AFRICAN UNION
When I
landed in ‘Salisbury’ all those years ago, the embers of the Central Africa Federation
were still warm. The Federation was built on sand not on consent and it had a
brief life of ten years. But there was something sound about it. It brought
together three countries and while the benefits were shared inequitably,
economically speaking it had great promise. To just take one example, the
queues of trucks one now sees wasting time at borders was inconceivable. A man
from Zambia told me all you had to do, when crossing at Chirundu, was change
gear from 4th to 3rd.
The
Federation was in effect colonialism by other means. It paid lip service to the
aspirations of the vast majority and could only be held together by force. So
it collapsed. But in the very year of its demise, the African Union – it wasn’t
called that then – was born. This year, the African Union celebrates its
sixtieth anniversary. The charter, drawn up in 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 heads
of independent states, focused then on liberation from colonialism. Today,
under the slogan, ‘Our Africa, Our Future’, the emphasis is on economics. The
AU has a vision to build an ‘Africa Continental Free Trade Area’.
While the
Federation was hatched in a hurry, the ACFTA will take time to evolve. The
motor driving this movement will be consent and this cannot be rushed. But the
last hundred years has seen a process on every continent, and indeed in the
whole planet, that is guided by a compass pointing towards unity. The European
Union, for instance, despite the blips of the UK leaving it and Russia
violently contesting it, is an inexorable process towards removing barriers.
As always,
there are two forces at work: the assertion of individual needs and the innate
impulse to cooperate with others. All the negotiations – whether it be about
the waters of the Nile or migrants crossing borders – come down to gains and
concessions. But talking and listening is slowly edging out bombs and bullets.
This is something to celebrate on Africa Day even if we have to also face the
setback in the Sudan and ongoing violence in other places.
Our
spiritual heritage articulates and lifts this deep-felt desire for unity. Have
we noticed that the readings for today come from John 17; ‘May they all be one.
Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the
world may believe it is you who sent me’? This week-end we celebrate Pentecost,
the sharing in the Holy Spirit. ‘All share in him’, says St Basil, ‘like a
sunbeam whose kindly influence benefits every creature capable of receiving
him, as though it were present to that creature alone, and makes them truly
spiritual through the common union they have with him.’
28 May 2023 Pentecost Acts 2:1-11 1 Cor 12: 3-13 Jn 20:19-23
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