‘My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight.’ Solomon Mahlangu was one of many young freedom fighters from Soweto, the first African National Congress member to be hanged by the South African Apartheid regime. Those were to be his last words. The apartheid regime has fallen, the people of South Africa are free, but the struggle continues. May he rest in power. ‘People like me’ were not given an opportunity to speak on Monday at the United Nations’celebration of 70 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Obviously, they did not want anyone to rain on their parade, and that is fair. But I am privileged to have this column and here is what I would have said yesterday: I would have said that on this day, seventy years ago, when this declaration of human rights was published, African countries were under colonialism, women did not vote, the United States, the United Kingdom and most of the west supported the apartheid regime in South Africa. These declarations did not have ‘people like us’ in mind. Calling such ‘universal’ stems from typical imperialist immodesty. Just like we have US based ‘Human Rights Watch’ or ‘Amnesty International’ or ‘International’ or ‘Global’ this and that – it is what we call in French ‘Faire entrer le loup dans la bergerie’; the declaration was just a gentleman’s agreement in a club of white men, sipping whiskey, smoking cigar and discussing their slaves, women and horses. But through the struggle of our fathers and mothers, we have earned these human rights; and we have made them truly ‘Universal’. Nelson Mandela was released from prison on Robben Island and removed from the terrorist lists of the US and the UK and our countries are independent, no thanks to those who claim to represent human rights. And for that we salute Emperor Haile Selassie AI, we are grateful to Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Ben Bella for the fight of African liberation. I write to you today because I recall the words from comrade Bantu Steve Biko, another ANC freedom fighter to die at the hands of the oppressor; he said; “The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. If one is free at heart, no man-made chains can bind one to servitude, but if one’s mind is so manipulated and controlled by the oppressor, then there will be nothing the oppressed can do to scare his powerful masters.’ My former classmate, a fellow human rights lawyer has been producing videos that portrayed Ghana, his country in a bad light since graduation five years ago. His latest video, showing public defecation in Accra has earned him a prize from the former Afrikaans university which we went to. I resisted breaking it up to him that the prize had nothing to do with his skills, but that he was subliminally playing into a stereotype. I didn’t want to ‘burst his bubble’. On Monday too, I might have busted their bubbles. I might have said that we are grateful to friends: Fidel Castro for his support to the struggle of the MPLA in Angola and SWAPO in Namibia and Ernesto Guevara ‘Che’ for joining the struggle to liberate the Congo from an America-backed dictator. We do not forget Nikita Krutchev and Leonil Brejnev, Cold War-era leaders of the USSR, for supporting all guerilla movements in Africa. In the west we ONLY thank Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, then US First Lady who pioneered the struggle of women in the drafting of this Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I see many of my young African siblings going to be ‘educated’ in the west and coming back to us confused. It is not their fault. The important thing today is to contemplate how far we have come, the sacrifices made and the task ahead. Let us not forget that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are also the biggest manufacturers and exporters of guns; they are the biggest polluters of the environment. They have military bases across the planet and have stakes in all wars being fought on the four corners of the world. The United Nations’ governance in it’s current form, might be the biggest obstacle to this Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Three of the UN Security Council members have not ratified most of the UN treaties and conventions; the United States, for instance, has not signed the UN convention against torture – which they continue to practice upon Muslims worldwide; they call it ‘enhanced interrogation technique’ If we are to achieve universal freedom in the world, we shall do so: in spite of these United Nations. We are going to make use of Africa’s Ubuntu and South American earth philosophy of ‘Pacha Mama’ (mother earth). Some countries managed to maneuver the UN Security Council members, pit one against the other and achieve their own goals. Over the years we have gotten good at this. During the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharlal Nehru and Kwame Nkrumah we had a ‘Non-Aligned Movement’, or in Nkrumah’s words: ‘We faced not east nor west, we faced forward!’. In this time of the fall of a hegemon, and the rise of another, we must define our position and face forward. We must come together, integrate, sign the CFTA, remove visas, and work towards fulfilling the Agenda 2063. There is a saying in Kinyarwanda: ‘Nta Runar, nta Roni’. (There is no difference between UNAR – A defunct Rwandan Royalist party and United Nations). My people waited for 30 years for the UN and the King to return them to Rwanda. They had to take up arms and die so that the Rwandan diaspora can finally return home. Today, Africans are free, but not the Congo; Apartheid is over, but black people haven’t gotten access to the means of production. Women can vote but equality remains a far cry to them. For small countries to liberate themselves we are going to need solidarity, like the saying goes: ‘they have millions, we are millions!’ The views expressed in this article are of the author.
