Why I Have Become A Pacifist

What exist now have to change. There is nothing constant. Things are evolving and changing all the times. Nothing is static. That is how society has evolved and developed over the centuries. Change can be qualitative and quantitative. It can be progressive and it can be regressive.

Changes throughout history have often been very violent. In human development it has often been so. It is what has made society to advance. The old giving place to the new. The old will never give up power on a silver platter. That is why there is resistance. This leads to violence. What has become new today has come out through struggle. The painful birth prangs comes with change.

Let look at the situation in Africa today. I mean Africa bulkanised states who call themselves countries. We are all supposed to be one people with a common destiny. What do we see today? In the pre-independence era, stalwarts such as Kwame Nkrumah led our independence struggle. Against all odds, Nkrumah undertook gigantic and monumental developments projects for Ghana. It was unprecedented in Africa. The old established order, that of ex-colonial masters and their allies ensured that Ghana did not become a success story. We have had Lt. Gen Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, Jerry Rawlings and their likes that turned to violence for retrogression. Our states industries were sold for pittance.

The story has been same in Africa. We do not need to recount the stories. We have to weep for our dear souls. What do we make of the liberation struggles in Africa? In the 60s throughout the 80s and up to the 20s, people took up arms to propel and bring about change. We had the spectacular example of Guinea Bissau under Amilcar Cabral. A mainly poor and impoverished peasantry led by the middle class took up arms and nearly annihilated Portuguese colonialism. Today we have a Guinea Bissau that has become a near failed state with various competing middle classes vying for state power for personal self-interest. The losers. Ordinary people who died for independence.

Another story. Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) under the leadership of Agostinho Neto and ultimately with the military might of Cuba destroyed the invisibility of the apartheid military machine of South Africa. Angola is gushing with oil. What can we make of Neto Angola today? The President – Jose Eduardo dos Santos daughter (Isabel dos Santos) is the richest woman in Africa. What was this struggle for? Thousands of deaths to make schemers plunder state resources for their own interest.

And yet another story. Mozambique went through the same struggle for independence under the brutal Portuguese colonialism. Samora Machel died for it and countless thousands and if not millions. We had RENAMO. They cut the ears of their own people. One woman commented. “I do not know what the rebels want? Do they want to rule people without ears?”

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba paid dearly for his obstinacy. Genuine independence for Congo. Millions of people have since died for people who are making millions from Congo. The mobile phone I am or you are using has Congo blood.

And down in South Africa, we cannot even talk. The middle classes have assumed the unviable positions by the whites.

Let look at our own backyard. In Liberia, the Americo-Liberian domination was replaced by various competing forces/elites that wreaked the nation to its knees. Sierra Leone had it woes.

In Ghana, there have been coups and struggles among various competing forces. Rawlings came on the bandwagon of the struggles of our people for justice. He implemented the most far reaching IMF/World Bank policies. He was forced screaming to the constitutional table and today Ghana has some kind of multiparty system.

And unless we forget. Look at Sudan today. South Sudan that has fought against racism is reduced to ruins by various competing middle classes. Thousands deaths in a couple of weeks just for someone to be the top dog.

I am Pacifist now. The various struggles have failed to bring about genuine change. It has produced charlatans like Rawlings of Ghana, who thinks Ghanaians owe him something, when he has been the most destructive element of Ghanaian politics. Look at the heritage he has left for Ghana today: massive and unchallenged corruption.

Coup d’états, liberation struggles, armed struggles, inter and intra conflicts have not brought about any genuine change in Africa. There have not been any group of conscious party led by a group of people who care and want to obviate the injustice in Africa. We do not have the patriots that led the independence struggles.

We now have groups of various anti-nationalist elements who care not for what happens to the nation. They do not have sleepless nights about how our sons and daughters are dying trying to get to Europe. They do not care about the racism and injustice that face black people in Europe when they do get there. Education is fast becoming a privilege and not a right.

Their modem operand is naked accumulation of wealth. They want to accumulate and accumulate wealth at all cost. They prefer to kills and slaughter innocent people for their own personal greed.

Does this mean we should do nothing about it? Not at all. We have to take the necessary steps to change the situation. For now such a struggle for change should exclude and eschew taking up guns or arms to effect change.

We should use the limited democratic opening that is available to us. It is hard work, but it must be done. There is no alternative at present. There are impediments and frustrations along the road. The anti-nationalist forces will do everything against the interest of the common good. They will use money that they have stolen from the state against the interest of our people. They will use tribalism for their own interest. For time and time again our people will be deluded to go along with them and deliver them elections victories. But as time go on, this allude will be exposed. People will find that this people are up to no good. It will require a group of committed people to lead that democratic process. And that is what I am calling for.

Nyeya Yen