This speech was delivered by GOOD MP Shaun August during the debate on Africa Day in Parliament today.
Let us fight together as fellow Africans against inequality
26 May 2021
Honourable Chairperson
On Africa Day, we reflect on the continent’s progress in forging unity, peace, independence and better lives from the trenches of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and oppression.
But how can we talk unity when thousands of refugees are fleeing Morocco for better opportunities in Spain, and while nations bicker over the use of life-giving water from the mighty Nile River?
How can we talk peace when we are plagued with coups in Mali resulting from its inability to transfer power democratically, while the conflict in South Sudan has displaced more than four million people?
What independence do we speak of when our continent’s economic agenda is set by powerful institutions and nations thousands of miles from our shores?
How do the millions of Africans still live in poverty and seeking better lives and livelihoods? For how long, in discussions about global inequality, will Africans continue to occupy the very lowest rungs?
Chairperson…
The massive challenges we face must not give the impression that Africans don’t have agency; that we somehow survive by the grace of richer and/or more powerful players.
We haven’t survived by their grace; we have survived in spite of them…
We have our own gifts and strengths, among them resilience and diversity.
It is said that Africa’s riches are the minerals underground.
While the continent is indeed blessed with an abundance of precious metals and stones, there are arguably much greater riches in its peoples and cultures. It’s about seeing values differently…
Honourable Chair…
Arguably the very last thing the Mother Continent needed was Covid. It is exerting massive pressure on African economies and exposing massively under-resourced public health systems.
The rollout of vaccines to richer nations first cruelly maintains the cycle of global economic apartheid and inequality. The global north, already leading the race by many miles, will return to full economic activity before the south and further extend their advantage.
It sends a stark message to Africa: If we don’t act together we’ll be unlikely to ever be able to challenge inequality.
Without looking out for each other we’ll battle to ever achieve economic sustainability, and will therefore battle to take charge of our destiny.
That is GOOD’s message on Africa Day. We can fix things, but we must acknowledge our dependence on our sisters and brothers up and down the continent if we are to create something new.
We must change words associated with Africa, like poverty, corruption and wild animals, to words reflecting cultural richness and wisdom, natural resources that benefit the people, sustainability – and justice for all.
Thank you.
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