Africa at the beginning of the 21st century

On the contrary to what has been told, African countries didn�t reach independence during the 60�s. To obtain independence for the citizens of a state means to be free to choose what seems good for the Country, while during the cold war of the 60�s African citizens couldn�t make choices.

What was called independence in the 60�s is for Africans to have been completely abandoned (hands and feet) to some dictators, in countries that were raising from the struggle for freedom, or that hadn�t known the struggle for freedom. From this comes that these countries, that where preyed to the struggle for freedom, where transformed from fighters for freedom � as they were � in solders of the cold war.

In both cases, one wasn�t owner of his own destiny. In those countries in which independence war had not taken place, dictators owned you like a thing, making you do what they wanted, whatever they had in mind. And certain dictators surely didn�t have in mind to care for the problem of hunger in African countries. To prove this we just have to think to who were and what things did Bokassa, Mobutu o Amine Dada and persons like them.

Countries where the struggle for freedom was transformed in battle of the cold war, received sophisticated weapons in abundance, and aid with foreign soldiers; one didn�t die any more for honour, for his own dignity, for nationalism, but died for communism or anticommunism, and political strategy didn�t take care of the future of the country but was defined in a world-wide context.

We arrive at the end of this situation and at the end of the cold war. After the fall of the Berlin wall all African countries, all of them, should have gone through a national conference to cancel all the consequences of colonisation and of the cold war and to obtain the strongly desired independence.

What is a national conference? A national conference is a forum at which are invited all the live forces, all the authorities of the country. During the sessions a discussion on all abuses perpetrated during the cold war is organised. The authors of these abuses, all rulers of the country during the cold war, repeat modestly and honestly their mea culpa. They are forgiven everything. They are allowed to go away with what they have earned in a fraudulent way. This happenes because a judgement would need witnesses too difficult to be obtained and a long trial would be prejudicial for national unity. Some national conferences have taken place with success in Benin, Mali, Southafrica. IN Congo Brazaville the conference has taken place but the decision taken where not applied honestly. From this came the slide that brought to a new civil war.

The national conference is always followed by a change in the leading power. The national conference has an important psychological impact for the country. The masters (teachers) of yesterday are disdained. You restart from new bases, with a new nation proud of having defeated his exploiters.

If all the countries would have had the national conference, Africa would not have nowadays the image we know her with. Lot of the wars and the difficulties we have today in Africa wouldn�t exist. If Mobutu would have accepted a national conference, his country would have not experienced the wound that characterises it today. If the dictator of Rwanda would have enforced the national conference, the genocide would have been avoided. The national conference prevents tribal fights.

Rulers of the countries, mostly dictators, have opposed with success the sanctions of national conferences. But national conferences are absolutely necessary for those countries that after the dark night of colonisation entered the darkness of cold war. The way out a such a long tunnel cannot be found without a very strong psychological �shock� if you want to have sane men. In the lack of national conferences, countries are forced to make reforms day by day, blow by blow, without the psychological impact of the national conferences. At this generalised level of corruption and of tribal fights not corrected by national conferences we have to add, for African countries, the burden of the debts. Debt contract during cold war, in fraudulent conditions, for the building of �white elefants�.

At this generalised level of corruption and of tribal fights not healed by national conferences we have to add unequal trades.

Due to the continue fall of the price of the raw material, African countries and third world in general become poorer day by day. It�s true that this abatement of prices touches also the agricultural production and the cattle-breeding of northern countries. But farmers and breeders are not going to be cheated; they always demonstrate and gain advantages. Their products are supported with important aids and when they have to leave their soil work because it�s not remunerative any more, they can become employed in the factories of their countries. But for us Africans, Europe has become like a fortress. And the globalisation that is proposed to us, with no access to labour market of the northern world (we don�t have time to prove this now) it�s only an illusion. This only worsens our situation.

How can the Africans get out of this situation?

Even in the worst situations man always has hope, always has a force that creates hope. We have hope.

Foremost after the fall of the Berlin wall that ended the cold war, the press has become free in the whole continent. We still don�t have democracy in a great part of our countries but we already have the speech everywhere. Speech is a fundamental element of democracy and those who have the first word end up for acquiring the second. And everywhere democracy arrives, an improvement of economic situation starts. A second point is that African unity is present. And African unity promotes regional assemblages, and regional assemblages cancel the consequences of African partition made in Berlin in 1884, partition that is the root cause of many tribal fights. The partition of Africa in Berlin in 1884 separated a great amount of tribes, that with the discover of freedom, now want to gather again.

Improvement of economic situation throughout democracy and end of the conflicts through regional assemblage: this is the hope we foster in order to have a continent beautiful to live in.