AARON GONO
The forthcoming BRICS summit to be held in South Africa must be a catalyst for Africa to rise and take its rightful place on world geo-political issues.
It used to be a ‘ men’ only club, this time the door is open to any leader who has Afrika at heart, not some Johnny-come-lately, quasi human rights activists but pan-Africanists.
Africa had been in shackles for centuries. Its sons and daughters were enslaved to develop cities like Liverpool, Glasgow, Brussels, Paris, Lisbon, Washington, New York, and other unnamed so called developed sites.
What has Africa to show for this inhuman and exploitative treatment of their fellow brothers and sisters? They are told to let bygones be bygones. If Nazi Germany had to pay reparations to the Jewish community and rebuilt infrastructures destroyed during the Second World War; why cannot America and Europe follow suit?
Instead of showing remorse, they have the Bretton Woods Institutions to do the job for them, economically Afrika is burdened by these institutions. Afrika is always indebted to these institutions and their economic structural adjustments programs have destroyed third world countries’ fledgling economies. ‘Chenyu chatinacho ndechipiko?’ (what do we owe you?). When the late President of Zimbabwe, Cde R.G. Mugabe told Tony Blair to be man enough and pay for land to resettle landless Zimbabweans.
Tony Blair refused and openly told him that; their generation was not responsible for the sins of their fathers. And an intellect Bob had a field day dealing with such an amateurish, and overzealous young Prime Minister. Land reform in Zimbabwe began in earnest and Zimbabweans were punished for that, till now the country is still under sanctions (pasi peshamhu).
When President E.D. Mnangagwa abstained to vote against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations assembly. He was labelled all sorts of names and warned to sleep with one eye open. Threats were issued against anybody who tries to share notes with President Putin of Russia.
Those any bodies are in third world countries. They are not allowed to think and find their own destinies. When similar threats were issued to India, South Africa and Brazil, l laughed my lungs out, when the toothless tigers told the United States to mind its own backyard.
That’s when other third world leaders were enlightened and they realised that ‘ none but themselves gonna free their countries ‘.
Enter COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2019, the world was locked down and Afrika was forced to copy and paste the Big Brothers’ ways of survival. The virus was deadly enough and accusations of its origin was heaped on Wuhan province of China. President Trump blamed Cde Xi for mishandling the pandemic and not notifying the World Health Organisation about the virus in time to curb its spread.
Vaccines against the virus were developed in record time and anti- vaxxers had to poke holes at the vaccines. Yvonne Chaka Chaka also queried the speed of how the vaccines were developed and she was quickly silenced.
Her crime was, why so early the COVID and not HIV/AIDS vaccines? So, Afrika was programmed to ape developed countries’ way of thinking, otherwise doubting it you are labelled. Vaccines from China and Russia were rubbished as of poor qualities, until their Pfizer vaccines were flagged as lethal to some people.
When some countries tried to protect its citizens against the virus, using traditional methods they were told to stop experimenting with people’s lives. All patents of vaccines must be held by real Western pharmaceutical companies. So, Afrika you are on your own.
So the BRICS summit offers the opportunity of African leaders to stop relying too much on Western aid and to have another world reserve currency that stops the United States to stop behaving like it created third world countries.
Third World countries have all rare earth minerals to develop their economies and why not take this summit to chart your way forward. If the Middle Eastern countries have managed to utilize their only oil revenue resource to
London and Harare have that strong bondage of which you guys at the Oval Office you are spoiling. America is a good continent with friendly people and it offers a lot of opportunities but unfortunately a few hawkish lawmakers at Capitol Hill are suffocating us.
I always remind people that l was baptized by a Swiss Jesuit father (Fr. Rimle) at Gokomere Mission, and raised by another Swiss Jesuit father (Fr Josef Stocker). And a British expatriate health worker Bardy Mcnair took further care of my extended family, a German expatriate teacher Anna Bessie is a family friend, a Swiss lady Barbara Mueller another family friend. I am not a racist or some ‘ white hater’, l only disapprove of unfair play administered by a few elite in glass houses .
