A pillar of hope

Two sets of international negotiations took place in Sandton on Sunday. On the surface they had nothing to do with each other, except that both were big news events and both affect large parts of Africa. Together they demonstrated the dichotomy that is Africa. There was also the reminder that failure in one set of negotiations could easily condemn the other ... as it so often does.

At the one meeting delegates from three African regional economic blocs sat down in the Sandton Convention Centre to commit themselves to the creation of a vast free trade zone that should in the longer term bring prosperity to 26 African countries and 600 million Africans.

At the other, also in Sandton, Southern African leaders were making a desperate attempt to tackle the Zimbabwean crisis at a special summit in the hope of securing the cooperation of competing political groups that would perhaps finally ensure democracy, prosperity and peace in that beautiful country.

Zimbabwe just happens to sit almost smack bang in the middle of the proposed Grand Free Trade Area. Will this former food basket of southern Africa continue to be a festering sore that could sink the free trade zone dream, or will it become a symbol of what might be achieved?

At present the signs lean towards the ominous. But then, as a proverb of the Kanuri people of Nigeria states: The pillar of the world is hope.

That there should be hope may have been the death cry of a young Zimbabwean killed in the dangerous shack land of Diepsloot, on the edge of Johannesburg. A video emerged last week showing his last horrible moments as a crowd, led by a 15-year-old boy, bludgeoned and crushed him to death. Why? Because he was Zimbabwean! Because, driven by the despair that has gripped his own country, he came south looking for a better life. What he found was fear, hatred, suspicion and death – a phenomenon the Bulletin reported about recently.

Youth Day

Perhaps this past week the same fate befell many more young people as both sides in the Libyan conflict stepped up their efforts to annihilate each other or in Sudan where heavy fighting has broken out between the north and the south ahead of their planned formal split into two separate countries next month. This weekend former South African President Thabo Mbeki was meeting with Sudanese and Ethiopian leaders to try to end the hostilities and restore hope to that region.

After all, it was Mbeki who said in his famous I am an African speech: “Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now! Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace! However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper!”

What runs like an ugly tapeworm through all of these countries is the scourge of poverty. That is why it is so important for the men and women who gathered in Sandton on Sunday to realise their dream of an economically liberating free trade zone. And, that is why it is equally important for the men and women at that other Sandton meeting to find a recipe for peace in Zimbabwe.

It is also just as important that so many other initiatives across Africa that seek to end wars, prejudice, famine, disease and other ills should succeed.

This week too, on June 16, South Africa will remember Soweto l976 and celebrate its youth. It is important that this celebration will stand as a symbol of hope to the youth of the entire continent, for people like the young Zimbabwean in Diepsloot. And, for his killers.

To realise this there should be no speeches and demands filled with hate, prejudice, greed or entitlement. Instead all those who will be making speeches in Africa this week, should look south to another big news event of the past week.

Mother of the Nation

To see how Africa’s renaissance can be achieved, they should look at the life of a truly remarkable woman, the mother of a nation who was laid to rest after years of selfless and exemplary service to the downtrodden communities of her country.

She had sacrificed much of her own life and that of her family for the betterment of her people, and of mankind in general. She was Mama Albertina Sisulu ... a true symbol of the character, the strength and the beauty that is Africa. Across the continent there are many others like her. But there are also many who could learn from her. Indeed a pillar of hope.

Stef Terblanche