Gaddafi’s vision for Africa is a pipe dream

By Ibrahim Ndamwe

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan strongman and Africa’s self-styled King of Kings, is a dreamer. Even as he championed for a unified African State, his fellow presidents at the AU meeting had to rely on experts to translate his words into English, French and Portuguese because they don’t share a common language.

The fact that he had collected a bunch of tribal chiefs and announced himself king of the whole lot also exposed the contempt in which Arabs hold Africans. They never say it aloud but in truth, some Arabs consider Africans beneath them — an inferior race, even slaves if you like. Likewise, black men hold Arabs in contempt. When they talk about "fellow Africans", Arabs are the furthest thing on their minds.

Thus, none of the black leaders in the AU even remotely consider Gaddafi as a fellow African. And none would be bothered with lofty dreams about a United States of Africa when they have enough trouble keeping their own banana republics united anyway.

Huge oil reservoir

Still, the prospect of a United States of Africa is exciting: An awesome consumer market, a huge reservoir of oil and mineral deposits, an intellectual powerhouse and, of course, an exhilarating source of athletic and football talent.

Unfortunately, like Gaddafi’s 1970s dream for Pan-Islamism and a single Arab State — of which he, again, grandiosely sought to be the ideological head — Africa will never be one.

First, there is territorial mistrust and enmity. Gaddafi himself sent an army into Chad over a territorial dispute. Kenya and Uganda, although peaceful neighbours, have almost come to blows in the past. At different times Ethiopia and Eritrea and Kenya and Somalia have clobbered each other for this very reason.

A Kenyan stupid enough to go fishing in Ugandan waters in Lake Victoria finds himself in deep trouble, even though most of the lake’s waters originate from our Cherang’any Hills and the Mau Forest. Still, Kenya’s rivers must flow to the north to irrigate Egypt’s golf courses while Luo Nyanza remains arid and wallows in perennial floods and the people of Ukambani die of thirst.

Lynched and buried

Equally, a Kenyan entrepreneur in Tanzania could be lynched and his remains buried in the sands of Lake Victoria, a fate not dissimilar to that of hungry Zimbabweans who find themselves in South Africa — regional blocks notwithstanding.

Even within states, tribes and clans routinely face off militarily across ridges. Sudan is actually made of two, or three, mini nations that hate each other’s guts. Uganda has Kony and his militia. President Kabila can’t figure out what’s happening in some parts of his own country. Somalis don’t know whether they belong to Kenya or Somalia while the Turkana, Pokot and other disparate tribes north of Kenya don’t know and they don’t give a hoot.

Zimbabwe’s dollars are cheaper than toilet paper; everyone is stealing Congo’s resources; South Africans are burning makwerekwere (foreigners) while no African would dare sail in Somali waters. Give up — you won’t unite this crazy bunch, Col Gaddafi. Beyond our black skins, poverty and colonial legacies, we share nothing in common.