Letters from an African born in Kenya and living in Ghana

If Ghana’s first leader and Pan African stalwart Kwame Nkurumah were alive today, what would he say about the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country which has from day one been at war; to quote BBC’s Focus on Africa, “at war with itself, war with its neighbors and war over its huge mineral resources that seem to be the curse of generations”.

The visionary, who would have celebrated his 100^th birthday this year, committed a lifetime to fighting against the eventuality that DRC seems to have become. Potentially the richest country in Africa, its development has from day one been stymied by incessant plundering.

It was the private real estate of King Leopold II of Belgium; it was a western pawn in the Cold War configuration; it has always been ruled by a small elite “shared the ill gotten wealth mainly through the awarding of mining contracts to international companies while millions did not even have access to clean drinking water or basic infrastructure like roads, hospitals or schools”, said BBC.

Only on 6 December 2006 was Joseph Kabila sworn in as the first democratically elected president since Congolese independence. That however did not curb chronic political instability exacerbated by attempted secession, coups and military take overs.

Under some pretext or another, neighboring countries have claimed their share of the loot. Were Nkrumah here today, he would be frowning. The forces – local elites and rebels, foreign governments, foreign corporations, and multi-lateral institutions – have the Congolese people in a death trap.

War, disease and malnutrition are killing 45,000 Congolese every month in a conflict driven humanitarian crisis that has claimed 5.4 million victims in nearly a decade. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which carried out the study with Australia’s Burnet Institute, said DRC’s 1998 – 2003 war and its aftermath caused more deaths than any other conflict since World War Two. “Congo’s loss is equivalent to the entire population of Denmark or the entire state of Colorado perishing within a decade,” George Rupp, President of the aid group said.

Which way forward under such horrendous conditions? Were the Pan Africanist alive today, he would probably be as pragmatic as he ever was and advocate a strategy that ensured Africa’s wealth remained African. Such pragmatism saw him pursue an industrialization and infrastructural development strategy in Ghana in the 1960s second to on and way ahead of its time. His detractors, oblivious to the big picture, and the machinations of a neo-colonial ogre, sabotaged his efforts and ultimately eliminated him.

Were he alive today, he would probably engage his friends in China who are providing billions of dollars in loans for infrastructural development in DRC without imposing conditions or controls in return for access to the country’s valuable natural resources. Beijing has already used this method in neighboring Angola, where it now controls much of the oil production.’

His vision for continental unity would probably dictate that such infrastructure be designed to serve not just DRC but the whole of Africa. Indeed the River Congo alone, not withstanding all of its other resources, has the capacity to electrify the continent corner to corner.

Western interests would be forced to compete with such offers. Their coercive ways have been the bane of the Republic. Mining contracts the DRC signed with Western partners were founded on the West keeping 75 per cent of the stakes. There is no single contract where the DRC gets more than 25 per cent. Is that acceptable?

Right now, they have their hands full with ‘global economic meltdown’ issues. Vintage Nkrumah would probably recognize this as a window of opportunity for forging ahead. His biggest headache was in the area of political leadership. Very few of his contemporaries bought his ‘United States of Africa’ dream.

Those who came after him got bogged down with serious governance problems. Some, including Sudanese President, Omar Bashir, have been censured on account of human rights violations by institutions like the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).

APRM, set up to function as a continental governance oversight mechanism, did not exist in Nkrumah’s day. Conceivably, were he around today, that would probably one instrument he would use for moving leaders towards a continental unity that serves Africans and moves them away from looters.

A candid APRM may admit on a good day that the forces which have the Congolese cornered are the same ones that in varying degrees afflict every African country. The sovereignty of the people is under threat everywhere.

Were Nkrumah here today, with the weight of 100 years worth of wisdom, he would probably say the call for unity is not only for DR Congo but for Africans everywhere. How else, he would ask, could this phase of democratic transition work?