Who will defend Africa against the rogue lions?
THE Mfecane is a Zulu word which means The Crushing.
In history, the Mfecane refers to a series of Zulu and other Nguni wars and forced migrations of the second and third decades of the 19th Century that changed the demographic, social and political configuration of southern and central Africa and parts of eastern Africa.
During that period, thousands of lives were lost and the entire subcontinent was destabilised. Empires were disbanded and the survivors regrouped to form new kingdoms.
The Ngonis ran away from Tshaka Zulu to come and form a new kingdom in present day Zambia while the Sotho people regrouped to form the country we call Lesotho today.
The Bemba like many other tribes in north and north western Zambia, the Kaonde, Chokwe, Lunda, Luunda, Luvale and Lamba broke away from the Luba-Lunda kingdom to come and establish new kingdoms and chiefdoms in Zambia.
In all the Mfecane migrations, the tribal warrior was at the centre of all the movements. The leaders of the breakaway groups were brave men who did not only fight and conquer other tribes, but they overcame forces of nature such as wild animals, natural barriers and disease.
As great Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff put it, “My ancestors were kings of old, they ruled the world and all of its gold………………but just look at me!”
These great warriors were only overcome by the gun powder of the white invaders, but after centuries of domination and enslavement, the warrior spirit revived and the children of great ancestors reclaimed their lands but just look at the grandchildren of the fathers, are they ready for the new war?
The invaders have changed tactics, they still want what originally brought them to Africa; the land, the gold, diamonds and cheap labour and there are no warriors to fight the new war – the war of economic domination!
“The Europeans did not come to Africa for paper money, they left paper money in Europe. They came for the gold, they came for the platinum, they came for the land and they came for our labour,” are the words of a middle aged Zimbabwean who has been forced to work in South Africa due to the bad conditions in his country.
He goes on to argue that those factors still exist in Zimbabwe today, but the people of that country are not utilising them today.
The Zimbabwean government, he says, has created conditions for Zimbabweans to have a claim for chrome, gold and any other resource except platinum and diamonds.
“Instead of us utilising those things, utilising our own labour, because we were educated to think that I need a job from a white man to earn paper money while he is the one that controls the gold, who controls the land and uses my labour, we are missing an opportunity,” he says.
He admits, and I hope other African youths can learn from him; “It took me almost 15 years to understand that the wealth of Zimbabwe is in Zimbabwe; the gold, the platinum, the land and the people.”
And he rightfully says Zimbabweans have become economic refugees because of the way they have been socialised to think that the economy of Zimbabwe is doomed because the white man is gone and because we don’t have debt from the IMF any more.
Tragically, this is the frame of mind of many Africans; they all believe that wealth comes from the northern hemisphere. Foreign investors and IMF or Chinese loans are the only source of wealth.
But the whites and the Chinese come to Africa go get the real wealth; the gold, the platinum, diamonds, copper, timber, manganese and ivory.
Instead of demanding prices for our copper, gold, diamonds, timber, and so on that will bring in enough money for our needs, we prefer to go to the IMF or World Bank whose loan conditions make it easier for the rogue lions to get out wealth cheaply.
Africa needs a new type of warrior. The new warrior does not need guns or nuclear weapons, his weapon is knowledge. He needs to have understanding of how the world operates to protect our land and wealth without a bloodbath.
The new African warrior must understand why there are rich countries and poor countries. He must understand that colonialism and imperialism gave the western countries the startup capital that they are re-investing in Africa and calling it foreign direct investments.
The resources that power the engines of western economic power come from Third World countries especially the African continent.
The current crop of African leaders cannot lead the new war, they have their hands tied to western monopoly capital.
It is therefore incumbent upon the younger generation, the next generation of leaders to prepare for a fight to reverse the theft of African resources in exchange of paper money.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created to end world poverty; but a near century of their existence has led to worsening poverty in the so-called Third World countries.
The rogue lions are all over the continent. A new Mfecane army must arise and save Africa.
Ends.
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