{UAH} Why Africans must work to be masters of themselves

Why Africans must work to be masters of themselves
Publish Date: Dec 30, 2014

By Keefa Kaweesa

 

MOZAMBIQUE is one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, with billions of dollars worth of untapped natural resources. But the country remains one of the world's poorest.

 

Last week, I attended an African Union organised meeting aimed at fomenting an AU-CSO Annual Consultation on the Africa-EU Joint Strategy in Maputo, Mozambique.

 

As we over flew from Johannesburg to Maputo, I realised that South Africa was very big as observed from the sky. Agriculturally developed because you could see organised farms and storage facilities which are not available here.

 

Less than an hour, came Maputo, where forests and large bushes, large spanks of green land, scattered wattle  roofed houses similar to the ones we had here in the 60s, undeveloped areas due to a sound reason.

 

Deep inside me, I wondered where on earth Museveni got the remotest idea to travel and train this far, then we landed. Walking thru the airport you notice the town itself, Maputo is typical foreign built, infested with the half's and have not's and the locals stay where they stay.

 

The evenings as you may call them, are heavily young and old folks parking along the river in the middle of the town, using their car stereo music, some of which is transferred to the boot of the car to entertain themselves with grand passing by senoritas, amigos, drinking away their daily savings and forgetting their poverty and misery at least for a day.

 

Mozambique went to polls in October, 2014 and the governing Frelimos's Party Filipe Nyusi 55 won 57% of the vote, with the main opposition Renamo party's Afonso Dhlakama coming second with 36%.

 

He will be sworn in January and has pledged to mechanise the agricultural sector and tackle unemployment. The current president Ghebuza who visited Uganda recently, is finalising his term of office having served two terms.

 

Frelimo also maintained its majority in the 250-seat parliament, but has lost 49 seats compared to 2009. Frelimo has dominated politics since independence from Portugal in 1975, but Dhlakama came out of hiding to run for the presidency.

 

Renamo, which fought a long civil war with Frelimo that ended in 1992, has already rejected the results typical of African opposition parties.

 

It alleges that the vote was riddled with widespread irregularities.  Mozambique Democratic Movement's Daviz Simango, obtained 6.5% of the presidential vote.

 

An estimated one million people died in the civil war. Renamo took up arms again in 2013 but in August agreed a ceasefire.

 

During commercial breaks, I scouted around areas where I thought Museveni might have stepped. Some had similar African names such as Sabizanga, Mutamba, Samba, Sanga, Kifangondo, Cassenda, then I came across names a down town person here would not easily adopt; zangueiras (women street vendors), the quitandeiras (grocers) and the condongueiros (the problematic minibuses).

 

I tried to talk to old men who might have participated in the struggle and come across our generessimo and the places where he might have undertaken the training when he was there but was defeated by the language and I was not lucky, maybe next time. People were polite, friendly but spoke Portuguese and called out to me Amigo!

 

Finally, at a hastily farewell party by one of the officials from Maputo, we were made to say a few words. When my turn came, I thanked the people of Mozambique for having hosted Museveni and other Ugandans and having trained him in the Mozambique drill. That got them excited but I doubt whether they understood all my submission.

 

The African Union has yet to promote a language that can be used on the continent because how can brothers bound by blood in Africa, especially Mozambique and Uganda, fail to understand one another.

 

However, what I gathered there was basically ideology, the feeling that Africans have to be masters of themselves, the sacrifice and the commitment. Adios Amigo.

The writer is a lawyer

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