Africans should not allow the fact of the independence of each one of their countries to turn them into spectators when crimes against the people are being committed, says President Thabo Mbeki.
Delivering the ”Guardian” lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, he said it was true that each African government derived its mandate and legitimacy from its electorate.
”This would seem to suggest that everybody else should therefore stay out of the business of each of our states.”
However, if Africans were to deny suggestions that ”we will turn into the festering disaster of our age, we will have to proceed from the position that we are each our brother’s and sister’s keeper”, he said.
It was necessary to respond to critical remarks, and ”accept that in good measure we have made a mockery of the gift of independence”.
”I also think we must accept that we have allowed the devaluation of intellect and intellectual achievement and worst of all, the devaluation of African lives.
”We must therefore answer the questions honestly — what gift shall we, the living, bequeath to the unborn? What Africa shall we hand over to the future?
”In this regard I believe that we should first of all make a determination that we shall be our own liberators from poverty and underdevelopment, from dictatorship and tyranny, from war and instability.
”We must together take the decision that we shall determine our future,” Mbeki said.
”Secondly, we must reaffirm the fundamental truth that as Africans we share a common destiny. This means that we cannot but be concerned about one another.”
”It means that we must recognise the reality that none of us can prosper in peace if our African neighbour is weighed down by misery. It also means that we must understand that what each one of us does has an impact on the other.”
Africans’ own experience should tell them what they had to do.
”It is clear that we have to order our political and constitutional systems so that, as a historic document of our liberation struggle puts it, the people shall govern.
”We have to act together to ensure that our continent becomes a continent of democracy and human rights.
”We have to ensure that we end the scourge of war on our continent. In this regard, because of our interdependence and indeed because we share a common destiny; we have to agree that we cannot be ruled by a doctrine of absolute national sovereignty.
”We should not allow the fact of the independence of each one of our countries to turn us into spectators when crimes against the people are being committed,” Mbeki said. – Sapa