6 Ways a Union of West African States Would Benefit All Black People

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in all fields of economic activity, including transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters. The member states are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. According to Desire Ouedraogo, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, the organization's intermediate goal is to realize the 2020 vision of moving from an "ECOWAS of states to an ECOWAS of people’’ within a single prosperous economic space in which the people transact business and live in dignity and peace under the rule of law and good governance. Based on the stated objective, we have outlined several ways in which ECOWAS could transform itself into a global superpower for the interest of African people at home and in the Diaspora. Unite to Create a Black Superpower Nigerian author Chinweizu in his Black Power Pan-Africanism (BPPA) Manifesto wrote: "A Black superpower in Africa is the key factor for restoring global respect and self-respect to the Black race; therefore, building this superpower is our paramount project. For, as Marcus Garvey taught us, A race without authority and power is a race without respect." With a population of over 300 million people and a geographical land mass of almost 2 million square miles, a political union of ECOWAS member states or "The New Songhai Republic" would have as many people as the United States and a larger land mass than the European Union or India. Another Black superpower could also be created out of the territory and population of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with 277 million people and a land mass larger than the entire United States - including all territories. Operationalize Our Unity Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africans to be disregarded and humiliated, and will therefore increase the effectiveness of the decisions we make and try to implement for our development. The unity that Africa needs today is summed up in the BPPA Manifesto: "Unity through a hierarchy of organizations is what is needed among African people today. This is the kind of unity an economic franchise imposes on its outlets; it is also exemplified by how Wall Street unifies the economy of the USA. Lack of attention to this type of unity has meant that there have been no efforts to create Pan-African apex organizations to unify efforts and give leadership in the economic, social and cultural areas of life. No great consortium of banks with Pan-African reach and clout. Yet it is hierarchic networks of these sorts that embody and operationalize unity." Liberate Africans Economically A new scramble for Africa marks the beginning of the latest chapter in the plunder of the continent. The United States, Europe, China and others are seeking to consolidate their grip on Africa’s oil, its minerals, and other resources, all worth more every day because of a massive boom in the price of oil and raw materials. Like earlier ventures, the new rush for Africa is not only about profits, but also control of strategic resources. During a visit to Kingston, Jamaica, in August 2012, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo called on world powers to grant Black nations a second emancipation, which he said is economic liberation. Almost a year later, Tete Antonio, the African Union ambassador to the United Nations, made a similar call to Africans in the Diaspora, asserting that they are needed for movement toward “the economic liberation of Africa.” The majority of Black people all over the planet are in need of economic liberation and this would be a great place to start. Source: isreview.org Re-think Our Collective Security Posture The question of the collective security of the Black race comes down to this: “How do we ensure that we shall never again be enslaved, conquered and colonized by anybody?” says Chinweizu. South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko once noted that we are not a suspicious race. While some of us might think this trait is a virtue, it is not. It might be a virtue in a world where pacifist morality governs the activities of both men and nations, however it is a vice in the warrior morality world in which we live. As such, a warrior morality consciousness is needed for the security of the group and its collective interest - be they national or international. Scholar and historian Cheikh Anta Diop pointed out that the most essential function that a culture must serve is survival. He wrote: "We need to repair our culture. We need to evolve a new African culture that breeds out the pacifist mentality and inculcates a warrior mentality in every four-year old. But can this change be effected? Yes, it can. Just consider what Shaka did, in just ten years, with his reforms. In fact, on just one fearsome day, he wiped out cowardice from the Zulu nation. So, if we set about things correctly, we can change from a pacifist morality to a warrior morality even in one generation. That is a task for our education system." Industrialize and Achieve Prosperity More than 500 years after commercial exploitation of its resources, Africa continues to host many large and unexploited deposits of minerals. For example, Africa accounts for three-quarters of the world’s platinum supply, and half of its diamonds and chromium. It has up to one-fifth of the planet’s gold and uranium supplies and it is increasingly home to oil and gas production, with over 30 countries now in this category. Yet with minor exceptions, Africa does not consume or add significant value to the mineral products that it has in abundance. Rather, the African nations are net exporters of raw materials that fuel prosperity and development in other regions. Africa is largely seen as a price-taker rather than a price-maker, with a marginal role in international trade. The question that arises is why the continent continues to struggle with limited economic transformation, low or no resource rents, and scarce employment? In the last ten years, commodity prices have hit a super-cycle, yet Africa’s share of windfall earnings have been minuscule compared to what mining companies have realized. If the masses of African people are to benefit from their human and material resources, the continent must industrialize and do it fast. Marcelo Giugale, World Bank’s director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Programs for Africa, in his comparison of China's industrialization and Africa's need to industrialize, noted, "China did not count on massive natural resources. Economic growth was gained the hard way -- farm by farm, factory by factory, and shop by shop. There was no oil, gas, or mineral bonanza pumping billions of dollars into the economy and into the government's coffers. If anything, China had to import all that. This should make industrialization relatively easier for Africa, a region super rich in commodities. But that depends on how that wealth is spent. Is it going to build Africa's human capital? A more reliable electricity supply? Better roads? Faster ports? A more efficient civil service?" If the answer to Marcelo's questions is not a resounding "Yes," then as Marcus Garvey said - If we cannot do what other nations have done, what other races have done, what other men have done, then we will have to die. Source: AtlantaBlackStar.com Implement a Cultural Re-Africanization Program Chinweizu says, "The central objective in decolonizing the African mind is to overthrow the authority that alien traditions exercise over the African. This demands the dismantling of white supremacist beliefs, and the structures which uphold them, in every area of African life. It must be stressed, however, that decolonization does not mean ignorance of foreign traditions; it simply means denial of their authority and withdrawal of allegiance from them." A powerful political and economic union of West African states would need to carry out extensive research and create an incredible amount of media content and properties to use in its arsenal to decolonize the over 300 million African minds living within its borders. The cultural seeds of this content would naturally spread to other African people on the continent and in the Diaspora. Such a project would have a net positive effect on the majority of Black people, in the same way the predominantly Eurocentric ideas coming out of Hollywood infects and affect most of its consumers - and gives people of European descent in particular a positive view of themselves in the world.

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