Socialist Worker | issue 529 | April 2011
FEATURE
As the revolution in the Arab World is gaining momentum, people across the African continent are looking to events in North Africa as inspiration for struggles across the region. After all, continental Africans view North Africa as part of the continent.
A united Africa that includes the north has been the cornerstone of the Pan-African liberation movement for decades. Pan-Africanists reject imperialist discourses that divide the continent into Arab North and Sub-Saharan Black Africa. Simply put, the revolution in North Africa is equally Africa’s revolution just as it is the revolution of the Arab world.
Tunisia, where it all started, has a symbolic significance for Africa. It is a country that gave Africa its name. Known as Ifriqiya in the medieval era, Ibn Khaldun, the famous Arab historian born in present day Tunisia says the name was derived from Ifriqos bin Qais bin Saifi, one of the Kings of Yemen. Although Ifriqiya may have centred around Tunis, the name may have covered much of the North African coast. The name was later extended to cover the entire African continent.
The mass struggles in North Africa and those in the rest of the continent are intricately linked. From Cape Town to Cairo and from Benghazi to Lagos, the masses are fighting against neo-liberal austerity, state repression and corruption, lack of political freedom and democracy, and economic injustices stemming from mass unemployment, poverty, deprivation, rising food costs, etc.
From north to south, the people of Africa are fighting for freedom and dignity and are united in their struggle against imperialism and the Western-imposed, despotic regimes they are seeking to overthrow.
The people in the continent form the foundation of the revolution. The enemy (imperialist nations) would not surrender unless forced to and, therefore, it would require organization, unity of the people and determination to bring imperialism to its knees.
NEPAD
In the 21st century, Africa is confronted with the continued threats of neo-liberal globalization and militarization. Working in collusion with comprador elites, Western powers have employed the so-called New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an elite-driven process to further integrate Africa into an unjust world capitalist system that has contributed to economic collapse and mass impoverishment throughout the African continent.
Alongside Thabo Mbeki and Olesegun Obasanjo, former presidents of South Africa and Nigeria respectively, and Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal, it was Algerian President, Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika, one of the architects of NEPAD, who carried the North African banner to introduce this neo-liberal economic blueprint to the entire African continent.
As a “partnership” agreement between Western imperialists and their African agents, NEPAD was formalized on Canadian soil, during the 2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, where Canadian protesters joined others from across North America and beyond to challenge NEPAD and the G8’s global imperialist agenda.
At the 13th Summit of the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) of NEPAD held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in April 2005, deposed President Hosni Mubarak reiterated Egypt’s commitment to NEPAD. Like Algeria’s Bouteflika, both Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben-Ali regarded NEPAD as an important “development” tool for Africa.
Under NEPAD, people in the African continent have been subjected to further trade liberalization, more privatization of public utilities, public sector cutbacks and further reduction of access to essential services like health care, clean and safe water, and education.
In part, it was precisely the mass reaction to this neoliberal order that has triggered the revolutionary movements in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The people have also taken to the streets in Algeria and Morocco and as far east as Djibouti, where protesters are demanding the resignation of the US-backed tyrant, President Omar Ismail Guelleh Continued
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