Crimes against Humanity

BY ASHLEY ADDEH 10 DECEMBER, 2015 09:35

 

Possibly the two most deplorable items regularly appearing in world news, are refugees and corruption and in their relation to Africa, they cause us immeasurable, negative publicity. Our magazine however, is only about Africa, and we mostly concentrate on the positive sides as we celebrate the great continent of Africa. This edition is dedicated to the ‘Scramble for Africa’ 130 years ago, therefore refugees and corruption are not the subject of this article.  

 

However, they do apply, to Africa at the time the continent was being scrambled for a 130 years ago, when Europeans were forcing across into Africa. Inhabitants were refugees in their own countries, created through the corruption of the European invaders.

 

They also apply today, as a legacy from those north-south invasions and another 50 years after every country in Africa has won its freedom back, it left Africa of today as the springboard for countless migrants and refugees. Corruption, the second of the culprits, had not only found fertile soil on our continent, as a legacy from the European settlers, it manifested itself as an omnipresent continuum in everyday life and governance. The European Conference delegates decided how to divide Africa, with no regard to any of the ethnic, linguistic or religious practices. Collectively they ignored African tribes, laws, cultures, sovereignty and institutions, which in itself was a monstrous crime.

 

That division of Africa set the stage for a myriad of the conflicts we still face to this day. The greatest Crime against Humanity was not the many million deaths; it lies in the fact that King Leopold (see Issue 5, page 85) was never convicted or punished, he wasn’t even prosecuted. His worst penalty, to prevent further scandal, was to be forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the Congo colony to the civil administration in 1908.

 

After which he completed his full 44 years of super luxurious reign, until his death. Africans must all rally behind the African Union, be proud of the fact that Africa is the richest continent; not in bank balances, but in what Africa possess as its birth right; stop allowing its riches to be taken and developed elsewhere.

 

Africa has to be willing and become able to create the facilities to develop and manufactured its resources internally, to the point that it will become a manufacturing and export power in the future. That will be the negation of the ‘Scramble for Africa’, the Cradle of Humankind. In this edition, Nomad Africa’s Elaine Porteous looked at rolling out professional procurement in Africa and also checked in a separate article if the African banking sector is moving along with the flow.  

 

Saving the best for the last, Nomad Africa project partnered with South Africa’s Talana Museum to celebrate (see Issue 5, page 70). Throughout the three day event, we witnessed a re-enactment of the battle of Talana, and marvelled at the museum’s all-inclusive historical records, wherein credit is given to all the brave people, men, women and children of all races who lost their lives in this conflict which influenced South Africa in its aftermath.

 

Nomad Africa’s invitation to this event by Talana Museum is a testament to our increasing and valuable contribution to the retelling of the African story to the outside world.   Nomad Africa is therefore continuously looking out for partners and investors from across the globe. This way we will unite to amplify the true Pan-African story.