After decades of so-called celebrated independence for Africa, the troubling question that continues to linger in the minds of critical thinkers is whether nations in Africa are truly independence in the truest sense of the word? According to the Webster New World College Dictionary, the word independent is defined as: “free from influence, control, or determination of another; free from the rule of another; controlling or governing one-self; relying only on one’s own ability and judgment; not depending on any person for financial support. The Oxford Advanced Dictionary also defines independence as “freedom from political control by other countries; the freedom to organize your own life; make your own decisions without needing help from other people.

If these literal meanings of the word “independence” are considered, then one could state without reservation that nations in Africa, except maybe multi-racial South Africa, are neither politically or economically independence. This may sound provocative, if not annoyance, but it is a reality and undeniable fact. Put in context, a true politically independence nation will have the internal capacity to prudently derive and implement its own domestic and foreign policies, without an external influence, for the governance of its people and the management of its geographic territories.

It will have the ability to rise, train and equip its military and civic security apparatuses; it will have the necessary dynamism, professional and technical credentials to democratically administer its own affairs using a just and balanced legal and justice systems. A politically independence state will independently organize and conduct a free, fair and transparent elections without external financial reliance and opinions to guarantee the credibility and transparency of its electoral process. A politically independence state will exist and survive within the traditional values, cultural and customary norms of its people and strives to develop those values that make it distinct from other nations. A politically independence state will consist of a population that has fixed and firmed royalty that is not transferable to other nations or traded for any good.

An economically independence state will have the internal capacity to transform and add marketable values to its natural, material and human resources. It will have the technological capability to transform those resources to valuable economic products that will equally compete with other nations’ products in the global market. An economically independence nation will develop its own currency that is backed by a productive multi-sector economy that is driven by a combination of domestic sophistications in technology that is pillar on an un-interrupted scientific research, technical innovations and vocational talents and skills.

While the current world reality practically rendered the literate definitions of the word “independence” redundant, it remains a challenge for nations in Africa to now re-examine their so-called independence within the context of the neocolonial concept of “globalization”. With the advent of scientific technology in the western world, nations in Africa have been re-enslaved in an oppressive new world of technological imperialism, an epoch in which the natural resources of Africa are coercively extracted and exported to the industrial west under the canopy of stimulating investment and economic growth on the Continent, the consequences of which are massive brain-drain, capital fight and contaminated environments.

What then becomes the question of concern is whether Africa has any significant role in this western control technologically imperialistic global village? How can nations in Africa join in this trillion miles marathon with their baby-leg capacities? When will they ever have the necessary capacities to compete anyway, when almost all of their citizens no longer want to be Africans? When most of their leaders remain agents of the industrial west? When they do not grow their own leaders, scientists and engineers? When they remain the final consumers of their own natural resources exported abroad? When the values of their currencies depend on the currencies of western nations? When their domestic and foreign policies are indirectly crafted and dictated by westerners? When their economies continue to remain import dominant, with their citizens having high taste for foreign products?

These are questions that challenge the so-called independence of Africa. But the mockery is that, Africa has always being described by the west as a continent rich in natural resources, but with a severely impoverished populations that live below a US$1 a day who cannot afford three squared meals per day. What then is this definition of richness when the available resources cannot benefit the people of Africa only because they lack the scientific and technological capabilities to convert those natural resources into marketable and consumer goods? And it is this scientific and technological capability that has placed the west in the chair of global leadership. When then will the west open the secret window to Africa, or how can Africa takes on the challenge following the practical examples of the Asians?

Many western indoctrinated African leaders, intellectuals and citizens doubt the possibility of an African Union Government in this century of ours that incorporate all nations in Africa into an efficient and effective federation that will represent and serve as a singular sovereign authority of all the nations in Africa. Some pessimists have defeated their inner consciences and have described the challenge as an unattainable dream. These pessimists along with their western cronies may attempt to undermine the realty Africa must confront now as the sole possibility for redeeming Africa from perpetual oppression and domination. If western technology in its various forms is the singular engine driving the vessel of the global village, then Africa will forever remain an orphan in this village, so long nations in Africa maintain individual sovereignty. Africa must awake to this reality and must act now to reverse the scenario. The only thing nations in Africa stand to benefit from maintaining individual sovereignty centuries to come will be taking a nap in the briefcases of their respective colonial masters.

What lessons we are learning in Africa from holding unto individual sovereignty? Coup d’etat, rebel invasions and post election violence, all leading to massive death, increased poverty and illiteracy. These have become the dividends of Africa’s independence and its practice of western democracy. The Continent must now create its own leviathan. A Union Government that will be sufficiently strong to face with vigor and result the enormous challenges of the continent. Its consolidated comparative advantages and diversities will create a new Africa that will be truly independence politically and economically, and become an indispensable actor that will significantly influence global actions.

Joma Momolu Kaindii, Jr. E-Mail: Kaindii@yahoo.ca ; 231-06-541-560

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