It’s Afrika Liberation Month. On May 25th 1963, designated Afrika Liberation Day (ALD), the independent heads of government met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to establish the Organisation of Afrikan Unity (OAU). It created the OAU Liberation Committee to channel assistance to those states still seeking independence, whose mandate ended in 1994. (1)
In reality, for the most part what we have had is sixty years of neo-colonialism, the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah described as an entity that has all the outward trappings on international sovereignty but that its “economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.” He argued that only Afrikan unity could destroy Neo-Colonialism: (2)
“The only effective way to challenge this economic empire and to recover possession of our heritage is for us to act on a Pan-African basis, through a union government.” (3)
In the current iteration, many are looking towards the Alliance of the Sahel States (AES – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) for inspiration against the backdrop of aggrieved colonial power France allegedly funding jihadists to try and destroy the west Afrikan coalition. (4)
Elsewhere other fault lines are erupting around so-called “xenophobia,” expressed most disturbingly in Azania (but by no means just there), seemingly in concert with emerging “delineation” sentiments in the diaspora. (5)
The Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement defines liberation as “the process of obtaining power to control every aspect of our lives, exercising the right to define. defend and develop ourselves as masters of our own destiny.”
This drive towards self-determination has been central to our most revered leaders, movements and governments of our history – UNIA-ACL, Rastafari, OAAU, Kwame Nkrumah, Maurice Bishop, Thomas Sankara, etc.
So we are not short of definitions or examples thus we are left to consider from whence comes the stumbling block?
(1) South African History Online (03/04/11) Organisation of African Unity (OAU). https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/organisation-african-unity-oau; New African (25/05/19) Africa Freedom Day: The birth and history of the OAU you should know. https://newafricanmagazine.com/longread/the-birth-of-the-oau-2/
(2) Kwame Nkrumah (1965) Neo-Colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism. International Publishers. p. ix
(3) Nkrumah. p. 259
(4) BreakThrough News (02/05/26) Was France Behind the Coup Attempt in Mali? w/ David Hundeyin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPlbq6Py9y8
(5) Lerai Rakoditsoe (27/04/26) The Ghost of Robert Sobukwe: Xenophobia, the ‘Rainbow Nation’ Fracture, and South Africa’s Unresolved Identity Crisis. https://leraitalks.substack.com/p/the-ghost-of-robert-sobukwe-xenophobia;
Frontline africa (27/04/26) Xenophobia In South Africa: ANC Failed — But Ghana Is Not Innocent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axSDgPB3iU0; Jacqueline Luqman (26/03/25) It Is Time To Reckon With The Reactionary Rantings of ADOS/FBA. https://www.blackagendareport.com/it-time-reckon-reactionary-rantings-adosfba
What is Liberation?
1) Will Afrika ever unify and de-colonise?
2) What’s behind the rise in “xenophobia”/”delineation” in our communities?
3) Why have been unable to implement lessons from our history?
4) To what extent are we working to be “masters of our own destiny”?
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