Guinea Bissau and Madagascar, these two countries illustrate the drama of Africa in all its ugliness. Two countries where the authority of the state is flouted with the passive complicity of the international community and active of certain occult powers. Two countries that reflect this image of Africa that African intellectuals should reject with all their might.
Guinea Bissau
“On March 2, 2009, João Bernardo Vieira was killed in his official residence by armed men, apparently in retaliation for the explosion of a bomb that killed the country’s Chief General Batista Tagme Na Waie. The military officially denies the allegations after military officials claimed responsibility for Vieira’s death. »
Here is what one can read in the paragraph concerning the assassination of a democratically elected president by a band of savages. They did not hesitate to torture a 69-year-old man with a machete before murdering him like the last of the robbers or highway robbers. This man who fought at the risk of his life against the Portuguese colonizer, this true hero of the war of liberation was massacred like a dog and his assassins wander freely about their occupations in the country. No African worthy of the name dares to lift a finger to demand justice. No African head of state has deigned to come to honor with his presence the funeral of one of their colleagues for some and long-time friend for others.
They killed him because they wanted to avenge the death of their chief of staff. Those the same who are supposed to respect and enforce the institutions of the republic have done themselves justice on the basis of a poorly contained anger and a total disregard for human morality. They tortured him, murdered him and defiled his remains like the last of the thugs and no one is asking for justice, not even his ex-peers from the African Union. He was even given the supreme insult of refusing him the fortress of Amura, in the square of the heroes of independence, he was prevented from resting with other great fighters of the struggle for national liberation.
Him the commander whose intelligence and bravery has always been praised by all. Vieira even if he was at some point a dictator (still it would be necessary to define the exact meaning of this in this post-colonial Africa), was nevertheless democratically elected in 2005, as was President Kérékou in Benin after an inglorious past. It is only in Africa that such stupidity can take place. It is only in Africa that the military can consider themselves above the institutions in 2009 by force of arms.
It is only in Africa that even now idle soldiers can afford to take the life of a democratically elected President and avoid the firing squad. If all this is still possible it is certainly because we African elites refuse to change the mentality of our peoples……………………………………..
It is only in Africa that the military can consider themselves above the institutions in 2009 by force of arms. It is only in Africa that even now idle soldiers can afford to take the life of a democratically elected President and avoid the firing squad. If all this is still possible it is certainly because we African elites refuse to change the mentality of our peoples……………………………………..
It is only in Africa that the military can consider themselves above the institutions in 2009 by force of arms. It is only in Africa that even now idle soldiers can afford to take the life of a democratically elected President and avoid the firing squad. If all this is still possible it is certainly because we African elites refuse to change the mentality of our peoples……………………………………..
Madagascar
For several weeks a drama has been unfolding in full view of the whole world without anyone being moved. Here is another African country where a President (Marc Ravalomanana) in office democratically elected and triumphantly re-elected by direct universal suffrage sees his authority flouted without anyone lifting a finger to call the anarchists to order. Under false pretexts of bad governance, a former DJ who has become mayor (Andry Rajoelina) of Antananarivo proclaims himself in charge of state affairs, organizes demonstrations that turn into murderous scenes of looting, plunges an entire country into crisis. and it is the democratically elected President who is blamed. It is he who suddenly becomes responsible for the crisis in his country (already seen in other tropics!!!!).
The better the rebel is protected and elevated to the rank of dignitary, he is put on the same pedestal as the head of state whom the international community obliges to negotiate. All this is happening in Africa in 2009 and no one is protesting against this attempt to take power illegally.
To make the problem a little more difficult to solve, the army (ahhh these dear African armies!!!!!) is getting involved in the debate. She rebels, mutinies, chooses a leader and challenges the one who is supposed to be her supreme leader by threatening him with dismissal without the African Union saying stop to the comedy. Once again, African intellectuals are absent subscribers in the face of anti-democratic excesses which mean that we no longer even wait for the elections to fire the President in place. All it takes is a few hundred partisans, a few soldiers with little inclination to respect authority and a lot of Western media (if it was just that!!!!) to decapitate a power.
Before we went there with grenades and other Kalashnikovs, today we use other means to kill or undermine the very foundations of democracy. Until when are we going to set a bad example for others? How much longer are we going to cry out for economic development, for the well-being of peoples if we are not able to respect our institutions? Where will this road that we have deliberately chosen to take at our own risk and peril lead us to? When will the black give you the example of a civilized and ambitious people?
The answer to these questions is up to all of us as African intellectuals. It is urgent to react for the well-being of this continent, cradle of humanity but last in everything……….
