Gaddafi and the failed vision of a united Africa - P4

In this final part of the story of Muammar Gaddafi the founding Father of the African Union (AU), we feature some narrative of his significance in the pan-African movement that scribes the everlasting lesson for the peoples of Africa in aspiring for the United States of Africa.

Gaddafi’s fame in Pan-Africanism was evoked by Godffrey Olali, a journalist in 2011, when he wrote: “…Colonel Gaddafi’s lynching by mob ended his Africa dream. Muammar Gaddafi, who was one of the strongest proponents of African Unity went down with a dream he cherished and held dear – the formation of the ‘United States of Africa’.

Nicknamed the ‘King of Kings’. Gaddafi will be remembered for going full throttle to make sure his dream was attained...”

Again, a lyrical narrative poem made by the author of this pan-African series, when Gaddafi died in 2011, also signifies the legacy of Gaddafi in the pan-African struggle.

The poem titled A Tribute to Gaddafi in tribute to this great pan-Africa goes like this:

1. I had a dream that the death of Gaddafi is a seed for the unification of Africa; it is a wake-up call for African leaders to mend and stop a fragmented Africa; to heal Africa that is tormented by globalisation statutes that glitter as mica; people of Africa must cry before the Holy Throne of God for a United Africa, as we mourn Gaddafi we must endeavor to eradicate oppression and disunity from Africa.

2. The people of Africa must remember hundred and twenty years in that past; West domination in a conference in Berlin fragmented the African continent; African countries since then was colonised and put under a very painful start; each country was ruled and maneuvered individually to deepened its lone root, colonialism disregarded that Africa was a people; a nativity; one nation and one continent.

3. Africa emerged from colonialism and was to begin the grand union struggle; the struggle for African togetherness, unity, freedom and independence; Nkurumah, Lumumba, Nasser and Nyerere, as Fathers of African Unity came; and all wanted the unification of Africa to be a united nation as it was before, but they encountered the new world economic order staged as a cruel and stiff resistance.

4. In our midst stood neo-colonialism and imperialism in form of support strain, globalisation came as a gizmo and armament for socio-economic domination; brain drain and goods exports out of Africa was a giant beast at its elevation; socio-economic freedom of each lone African country was under siege and in suppression Africa intensified the struggle for socio-economic freedom and unification.

5. As Africa struggled against the vice, world economic giants expressed hidden joy, they continued to rejoice in Africa’s misery, suffering, pain, anguish and agony, they set massive arsenal to these poor countries to disorient and then destroy; Africa became a market for, political maneuver, finished goods and technology; hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, second-by-second; Africa grew poorer each passing day.

6. The Leader of the African Union, Gaddafi was a shiny light in the Libyan capital; a light that wanted Africa united against all traits of the imposing colonial cynical; before African leaders united and took the lead to embrace the unification call, Gaddafi was vanquished by neo-colonial mighty; the dream for one Africa fell; a wave of revolution in the name of democracy inflamed and engulf countries in the Sahel.

7. Gadhafi’s’ call was vivid and clearer that the African Union was a vehicle to compel, to let globalisation be the vehicle of a regional grouping and strengthen trail; now African leaders need to rekindle the tempo for unification to grow tall; Gaddafi remains an icon of one Africa that will one day stand on the union stall; the day Africa will become the United States of Africa to dominate global economic ball.

Gaddafi a dictator on one side but a pan-African on the other is gone; but his desire for a united Africa remains a lesson for Africa.

With great hope we shall surmount and triumph to arrive in the Promised Land; the great land; the United States of Africa. SUPERABIMUS.