{"id":46051,"date":"2026-05-25T11:50:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=46051"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:50:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:50:56","slug":"africa-at-63-the-courage-to-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/africa-at-63-the-courage-to-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa at 63: The Courage to Say No!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diplomacy<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

The true measure of leadership will lie not in what is accepted, but in what is declined in defence of the continent\u2019s sovereignty, priorities, and long-term destiny<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

By Vijay Makhan<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

From the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 to today\u2019s African Union, Africa has moved from political awakening to a gradual assertion of agency. Sixty-three years on, the defining test is no longer unity in principle — but the discipline, and the courage, to say NO!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/span>Africa Today. Today Africa Weekly<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On 25 May 1963,<\/strong> a generation of African leaders gathered in Addis Ababa to give institutional form to a simple but far-reaching idea: that the continent\u2019s destiny would be secured through unity. The creation of the Organisation of African Unity was not merely symbolic. It was a strategic act — anchored in decolonisation, but driven by a deeper conviction that sovereignty, to be meaningful, had to be exercised collectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

Six decades on, under the banner of the African Union, that founding impulse endures — tested, adapted, and at times stretched by circumstance, but never extinguished.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Political Solidarity to Economic Architecture<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The early years of the OAU were shaped by the imperatives of decolonisation and the defence of sovereignty. Yet, even then, there was an emerging awareness that political independence, without economic transformation, would remain incomplete.<\/span><\/p>\n

That awareness found structured expression in the Abuja Treaty<\/strong>, signed in 1991, which laid out a long-term pathway towards the African Economic Community<\/strong>. The approach was deliberate \u00a0— \u00a0integration would proceed step by step, anchored in the consolidation of Regional Economic Communities<\/strong> as the continent\u2019s building blocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Across Africa, organisations such as the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the Economic Community of West African States and the Economic Community of Central African States were conceived not as ends in themselves, but as instruments — incremental steps towards a broader continental framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was never a short-term project. It was a generational undertaking, requiring patience, coherence and political will. It has to be conceded that not all the Communities perform at the same level.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Moment of Awakening<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

At the turn of the millennium, Africa was still too often described through the prism of failure — portrayed in Western commentary as a continent trapped in a cycle of setbacks, a board of \u201csnakes and ladders\u201d, \u201cthe lost continent\u201d where progress was repeatedly undone.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was in that context that some of us sought to challenge that narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n

I recall leading the OAU delegation to the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999<\/strong>. What unfolded there was more than a collapsed negotiation. It was a moment of realisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

African countries, long accustomed to fragmented engagement, began to understand the strategic necessity of speaking with one voice<\/strong>. Positions were coordinated with greater intent. The foundations of what would later emerge as structured groupings were being laid.<\/span><\/p>\n

It did not transform the system overnight. But it marked a shift in mindset — from participation to collective positioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was, in many ways, Africa\u2019s quiet awakening.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Vision to Instrumentation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If the OAU provided the political foundation, and the Abuja Treaty the strategic blueprint, the evolution into the African Union has increasingly focused on implementation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most tangible expression of this is the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement<\/strong> \u00a0— \u00a0an effort to give practical effect to decades of integration thinking. It represents a recognition that vision, however compelling, must ultimately translate into operational frameworks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the journey remains uneven. Commitments are not always matched by execution. National priorities do not always align with continental ambition. And external pressures — economic, strategic, geopolitical — continue to test Africa\u2019s cohesion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guard the Vision or Lose It<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As Africa marks 63 years of continental organisation, there is a truth that must be confronted without comfort: institutions do not collapse suddenly, they simply drift.<\/span><\/p>\n

The founders of 1963 were guided by clarity. Unity was not an abstract ideal; it was an instrument of emancipation. That clarity is at risk when form overtakes substance, and when engagement is pursued without discernment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Africa is courted as never before. Partnerships are proposed, financing extended, cooperation offered — often generously packaged, frequently well-intentioned, but not always aligned with Africa\u2019s priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us be clear \u00a0— \u00a0not all assistance serves Africa\u2019s interests.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

During my tenure at the OAU\/AU, in my capacity as a Deputy Secretary General and later as Commissioner, I recall advising a Council of Ministers that the time had come for Africa to recover a simple but essential faculty \u00a0— \u00a0the ability to say no.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Not as an act of defiance, but as an expression of strategic maturity. That counsel has lost none of its relevance. If anything, it has become more urgent.<\/span><\/p>\n

For what has followed, too often, is a pattern of unsolicited financing readily accepted, projects embraced without sufficient scrutiny, and over time, a burden of indebtedness that constrains policy space and undermines sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Across the continent stand the visible consequences — grand conference complexes, impressive in scale but modest in utility. They signal presence of the provider, but they do not generate productivity. They impress, but they do not transform.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are not neutral choices. They are strategic misallocations, financed at a cost that extends well beyond balance sheets.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question that must now be asked, without evasion, is this: who sets Africa\u2019s priorities?<\/span><\/p>\n

If Africa does not define them with clarity \u00a0— \u00a0and defend them with discipline \u00a0— \u00a0others will do so, incrementally but decisively.<\/span><\/p>\n

To accept everything is not openness. It is exposure.<\/span><\/p>\n

To engage without discrimination is not partnership. It is drift.<\/span><\/p>\n

To accumulate debt for non-productive prestige is not development. It is deferred constraint.<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa does not lack partners. What it requires is strategic selectivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

And above all, it must relearn the habit — long neglected, but now indispensable — of saying \u201cno\u201d: clearly, collectively, and without hesitation when its interests so demand.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Awakening to Agency<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sixty-three years after Addis Ababa, the debate about whether Africa is awakening belongs to another era.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question now is whether Africa can act with coherence and discipline: by deepening integration beyond rhetoric, by aligning national priorities with continental ambition, by engaging externally on clearly defined terms, and by exercising the restraint necessary to refuse what does not serve its long-term purpose<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa has not been navigating a game of chance. It has been constructing a system — patiently, unevenly, but with intent.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the past was about awakening, and the present about asserting agency, then the future will be decided by something more exacting: the courage to refuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

For in a world eager to engage Africa \u00a0— \u00a0often on terms not its own \u00a0— \u00a0the true measure of leadership will lie not in what is accepted, but in what is declined in defence of the continent\u2019s sovereignty, priorities, and long-term destiny.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Vijay Makhan
\n<\/strong><\/span>Cape Town, 20 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 22 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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