Gadhafi: Love for Africa or a personal agenda? -Part I

By A. Akbar Muhammad | Last updated: Sep 18, 2009 - 11:25:35 AM

TRIPOLI, Libya (FinalCall.com) - It would take a large book to chronicle where Libya has been in the last 40 years since the September 1, 1969 revolution and another book on the last 10 years on how billions of petro dollars have been spent to keep the African Union working towards a United States of Africa.

Muammar Gadhafi arrives at the fi rst conference for The Forum of Kings, Sultans, Princes, Sheikhs and Traditional Leaders of Africa in Tripoli-The Great Jamahiriya, August 8-10. Colonel Gadhafi , president of The African Union, will be speaking at the United Nations in New York, Sept. 23, following President Obama. It will be the Colonel’s fi rst visit to the United States. Photo: Monica Morgan

It all started after the African Nations (most of them) decided in a meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that if the UN did not lift sanctions on Libya (which included a international no-fly zone), they would fly their planes to Libya in violation of the sanctions and to protest what they perceived as unjust sanctions against a Nation and its people. The Nation of Libya has helped the African Nations in these modern times as no other European nation or America has helped Africa.

Bro. Muammar Gadhafi, who had not attended a OAU meeting in years, decided to attend the July, 1999 OAU meeting in Algeria. One of his reasons for attending was word had circulated in international circles that Algeria was on the verge of becoming a failed state. The Leader of the Libyan Revolution wanted to take this opportunity to speak to the importance of forming an African Union and make his strong case for it.

This African Union if formed should move with all deliberate speed towards a United States of Africa, he said. He invited the Heads of State of Africa to attend an Extraordinary Summit in Sirte, Libya on Sept. 9, 1999. Bro. Gadhafi dispatched his ambassadors and representatives to every corner of Africa to lobby African leaders to attend this special summit. This was a very expensive investment that Bro. Gadhafi believed in. I was blessed to attend many of these African Union Summits with the delegation of Min. Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, as his chief ambassador to Africa.

I witnessed the tremendous resistance against moving forward to a Union Government and the United States of Africa by some African leaders in South Africa, Zambia, and especially Ghana. In Zambia, Bro. Gadhafi asked the leaders to hear from Min. Farrakhan as a representative for Africans in the Diaspora. There was fierce resistance to this request from Bro. Gadhafi on the conference floor.

At the Ghana Summit, the “go slow group” clashed on the floor against the “do it now” group led by Bro. Gadhafi. There were many African leaders who sat on the sideline as though they were watching a tennis match—this was the “non-committal” group.

We watched the increase of failed states, internal conflicts and the exploitation by outside forces both east and west positioning themselves to move in for the economic kill on Africa from The Cape to Cairo, from Rabat to Maputo, Mali to Malawi and from Accra to Nairobi.

Now that the African Union has elected Bro. Gadhafi as president of the African Union 2009, the resistance to his push for a United States of Africa has increased. Some African Leaders feel they will lose by becoming a governor of one of the 53 African States. One leader said he cannot see and did not want Bro. Gadhafi as the face of Africa. But these leaders accept Libyan aid (money) for their countries, but reject him saying he is an Arab trying to Arabize Africa and spread Islam. Lastly, they falsely accuse him of wanting to be the president of the United States of Africa.

One should ask, are the billions that Bro. Gadhafi and his nation of 6 million people have spent and the effort for a sincere Love of Africa or is it based on a personal agenda?

His new move is to cultivate a relationship with the traditional leaders of Africa, the kings, the chiefs, the emirs, sheiks, princes and princesses. This is a move Bro. Gadhafi started a year ago on Sept. 9, 2008 in Sirte.

In January when he was voted the president of the African Union, these traditional leaders voted him “the king of kings.” According to many, this was based on the fact that for the first time he gave international recognition to the traditional leaders of Africa. He brought the traditional leaders of Africa back to the forefront and gave them a new voice in what is becoming the new Africa. By this move he put them on the world stage. At the conference on Sept. 9, he brought together over 1,500 traditional leaders in Tripoli from every corner of Africa. There is no recorded history in Africa where traditional leaders have come together to interact with each other on such a scale. He presented his proposition on why a United States of Africa is necessary for the survival of Africa and asked them to use their influence among their tribes and constituencies to spread this message. The terminology the ‘king of kings' is offensive to many, especially Christians, in Africa and throughout the world because this terminology refers to Jesus.

However one has to know the history of why the kings of Africa in their local dialects were reduced to “chiefs.” This was part of colonial input into Africa when the conquering Europeans learned that they called their leaders kings, the Europeans arrogantly told the Africans there is only one king—whether it was the king of England, the king of France, the king of Portugal or the king of Belgium. They told the Africans, “you are chiefs,” and the term chief stuck. In Somalia they used the term warlord, which is being used throughout Africa, instead of calling leaders elders or kings.

Bro. Gadhafi brought these traditional leaders out of the shadow of the political leaders and it has created controversy and some clashes in many African countries. The traditional leaders in many countries had been marginalized. It was said that they represented tribalism, which is a source of pain, conflict and suffering throughout Africa.

However with Bro. Gadhafi's new thrust these traditional leaders can play a vital a role if they are given the freedom to use their influence to move youth and others towards a United States of Africa. Now Bro. Gadhafi makes his way to America for his first visit to address the United Nations, and to meet with many of these who respect and honor his 40 year struggle as the leader of the Libyan revolution and who have great respect for what he has done in the last 10 years to promote a United States of Africa as the salvation of the continent.

When I was blessed to speak to the traditional African leaders, I appealed to them to ask the members of their tribes, their relatives, and their countrymen to show their support for Muammar Gadhafi on his visit to America. After Bro. Gadhafi leaves America, his journey continues as he will address the first African Latin American summit to be held in Caracas, Venezuela. This summit represents a move by the Libyan leader to get the Africans in the Diaspora involved in the process of a United States of Africa.

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