main choice is to be an agriculturist.
My parents own a piece of land. O.K., it is for them. But they can't use the land because money for them to engage in farming is too small. Therefore they cannot expand. They can only cultivate for themselves.
My parents could not afford my secondary school fees. So I cut bamboos in the bush. Someone will come to you and inform you that he needs 10 bamboo sticks.
But the money is very, very small. You spent the whole day for 2000 cedis [about 80 cents]. You deduct your chop money that you eat. What's left is very few.

Muammar Gaddafi's call for a United States of Africa at the extraordinary summit of the Organisation of African Unity is the old Pan-Africanist idea all over again – an idea which did not work even during Kwame Nkrumah's time.
At the zenith of the debate in the 1950s, the idea of a United States of Africa was championed by the Casablanca group of states, who proposed a political union in which economic, cultural and military activities would be co-ordinated centrally.
The Monrovia group, meanwhile, envisioned a United Nations of Africa. They did not support centralisation but suggested the engagement of African states in common pursuits.
Colonel Gaddafi should remember that it was the Monrovia group that prevailed. The result was the formation of the OAU. The mandate of the OAU included promoting the solidarity of African states, defending their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence and harmonising policies, especially in the political and economic arenas.
The OAU has consistently emphasised non-interference in the internal affairs of states, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the condemnation of political assassinations and subversion, total emancipation of Africa and non-alignment.
The desire for a United States of Africa assumes that the continent is a homogeneous entity with the same characteristics, the same history, and the same future.
That is not true and may never be true. Politics and life in Africa are marked by diversity and negative competition rather than co-operation. African states would rather fight among themselves than forge a united front to fight other continents economically.
The idea of unity in Africa is complex, encompassing several interrelated notions. These include the belief in the uniqueness and spiritual unity of black people, the acknowledgement of the right of black people to self-determination in Africa and finally the assertion of the right of black people to be treated with dignity and equality in all parts of the world.
Even after decades of independence, one cannot state with any conviction that African states have acted in unison to achieve these goals. Africa is disunited and increasingly so. Take for example the notion of the spiritual unity of black people.
Contemporary African relations are marked by endemic conflict – a clear manifestation of mistrust, negative competition, ethnicity and the inability to shake off the colonial legacy.
In the Great Lakes region, a possible First Continental War has preoccupied the majority of African states for over a year. Even though a ceasefire seems to be holding after the Lusaka accord, the conflict is still far from being resolved. In Southern Africa, Angola is in internal turmoil and in North Africa, Algeria continues to be a battleground for fiercely opposed ideologies.
In the tiny Comoros, coups and counter-coups are the order of the day. Civil war has raged in the Sudan for over 15 years, while Somalia has had no central government since 1991. In the same region, Eritrea and Ethiopia have been engaged in an inexplicable war.
The notion of self-determination, for its part, has received wide recognition. But in the Western Sahara, Morocco seems to have sworn that the dream of self-determination will never apply to the Sahrawi people. Similarly, in the Sudan, the people of the south are locked in a deadly war of self-determination.
The desire that Africans be treated with dignity has never been realised. In fact, there is evidence that Africans are treated with less dignity now than at independence. This maltreatment is evident from the harsh immigration laws in the West designed to keep Africans out.
Even before they leave their country, African travellers are confronted with a graphic demonstration of their pariah status: northbound African airlines are routinely sprayed with insecticides before they leave.

United For Africa

2006-08-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

Senegalese artist Akon and his father, legendary jazz musician Mor Thiam, will be among the celebrities attending a Berlin press conference on April 5 for the announcement of a joint partnership between sneaker giant Puma and charitable organization United For Africa.

Puma and United For Africa plan to use their alliance to generate donations and raise international awareness for the 30 aid organizations affiliated with United Africa via innovative promotions.During the press conference, Puma will unveil the Puma Charity Collection through a fashion show which will boast new and limited edition items. Proceeds from each collection item will be given to United For Africa. The collection will be available to the public from the end of May 2006 at 10 different locations nationwide, including Puma Concept Stores.Both parties also presented the United For Africa retail entertainment trams which will be equipped with special informative and interactive material. The trams will run on allocated routes around Berlin from the beginning of June to the middle of July, promoting the United For Africa campaign.During this time, numerous events and shows featuring celebrity artists and sportspersons will take place in both the trams and Berlin's Café Moskau, Puma's football headquarters during the World Cup.A CD titled The African Game and a unique "coffee table" book, which is part of the campaign, will be available in the trams, PUMA Concept Stores and Café Moskau and in retail stores nationwide. The entire sales revenue for these products will benefit United For Africa.-article courtesy of SOHH.Com
posted by DestroTheBiggaFigga @ 4/06/2006 07:37:00 AM

1 Comments:

gradually toward the United States of Africa.

2006-08-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

Senegalese President Promotes Pan-Africanism
By James Butty Washington, DC25 August 2006

listen to the interview with Cheikh Tidiane Gadio
The late presidents Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya promoted the idea of Pan-Africanism in the 1960s. Recently, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade has been speaking about the idea within the framework of the African Union. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio is Senegal’s foreign minister; he told VOA English to Africa reporter James Butty why President Wade has been pushing the idea of a United States of Africa.

“What we notice, frankly, is that the people of Africa are ahead of their leaders when it comes to unity. Every African feels comfortable anywhere in Africa…. But some of our leaders still believe that we should strengthen our nation-states…and then go…gradually toward the United States of Africa. But this is not happening. Kwame Nkrumah said everything in 1963…. People did not listen to him. So President Wade, President Obasanjo, President Museveni, of course the Libyan leader, Ghadafi, and many other African leaders – now we have agreed that we should go to a union government first and to the United States of Africa,” he said.
Kenyan-born analyst Professor Ali Mazrui once said that Pan-Africanism requires exceptional leadership.

“Pan-Africanism is not about socialism versus capitalism, versus liberalism. You can be whatever you want to be. The common denominator for all of us…is the fact that we believe that Africa lies in a United States of Africa,” he said.

In regards to Sudan, he says that African nations must be willing to help each other but that international assistance may be necessary.

“It’s easy to say African solution to our African problems. But then we have to put our hands in our pocket, pull out the resources needed. We need 400 million dollars to launch a true peacekeeping mission in Sudan, and then we have to give some additional 8,000 troops. If African countries can do it, then they don’t need anybody else. But unfortunately I don’t think that people are ready to do it, and I don’t think also that the suffering population of Darfur have the time to wait for African leaders and African countries to make up their minds and give the right number of troops and the right money to handle the mission. So that’s why Senegal believes that we start with African forces and then transform those African forces into an international force,” he said.

Let us know what you think of this report and other stories on our website. Send your views to AFRICA@VOANEWS.COM, and include your phone number. Or, call us here in Washington, DC at (202) 205-9942. After you hear the VOA identification, press 30 to leave a message. We want to hear what you have to say! E-mail This Article Print Version

2006-08-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Wood,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the United States of Africa; as you may or may not be aware I believe in the ultimate unification of Africa for ideological and psychological reasons. The fact that foreigners came and partitioned Africa is stain on all people of Africa and of African origin, that shame assumes a preposterous effect when we recall that the western part of the motherland was demarcated purely and solely for the efficacy of the slave trade.

Everyday we wake up whether in Los Angeles,Accra,Lagos Dakar or Detroit it celebrates the white man hold on us as subject peoples on a plain practical level all talk of the African in the 21st century is nothing but hot air if we as a people do not embrace science and technology to propel our industrial revolution which will see us for the first time in 500 years transforming natural objects into man made items and for that we need a Market to protect. So the idea of a Union Government is not far fetched as it seems.

Now your choice of Mr. Anan as its first president fills me with laughter I was taking you seriously until I got to that juncture; please tell me what Mr. Anan has done towards the cause of panAfricanism perhaps I have been living in a different planet. Is this not what is wrong with Africans we talk about the project we've not yet finish how it would look like, but we move with alacrity on who should lead.

Yours in Shock,
John Adewole

2006-08-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hi Mark,

I was going to give you update this weekend. Thanks for your update. I have been busy with the micro loans project so was unable to get festival operations going. We will start now for it to take place next year 2007 which will be the 50th Anniversary of Ghana independence from British Colonialism.

It would be the best way to outflank all the agents of Neocolonialism in Ghana and Africa.
We decided that we are going to celebrate that Dr. kwame Nkrumah's birthday in Oakland and the event will take place on September 30, 2006 at Cafe Axe Cultural Center in, 1525 Webster Street downtown Oakland.

From 8pm-2am. We will like you to attend and we are thinking of inviting Adewole John from London to attend. It was a short notice decision. Please check http://www.coaforum.comn/ get a report of grants for micro loans. Just sent more money to Senegal for new micro loan startups.
Will call later.
Yaya Fanusie-COA

2006-08-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Mark,

Thank you once again for your thoughts on Pan-Africanism,I note however that you did not reply to some of the specific points I raised. This has led me to conclude that there is a palpable difference in our perception of leadership; someone can be a household name for all the wrong reasons. I am incline to agree with you on a wider premise that whoever we consider may not be as lily white as we would like. As a starting point therefore ought we not to consider concrete achievements on the ground, rather than names bequeathed to us by our oppressors? I think we should ponder on some of these points before we are seduced by the attraction of the project.
Yours in the service of Africa.

John Adewole
JOHNZURIYA@aol.com

2006-08-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

AfricaThe United States of Africa plan revivedMuammar Gaddafi is determined to bring the proposed United States ofAfrica project to reality.

At a two-day summit in Libya, African presidents argued that a pan-African body with more institutionalreach than the Organisation of African Unity could give the continentgreater bargaining power with the West.by Patrick MutahiThe setting was right and so were the delegates. One of Africa'sfounding fathers and President of Ghana Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was at thepodium giving a keynote address. This was an Organisation of AfricanUnity (OAU) meeting way back in the early 60s, which would seek tochange the face of the continent. Kwame gave out a 21-point proposalfor the creation of the United States of Africa. The meeting ended andKwame is dead but his dream still lingers on with Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi now seeking to accomplish what Kwame started. The ideaof African Renaissance is not new, as South African President ThamboMbeki has been trying against all odds to bring out a better face ofthe continent, which has been dubbed by the West as the "DarkContinent."The OAU has been blamed for inactivity and hence there has been avacuum with many African Presidents seeking to fill the void bycreating regional organisations. That's why the idea of a UnitedStates of Africa is appealing to many nations. However, Africans havefor long been united though informally. The All Africa games, AfricaCup of Nations, Kola Musical Awards to name a few attest to thisunity. African also rallied around the then apartheid South Africa andcampaigned for an end to the system and release of Nelson Mandela.Thus, the creation of the United States of Africa is just to formalisethis co-operation and take it a step further. The road has however hasbeen rough and bumpy.Obstacles and divisions surrounded the proposal of an African Unionwhen Gaddafi mooted it. Despite this, on July 12, 1999, 36 Africanleaders signed a draft treaty set to replace the 37-year-old OAUcharter. The draft provides for a council of African heads of state togovern economic, social, political, and health issues. Mostsignificantly, the text of the final document gives the African Unionthe right to intervene in affairs of member states to restore peaceand security in extreme cases, such as if war crimes or genocide havebeen committed. Many have argued that a pan-African body with moreinstitutional reach than the OAU could give the continent greaterbargaining power with the West.African leaders lauded the draft deal as a significant step, but fewpublicly endorsed Gaddafi's plan of establishing a "United States ofAfrica" by 2001. Gaddafi's proposed "African Union" would include theestablishment of an African presidency, a continental parliament, andthe eventual elimination of boundaries and state sovereignty. Algerianpresident Abdelaziz Bouteflika said "realism" was necessary for Africato develop an EU-style organization, while Kofi Annan emphasized thatit had taken decades to establish the EU, and that Africa shouldconsider setting up an "oil and diamond community" as a first step toeconomic unification. South African president Thabo Mbeki alsocautioned that the foundation for an African Union must be laid "stepby step." Gaddafi however was more optimistic and said it was avictory for Africa. That was then and 2001 has dawned.The two-day OAU summit in Sirte, Libya, at the beginning of thismonth, like the first one did not yield promising results as somecountries have not ratified the treaty. In a declaration releasedafter the summit, the signatories said they "solemnly declare thecreation of an African union by unanimous agreement." However, inorder for the declaration to come into effect two-thirds of OAUmembers, (36 countries) need to ratify the agreement. When thethirty-sixth country ratifies the treaty there will be anotherextraordinary meeting.Gaddafi's plans to revive the proposed union are likely to be watereddown by conflicting regional and state interests. Some nations fearthat the establishment of an African Union would derail regionalcooperation initiatives that are already underway. Nigeria, currentlyhead of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS), has started aprocess of West African currency unification and trade liberalisation.Ecowas has also made significant progress in easing travelrestrictions in West Africa. Similarly, South Africa enjoys aleadership role in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have now revived the East African Communityto boost their trade regionally. But still, most African states tradefar more with the rest of the world than they do with each other.Gaddafi has been called a dreamer by many people but he is workinghard to see his dream turn to a reality. All eyes are on him as wewait and see what good comes out of his efforts. Only time will tellwhether the creation of a United States of Africa will be realised andwhat benefit it will bring be to the continent.------------------------------------------------------------------AFRICANEWSNews & Views on Africa from AfricaKoinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 21255, Nairobi, Kenyaemail: africanews@iol.ithttp://www.peacelink.it/afrinews.html

SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA

2006-08-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

My Brother:Your presentation has won my soul.

When I was in Law school in 1968, I became aware of what we need to do but one tree does not make a forest so I met Chancellor Williams then 75 year old and I was 29. By 1970, the SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA (SADA) AFRICANIZATION SOCIETY was formed and obtained the 501(C)(3) was obtained. All righteousness must be fulfilled. Since then the road has been slow. I am for your proposal as a program to push the ideas you have expressed in USA. USA for USA is a must but how many us will buy into it? I am willing to put in all the EXPERIENCE that I have obtained. You seem to possess a very deep understanding of what we must do. There are statements in your presentations that go beyond entrapments and unwary and CIA or FBI infiltrated negative minds. My wife and I are willing to meet you and take a step in the direction of USA for USA as a program not as an organization for my experience has shown that there are white Americans who are serious about Africa and of course, the African Americans, the Diaspora Africans and the continental Africans are waiting for the right people, the right time to assert their AFRICANITY. With God on our side and a good plan instead of a hurriedly and unprepared efforts, USA for USA is a must and I am ready.

Kofi

This unified Africa will come to be...

2006-08-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have written for what I call Africa Federation with each African tribe (ethnic group) constituting a state and for there to be a central government. I estimate that there are about four hundred real tribes in Africa, (I have actually enumerated them in one of my writings) not dialects, as some count them to be. Take Nigeria, it is said to have 250 ethnic groups but actually it does not have more than 15 real tribes.... Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Urobo, Efik, Ijaw, Tivi, Kanuri, Huasa (?), Fulani etc. In this light there are less than 400 African tribes, each of them constituting a state within an African federation with a constitution along the lines of that of the USA, say a president elected for six years (twos term limit), a legislature elected for five years (with six terms limit), a thirteen member Supreme Court (with a term limit of 20 years) and the rest of the government professional and bureaucratic, like anywhere else in the world. This unified Africa will come to be. That is what we at Africa Institute Seattle work for. I am glad that your group also aims at a similar goal for Africa. Let us keep exchanging information.

Thank you.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji,PhD
Ozodi Osuji" ozodiosuji@yahoo.ca

This unified Africa will come to be...

2006-08-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

2006-08-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

ChicagoEye says:
This is a fascinating discussion and concept in this eyes of this African-American. Many of us on these shores dream of a united, powerful Africa...one that is the master of her economies, policies, markets and tremendous natural resources. The world would be an exponentially better place with a peaceful, prosperous Africa that is operating at her full potential. Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

2006-08-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

I believe that a United States of Africa, though an ideal concept, would be extremely hard to put together, even if today's leaders had the wisdom of the illustrious thinkers pictured above. I think the leaders are more concerned with their fiefdoms than with the larger picture and the larger possibilities. Take South America. Simon Bolivar's dream of a united South America remains only a dream in the mind of Hugo Chavez. And South America is much smaller than Africa, and, with the exception of Brasil, Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana, speak the very same language. And they cannot get it together.Some African leaders are dedicated to their people. I may be contradicted, but I think of Robert Mugabe, who is reviled by England and he US. Struggling to put his country right, after the rape of his country by England. Apart from South Africa, how much support is this man getting from other leaders?A United States of Africa would be great. The Europeans are getting their act together, with the euro in place. But I am afraid we won't be seeing a US of Africa anytime soon. As a matter of fact, we won't even be hearing discussions among the leaders about such a concept.Please correct me if I am wrong.

Barrybar says:

PAN-AFRICAN ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA FORWARD

2006-08-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Original Message -----
From: To: dbkichwa2@cox.net

Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: The ongoing dialogue between Bro. Mark and Bro.Oguchi
SADA says not every body is given the perception to know what makes human beings live a better life. Men who prefer to stick to pre colonial Africa turn to be science students. They really do not see that tribal groups are important to all humanity because tribes represent the original or natives of the land. But we cannot live under the tribal concept because in 1776 the year of the Americans (Anno Americano- AM 1=1776), a new concept of human governance was born.

To SADA, "AD 1" cannot be compered to compered with AM 1, because AD 1 is for calander but AM 1 is for human governance and the Africans I have met during my 68 years of life only prefer AD 1, because most of us are Westernized and take AM 1 for granted. Organized societies really is the key. We can dream of organizing Africa based on tribal basis but that is a bit too late. We are now in the free market era and American democracy is the only system that our masters have permitted us to organized even the present Africa. So to try to think of Africa coming into the tribal governance is a bit too much to imagine. We had OAU which no nation recognized. Now we have AU which the most powerful nation USA is now recognizing by sending an emmissary to the AU. Africa is moving forward with the present system and whether brother Oguchi Nkwocha, MD, Biafra, A Biafran Citizen, is aware of it or not it is irrelevant because most defeated Southern States in US try not to recognize USA. They still try to fly their own defeated flag.

We need Africa Unity, African currency, African Army, Africa Parliament with its Africa Courts, whether good or bad we must live as one people under one flag. However the tribal groupings in Africa must be carefully guided. There can be no Africa without the indegenous prople. Going to Africa means going to a tribe. The land is full of tribes. Each with its own language and natural endowments-culture. If we do not get the Africa Unity to preserve the tribes, most tribes will die of poverty, Western influence and ignorance.

Kofi KAfrica33@aol.com

We are together in this struggle

2006-08-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Swallehe Msuya"

Thanks Mark for your thoughtful ideas about African Unity. We are together in this struggle and without it, Africa will be doomed and marginalised.

Keep Up the Good Work.
Lets Network!
Brotherly,
Swallehe (ex-Tanzania)

whether Africa should unite,

2006-08-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

Bro. Mark,
You have redirected your argument.

The question was not about whether Africa should unite, or if the concept of democracy should be applied to Africa. You made a statement in your first correspondance whis reads, "Much of Africa's third world debt could be relieved if freedom and security of capitalism were able to thrive in any African country..." Capitalism thrived in Africa and landed millions of Africans in the bottom of slave ships to be transported to the America's to be enslaved. Capitalism thrived in the America's and caused the massacre of over 100 million Indigenous People of the Western Hemisphere. Capitalism thrived in Africa and colonized the entire African continent. Capitalism thrived in Africa and each country is currently in debt to the IMF a major component of neo-colonialism. A United States of Africa is the heart and soul of the Pan-African movement. Pan-Africanism is anti-capitalist. You should read the history of the movement, and the work of W.E.B. DuBois who is considered the father of Pan-Africanism.He was anti-capitalist. He died in Ghana as a member of the Communist party. Capitalism calls for private ownership of land and wealth in society by a few. Capitalism is anti-collective ownership of the means to produce wealth in society.

Your Hubmle Servant
Sekou Nkrumah
Chairman Pan-African Improvement Organization

2006-08-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

Africa is not one nation, and could never be. Africa does not need to be oneNation to be successful.Africa's nature has always been variegation and plethora: many different andunique entities sharing one space.The strength of Africa is in its diversity each with its own uniqueidentity, yet, co-existing.What is required today is to return the individual and natural sovereigntiesand nationhoods of indigenous African peoples to the natural ethnicities whoown them. As Africans, our natural loyalty and natural identity belong toour respective ethnicities. All the ruse and scheme to destroy such and haveus belong to some "State" to which we transfer our citizenship and loyaltyhave failed: they are the cause of the ongoing turmoil in Africa today, asall the African so-called countries are in fact such States.Where colonialism stopped balkanizing Africa, religions has filled the gapand have a greater devastating effect (where Balkanization is used with itscorrect meaning, which is the forced, non-consenting, unnaturalrearrangement of peoples for the sole purpose of benefiting the arranger andmaking the arranged weak and confounded). Both Christianity and Islam haveeroded the true African spirituality. To speak of "one African nation"without considering the impediments and treachery and brutality ofespecially backward and vicious Islam in Africa is to demonstrate a lot ofnaiveté.What I see for Africa are independent sovereign ethnic-based nationscoalescing with mutuality and respect into consensual sociopolitical andeconomic aggregates growing to the size of even regions. Borders can beporous in such arrangements, allowing for rapid and unimpeded exchanges; butinter-national borders there must be for the protection and security ofindigenous groups and their resources, and for the implementation ofeffective leadership and efficient administrative structures instituted bytheir own people and responsive to their own people.

Thank you.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MDA Biafran Citizen

2006-08-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

Revealing the true characters of Africans
Wednesday 12 April 2006 05:03.
Printer-Friendly version
By Steve Paterno*
April 11, 2006 —

It is embarrassing to admit the obvious fact that the Arabs and Europeans are way smarter than the Africans as they are the ones who understand the Africans more than the Africans understand themselves. It is convenient to say that all men are created equal, but how true is that saying? Equal as in what? Human, what is that anyways, how can human be measured so as it be considered "created equal"!
Take for example the most so-called educated Africans. Some of these people are really half educated if the standard of measuring education is based on knowledge. These people prove to be having a little understanding of their own societies when they start to talk of the things that affect them the most. These people will use their half educational knowledge, which is limited in scope and history to justify everything that happen among their societies and blame non-Africans for those things. Their knowledge of history is so short that it started with colonialization to the present. It is like those history classes they provide to college students, which they categorized by period of time per course for credits. The Africans knowledge of their own societies is like a knowledge of someone who watch a movie that is interrupted by commercial and is almost finishing. Therefore, in their limited knowledge of the existence of their societies, for Africans, everything has to be put in the prospective of colonialization, in order to qualify one as educated. And their future vision is as short as seconds ahead. That is why Africans never produce scientists but instead produce fortunetellers who can only claim to envision bad things though their evil visions are questionable at all time.
In Sudan for example, the evil of colonialism is topping the lists of the most cited reasons for the ills that affect that destitute country today. Some of those so-called educated and intellectuals from that country have proclaimed that they have finally discovered the major problems, which are affecting the Sudan. That is so because they went to schools that offer them degrees by teaching them to understand the knowledge that stretch as near as only few centuries past. In other words, they are taught the history that did not teach them about their societies before colonial era. That knowledge, which constitutes limited time in history, has become the only knowledge of the existence of their societies they know thus far.
It goes like this: long time ago, some people come from far land known as the Arab land to trade with the Africans. These Arab people introduced unfair trading practices that exploited African resources, which included human being in form of slavery and the Arabs institute a rule over the Africans. In the later years, those Arabs were joined by other group of people from Europe who even used a more sophisticated techniques to exploit the Africans. “They divide and rule” is the name of the technique attributed to the Europeans to deprieve Africans.
Equipped with that knowledge from schools, the so-called educated Africans or in this particular case, the African Sudanese believe they identify the problems, and unfortunately the solutions they tried to find for those problems are confusing to say the least. They include from waging war of independence to fighting liberation and revolutionary wars even among themselves the so-called African Sudanese. They die in millions and their miseries seem to be getting good part of them as a result. They also adopt some confusing political slogans such as self-determination, New Sudan, and Marginalized people of the Sudan as philosophical means of finding solutions among their ill societies.
Sadly, nothing is resolved as of yet despite all their desperate attempt for finding solutions. The Arabs are still trading (a euphemism for exploiting), enslaving and ruling the Africans in places like the Sudan. The Europeans; well, they have even gotten more smarter in developing a technique beyond the word sophistication can described. As oppose to “divide and rule” the technique is enhanced to the extent that they do not rule the Africans anymore but tamed them as in the same manner they domesticated animals during the Gladiators’ age. By domesticating the Africans to become overly dependence to the Europeans the way it is now, the only thing that is left for the Africans to obtain on their own is the water. Like, their animals, the Africans have to struggle to get the water. Even so, the death rate of ninety percent of those with lack of access to water occurs in Africa. The U.N., an European organization, is already predicting Africans to rely on water supply from somewhere in two decades or so to come. One prominent figure is quoted in a bible saying, “all the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” Well, African rivers are not capable of such mysterious performance anymore.
And speaking of African society, the African Sudanese in particular, only the Arabs and Europeans will be the ones that will understand what is wrong with them. In a place called Western Equatoria, cattle are grazed in farmlands intended for crops for human consumption. In some places, villages made up of bush houses are torched to ground, which will let one to only wonder on why they still build houses with bushes as oppose to concrete if those houses are going to be torched. In places such as Upper Nile and Bher el Ghazel, those are where the misery of human being surpasses its superlative form, meaning the Europeans have to invent a new terminology to describe that human misery. In a place known as Eastern Equatoria, the best and most popular sport is cattle rustling or cattle raiding. In the Greater Equatoria, a mysterious mutilation, killing, raping, looting, and kidnapping is taking place. And those are attributed to a one fellow claiming to be carrying the instructions of God, the God that the European brought to Africa. Darfur is the place where one will go and after seeing a horrific destruction of humanity with one own eyes, then one will have to go evaluation where one will be asked, “have you seen? Where is the evidence of the destruction?” Given the compelling magnitude of the destruction of humanity over there, one will have no evidence of it, because the evidence is beyond the evidence, therefore, you will just let it pass, and that is just a glimpse of life not only in the Sudan but Africa.
The Africans believe that all these things that cause misry to their societies are the curse that the Arabs and the Europeans brought onto them, but had the Africans attain a little bit more education beyond the level they have now, they would have known what were their societies like before the arrival of Arabs and Europeans, which will probably help them in shifting the blame a little bit and be able to deal with their problems from the point of understanding their origins. For example, an educated African will dispute a notion that European discovered Lake Victory because the lake was there before the European came. Perhaps that is true, then could it also be true that all the things that affect Africans today are not the making of European but things that were there before the European came. Yeah, just like they found the lake there, they named it Lake Victoria in the same way when they found those things they named tribalism, corruption, slavery, genocide, ethnicity, etc. Could it be possible that those things were there but the Africans do not know that they are there, but it has to take an Arab or an Europe to tell that those things are there so that they are named. The Africans claim that they own gold and diamond, and they kill each other in mining fields, but yet ending up buying gold and diamond in Arab and European stores. Africans did not even know that there was Lake Victoria, it was until an European came strolling along the Nile and found that lake and told the Africans about it. Otherwise, they did not know it let alone if they even have a name for it. What was those people living along the River Nile thought the water came from?
Can the Africans embark in reeducation that has a prospective of African societies before the coming of Arabs and Europeans? Sad, it is probably going to take another Arab or European to tell the Africans what they were like before, since the Africans have no recollection whatever of those periods. Anyway, what were the African societies like before the colonial era?
...and they told me that my name is Steve Paterno or it could have been Shihab Fateen.
* Steve Paterno is a Sudanese residing in the U.S.A., and he can be reached at stevepaterno@yahoo.com

A Biafran Citizen of The United States of Africa

2006-08-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

I read the first part of your last post (see below)--that's all I had time for.

I happen to agree with it. The way to return to our African Roots is to take the path back to our indigenous ethnic nationalities, and cultures and traditions which the Arabs and Europeans using their culture / traditions and religions, and military, took away from our forefathers. To kick out White and Arab influence (which should be done) and then try to replace it with an abstract called PanAfricanism does not make sense and will never work; it will be no better than what the Europeans and Arabs have done.

Africa does not function on abstractions in ideology and politics. Every African has a home town or home village, even if it is just shifting sands or flooded depression in the Rainy season. It is about "origins": there is no such thing as "African origin" for an African. What there is, is a specific, concrete, palpable and identifiable village or group or structure of origin and of original loyalty, and such happens to be on the continent of Africa.

PanAfricanism does not provide true origin or true identity for the African and will never command loyalty or serious identity. Nor does African "pan-nationalism" the way you indicate. Only people who are well-grounded in their origin can form a viable, sustainable collective with other people or other groups.

So, sum up Africa's problems now as Identity Crisis--not Pan-African identity crisis, but ethnic identity crises. Fix that, and we will be returning to our roots to support whatever giant tree we want to build and share among us.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
A Biafran Citizen

2006-08-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

The United States of Africa!
Kirk Moss mosskirk@hotmail.com

"Africa, Unite 'cause we're moving right out of Babylon,And we're going to our father's land.

How good and how pleasant it would be Before god and man, yeah To see the unification of all Africans, yeah
As it's been said already let it be done,
yeah
We are the children of the Rastaman
We are the children of the Higher man Unite for the benefit of your people Unite for the benefit of your children," --- says the great Bob Marley.

It has been mentioned several times before, and became a heated topic that fueled the Pan-African movement during the 1960's. A time when various African countries were shaking their colonial oppressors off their backs, and becoming independent nations. They were consequently starting from ground zero. But today, the United States of Africa is still a burning issue that is been raised within the context of reparations and repatriation. This cohesiveness is the key to the survival of African Peoples as a Race and an entity of the Human Family. Presently, we are the illegitimate children of the Human planet, who were kidnapped from our homelands, and our continental families have been subdued into impoverishment. This paradigm of the United States of Africa must begin with a rigorous overhaul of our motherland in order to form a solid distinctive cultural foundation. First, Economic Power. With this unity of African States comes the economic Power to fight white supremacy and capitalist conglomerates on a global and local level. It would prevent Africa as a continent, and individual African countries from falling prey to various forms of economic stagnation. In particular, embargoes or trade sanctions initiated by the neo-colonial and imperialist powers of Europe and the Western capitalist societies. This opens the door to a new sense of self-reliance, a fundamental principle that Marcus Garvey, the great Jamaican Pan-Africanist, profoundly expressed. African States would rely on each other, trading within the parameters of the 52 African nations. In terms of natural, agriculture, domestic and manufacturing resources, Africa is the richest continent in almost all of these brackets. There is nothing on this planet that Africa does not produce for other countries profitability, leaving them empty-handed. Less we forget Africa was the first continent to be coerced into the filthy act of human trading. A firm economic foundation would be one of the most important steps towards African Independence and Universal Freedom. No more international unilateral agreements, structural adjustment programs and corporate infiltration or exploitation of African land. Once and for all the WTO and World Bank would have to find a new victim to dehumanize. As dead prez said; "somebody is paying for the way we (black people) have to suffer and slave, assassination." Second, demand reparations and repatriation. For almost seven centuries African Peoples have slaved and continue to be enslaved today by their colonial governors. Black hands built these so-called Western democratic nations, for free, and this pattern of subjection fueled the Industrial Revolution in Europe. But Blacks have never been considered for any form of reparations, even though several other groups have attained such compensation. Having a United States of Africa would uplift the Black diasporic masses to a new level of nobility, and a firm sense of confidence in demanding reparations. Africans would get reparations "by any means necessary" for their countless years of free labor, psychological and physical racism and other forms of ethnocide and genocidal actions. There would be an aggregation of "all African" people's historical and contemporary struggles, which would stimulate their drive for reparations. Various reggae artist like Bob Marley, Sizzla and Capleton (aka the fireman) also chant repatriation songs today. This is a key element that would blend cohesively with the United States of Africa paradigm. As Africa regains it's sense of universal belonging and self-definition, it would become a more pleasant society for all Black people throughout the world to embrace. As Mutabaruka, a famous Jamaican dub poet once stipulated "it no good fi (to) stay inna (in a) white man ('s) country too long." Thus, can your imagine how empowering and delightfully glorious a day it would be when Africa "Unites" and diasporic Africans set sail back to their own motherland. I can!
Rasta Board / Rastafari Speaks
http://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com

2006-08-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

PAAA Note: While we agree, wholeheartedly, with the article below (and many Africans of the Diaspora also agree), the idea of a United Africa has different perspectives on the continent itself. For some in Africa, a United Africa is not inclusive of Africans of the Diaspora as partners in the process. While it wants their resources, talents and financial support, there are no policies in any governments to facilitate the involvement of the Diaspora in the process. African governments are known for their mounds of fabricated red tape that generally help white concerns while hindering Diaspora concerns. Others in Africa who are also not interested in the notion of Diaspora repatriation for numerous political reasons. If Diaspora Africans are granted full dual citizesnship rights two issues may arise. One they can bring in a western classist system that could result in what happened in Liberian history where African American ancestors repatriated and developed a classist system that reflected everything that is wrong with EuroAmerican society in the area of human justice and discrimination. They returned home and discriminated against the ethnic groups that were original to the Liberia region. The other problem in repatriation is that it might attract Diaspora activists who might want to challenge the political status of Africans who now control the politics of various nation-states. Full citizenship rights would allow Diaspora Africans to run for office, shape policy and threaten those Africans who now have poliitical power and who control the economic direction of their nations. In addition to this such repatriation would also threaten the business relationships that so many European firms, banks and other investors have in various nation-states, and some political Africans might be cut off from their under-the-table money, and other advantages they recieve from European and American companies that lobby them on a regular basis. In any case once we move beyod the ideal of repatriation, we have to confront the reality of what it could mean in terms of continental African status quo and the values that the Diaspora might bring into African countries. Asante to Bro. Mark Wood for his continual devotion to the idea of a United Africa.

the "African Confederacy".

2006-08-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

United States of Africa

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
The United States of Africa is a political body located in Africa in the 23rd century. Uhura was born in the United States of Africa in 2239.
Also see: African Confederation
Former Earth Nation-states
African Confederation Australia Belgium Brazil Canada Chile China Cuba Denmark Egypt France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland India Ireland Italy Japan Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Russia Senegal Singapore Soviet Union Spain Switzerland Thailand Tibet United Kingdom United States of Africa United States of America Venezuela
[edit]
Background
Although not canon, the United States of Africa was suggested in the original series' writers' bible as Uhura's birthplace, but has never been confirmed by any on screen reference.
The first edition of the Star Trek Concordance, by Bjo Trimble, suggests that "The Counter-Clock Incident" (TAS) may have at one point referenced the United States of Africa, but the reference was apparently dropped from the final edit.
The writers' bible reference to the United States of Africa would also be picked up on in the first edition of the Star Trek Chronology, by Michael and Denise Okuda.
StarTrek.com, the "official website", has also adopted the United States of Africa as Uhura's place of birth.
It is interesting to note that in the 1977 Writers'/Directors' Guide for Star Trek II - the abortive second series - Uhura was noted as having instead been born in the "African Confederacy".
Retrieved from "http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/United_States_of_Africa"

The number-one mission and ultimate goal for African journalists should be working towards the creation of the United States of Africa

2006-08-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

African radio journalists connect with MN Black pressBy: Swallehe MsuyaMinnesota Spokesman-RecorderOriginally posted 8/23/2006 Unity, autonomy needed for international Black free pressAbout a dozen African radio broadcasters visited Minnesota in July to compare notes with other media practitioners in the United States and found a lot of common ground with their local counterparts. Local radio broadcasters from KMOJ-FM and KFAI-FM as well as editors and publishers of two local African community newspapers, MSHALE and The African News Journal, were involved in the exchange of ideas on their profession.The journalists came under the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVPL) funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The IVPL program in Minnesota is boosted by the Minnesota International Center (MIC), which has been able to bring to Minnesota on average some 300 emerging leaders annually from around the world.Local African journalists based in Minnesota spoke about the need to turn around the negative publicity being drummed by the major global media institutions. They also spoke about the need to help bring better unity among Black people all over the world in the spirit of pan-Africanism.The number-one mission and ultimate goal for African journalists should be working towards the creation of the United States of Africa, many participants agreed. Some affirmed that it was time for Africa to break ties with the product of the 1884 Berlin Conference that partitioned the continent into non-viable states, and that Africans should be able to move freely from Cape Town to Cairo and from Mogadishu to Dakar without visa restrictions.The visiting African journalists were urged by their local media counterparts to sharpen their pens, a tool that is said to be mightier than the sword, and use their profession to help determine a progressive political and economic agenda leading to African unity.Relevant literature was recommended to the journalists that would help them understand their rich heritage and help lay the foundation for rewriting African history from the African viewpoint. These included such titles as How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Dr. Walter Rodney (Howard University Press, 1974), Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World by David Brion Davis (Oxford University Press, 2006), and Capitalist N***er: The Road to Success: A Spider Web Doctrine by Chika Onyeni (Timbuktu Publishers, 2000).At the end of the day, it was generally agreed by the panel that journalists from Africa and in Africa should be bold recorders of the balanced truth — to provide checks and balances — instead of writing on only those subjects that pleased their respective governments.Swallehe Msuya welcomes reader responses to ssmsuya@yahoo.com

United States Must Stay in Africa

2006-08-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

22 August 2006
United States Must Stay in Africa, General Says
Article from American Forces Press Service

Marine Corps' Gen. James L. Jones briefs members of the press at the Pentagon, August 17, 2006. (©AP/WWP)

The following article appeared on the U.S. Department of Defense Web site as a part of AFIS, the American Forces Information Service. There are no publication restrictions.
(begin byliner)
U.S. Cannot Walk Away from Africa, General in Charge of Ops on Continent Says
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2006 -- The United States walks away from Africa at its own peril, the U.S. general in charge of military operations there said in an interview here yesterday.
Marine Gen. James L. Jones, Supreme Allied Commander Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, said Africa is a reality that cannot be denied. The continent is potentially an economic giant, and the United States must engage on the continent.
With the exceptions of Egypt, Sudan, Kenya and the nations of the Horn of Africa, the entire continent is in U.S. European Command’s area of responsibility.
Officials at U.S. European Command spend between 65 and 70 percent of their time on African issues, Jones said. "We have been at work with new friends and allies in the war on terrorism," he said.
Overall, the engagement strategy has been going well in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, the general said. "Obviously, [we’re] very concerned about what is going on in the Gulf of Guinea, and we are setting up our operations so we can have presence with a purpose in the region," he said. "We must help Africans help themselves."
The region is beset with difficulties, Jones said. Piracy and oil blackmail are concerns in the Gulf of Guinea. Tribalism threatens other nations in Sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS is epidemic in many African nations, and illiteracy is a curse across all nations there.
Africa also has a fault line between Islam and other religions.
Engagement on the continent takes many forms. "As we speak, we have a ship, the USNS Apache, in Freetown, Liberia, to clear the port," Jones said. "There are a lot of sunken ships in the port, and it’s a key to their economy."
In other nations, the command is helping where it can with small focus Special Forces training missions. The command sponsors medical and veterinary visits and staff exercises with militaries of the region. "Consistent engagement in Africa is key to containing or preventing future conflicts," Jones said.
Africa is replete with struggling democracies. "If you really look at what is happening in Africa, there are more countries moving towards democracy than moving away," Jones said. "But the battle is on as to which way they will go."
The United States and its allies must help bring economic change in Africa to bring hope to millions of people. If not, those people could be "sucked up in the recruiting of the Islamic jihadists," Jones said.
Extremists prey on people with no hope. "It’s not difficult for a jihadist with money to get someone to join them," Jones said. "The good news is we can still affect which way Africa goes."
Joint Task Force Horn of Africa is a great success story and something that could be emulated in other areas of the continent, Jones said. He suggested that a similar group working along the west coast of the continent could help bring stability to the region. "We could help considerably with presence and with helping these struggling countries that don’t know what’s going on inside their own borders," Jones said.
Establishing such a group could also send a message to U.S. companies "that investing in many parts of Africa is a good idea," the general said.
The United States has the opportunity to do the right thing in Africa, Jones said. "It’s an exciting part of the world," he said. "We cannot walk away from Africa for a whole lot of reasons, including moral reasons. It’s an area where we can highlight all of the good things that the United States stands for."
(end byliner)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

2006-08-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

To be prosperous in whatever we do is the sign of TRUE WEALTH. We may be wealthy in not only having money, but in spirit and health. It is the most helpful agency toward a self satisfying life. One lives, in an age like this, nearer perfection by being wealthy than by being poor. To the contended soul, wealth is the stepping stone to perfection; to the miser it is the nearest avenue to hell. I would prefer to be honestly wealthy, than miserably poor. - Marcus Mosiah Garvey

PAAA Note: First of all WE are ALL Africans. Therefore we, as Africans, need to stop this separation from each other because we think some kind of geographical location has changed our DNA. Science now makes it possible for most, if not ALL, Africans of the Diaspora, to determine which ethnic groups they derived from on the continent in the first place. Therefore the idea that has been floated around to Africans of the Diaspora that we cannot determine which group we come from no longer holds water. However Bro. Oguchi is correct about the Diaspora's understanding of current issues pertaining to African politics and social conditions. We do not know and how would we unless individuals like him share information that is normally filtered out of our knowledge base. For those of us who are long time Pan-Africanists who have traveled to the continent and who have lived on the continent, we know that African nation-states censure information to favor whichever ethnic group holds power in the the government. Those of us who are long time poltiical Pan-Africanists are very much aware of these issues but many Africans of the Diaspora, who have no knowledge of the poltiical and social issues raging on the continent have good intentions for Africa without a pragmatic understanding of the politics of Africa. That is why the PAAA stands for grassroots African people while watching what the people have to actually say about their governments on the ground. Just because Nkrumah and Azikiwe harped on Pan-Africanism does not make Pan-Africanism no less important that white men who harp on democracy. There is nothing wrong with the ideal. It is the character defects of men that we must guard against in pursuing the goal. However we in the Diaspora cannot be held accountable for what we do not know until those of the continent teach us differently. Pan-Africanism was in existence before Nkrumah or Azikiwe were born. It predates them however both have shared significant thoughts on how to go about building it. Therefore Bro. Oguchi renders us a great service by sharing his critical views so that we pursue the ideal of Pan-Africanism, understanding all of the warts, sores, wounds that have emerged due to our blundering and naive approaches to helping it evolve. Another thing for our brothers and sisters to understand is that we are all media blind. Unless you share speeches of leaders on the continent, chances are we never read them or hear them. And the same goes in reverse. Most continental Africans never read or hear the speeches of African American leaders in this country. Therefore we are mutually blind, making mutually ignorant statements that piss each side off all of the time. Bro. Oguchi brings up issues that serious Pan-Africanists cannot avoid. He points out once again that we need to move beyond a cheerleading stage to holding everyone with power on the continent accountable for all of their actions all of the time based on a standard that demands justice for African people whether the perpetrator is of European descent or African descent. Pan-Africanism is not about and has never been about politicians. It is only about what results in the people having better lives because they say their lives are better and not because some official government report says their lives are better. We salute Bro. Oguchi because we understand, in reverse, what it is like when continental African brothers and sisters talk about how great we have it in America while they know nothing of U.S. prison systems, horrendous public schools and second class healthcare systems that ALL just happen to victimize African Americans more than any other populations in the U.S. When those of us in the U.S. open our mouths about Africa there should be less propaganda and more researched truth. And when those of us in Africa open our mouths about Africans in the U.S. there should also be less propaganda and more researched truth. Perhaps when we both do this, we can get to the real ideal of Pan-Africanism that existed before the new African nation-states had emerged from the insanity of the Berlin Conference of 1884.

Original Message -----

2006-08-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

Bro Mark

I just want to add my voice to yours for the united states of Africa.Its high time all progressive forces in Africa and abroad should call for this long overdue unity.Kwame Nkrumah proposed a blueprint about unity,taxes,one currency,one army and it was plagiarised by Europe and they formed what is known today as the sEuropean Union.It is Kwame Nkrumah who first mooted that idea.All the problems faced by Africa are because of disunity.International capital is thriving on this and there is an agenda which wants us to disunite us further.Imperialism is selling weapons to tribal warlords to make szure that tribalim and ethnical differences are mainstay in Africa.The forces that are trying to unite us are mightier than the ones which wants to unite us.We need to come together as one for our posperity.

I salute you for all you are doing to achieve African Unity

Yours for one united socialist Africa

Bro Kwanisai Mafa
www.ujammafarming.org

United States of Africa?

2006-08-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

By Barnaby Phillips in Lome
One of the most important subjects on the agenda at summit in Togo is the proposal to form an African Union - a pan-African body with strong political and economic ties intended to eventually take the place of the current Organisation of African Unity.
Colonel Gaddafi dreams of African unityAfrican leaders fear their continent is becoming increasingly powerless in a tough global economic environment.
Many believe that unless Africa can talk and act with greater cohesion, it will continue to be virtually ignored by the richer countries.
Beyond this general consensus, which is shared by all the 30 or so heads of state in Lome, there are considerable differences about what is the best way to proceed.

Gaddafi for union

At one end of the spectrum is Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who has grabbed much of the attention here.

Togo's President Eyadema supports the idea publiclyColonel Gaddafi raised the idea of an African Union, loosely modelled on its European counterpart, at an extraordinary summit in Libya last year.

His ambition is that the union should come into existence, in some form, in 2001.
Colonel Gaddafi can count on support for this idea from several small countries in Africa, like Burkina Faso and Togo, who have benefited from his financial largesse.
Regional groupings
But some of the more powerful African countries are wary of losing their own regional influence and concerned at any initiative that would weaken their sovereignty or ability to act independently.
Nigeria, for example, enjoys its role as the dominant force in the existing West African grouping, the Economic Community of West Afrian States, Ecowas.
But President Obasanjo of Nigeria does notIn recent years Ecowas has made significant progress in easing travel restrictions in West Africa, and has started the process of establishing a single West African currency.
In southern Africa, South Africa enjoys a similarly important role in SADC, the Southern African Development Community.
Although SADC's effectiveness has been diminished in recent years, in part because of political differences between South Africa and Zimbabwe, many southern Africans would prefer to work towards regional integration first, before looking at pan-African unity.
Likewise in East Africa, where Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have been working to revive the old East African Community, which collapsed in the mid-1970s because of political and ideological differences.
There are about 50 African states, and they trade far more with the rest of the world than they do with each other.

Despite Colonel Gaddafi's plans, its hard to see how an African Union will mean much in practical terms, at least in the short term.

But it is possible that new pan-African institutions, such as a parliament and a court of law, will come into existence in the next few years - possibly providing a basis for a more united Africa in the future.

1st ANNUAL AFRICA UNITE NOW FESTIVAL-September 2006

2006-08-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Mark,
I was going to give you update this weekend. Thanks for your update. I have been busy with the micro loans project so was unable to get festival operations going. We will start now for it to take place next year 2007 which will be the 50th Anniversary of Ghana independence from British Colonialism.
It would be the best way to outflank all the agents of Neocolonialism in Ghana and Africa.
We decided that we are going to celebrate that Dr. kwame Nkrumah's birthday in Oakland and the event will take place on September 30, 2006 at Cafe Axe Cultural Center in, 1525 Webster Street downtown Oakland.
From 8pm-2am. We will like you to attend and we are thinking of inviting Adewole John from London to attend. It was a short notice decision. Please check http://www.coaforum.comn/ get a report of grants for micro loans. Just sent more money to Senegal for new micro loan startups.
Will call later.
Yaya Fanusie-COA

2006-08-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Elder Bro. Kofi,

I am glad that you have broughyt all of this up because it is a dialogue that needs to opened in a honest way. I beg to disagree with you that we have no leaders. To only mention the NAACP and the Urban league discounts other existing Nationalists and Pan-Africanists organizations that have existed in this country for many years. However even the behavior of Africanists has implied that such organizations were not legitimate organizations for Africa to be involved with and implies that organizational legitimacy resides in having acquired a legal non-profit status alone. This thinking, in and of itself, reminds us that to think in terms of these concepts only weakens our ability to see beyond our social and cultural cages. While I do not necessarily endorse the following organizations, they do exist and are legitimate enough in their own right to enter into dialogue with African heads-of-state and other African government officials who come to the U.S.: The Nation of Islam, The US Organization, NCOBRA, UNIA &ACL, The PAAA, Harambee Radio, LIBRadio, The Black Think Tank, Third World Press, African World Press, The National Black United Front, The Association for African Civilizathe Study of tions, The AAPRP, The Organization of Afro-American Unity, The African Independent Schools, etc.

These are only a few that come to mind. They represent aspects of the African presence in America that have shown some kind of loyalty to Africa that deserves recognition and communications from continental African leadership. However this kind of leadership is generally ignored by continental Africans who put more faith in the U.S. Constitution than they do the miracle of organizations that have resisted oppression in the U.S. and who have upheld the belief in a unified and strong Africa in some shape, form or fashion. Some of these organizations have been visiting Africa for many years now and still everyone claims that no one knows about any of them in Africa. I find that hard to believe to say the least. The problem with continental African thinking is that it continues to use the standards of white supremacy to determine what constitutes legitimacy in organization. Legitimacy of anything is only determined by people who recognize its legitimacy and not by the government rules of is oppressor.

Today the problem with continental Africans is that they base their legitimacy on the rules handed over to them by the ex-colonial rulers. Therefore this rationale that continental Africans only see us as Americans is just as sad as Europeans only seeing us as a slave commodity. The injustice done the diaspora rest with the continent and the white male who still continue to disown us outside of what we provide materialistically to their advantages. LA RAZA only speaks for some Mexican people in the U.S.. It does not speak for nor represent Cubans, Salvadorians, Peruvians, Venezualans, Puero Ricans, etc. La Raza is simply another kind of NAACP. If it was doing an effective job for Mexican people there would not be an immigration issue today.

While I believe some of your points to be somewhat weak, I do believe that your fundamental idea is sound about organization, yet if this process is to become a lobbying process to entice continental Africans to embrace us and see our connection to them, then we are in deep trouble globally and Africa will never be indpendent of its current enslavement to white male supremacy which too many educated continental Africans are in denial about. Neo-colonialism still rules Africa because current African leadership has been educated in western universities to uphold western neo-colonial power in Africa. The problem with too many African heads-of-state and other government officials is that they are elitists and have come from traditions of elitism provided in some ethnic traditions and many colonial systems. That white male elitism has told them that they are different from Africans in the U.S. and that because they are legitimate holders of nation-state power does not require them to see African Americans who are not of this elite status. In reality they are only legitimate heads of nation-states because the white male determines that it is easier to manipulate the poverty of their governments rather use the hand of military imperialism.

What I say is not a reflection of grassroots continental African people but of those who have been seduced by white male parties, white hous appearances, gifts, etc. When African states were emerging from colonialism, they were led, in most cases, by revolutionary leaders who were not caught up in such elitist attitudes. Those revolutionary leaders were eventually removed by white male interests in conjunction with individual African self-interests parading as more sober minded thinkers. Today Africa has inherited a neo-colonialist leadership that is in need of another continental wide revolution of Global Black Nationalism and Pan-African oriented political ideology. If we have to appeal to current heads-of-state, who can always remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X while forgetting everyone else, then we must confront them as we did apartheid. Because now they represent a different kind of apartheid that is rooted in classism and elitism taught to them and promoted to them by those who have enslaved us and exploited us to no end.

I love the grassroots people of Africa. I do not have a great deal of respect for those who rule African nation-states. Pehaps working with SADA, we can eradicate my current feelings however my observations have come over a period of years, not days. Our organization is open to working with SADA to the degree that we can speak truth from our perspective, understanding that we have no intention of wining and dining those who would prefer to see us as American in order to protect their financial assistance from the U.S. government. However for the record, we have Nationalists and Pan-Africanists community leadership throughout this nation that African leaders should be speaking to every time they come to the U.S.. If they are so ignorant of such organizations, then we need forumlate a list of them that exist in each city in the U.S. and provide the ambassodor of each nation with a list that is hand carried and placed in his hand while another copy is turned over to the president, prime mininster or leader for life of each African nation. It is a simple task that can be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. Once they have this list and continue the same behaviors, we can then confirm that they are neo-colonialist slaves which will then allow us to devise the next step in how to connect with the grassroots of Africa while avoiding them in the first place. Perhaps when that it recognized we can then begin to build an Africa that our children can look forward to here and there.

Yours in African Ascendancy,
Bro. Baye
----- Original Message -----
Subject: MY COMMENTS ON WHAT YOU WROTE
From: Mark Wood

Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 9:39 PMSubject: Fw: Africa without African AmericansPAN-AFRICAN ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA FORWARDPAAA Note: Asante to Bro. Mark Wood for this information. At some point we hope this reaches African heads-of-state and their various government officials who come to the U.S. on a yearly basis to meet with white society while never networking with local African American communities and leaders at any significant level. Until these individuals begin to understand that they are morally required to meet African American communities and community leaders, nothing much will change. How many times do African government officials come to various urban areas to study white governing structures while never contacting local African American leadership for any kind of intimate sit-downs?This is my first comment on the above statement. What you have presented above is so important in our relationships with African and African leaders that I have taken this time to comment on it because we have assumed so much on the issue of African and its descendants. I will comment on brother Ezrah Aharone statement as a continuation of this presentation. PAN-AFRICAN ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA FORWARDPAAA STATEMENT: Note: Asante to Bro. Mark Wood for this information: SADA COMMENT: Brother Wood has in the past presented some critical information that let me believe that he was about action, all my efforts to reach him by phone was in vain. Is he an agent of the system to divert our attention to trivialities as it was done during the black power movements in the 1960s? Is he serious? Why will a brother; black or white be so concerned on Africa, yet he refuses to respond to inquiries that will enable us to help ourselves. Note that there are people in USA who believe that blacks only means danger to whites. This is nonsense. Blacks are down. Africans are down all over the world and we need help from all colors of God's children; blacks, reds, yellows and whites. The information normally presented by brother Wood are so important that I felt he is a genius to do what he has done. I really admire him and I pray he will be with us to eternity. Such men and women blacks as well as whites are the materials for doing something good for society. I really appreciate brother Wood and the way his mind works for Africa and on Africa. We have too much written critical information on our plight; documented by men and women blacks as well as white, men like brother Wood.. What we need are men and women blacks or whites who are willing to take the necessary step to form an organized social membership organization for Africans in USA to be able to pass on information from generation to generation. This is what makes the Western civilization unique. Those who are not willing to organize a 501(C)(3) paid membership corporation in conformity with our laws are just wasting time. One time I talked to Justice Marshall what was his legacy that he was leaving for us. He responded that he failed us because, the civil rights and integration movements which he championed in the courts: Brown v. Board of Education; were defeated by the Republican Contract With America. His legendry records in USA legal history can only be understood by future Americans. Justice Marshall is a giant in social engineering. He was one of the best legal minds our nation has produced. May he rest in perpetual peace. I asked him why he did not form a social institution to implement his concepts. He said the Negroes were not ready for social institution. If we are not ready in 1980s when are we going to be ready? Never!!!!If you consider the fact that B' Nai Brith for the Jews was formed in 1843 and LARAZA for the Latinos was formed in 1980, to function like SADA formed in 1970 for Africans, then we are just non caring, insensitive to our history if in the 21st Century we are incapable of organize a social organization under freedom of association and free speech of the USA Constitution to help our people. I do not believe that the 40 million Africans in American cannot form an institution to pass on information to our posterity. Let us try. Visit us at sada-13.orgPAA STATEMENT: At some point we hope this reaches African heads-of-state and their various government officials who come to the U.S. on a yearly basis.SADA COMMENT: This statement is the crux of the whole matter of Africa without African Americans. The heads of states in Africa have no concept of African Americans. At best they see Africans in America as Americans. We have to make them realize that there are African descendants in USA who are willing to welcome them when they are here in USA. We have to make the necessary arrangements to reach them or they have no idea what to do with us in USA. Take the Jews, before a minister come to USA, the B' Nai Brith had already announce in the radio and TVs that they are going to meet him. They also make dinners, dances, shows with personalities from Israel. B' Nai Brith has a 12 story building at 17 Street and Rhode Island Avenue N.W. Washington, DC where Jewish man and women work 24-seven- 365 days in the year. If we are not willing to institutionalized our efforts so that we can call upon the African governments then we are wasting our time and our children will not be better off than we are. PAA STATEMENT: to meet with white society while never networking with local African American communities and leaders at any significant level. SADA COMMENT: You will not believe that there are no leaders in African communities. Name some of our leaders? The Black Congressional members are not our leaders. They are about their local constituencies. They have no time messing with African presidents who come here. There is not a single institution in our community that is geared to building relationships with Africa. Not Africare. Please disabuse your mind thinking we have leaders who will take our cause in pursuit of our welfare. The African presidents, ministers and public officials come here on the invitation of the State Department or one of the World Institutions; world bank or International monetary systems or the United Nations. They come with a visa for a particular purpose. They come here with an agenda. We can invite them here from Africa but who are we. As disorganized slaves we have been rendered to think in individualities to the neglect of ourselves as a group of people. Each for him/herself and God for us all. Our social history is replete that we act in an unplanned and uncoordinated ways. We rush to do things like children. Note that USA is an organized society for group interest and Africans in America have no group interest in USA because we have no organized social unit except thru the churches and the mosques. Most of us just live here and die lamenting on what had happened to us without doing anything about it..PAA STATEMENT: Until these individuals begin to understand that they are morally required to meet African American communities and community leaders, nothing much will change. SADA COMMENT: Which individuals? The head of states? You are kidding me. The Negroes from Africa have no intention of reaching African Americans. They are about the game of getting foreign aids for their countries. They will never, ever call on Africans in America until we make efforts to reach them. They consider African Americans as Americans, not Africans. They are interested to some extent in us, but by international laws they cannot come to us simply because we are descendants of Africa. No. We have to make efforts to reach them and they may reciprocate if they have any common sense in them. Most of them are here for money and if you cannot give them money, you are out.PAA STATEMENT: How many times do African government officials come to various urban areas to study white governing structures while never contacting local African American leadership for any kind of intimate sit-downs?SADA COMMENT: You have assumed too much. Your understanding of the International relations among the states is limited. These officials come here as I said before on a visa to do specific thing with the various branches of our governments and sometimes with the private companies. There is very little information on African Americans that will enable them to reach us. But even if they want t reach us, where should they go? Where in USA are the Africans organized. We are like no man's land. We only belong to USA and not to ourselves or to each other. We think we are organized, but that is not so. NAACP is not for us, the Urban League is not for us in the sense that they do not represent our interest. You cannot call any number in USA if you are in trouble and ask for help. Think of what I have just said. Where in the US can you call for information on Africa? Even the newly arrivals, the Latinos have a place you can call. They have a national organization the LARAZA, which organized the massive demonstration in Los Angeles. In DC, LARAZA has offices, several of them. I guess they have offices all over the USA. They also have free publication that you can pick them up anywhere in DC. The Jews also have a publication. I am calling upon you to be serious. As a 67-year-old man, it is a shame to me to see that after 400 years of our presence in USA, nobody has made his life to set us a social membership organization to help our people. No, not even W.E.B. Dubois!! ; And we have men and women; teachers, professors, lawyers, preachers and others like Jonnie Corcoran, who knew what to do but they did not do what we need because to them it does not pay to do what others do to help their people. We have been turned into social utilities and consumers. We must wake up !From: Mark Wood To: dbkichwa2@cox.net Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 9:39 PMSubject: Fw: Africa without African AmericansAfrica without African AmericansBy Ezrah Aharone There's an upsurge of high-level Asian activities in Africa that Africans in America should note. Most recently President Hu Jintao of China visited Nigeria in late April to sign a $4 billion deal to develop oilfields and infrastructure. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi brought an astonishing 121-member delegation of political and business leaders to Ghana on a 3-day visit in early May. A South Korean delegation then arrived in Ghana shortly afterwards to solidify a multimillion dollar infrastructure contract. Why is this relevant? Well, as so-called "African Americans," why aren't we heavily involved in African affairs? What do Asian leaders know about Africa that Black leaders don't know? These questions resonate being that Africa is nowhere incorporated within the Covenant with Black America blueprint. Yes, being besieged with poverty and destabilization, on the surface Africa certainly seems more like a calamity than a remedy. But such thinking overlooks Africa's strategic importance to Western expansion and the fact that we are native to the resource-richest continent on earth, of which all industrialized nations are partially dependant. There is no other historical instance of a formerly enslaved people who valued integration with their former captors to the point where they completely abandon the superior wealth of their own homeland. If Euro-Americans were native to Africa instead of Europe, you can bet that Africa would be "fully developed" today. And there's no way they'd neglect Africa and all its richness just to integrate with us. It's therefore altogether backwards to prioritize our attachment to Euro-Americans above rapprochement with Africa. The disconnect of Black America's human and economic resources from Africa's human and natural resources, contributes to the poverty and powerlessness of us both. Meanwhile, Europeans (and now Asians) entrench themselves deeper and cling to Africa for dear life because their economic and military might cannot otherwise be sustained without Africa's strategic resources. Instead of being spectators as foreign governments and multinationals heist daily tons of resources from our homeland, we should be integral to the production, management, processing, and international distribution of African resources. This is easier said than done since Western "brands of democracy" operate in concert to forestall such arrangements … Colonialism was the graduated continuation of slavery. Colonialism thrived by virtue of slavery's success. Together they comprised a singular force to fuel the dual process of European development and African demise. The interrelation and long-term impact of these "bookend institutions" explain why Europeans reign spaciously atop the present world order, while Africans are scrunched down at the bottom fighting for survival. It's urgent and imperative therefore that all leaders of African descent understand the "geo-strategic economics" of how the world was fashioned into this current state. Otherwise they are, by default, perpetuating a world system rooted in unresolvable inequities. To maintain the current "balance of power," the U.S. government has historically sought to minimize Black America's interactions and impact in Africa. To make sense of this, you must understand that the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements ran concurrent with African Independence Movements. Since resistance to Western injustices was the common denominator to these movements, the U.S. government regarded Black activism in America and the revolutions in Africa as fractional particles of the same struggle - differing only in location and _expression. America guarded against the fractions from operating in parallel, so that no rubbed-off African influences would possibly (God forbid) augment the "Civil Rights Movement" into a "Sovereign Rights Movement." America did experience uncertain moments in 1957 when both Dr. King and Malcolm X attended Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's inauguration in Ghana. It was a frightening omen to see two of the most visionary Black men in America interfacing ideals with the president of the first African nation to seize independence. This unprecedented meeting-of-the-minds between the "formerly enslaved" and "formerly colonized" should have opened a new advent in "world history." But here we are nearly 50 years later, still (psychologically and economically) detached from Africa and still preoccupied with notions of equality, while Asians now prosper from our homeland's wealth.With or without the Covenant, we must fast awaken to the "geo-strategic economics" of this world, or we risk self-induced political extinction. Regardless of how many non-Africans invest in Africa or how far Black America assimilates into Americanization, we'll still face joint-related issues with Africa that require joint-related solutions. The Government of Ghana realizes this fact, and as part of its 50th independence anniversary in 2007, Ghana is subsequently launching the "Joseph Project" (recognizing the Biblical Joseph who triumphed after being enslaved and reunited with his brothers). Among other things, this historic and multifaceted initiative aims to reconcile Diaspora relations and generate wealth for ourselves. Although the unknown and uncharted course of African relations is not a cure-all, the known and well charted course of Americanization is not a cure-all either. Certainly our collective long-term interests as African people would be advanced if we mended both history and relations. Based on the singularity and common origin of our struggles, our interdependency for parallel movements will not vanish with time. Undoubtedly, a nucleus of us will reestablish a significant presence in Africa and ensure that unlike 20th century-Africa, 21st century-Africa will not be an "Africa without so-called African Americans." ~~~~~~~~~~Copyright © 2006 Ezrah AharoneEzrah Aharone is a Scholar of Sovereign Studies and the author of "Pawned Sovereignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War and Reparations" http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/18126. He can be reached at EzrahAharone@juno.com .

Subject: Fw: The ongoing dialogue between Bro. Mark and Bro.Oguchi

2006-08-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Original Message -----
From: http://mail01.mail.com/scripts/mail/compose.mail?compose=1&.ob=766f6de93edf789504ca1b5d8f2d54eec4fae637&composeto=dbkichwa2@cox.net&composecc=&subject=&body=
To: PAAA Network
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 4:45 PM

Subject: The ongoing dialogue between Bro. Mark and Bro.Oguchi
PAN-AFRICAN ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA FORWARD
PAAA Note: In so many cases, over the past two centuries, African minds have debated the issue of African freedom since enslavement and colonialism. It has pitted African against African, not because they disagreed on the end product but because they disagreed on the methodology. We have gone to war with each other over methodology which has usually ended in bitterness and ranquor that was unnecessary. What we know for a fact is that none of what we discuss will take place in a social vaccuum. Globalization is taking place and will continue to take place whether we attempt to unify Africa within the nation-state concept or push for a kind continental anarchy in which each ethnic groups chooses its own relationships on its own terms. White male advocates of neo-liberalism or neo-conservatism are not going to stop whether Africa moves towards a unification that dissolves currents borders as Bro. Mark envisions it or as Bro. Oguchi would prefer that everything be thrown out so that we can start over again in pursuit of the ideal liberty and freedom. Within the context of white supremacy either idea serves as a threat to white supremacy moreso than the debate of religious issues. In both cases white supremacy is the grand manipulator and it will test all ideas as they pertain to its ability to ensure its economic. political and miltiary power in the world. In the end anything that currently takes place in Africa is always affected by the interests of white males and any debate on unification or anarachist orientation cannot avoid the gorrilla in the middle of the room. White males will monitor all work towards African unification to determine the affect it will have on free market trade and western physical security. Even if we are able to return to each ethnic group to its own internal power, white males will continue to monitor this internal power and ensure that conflicts between them are available to keep them from building any kind of internal policies that are not pro-western in nature. So what are African people left to do? If we do nothing we are guaranteed economic slavery in the 21st century. If we do anything, we know that it will be resisted if it appears to threaten the values of white male power in the world. One thing is for certain, we, as African people, whether on the continent or in the Diaspora, face the same issue of white supremacy and whatever we do, we need to understand that we will do it together or we suffer together. Bro. Mark approaches his ideals from his historical experience and Bro. Oguchi approaches his ideals from his historical experience. Neither experience invalidates the other. Both are interested in the welfare of African people, and regardless of how heated their discussion become, both must acknowledge this interest. In the end what we do in terms of practical organzing will affect the process. Therefore whenever we have an idea that we are passionate about, we are required to put forth a plan of action. Unless ethnic groups in Africa can protect themselves from the cultural, material and value systems of the west, this notion of them following their own individual interests is a pipe dream. Their children will follow MTV, Hollywood and Stanford University. A United States of Africa that does no generate a natural African way of poltiical organization, will also only end in western domination as it adheres to globalization policies that will keep it dependent on the IMF, World Bank and G8 policies of assistance. Bro. Mark and Bro. Oguchi need each other and regardless of how futile the exercise may seem to be It is only when the two stop talking that White surpremacy has won.

a United Africa

2006-08-19T02:47:00.000-07:00

I am one of those who think that Africans must be respected in the first place.

All my school years I have read extensively about the history of Africa beforecoming to Canada. Now I am a graduate with a Master of education degree ofwhich I would like to teach history and politics where ever I go.One way ofdoing things could be through educating the people about the significance ofthe respect that human beings deserve (including Africans). We are trying toestablish a Pan-Africanist University in South Sudan,but we are beingconstained by lack of funds.However, we are hopeful that one day it will bedone.Please let me know if there will be such a help in the United States ofAmerica. We are looking for friends all over the world. Additionally, I wouldlike to join the Pan-Africanist movement and if you could, keep me intouch.Thank you.Dominic

George Tuto"

2006-08-19T02:44:00.000-07:00

from: george
To. Mark wood

thank you very much for your information, and let me tell you about Africa; will not be good place unless African 's fight for poverty first, not fighting each other, but fighting for economy this will will let Africa building strong united of Africa, and the bigest porblem also of today is about black Africans Muslims leaders they did not understsnd between State and Reginous issue. thank you

2006-08-19T02:31:00.000-07:00

To: mark wood CC: Subject: YES SIR!!Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 13:48:27 -0400

I saw your sight good Brother, and can appreciate your efforts. I am sure that can we work together to bring the Honorable Marcus Garvey’s dream of a United States of Africa to fruition. Please keep in touch; if you are even in Philly please give me a ring!-Umar Abdullah-Johnson, PresidentIMIPAP(215) 989-9858

To Integrate into a United States of Africa

2006-08-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

More information about the African Women and Youth Conference in Dakar, Senegal March 10-11, 2007

We are delighted to hear that you and your organization are interested in the African Women and Youth conference in Dakar, Senegal on March 10-11, 2007. This will be our 12th conference and our first one in Africa. We have had an awesome response from organizations from all over Africa and we all seem to have the same problem of lack of resources to get to the conference. We are also a grassroots African organization and we do not have any money. The reason we have been able to do these conferences is because everyone that participates volunteers their labor and it is our labor that allows us to do the conferences. If we were depending on money we would not have been able to do any of the conferences that have been done. The theme of this conference is the importance of self-reliance and if Africa is going to be self-reliant then it is our hard work and determination that we must depend on to get everything done. We would love to have at least one representative from each African country to participate in the conference so if we do not have enough resources for everyone who wants to come, we ask that in each country you pick one person to represent you and everyone help that person to get to the conference. We believe this is the best way to proceed. Registration is at the door and the conference is free. We are calling for African Women and Youth conferences to be organized everywhere. We are not rich people so we must think in terms of how we can use our labor and determination to organize these conferences where we live and not let money be the reason that we do not organize these conferences and build African Women and Youth Movements. This is the only way that we are going to liberate and unify Africa.

With an undying love for mother Africa,

Rwanda Saleem
African Women's Charity Organization

African Women's Charity Organization
P.O. Box 23074 Oakland, CA 94623-0074

Re: The concept of a United States of Africa

2006-08-19T01:13:00.000-07:00

Trade between Africa and China

2006-08-19T00:04:00.000-07:00

FYI -- forwarded by ASC director Al Roberts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/africa/18letter.html?ref=world

New York TimesAugust 18, 2006

Letter From Africa
Chinese Take a Turn at Turning a Sub-Saharan Profit
By LYDIA POLGREENDAKAR,

Senegal, Aug. 17 — The Boulevard du Centenaire was once the preferred address of a certain class of this city’s Paris-educated elite — the career civil servants, university administrators and other upper-level functionaries of the vast state bureaucracy. These days the street, one of the loveliest in this seaside capital, is more likely to be home to Chinese merchants who sell shoes, electronics, plastic jewelry and toys from storefronts built into Centenaire’s grand old villas.China, it seems, is suddenly everywhere in Africa, not just in oil-rich states.

Trade between Africa and China has almost quadrupled since 2001, and last year reached almost $40 billion.China is hardly the first nation to seek its fortune in Africa. First the Arabs and then the Europeans built empires on African riches and sweat, followed by the cold warriors, fighting proxy ideological battles for influence and profit.

Through all the iterations of the world’s engagement with Africa, most of its nations have remained stuck in an economic trap in which they primarily supply valuable raw materials to the developed world while serving as a marketplace for cheap manufactured goods.

But China seems to be offering Africa something new, a straightforward business relationship between equals based on mutual interest and noninterference in the internal affairs of its allies. Or as the economist Jeffrey Sachs put it at a conference in Beijing this week, “China gives fewer lectures and more practical help.” But is China’s interest in Africa truly different from that of the earlier powers? Or is Beijing, as some are beginning to say, peddling the same exploitative formula in an attractive dressing of third world solidarity? Certainly, China sees itself as offering something superior to the standard Western prescription.

“Now African countries have more choices,” said Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to Senegal. “They have the panaceas of the World Bank and the I.M.F., and at the same time the experience of China. They can compare and choose the best.” China’s recent history presents seductive possibilities for sub-Saharan Africa. In the past two decades, China has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty and transformed itself from an agrarian backwater into the world’s fastest-growing economy. Its presence is certainly greatest in the resource-rich countries like Nigeria, Angola and Sudan (where its role has been criticized as contributing to the crisis in Darfur). But China’s growing presence is also manifest in less obvious spots. In Sierra Leone, Chinese companies have built and renovated hotels and restaurants.

In Mozambique, Chinese companies are investing in soybean processing and prawn production. At the African Union summit meeting in Banjul, Gambia, last month, the Chinese delegation dwarfed the ones sent by France, Britain and the United States. Here in Senegal, a country whose economy was long dominated by peanut farming, Chinese construction companies are working on roads, bridges, waterworks and other projects. Small-scale Chinese enterprises have sprung up, importing inexpensive manufactured goods, and running restaurants and Chinese medical clinics. But the economic history of African nations is a cautionary tale of exploitation and failed schemes to transform the continent’s rich endowment of resources into wealth for its people — even in the decades after the depredations of the colonial and imperialist eras.In the post-independence era, the fad was state control aimed at rapid industrialization, an expensive and generally badly managed experiment in most countries. In the post-Soviet world, many adopted the “Washington consensus,” of open markets, macroeconomic stability, loosened state controls and more transparent government.

Whether these prescriptions have helped African economies, or been carried out to a sufficient extent, is a subject of much debate. Some countries have doubled growth rates and most have inflation under control. But many Africans say economic reform has yet to improve their lives and have grown disenchanted with the West.“The West has closed its doors to us,” said Amadou Niang, a Senegalese forestry expert working in Mali on a United Nations development project. “Even if we follow their plans, at the end of the day their interests are more important.” In addition, he said, Chinese technology and expertise are more relevant and affordable, and Chinese cultural values are closer to Africa’s.Moussa Lamine Sane, a Senegalese executive at Henan Chine, a Chinese construction company in Dakar, said the West was too paternal in its approach. “Senegal is in a position where it is not necessarily in need of a tutor, but it is in need of friends,” Mr. Sane said. “It is no longer a question of colonizer and colonized. It is an exchange.” But it may be too soon to say that China will be different.

A study published this year concluded that China’s main interest in Africa so far has been raw materials. “China has predominantly imported a limited number of products — mostly oil and hard commodities,” the report said. In return, it said, China mainly exports manufactured goods. In other words, China has done pretty much what the rest of the world has done in Africa, but without the moralizing about good government and fighting corruption.Indeed, the Chinese model could prove deceptive and destructive. “I think the strongest argument you can make for China’s growth is that you had some very capable people in charge of making economic decisions who were given a mandate insulated from political thinking,” said Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, which studies aid and growth.

“But in Africa, there is no place where economic thinking is insulated from political thinking.” But whatever role China ultimately plays, perhaps the most important element it introduces is competition. The West has for too long relied on one set of ideas aimed at fixing Africa’s problems, said Duncan Green, head of research at the British aid organization Oxfam.

“For Africans it is quite a welcome change from the approach they get from Western governments that manages to be both patronizing and demeaning at the same time,” Mr. Green said. “I think we underestimate the importance of having an alternative to a single path.”Elizabeth Dickinson contributed reporting for this article.___________
An artcile that may also be of interest:India to put $1bn in African oil

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4791381.stm

India plans to invest $1bn (£528m) into develop oil and mining projects in Africa's Ivory Coast over the next five years, an Indian ambassador said. The country hopes to tap into the region's vast oil wealth by accessing the Gulf of Guinea's shoreline. ________________________

Information forwarded by the UCLA African Studies Center - www.international.ucla.edu/africa

re: United States to Establish Mission to African Union

2006-08-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

From: http://mail01.mail.com/scripts/mail/compose.mail?compose=1&.ob=0e48a0cde0723e30810d768c1cc6fda4f0f5c6dd&composeto=KAfrica33@aol.com&composecc=&subject=&body=
To: http://mail01.mail.com/scripts/mail/compose.mail?compose=1&.ob=0e48a0cde0723e30810d768c1cc6fda4f0f5c6dd&composeto=dbkichwa2@cox.net&composecc=&subject=&body=
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 7:09 AM

Subject: Re: Fw: PanAfrica: United States to Establish Mission to African Union
SADA says for those of us who have realized that we are moving closer to our goal of Africa Unity, the presence of the United States Emmissary in AU is a welcome news. The only way the Africans in America can be part of Africa is when we realize that we are citizens of USA and Natlives of Africa. We need to work through our government to reach our natlive land. With billions of dollars to settle us in our native land only the representatlive of our government in our native land can work with our natlive relatives for our benefits. We all know that it has not been an easy experience for us to get our government to do the right thing for us in USA, yet still we have no choice. In international relations, we must be realistic to know that only governments work, individuals have no representation. This is one reason why the past African government representatives who try to reach us here in USA by encouraging us to come to Africa did not work well because they did not work within the frame works of international laws. Leaders like Kwame Nkrumah who invited hundreds of African in America to Ghana did not follow the norms of nations and when he was removed, all the invited Africans from America had to return home to good old USA. This time around, we are going to make sure that our representative in AU does what is right for Africans in Amerlica. It is almost impossible for the African worriors in USA to work through our government but God may touch the mind of our government's representatlive to do what the King of Babylon dlid to the slaves in Babylon when God touched the mind of the king to do all what is necessary to send back the slaves to their native land.

Kofi

2006-08-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Mark Wood:
Your persistence in continuing to string out this painful and futile exercise (for me) is going to yield one more response, and then, I will quit. If I picked up from you any understanding that it is only a free people free to choose their own associations, no matter how nuclear or conglomerate such an collective relationship is, and no matter for good or for bad--as long as it is a free peoples' free choice--if I got that impression from you--I would continue the conversation. But, I do not.
For the avoidance of doubt, let me state again:
Confined to, and sequestered in, the Colonial-drawn structures currently passing as African Countries, the peoples of Africa are not free, and cannot make any meaningful decisions regarding their own individual or collective destinies
Replacing these balkanized political and forced-on social units known as African countries by artificially erasing the map-borders will not, and could not bring about, nor result in, one-Africa.
The current sad and miserable, shamed and ongoing experience of Africans in Africa (and in the rest of the world for that matter) is the result of two related issues:A) Root-issue: the original balkanization of Africa by the colonial masters hardening into the current African "States" (aka, "countries")B) The ongoing defense of that original unconscionable colonial structure by all and contemporary African so-called leadership with the false ideology of "Statism" (aka: "nationalism").A third issue is the further super-balkanization of Africa by foreign religions like Christianity and Islam.
Any attempt to "unite" Africa which fails to adequately address the above is an exercise in futility. That an organization with even growing membership exists to try to actualize a futile goal does not make the exercise any less futile, nor does it disprove the futility.
If "unity" ever comes to Africa, it will be as a matter of course: Step one: free peoples identifying with and identified each by their natural ethnicities and natural sovereignties and natural nationhoods, in formalized, ratified processes and procedure which means mutual respect and recognition by all, of each other's sovereignty; Step two: free ethnic nations of their own freewill and mutual consent coming together to form mega-cooperatives of economic nature, period; or if economic cooperative or "union" is successfully formed and has proved to be beneficial and trustworthy, then, an extension to either Defense and Security cooperatives followed by Political Cooperation or Union.
The above will respect and accommodate the peoples' choices and cultures, even the peoples' foreign religion affiliations such as Christianity and Islam.
I will, for the last time--hopefully--address some of your responses from my last response:
>>>[Mine earlier] What if this one-Africa of your dream turns out to be a Muslim-controlled continent?
>It will not, at least for the first 20 years of the unification. -
Pardon me, this is not a serious answer: it actually borders on silliness, no disrespect intended.
> Also my coalition for a united Africa is proposing UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan as the 1st leader of a united Africa.
Another silly and non-serious answer. What if Kofi Annan does not want the job, or is not available for it? Actually, this answer reveals a serious fundamental flaw of your construction. You do not build a political structure of the nature of your desired undertaking around one man or around one personality. (BTW, I heard, but am not sure, that Annan is a Muslim. If true, then, I say, Ha, ha, ha!)
>We are talking about a fairly voted election continent wide
A sick joke--this "fairly voted election" you talk about. You cannot even help make that happen in much lesser populations, but you want to carry it "continent-wide"? I hope that you understand that I am being deliberately civil by calling this a "joke": I could also say, "delusion" and it will be a technically perfect characterization.
>and I do not believe the Muslims have that kind of majority in Africa as a population or voting block.
Well, better go back and do your research, so that you don't find out after you might have dragged hundreds of millions of hapless Africans into another hellish debacle. Until you have verified this, you need to put your plans on hold.
>AND for better or worse, Kofi is the most powerful black polition on the planet since Colin Powell has lost his warrior spirit.
More silliness. Colin Powell is regarded as a huge personal failure among the majority in the US--African Americans and other Americans alike. A great warrior, yes; but a poor civilian- and poorer civil- leader. (And I thought you were looking for civilian-leaders of Africa, not warriors.) I would never vote for him. Kofi is not powerful: he is just an excellent Secretary: he claims to be no more, and functions as no more than that. The strings of the UN are not pulled or even held by Kofi: Kofi is the horse at the end of the string. He just does what he is told, like a good Secretary. (A "good" slave functions in a similar role, too!)
>...the united Africa I desire is FOR Africans to be truly free in their own land and not free to die of starvation in some refugee area covered by flies. THAT is the Africa that exists now.
Then, you should seek to make sure that their erstwhile destroyed root is repaired; that's what is causing the eyesore you describe. You should help respect and see that African peoples are allowed to return to what they do most naturally and how they function most effectively and efficiently, naturally: identity with, and loyalty to, each their own different sovereign ethnic nations. Only then can they be free; then, being free, at liberty to seek mutually beneficial aggregations, naturally. Unity of Africa is not a goal of Africans or for Africans: Freedom and Liberty of African peoples is and should always be the goal for Africa. For Africa, ethnic moorings lead to such Freedom and Liberty.
>Bottom line, Africa is stronger as a united nation, than the current fractured countries begging hat in hand for assistance on every matter under the sun.
That's your bottom line, but it is a fallacy--and false at that. Putting sick and disabled soldiers in a combined Battalion does not make the Battalion stronger!
>The families of Africa are dysfunctional because they are staving and ridden with disease and have NO opportunity a United Africa could deliver them. Part of the building and unification of Africa involves " Pastuerization" . That means cleansing the corruption of the united africa as it is built.
That sordid condition of Africans is a direct result of the colonial balkanization of Africa, which your "United Africa" is copying, when you understand that Balkanization means artificial forcing of peoples together ignoring natural boundaries (of language, ancestry, culture, traditions, identity, loyalty and geography). And, a dysfunctional and forced "United" Africa can only deliver a hellish experience. You can't cleanse the corruption of Nigeria, and you can now cleanse it on a continental level? I am hoping that you are learning from real life-examples. Nigeria--a forced "Union," has wealth and resources, yet, it scores dead last in any measure of humanness, including the distinctive honor of having the highest number of poorest children in the entire world. Are you learning anything?
>In a united Africa, ALL africans ARE the same, they are citizens of the United States of Africa and thus regain their natural sovereignties that will exist beyond any previously set colonial borders. ( As in the U.S. a muslim can be a muslim, a jew can be a jew and a mormon can be a mormon WHERE EVER they reside in the national bounderies )
I am waiting to make sure that you can re-articulate the above in non-contradictory terms and clear terms: that has not happened yet.
>You mean England ( member of the EU ) where the founder of Live Aid Bob Geldorf is from?
Yes, I mean England, or Britain, or UK. Member of EU, yes, but retains the British Pound; retains the British Sovereignty and Nationality, and has a Foreign Policy which she exercises independent, distinctly and even afoul of EU's. EU is only an Economic cooperation (not even as strong, nor the same, as the NATO Defense cooperation), motivated entirely by the mutual desire of European nations to compete with, and perhaps, out-compete the US. It's intent is not a political Union, which even the tiniest European nation will resist. Poor rhetorical example!
>Macus Garvey called his vision of a united africa an african empire. A united africa would indeed be an empire, but one formed by the unification of it's people, not the conquest of its people.
Not the first visionary. Not the first visionary whose vision never came to fruition. Not the first visionary with the wrong vision, even when the vision is correctly interpreted. Not the first visionary whose vision was misinterpreted by adherents. Not the least disrespect intended.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MDNwa BiafraA Biafran Citizen
From: mark wood [mailto:greenvalleyreporter@journalist.com] Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 1:12 AMTo: oguchi@mbay.netCc: dbkichwa2@cox.netSubject: RE: Fw: Bro. Oguchi Responds to Africa Seeking To Integrate into a United States of Africa
re:
What if this one-Africa of your dream turns out to be a Muslim-controlled continent?
It will not, at least for the first 20 years of the unification. - Also my coalition for a united Africa is proposing UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan as the 1st leader of a united Africa. - We are talking about a fairly voted election continent wide and I do not believe the Muslims have that kind of majority in Africa as a population or voting block. AND for better or worse, Kofi is the most powerful black polition on the planet since Colin Powell has lost his warrior spirit.
regarding: what if this one-Africa of yours returned to Africa's indigenous Spirituality, rather than adopt the foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam?
I would hope so! KAfrica33@aol.com the head of Son and daughters of Africa, SADA.org would be immensely pleased as would I.
And, what makes you think that any other people but some Christians take Revelation literally and seriously?

mw - Believe it or not they do...
In the movie, The Omen, the devil's son complanied " these christians like to follow their prophecies to the letter" - That is part of the problem the world is going through now - people who believe what they believe tend to self fullfill their respective prophecy beliefs for better or worse.
re: Your mindset proves to me that the one-Africa of your desire works for only you, not for Africans.
I probably will not live to see Africa unite, ( though I would like to ) the united Africa I desire is FOR Africans to be truly free in their own land and not free to die of starvation in some refugee area covered by flies. THAT is the Africa that exists now.
re: But, be sure that now that I know that you are building a Christian Religious empire....
Not in the least, Pan Africans know where I stand on God, and that is "God is the force of Gravity" as Gravity is the only force proven to be in EVERY corner of the universe. Yes god is all around us, at all times, but not because of some christian or muslim manifest or agenda.
re: "Must STILL be..."? Says who?
As shown on any search engine and as I said earlier, some are for a United Africa and some are against it.
Bottom line, Africa is stronger as a united nation, than the current fractured countries begging hat in hand for assistance on every matter under the sun.
re: Not so. A dysfunctional large family made up of smaller dysfunctional families forced together is no better: in fact, it is worse. Add many bad ingredients to make a soup, you end up with poison, not a better soup. Adding up evil leads to a "stronger" Evil; never to anything else.
The families of Africa are dysfunctional because they are staving and ridden with disease and have NO opportunity a United Africa could deliver them. Part of the building and unification of Africa involves " Pastuerization" . That means cleansing the corruption of the united africa as it is built.
Like the old king of babylon said of the house builders of his time, build it right and solid because if it implodes and causes death, it will be your death as well. So what I am saying is we are not building the united Africa as a house on a foundation of rotted wood, but rather an infrastruture of steel.
re: This is what exists now. We can solve that now by allowing different ethnicities to regain their natural sovereignties and then, decide how to relate to one another. But, as long as you insist on continuing to maintain the already forced "unions", and now, want to force together such dysfunctional forced unions into a larger union, you will reap the same thing that you have preserved: dysfunction compounded on more dysfunction.
In a united Africa, ALL africans ARE the same, they are citizens of the United States of Africa and thus regain their natural sovereignties that will exist beyond any previously set colonial borders. ( As in the U.S. a muslim can be a muslim, a jew can be a jew and a mormon can be a mormon WHERE EVER they reside in the national bounderies )
An Ethiopian should be able to pack and move to and live in freely: Nigeria, South Africa, Libya or any nation state of the continent nation. ( AND I might add travel on the north-south and east-west trans-continental highway system which would be one of the first projects of the united Africa as a whole. )
In the new United Africa, the old colonial borders are just that, "old colonial borders" holding no one in and keeping no one out.
Well, the moment you mentioned the Bible, you helped make my point. What if this one-Africa of your dream turns out to be a Muslim-controlled continent? Better question: what if this one-Africa of yours returned to Africa's indigenous Spirituality, rather than adopt the foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam?

And, what makes you think that any other people but some Christians take Revelation literally and seriously?

Your mindset proves to me that the one-Africa of your desire works for only you, not for Africans.

With that, I will interpolate responses below. But, be sure that now that I know that you are building a Christian Religious empire, nothing you say on this subject can be regarded as objective nor is to be taken seriously.

re: The attendants and sponsors and organizers of Live Aid come from countries that are not mega-political unions or continental political unions.

You mean England ( member of the EU ) where the founder of Live Aid Bob Geldorf is from?

If our debate/exchange took place in a coffee shop, pub or civic auditorium, it would be a lively discussion indeed and would invite much deeply thought out participation from all present.

THIS is how we will form a United Africa, the give-take, push-pull process of it all will force us to take the utmost care and concern in making sure every brick in the house of the United Africa has been put in place with purpose and calculation. That house of united Africa will stand the test of time like the last time Africans put their will and imagination together and built the Pyramids

re: So, let them debate. Zik and Nkrumah are rolling over in their graves at the failure of contemporary Africa to learn from their Pan-Africanism futility.

Pan-Africanism futility?

If that were the case, there would be no Pan Africans now...

re: Your United Africa does not free Africans. You have already betrayed how Christian Religion will enslave the continent (if the Muslims let you get there first or let you do that). It only makes it easy for despots and exploiters and unscrupulous influences to conquer peoples of an entire continent and keep the peoples in subjugation for ever.

The whole purpose of a united Africa is to ensure Africans will be free from now on. Africans have a chance to re-write, enhance and correct the principles of democracy itself. Beyond the foundations of the Greeks who are said to have started it. ( if you are in the mindset of Prof. Diop and have read the book Black Athena, you know Africans are the parents of democracy.)

re: The rest of us are visualizing free and liberated peoples--peoples unhooked from States built by colonial balkanization, living in their natural identities and natural loyalties, free to control their own destinies.

The only borders the United states of Africa would truly have, is it's coastline.

re: Yes, it was in the 1960's. No one appreciates more the difficulties of JFK's vision: it was in fact, an impossible dream. Not because the US was in great turmoil: Vietnam, Interracial wars; the Cold War. But more because that vision forced the US to literally travel the Future 60 years ahead of the time to wrest technology from the future and adapt it to the then present by "dumbing" it down and making it crude: yet, it worked. But, as difficult as that vision and its fulfillment are, it is even more difficult to unite what is naturally separate and functions best that way, as Africa. It will be easier to send manned probes to Mars and settle man on asteroids than to force Africa into one.

The key word is "force" - the people of Africa have to create their own mandate that they as a people and in all their varied current citizenships want to unite as one for the good of all africans. By debating unification among themselves as well as all of the african dispora, we can perfect the blueprint of unification.

Macus Garvey called his vision of a united africa an african empire. A united africa would indeed be an empire, but one formed by the unification of it's people, not the conquest of its people.

I don't know if these words are from a song or a famous quote but they sum up my goal for a united africa:

" If not now, when? If not forever, how long?
Yours in peace and a United Africa,

Mark Wood
Founder
USA4USAfrica
----- Original Message -----From: "Oguchi Nkwocha, MD." To: "'mark wood'" Subject: RE: Fw: Bro. Oguchi Responds to Africa Seeking To Integrate into a United States of AfricaDate: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:09:49 -0700

From: mark wood [mailto:greenvalleyreporter@journalist.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 1:38 PMTo: dbkichwa2@cox.netCc: oguchi@mbay.netSubject: Re: Fw: Bro. Oguchi Responds to Africa Seeking To Integrate into a United States of Africa
Despite the internal corruption that may be present in it's components, there must STILL be a United Africa or United States of Africa.
"Must STILL be..."? Says who?
Regarding: Bro. Oguchi Responds to Africa Seeking To Integrate into a United States of Africa
Africa CANNOT go on in it's current state. A United Africa in ANY form, is a stronger Africa and a stronger Africa can protect, nurture and provide it's people with what stands as the backbone of democracy: Opportunity.
Not so. A dysfunctional large family made up of smaller dysfunctional families forced together is no better: in fact, it is worse. Add many bad ingredients to make a soup, you end up with poison, not a better soup. Adding up evil leads to a "stronger" Evil; never to anything else.
Where there is no opportunity, there will always be despair and misery and death.
This is what exists now. We can solve that now by allowing different ethnicities to regain their natural sovereignties and then, decide how to relate to one another. But, as long as you insist on continuing to maintain the already forced "unions", and now, want to force together such dysfunctional forced unions into a larger union, you will reap the same thing that you have preserved: dysfunction compounded on more dysfunction.
The last "Live Aid" worldwide multiplatform web and telecast demanded no money or donations, it only demanded that the world realize one concept, one fact: That every 3 seconds, a soul dies in Africa from PREVENTABLE circumstances. Be it polluted water, war, starvation, neglect or disease.
The attendants and sponsors and organizers of Live Aid come from countries that are not mega-political unions or continental political unions.
The comments of the people of Africa themselves are most important to the debate among Africans themselves as well as Pan Africans and people of the world. As you can now see at: http://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com/
So, let them debate. Zik and Nkrumah are rolling over in their graves at the failure of contemporary Africa to learn from their Pan-Africanism futility.
Some are for a United Africa and some believe it cannot happen. I believe that was the same arguement going on when we were slaves in the U.S. yet now we are free and better off for it.
Your United Africa does not free Africans. You have already betrayed how Christian Religion will enslave the continent (if the Muslims let you get there first or let you do that). It only makes it easy for despots and exploiters and unscrupulous influences to conquer peoples of an entire continent and keep the peoples in subjugation for ever.
In the short statement, that goes the same for the concept and action of uniting Africa. Some may disagree and not join the groundswell for unification, but many will and if Africa DOES unite, IT will be free and better off for it.
See above; I doubt it. The freest nations are not continental units.
I have always said a part of creating a United States of Africa, one must VISUALIZE a United Africa...
The rest of us are visualizing free and liberated peoples--peoples unhooked from States built by colonial balkanization, living in their natural identities and natural loyalties, free to control their own destinies.
What would it be? What could it be?
In the 1940's the very thought of mankind landing on the moon was considered as distant and absurd in practical terms as the current movement to unify Africa, but it did happen...Why? A mandate was decided on: "We choose to go to the moon by the end of this decade". ..Action was taken, needed components were gathered together and acted on in a unified goal and it did happen.
Yes, it was in the 1960's. No one appreciates more the difficulties of JFK's vision: it was in fact, an impossible dream. Not because the US was in great turmoil: Vietnam, Interracial wars; the Cold War. But more because that vision forced the US to literally travel the Future 60 years ahead of the time to wrest technology from the future and adapt it to the then present by "dumbing" it down and making it crude: yet, it worked. But, as difficult as that vision and its fulfillment are, it is even more difficult to unite what is naturally separate and functions best that way, as Africa. It will be easier to send manned probes to Mars and settle man on asteroids than to force Africa into one.
We are heading in the same direction with the unification of Africa. The components are being gathered together and thank God, we are currently debating the matter among ourselves.
We are moving towards the direction of the goal and we will learn more of each other and ourselves as we discover together what it will take to unify Africa.
We cannot get you to recognize and address obvious injustices going on right under your nose, and you are claiming you will "discover together...," what?
There is a term in the advertising world called "Viral Marketing" where a product or idea is passed from one person to another and the distribution of the idea reaches exponentially larger numbers of distribution.
Dream on.
This is where I call on all Pan Africans to take up the banner and "Virally Market" the concept of a United Africa to all in their "six degrees of separation" and engage others in the debate and concept of a United Africa.
Go ahead!
In this world today, a news item can travel on many platforms for that communication to be received by as many as possible and thus the same for promoting a unified Africa.
Instead of ending a letter "Best regards" or "Yours truly" - why not "Yours in peace and a United Africa".
No peace without justice, No justice when injustice is ignored. Otherwise, it's all hypocrisy.
The little things add up toward a goal.
Yes: if you take care of little injustices, that should add up to everyone's benefit.
Africa now is a broken bottle that cannot hold water (the water being it's people as they spill out and die )
No, Africa is not a broken bottle where the people spill out and die. It is a vast land where the people are taken away from their natural setting and put into bottles--to suffocate..
A United Africa is a bottle that can hold water and preserve it's people and protect them from the spillage of their current genocide.
No, we don't want a bottle. Africa is an open field, not a closed bottle. There, Africans can find liberty and freedom and self-collective fulfillment.
One last item for now. The Bible in it's last book of revelation says after the turmoil, wars and strife of the last days and the return of Jesus, that the world will have a thousand years of peace, love and understanding....
I just wish you would leave Jesus out of this. No one has been more abused by those who call him, Lord, Lord, than Jesus the Christ. Is it not entirely ridiculous to associate Jesus with rulership or Kingship over men? It is totally ignorant to associate Jesus or God with "Kingdoms." Yea, right: the Creator of Universes and everything seen and unseen--infinite in size and number--will be fixated on a tiny speck of quark-dust called Earth and its world! That does no credit to God or Jesus.
I ask you, do you think Africa in it's current state would be a part of that thousand years of prosperity?
We really don't care: it is not part of Africa Spiritual mindset, nor is it part of African lore and tradition. The last regime that mentioned a 'thousand years" stint lasted not quite one decade.
I think not... I THINK: A United Africa will be THE CAUSE of the thousand years of peace. ..
Dream on. Where, in this world, has Christianity brought unity, let alone, peace among the peoples?
If Africa unites, mankind by example will unite and this will be the glue that holds mankind together in harmony for the next thousand years. A United Africa will be a Giant in "Green Power" that will steer the world from the brink due to "Nuclear Power".
If.
As Tupac Shakur once said: "Holler if you Hear Me"
Let Tupac holler.
Time will tell.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa BiafraA Biafran Citizen.

----- Original Message -----From: dbkichwa2@cox.netTo: "PAAA Network" Subject: Fw: Bro. Oguchi Responds to Africa Seeking To Integrate into a United States of AfricaDate: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:03:14 -0700

----- Original Message -----
From: dbkichwa2@cox.net
To: PAAA Network
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 7:01 PM
Subject: Bro. Oguchi Responds to Africa Seeking To Integrate into a United States of Africa
PAN-AFRICAN ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA FORWARD

To be prosperous in whatever we do is the sign of TRUE WEALTH. We may be wealthy in not only having money, but in spirit and health. It is the most helpful agency toward a self satisfying life. One lives, in an age like this, nearer perfection by being wealthy than by being poor. To the contended soul, wealth is the stepping stone to perfection; to the miser it is the nearest avenue to hell. I would prefer to be honestly wealthy, than miserably poor. - Marcus Mosiah Garvey

PAAA Note: First of all WE are ALL Africans. Therefore we, as Africans, need to stop this separation from each other because we think some kind of geographical location has changed our DNA. Science now makes it possible for most, if not ALL, Africans of the Diaspora, to determine which ethnic groups they derived from on the continent in the first place. Therefore the idea that has been floated around to Africans of the Diaspora that we cannot determine which group we come from no longer holds water. However Bro. Oguchi is correct about the Diaspora's understanding of current issues pertaining to African politics and social conditions. We do not know and how would we unless individuals like him share information that is normally filtered out of our knowledge base. For those of us who are long time Pan-Africanists who have traveled to the continent and who have lived on the continent, we know that African nation-states censure information to favor whichever ethnic group holds power in the the government. Those of us who are long time poltiical Pan-Africanists are very much aware of these issues but many Africans of the Diaspora, who have no knowledge of the poltiical and social issues raging on the continent have good intentions for Africa without a pragmatic understanding of the politics of Africa. That is why the PAAA stands for grassroots African people while watching what the people have to actually say about their governments on the ground. Just because Nkrumah and Azikiwe harped on Pan-Africanism does not make Pan-Africanism no less important that white men who harp on democracy. There is nothing wrong with the ideal. It is the character defects of men that we must guard against in pursuing the goal. However we in the Diaspora cannot be held accountable for what we do not know until those of the continent teach us differently. Pan-Africanism was in existence before Nkrumah or Azikiwe were born. It predates them however both have shared significant thoughts on how to go about building it. Therefore Bro. Oguchi renders us a great service by sharing his critical views so that we pursue the ideal of Pan-Africanism, understanding all of the warts, sores, wounds that have emerged due to our blundering and naive approaches to helping it evolve. Another thing for our brothers and sisters to understand is that we are all media blind. Unless you share speeches of leaders on the continent, chances are we never read them or hear them. And the same goes in reverse. Most continental Africans never read or hear the speeches of African American leaders in this country. Therefore we are mutually blind, making mutually ignorant statements that piss each side off all of the time. Bro. Oguchi brings up issues that serious Pan-Africanists cannot avoid. He points out once again that we need to move beyond a cheerleading stage to holding everyone with power on the continent accountable for all of their actions all of the time based on a standard that demands justice for African people whether the perpetrator is of European descent or African descent. Pan-Africanism is not about and has never been about politicians. It is only about what results in the people having better lives because they say their lives are better and not because some official government report says their lives are better. We salute Bro. Oguchi because we understand, in reverse, what it is like when continental African brothers and sisters talk about how great we have it in America while they know nothing of U.S. prison systems, horrendous public schools and second class healthcare systems that ALL just happen to victimize African Americans more than any other populations in the U.S. When those of us in the U.S. open our mouths about Africa there should be less propaganda and more researched truth. And when those of us in Africa open our mouths about Africans in the U.S. there should also be less propaganda and more researched truth. Perhaps when we both do this, we can get to the real ideal of Pan-Africanism that existed before the new African nation-states had emerged from the insanity of the Berlin Conference of 1884.

Original Message -----
From: Oguchi Nkwocha, MD.
To: 'mark wood' ; dbkichwa2@cox.net
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 2:13 PM
Subject: RE: Fw: RE: Re:AFRICA SEEKING TO INTEGRATE INTO A UNITED STATES OF AFRICA
You do not understand Africans, do you? Most likely, you do not appreciate the problems of Africa, and the root of it all.
Before Mohammed Ali was born, the likes of Nkrumah and Azikiwe (ZIK) waxed eloquent and harped on Pan-Africanism.

In the meantime, none of you is even noticing what would have given any objective person pause. General Obasanjo and his party rigged elections to usurp power in Nigeria. Claiming a democracy, Obasanjo has gone on to outdo the last Military Government of General Abacha as the worst dictator ever and the worst anti-people administration ever. Obasanjo commits genocide against Igbo and other Biafrans as a Nigerian State policy today. He violates the constitution of Nigeria. He disobeys the Courts of Nigeria. The Police is under his control, as is the Military; and the Judiciary comes under his foot. The National Assembly (NAS) barely mustered courage for a one-time courageous stand after having never stood up against Obasanjo before, and there are signs that such NAS performance will be an oddity. Obasanjo is the most corrupt African leader to date, shamelessly serving his own interest while in office with such brazenness that would make Marco blush.

What is so striking is that we do not hear the World and other would-be "saviors of Africa" raise a voice to condemn Obasanjo. Instead, you are all in bed and doing business with him. If Obasanjo can get away with this in Nigeria with your acquiesance and or tacit support, just imagine what Obasanjo would do if, instead of Nigeria, Africa as one big nation had become his platform, as the leader of the united / one African Nation? I must take it that none of you advocating one Africa have ever tasted power; otherwise, you would not underestimate its corrupting influence on the wielders and it crushing effect on the ruled.

Then, there is the Religion Divide in Africa. The world watched Sudan maul Southern Sudan for almost one third of a century in a Muslim Vs Christian war, doing almost nothing. All we need now is to hand fanatic, activist Muslim a fertile platform such as "one Africa" or "United Africa," so that they can turn all Africa into Taliban Continent of Africa? In Nigeria where the Muslims are operating their Muslim Nation in spite of the so-called Nigerian Nation, how many of you have cried foul, or have raised the exploitative and lethal danger of the situation?

In any case, I am not bothered by effete politicians having their symposia: it gives them an opportunity to travel out and stash away looted national funds and try to impress one another with mere words. Have you ever listened to Obasanjo's speeches? You would think that he was an intelligent, educated, capable wise leader. Once he steps off the podium and the light, he does exactly the opposite of the content of his speeches. (Please, don't tell me you haven't noticed that, too?) I suppose we have to thank Obasanjo's speech-writer. The point is that African politicians can make the right noises--that's about all they can do, and they do it so well. With your help, encouragement and admiration, they have ended up not following through with requisite action. That's precisely what you are doing now, so, who really cares? Nothing will come of it.

In the final analysis, the blame is not just for Obasanjo and his ilk alone, but for those who refuse to see that a foundation is rotten and insist on rebuilding on such a faulty foundation just because they have dream. What a disastrous social experiment you are desiring now, especially considering that you won't be among the guinea pigs. Luckily for us all, this experiment will not leave the textbook on which it is planned.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen

The United States of Africa: NOW is the Time

2006-04-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give you an update on the building of the United States of Africa I started back in 96 with Robert Wood - who together with me comprise The Wood Bros. Music group. We are still at: http://www.geocities.com/thewoodbrosmusic/ - but our NEW music is at: http://www.isound.com/music/wood_brothers_ca/

Our mission remains the same, to unite Africa as one nation and thus unite the world, in uniting Africa.

God willing.

* take a look at the Current site for the movement at:
http://unitedstatesafrica.tripod.com/http://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com/
The United States of Africa - Please forward to anyone who has cried a tear for Africa and wants to see a change.

"There are no words to describe what I feel about the possibility of the achievement of The United States of Africa.

The applause of the entire globe could not give this cause justice, and justice is what this cause will bring. I am sure that the US of Africa will mean the extinction of poverty and the promotion of world Unity. I know the day will come when its constitution is signed. It will be signed not with greed and power in mind, but instead with love and unity.

My prayers and deepest salutations are with you all." – Jared

While we understand the beginning of the USA for USAfrica may have an unusual genesis, the heart felt reasons behind the movement are unmistakable, and the need for a United States of Africa, is Undeniable.

No continent in the world is better positioned than Africa, ( a United Africa ) to contribute to the welfare of Mankind over the next thousand years. As an ABC Night Line reporter covering Africa noted, "Africa is 98% virtually the same as it was a thousand years ago." An incredible vast land of undeveloped potential both for it's people and the world.

In a United States of Africa, a citizen could freely travel from Gambia to South Africa to Algeria or anywhere on the continent to seek education, opportunity, commerce or the simple pleasure of tourist travel within their vast country.

A common African currency much like the EU model affords the ability to buy and sell throughout the continent with a reliable backed currency. A transcontinental citizenship throughout Africa will one day become the envy of the free world.

Much of Africa's third world debt could be relived if freedom and security of capitalism were able to thrive in any African country - state from taxes paid by companies involved in business in any African location. An immediate positive effect would arise from local, municipal and federal levels throughout Africa.

Any and all of these possibilities can only arise from what can take place in a United States of Africa. With national borders being no more restrictive than state borders, allowing transcontinental travel, commerce and opportunity for all African citizens.

A United States of Africa with the largest usable coastline in the world could one day be the country that enriches all of Mankind, feeds the world, heals the world, teaches the world and balances the world.

There is so much more involved and the USA for USAfrica is not naive to the many levels that must be addressed, our point is the dialogue must begin at once, in the media, on the airwaves, in discussions and editorials.

The concept of a United States of Africa must immediately be brought into public debate worldwide and among Africans themselves.
Yours in peace and a United Africa,

Mark WoodFounder, USA for USAfricahttp://unitedstatesafrica.50megs.com/http://www.isound.com/mp3s/wood_brothers_ca/http://www.isound.com/music/blue_turban_stone/http://www.isound.com/music/mark_wood_ca/Partner, The Wood Brothers Music http://www.geocities.com/thewoodbrosmusic/
Publisher,The Green Valley ReporterICQ 72195575 www.GeoCities.com/GreenValleyReporter Online and Print: Serving the Mountain Communities of the Santa Clarita, Angeles Forest and Antelope Valley Communities.GreenValleyReporter@Journalist.com