Africa’s Political Kingdom and the Albatross of Economic Bondage

Abstract

Kwame Nkrumah wa Ghana o ile a thekga thuto ya gore ntwa ya Afrika ya tokologo, kgatlhanong le mafase a bokoloniale a Bodikela, moo Afrika e neng e lwešwa mo ntweng ya go tlhoka toka, ntwa ye ya tokologo e swanetše go re tlisetša “mmušo wa dipolotiki pele”. Tshepo e be e le gore “tše dingwe ka moka di tla latela.” Thuto e, e kwana gabotse le seo Mateo 6:33 mo puku-kgethwa e se bolelang, gomme go laetša gore go na le kgokagano ye e raraganego magareng ga bodumedi le dipolitiki, kudukudu dipolitiking tša thutatumelo ka gare ga seemo sa bokriste bja Bodikela. Se, se bohlokwa ka gobane bontši bja baetapele ba pele ba dipolotiki ba Afrika, e be e le bakriste ka kgodišo goba ka boikgethelo. Ka go realo, thuto ya Nkrumah – go sa šetšwe temogo ya gagwe ya gore tokologo ya dipolotiki ga se ya felela ntle le tokologo ya moruo – e ile ya wela mobung wo o nonnego wa bathobaso ge Afrika ka moka ye e ikemetšego ka dipolotiki, e e amogela le go e phethagatša. Ka lebaka leo, morwalo wa bokgoba bja moruo, o a buša ka gare ga Afrika bjalo ka leswika le tlemilweng molaleng wa motho, leo le ka tshwantšhisago byale ka nonyana ye e hwilego ya lewatle ya Albatrose e e tlameletšego molaleng wa mosesiši wa sekepe, go ya ka Coleridge wa sereti. Go rena, Albatrose ke seswantšhetšo le therešo ya gore lewatle e be e le tsela ya lehu go badudi ba bantši ba setlogo ba ma-Afrika, bao ba ilego ba tumolwa ka matla gore e be makgoba “lefaseng le lefsa” la Amerika. Phokotšo ya palo ya badudi ba Afrika, ke lehu le lengwe gape leo le nyakago, go fedišwa ka ponyo ya leitlho le ka thulaganyo, ka go oketšwa ga palo ya badudi ba Afrika, byalo ka ge Cheikh Anta Diop a šišinya. Kgopolo yeo e thekgwago mo, ke ya gore kganetšo ya thuto ya Nkrumah ke senyakwa sa tšhoganetšo seo se theilwego godimo ga nyakego ya go lefa le go bušetša Afrika lefase, bogoši le boikemedi ba Afrika, le go oketša palo yeo e fokoditšwego ya ma-Afrika. Tšeo ka moka di tla thuša Afrika go tliša le go oketsa morua wa yona. Taba-kgolo ya rena re tla ye lebiša go Afrika Borwa yeo e fentšwego ntweng ya bokoloniale, re latela mmono wa ubu-ntu.

Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana espoused the doctrine that Africa’s struggle for liberation from subjugation by the Western colonial conqueror in its unjust wars of conquest must seek “the political kingdom first”. The complement to this is that “the rest would be added thereunto”. This implicit reaffirmation of Matthew 6:33 reveals the intricate connection between religion and politics, in our particular point of focus, theological politics in the context of Western christianity. This is important because most of the early political leaders of Africa were either christian by upbringing or conviction. Accordingly, Nkrumah’s doctrine—despite his discernment that political independence is incomplete without economic freedom—fell on fertile black soil as the rest of politically independent Africa adopted and implemented it. In consequence, the burden of economic bondage lives on in Africa like the dead Albatross around the neck of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner. For us the Albatross is both the symbol and the reality that the Ocean was the pathway of the death of many indigenous Africans uprooted by force to become slaves in the “new world”. This depopulation of Africa is yet another death demanding, as argued by Cheikh Anta Diop, the rapid and systematic repopulation of Africa. The thesis defended here is that the repudiation of Nkrumah’s doctrine is an ethical exigency rooted in the demand for reparations to Africa, restoration of sovereign title to territory and its repopulation for emancipation from economic bondage. Conqueror South Africa is our specific focus from the perspective of ubu-ntu.