Let Africa Solve its Peace and Security Challenges

That we must now begin an African conversation around how to address African challenges to peace and security is not an option anymore. In fact, it has never been, only that for some strange reasons, many people always thought it was. External imposed mechanisms of addressing Africa’s challenges to peace and security have caused more harm than good. History never lies and experience is the best teacher. Is Africa too stubborn or too weak to learn from experience or is the continent so held hostage, by extra-African forces, that the room to learn is suffocated? Whichever the case, a new way of thinking must now emerge. Change is needed. Change never always simply happen, sometimes it is forced to occur. Africa has come of age and its leadership and people must learn to simply demand some things, at the least-respect.

For way too long African countries have been used as specimens in western war and conflict laboratories. Some people have lovingly chosen to toy with Africa, create different types of wars and conflict and even epidemics only to analyze the outcomes using African people and nations. In their writings they refer to those analyses as interesting findings. Unfortunately, some Africans, especially so called leaders, are in bed with the very people that toy around with Africa. Some of those who have had the audacity to question some things, have at best been isolated and at worst eliminated. But there has never been solidarity in fighting these injustices across the continent. It must not be allowed to continue this way. At some point a thick line must be drawn. The earlier the better, for the peace and security, development and prosperity of the continent.  

These experiments have now shifted from creation of various forms of wars on the continent to testing various hypotheses on post-conflict recovery and reconstruction. After, all, that is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Now we have an emergence of peace mercenaries and conflict entrepreneurs masquerading as experts on African conflicts and peace-building prescribing solutions to African conflict and wars, most of which have been deliberately created by them, or their fathers and mothers. Most if not all, African countries are emerging from war or serious internal conflicts, and about 10 African countries are currently embroiled in active violent conflicts. This is an industry. On the one end, are those who want to sustain these conflicts, escalate them or create new ones for sheer convenience; for their schools, organizations and jobs to remain relevant. On the other hand, are those who pose are experts with solutions to fix the mess in Africa.  And they use their media very well, to make the situation look exactly the way they want it to. It is simply and industry and big money is moving. Meanwhile the plight of millions of the people of Africa continues unabated. What is being witnessed across the continent are externally prescribed conflict resolution and/or transformation strategies, including externally forged, sometimes imposed, peace agreements, that are designed never to work so that business can go on as usual.

It must be clear that the only people who can solve the African problems are Africans themselves. Africa should not chase away external friends who genuinely wish to support these processes but let them work under terms determined by African people. Africans have not gone to resolve the conflicts in Belgium, or Northern Ireland, or Canada etc; which have had similar or even more complicated implications than some of the ones witnessed on the African content. Is it not wrong for people to sit somewhere in New York or Geneva and decide what can and should happen to end the conflict in South Sudan and come with ready-made solutions for the same? Africa should begin to think that the men and women; peasant citizens in villages of Burundi know better how to end the conflict that has plagued their country for decades. It is not correct to pretend that anyone else can come up with a workable solution for them. The best an outside can do is to facilitate the process that will help the people give birth to the peace of their country, or at least, leave them alone, instead of exacerbating already complicated situations. It is time to rethink the ongoing peace processes in Africa if the continent is to know peace.