News filtering in that an African student from Cameroon who has been studying in Ukraine has joined the Neo-Nazis in Ukraine to fight the Russian Army is indeed a very worrying development. First and foremost, does this African student know what he is fighting for? Is this student aware that the people he is trying to assist detest him because of the colour of his skin?
In the past, during the first and second world wars, thousands of Africans were hoodwinked to join these wars which they had no knowledge of and why they were fighting in the first place. As a result of that, thousands of black soldiers were killed fighting on the side of their oppressors. The key word is here is “fighting on behalf of their oppressors”.
After the war the white soldiers with whom they fought side by side with were rewarded with vast hectarage of land in the former colonies where these black soldiers came from. But the returning black soldiers were only honoured with valueless war medals which some still hold on to this day.
Today across Africa, we see many monuments that have been erected in honour of these two world wars and often captioned “We fought and died for our Queen”. The question is whose queen did these Africans die for?
The tragedy of Europe at the moment is that it lacks good leadership. If one looks at the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the way he has reacted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, clearly tells you what I am trying to say here. The fact that all the two world wars started in Europe, should be a clear indication that the European continent lacks good and astute leadership with their people’s lives at heart.
These leaders are willing to sacrifice their people at any given time. They are only interested in cutting deals with the military industrial complex. Furthermore, the people in Europe and USA are so naïve they don’t question their governments on anything. Many are incapable of thinking independently and end up cheering their leaders. A good example of this is when Mr. Bush and Blair were busy manufacturing lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and they believed them.
Examining the causes that have contributed to the war currently going on between Russia/Ukraine, one notices broken promises all around with a blatant characterization and disrespect of the Russian people as being less human than the rest in western Europe.
This reminds of what was going on during the cold war era between the Soviet Union and the USA. The CIA mobilized Pentecostal and Evangelical churches and encouraged them to write eschatological books that gave false biblical interpretation of certain verses that sought to depict USSR and Communism as the bad guys for worldwide consumption. And yet we all know that they in the western hemisphere believed less in God and were inherently atheist themselves. The Russians were in actual fact more Christian than them.
The gimmicks and treachery of western leaders know no bounds. They are willing to employ every dirty trick at their disposal just to prove they are right. Today the demonization of President Vladimir Putin continues unabated with his caricaturing having reached unprecedented levels.
To incite the Russian people to turn against him, they are playing with a lot of theories around him. Some say he has cancer, and he is therefore dying soon, some say he is not right in his head. Still, some are openly calling for his assassination by the Russian security forces.
Western leaders are not willing to listen to advice coming from anyone elsewhere and yet the world is currently at the blink of a third world that could potentially cause a lot of untold suffering among God’s people across the world. Why do they behave like this?
In the 1960s, a replica of what is currently going on in Ukraine played itself out in the Cuban missiles debacle when the USA protested and nearly went to war with USSR when it deployed nuclear bombs in Cuba. However, reasoning prevailed, and a potential nuclear war was averted.
Today its Russia’s turn in reverse, and President Putin has been complaining about NATOs expansion not to include territories which were previously under Russia. And guess the response coming from the USA and its NATO allies, “its their democratic right to join NATO and Russia should stay away from opposing that.
The African Union (AU) should officially steer Africans away from joining wars that have got nothing to do with the continent or rendering its support to aggressors and Russia in this war is not the aggressor. It is the wronged party in this regard. Africa should deliberately conscientize its young to not fall into the trap of joining and dying in these so many senseless wars that Europe is unleashing on the world today.
Our youth should know that after the war, they shall definitely be excluded from the sharing of the spoils of war as the white people will share it amongst themselves. Individual African leaders should ensure that they enact laws that forbid their citizens from falling into these trappings and inculcate within the young people a sense of national pride in them.
They should also endeavour to build an enabling economic environment and encourage the youth to participate in mainstream economy of their countries. Aluta Continua!
By:
Dr. Mustafa Mheta
Senior researcher/Head of Africa Desk
Media Review Network SA
Dean: School of Languages at Somali
National University (SNU) Mogadishu
Federal Republic of Somalia
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