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Perspective Stephen A Mpofu   
United and with God on their side, African countries will stand solidly and together until the end of time. But if they allow themselves to continue to be divided, as is the case today, the countries of Africa will remain villains of the so-called rich, industrial West. Contextually, the litmus test or otherwise, of the solidarity among African countries will vindicate themselves in the outcome of a face-off between the continent and the imperialist West on the one hand, and between the European and the African Union’s on the other hand.

Thus, two battle lines have already been drawn, the first over the dehumanising and humiliating treatment of African leaders by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

AU leaders have decried the West’s adamant demand that African leaders accused of crimes against humanity, purportedly for inciting violence in their countries, should be dragged by the ear to stand trial whether or not they plead innocent of the charges laid against them.

What now remains to be seen is whether Africa will stand by its guns and ensure that under no circumstances will the leaders that the West accuses of committing crimes against humanity avail themselves at The Hague for the West to consummate its treatment of African leaders as though they were little children.

It seems clear that the ICC has been turned into an imperialist instrument for castrating African leaders of their dignity by making them appear as lawless people.

Contrast this scenario with the behaviour of Western leaders who led pre-meditated invasions of Iraq for instance, killing its President Saddam Hussein, and in the process destabilising that Arab country with the result that sectarian and internecine violence has become the order of the day.

In Africa, Western imperialist forces were also unleashed, killing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and starting a spiral of violence that has rocked and threatens to dismember that Arab nation.

But have we heard anything about the leaders of those countries whose pre-meditated actions are tantamount to crimes against humanity being dragged by their long hair before the ICC? No, because those same architects of the ICC regard themselves as being sacrosanct even in the eyes of God or so it appears by their heads-in-the-sand insularity to African concerns.

If the United Nations Security Council persists in its connivance with the imperialist powers against Africa, to hell with its partisan behaviour. In the other showdown, no African leader should attend the forthcoming EU-AU summit in Brussels, Belgium, in April if President Mugabe, now vice-chairman of the African continental body, is not invited to attend.

It is only when African leaders refuse to knuckle under the old, imperialist tactics of weakening Africans by dividing them in order  to rule them, that the continent will earn respect from the rest of the world.

If the worst gets to the worst, Africa should consider imposing sanctions against imperialists by putting a political premium on the continent’s rich mineral and other resources.

Today, Africa’s abundant resources in the form of raw materials are being bought for a song by foreign consumers.
When landed there they are refined and then sold back to us, the original African owners for atrocious prices.

The time surely has come for secondary industries in Africa to mark a point of departure to industrialisation with finished products being sold abroad with value addition on them so they may earn the much needed capital for unimpeded, social and economic development back home.

Once Africa possesses the power to dictate terms using her rich potential of resources, those who will desire to trade with the continent will have to do so on its own terms, not the other way round as is the case today.

Some might say putting stringent conditions for the procurement of Africa’s resources might cause international investors to withhold their capital.

That might be so but if Africa wields her immense resources as a bargaining power there is a real chance that international owners of capital and the owners of rich resources will engage each other in business on even terms.

Africa must refuse to be intimated in whatever way by its former colonisers and their imperialist cousins. That will demonstrate the continent’s maturity as a force to be reckoned with by the international community.