Africa Freedom Day which falls on 25th May is a day in which Africans observe the creation of the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) and pay tribute to the Heads of State, who through a common vision of unity, freedom, equality, justice and progress decided to seek a joint African solution to the challenges facing Africa in the 1960s.
Forty five years later, what does this Day have to do with 15, 000 immigrants in South Africa who are seeking for shelter after a series of xenophobic attacks from South African citizens? What has this Day to do with Mr. Morgan Tsvangarai the winner of first round presidential elections in Zimbabwe? What has this Day have to with Mr. Tsvangarai who has spent the last one month outside Zimbabwe because of fear for his life? What has this Day to do with thousands of women and children in Sudan who are raped, killed and injured by government troops and by militias? What has this Day to do with civilians in northern Uganda who continue to be victims of the 21 year-old fight between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army? What does this Day has to do with millions of our people who are in the majority who lack access to clean water, food, health and education?
Africa has achieved much in the last forty five years. Take the example of Zambia which had 100 university graduates when it attained Independence. Today we have thousands of people with university education. The one-party state has been abolished and we now hold free multi-party elections. There are encouraging progress towards gender equality and human rights compliance.
However, overall it is clear that Africa has a long way to go for the ideals of the OAU to be realized. One challenge we continue to face is that of leadership. In I Samuel 8 we see Samuel carefully explaining to the Israelites all the negative consequences of having a bad king. Like the Israelites most of us rarely weigh the positives and negatives of those who offer themselves to us as leaders. And because we were not careful in our choices of leaders we have ended up with kings who Samuel said would draft child soldiers into their armies, make us slave labors, steal our land, give our inheritance to foreign investors and demand heavy taxation.
Does the prophecy of Samuel sound familiar to our situation? It need not be if we are preaching Christ as our model leader. Jesus came that we may have true freedom. Christ is our only hope for true freedom on African freedom day. What did you preach about on Africa Freedom Day?
Lawrence Temfwe
