Agenda 2063: Is unity lingering in dizziness? Kwame Nkrumah

Gibson Nyikadzino-Correspondent 

The goals and aspirations of the African Union (AU) in its Agenda 2063 initiative are noble. Priority areas are highlighted with clarity. Challenges anticipated should not derail the goal of African unity in the political, social and economic contexts.

Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming the continent into the global powerhouse of the future. This can only be achieved under the premise of peace and unity.

Among what the AU aspires to be includes “an integrated continent politically united and based on the ideals of Pan Africanism and the vision of African Renaissance”. 

The Africa that posterity is expected to inherit is one that will have a “strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics” whose goal is to have a “united Africa, federal or confederate.”

A united Africa is key a vehicle for all that the continent aspires to be. However, a great conundrum countenances the continent. 

The denial of Western Sahara’s statehood by Morocco, the USA’s acknowledgement of Morocco being the rightful administrator of Western Sahara, debate around the Israeli observer status in the AU and the Morocco-Israeli friendship is a flag that has disturbing pointers.

It is no coincidence that the US legitimises its support of both Morocco and Israel, who all administer colonial and apartheid systems in Western Sahara and Palestine, respectively.

Pan African leader Kwame Nkrumah once said “Ghana will not be independent if an inch of Africa is still under colonialism.” 

Moving forward with the agenda of African unity while Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is still under Moroccan occupation leaves African aspirations lingering with dizziness. 

The Western Sahara issue has for long been framed as that of post-colonial self-determination. 

But the freedom  and independence of its population is unique, as Palestine as a parallel example illustrates. 

Morocco, which since 1975 has illegally occupied this territory, should not dispute the compelling reasons and legal statutes that define Western Sahara, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (the SADR), as an existing state. 

Happy over a divided AU?

After its withdrawal from the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1984 in protest of the organisation’s granting of membership to the SADR, Morocco returned to the fold 33 years later, finding the SADR in.

Morocco was readmitted in 2017 after 39 AU members voted to make it the body’s 55th member. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa during his tenure as AU chairperson in 2020 devoted his time speaking about the importance of “the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination”.

Disunity and divided opinion in the AU over the failure to recognise of the SADR in unison by member states makes Morocco the last to laugh at the possibility of wanting to get Agenda 2063 aspirations on course. 

The prevailing dictates of international law establish that granting of statehood to any nation comprises four key elements as formulated in the Montevideo Convention of 1933, which are all relevant to the SADR.

In order for an entity to become an existent state, the Montevideo Convention says that entity should have a defined territory, permanent population, a government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. 

Article 3 of the Montevideo Convention provides that “the political existence of the state is independent of recognition by other states”, while Article 6 affirms that “the recognition of a state merely signifies that the state which recognises it accepts the personality of the other with all the rights and duties determined by international law”.

As of September 2021, the SADR was recognised by 41 out of a total of 193 United Nations member states. Morocco, however, denies the application of international law to the status of a territory it continues to occupy by force. 

Morocco’s belligerence in the matter has been hardened by the 2020 recognition of former US President Donald Trump that it had the sovereign right to administer its colonial rule in the SADR. 

This made fifteen African countries open consulates in the Saharan cities of Dakhla and Laâyoune. 

No doubt, the SADR has all the attributes of statehood for it has conducted itself as a state in significant and relatively sophisticated ways for over three decades. 

It is therefore incorrect to suggest a new frame that recognises the statehood of the SADR as remedial action. 

The Israeli-Morocco plot

A new alliance between Morocco and Israel has raised warlike tensions in North Africa between the SADR occupier and its neighbour, Algeria. 

This alliance has been made all ‘strong’ by the status, later revoked, which had been granted to Israel led by the AU Commission chair, Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat. 

Also, more than one million Israelis are of Moroccan origin and Morocco has also maintained a Jewish community whose rights are recognised by its 2011 Constitution.

Above all, the institutional mechanics of the AU do not allow for the granting of the observer status to Israel because its behaviour is not compatible with the goals and principles of the AU. 

For the AU, a country that is granted this status “must behave in a way that is compatible with the goals and principles of the Constitutive Act of the organisation, the right to self-determination, the non-occupation of territories by force and the obligation to settle disputes peacefully.” 

The Israeli government’s actions, especially in Palestine and Syria, are not compatible with the AU goals.

It therefore is incorrect to grant Israel a place in the AU after it has, for long, denied the ability of the people of Palestine the right to meaningful self-determination, which it has thwarted since 1948, and what Morocco has done against the Sahrawis since 1975. 

On the other hand, to provoke Algeria, last year the Moroccan government, through its deep state Makhzen arm, was embroiled in a large scale cyber espionage operation against Algerian officials using the Israeli-made Pegasus spyware.

Morocco has however outrightly chosen confrontation with Algeria and trying to drag it into a conflict with serious geopolitical consequences for countries of that region. 

Spain, a key player as former colonial master of the SADR, has little much to say after Moroccan blackmail of the government of Pedro Sanchez. 

For Morocco and Algeria, the two neighbours have cut diplomatic ties. 

Rocking the AU’s boat and seeing disunity among African countries is a goal by “friends-within-and-enemies-within” and it is becoming the last straw on the goals of the AU ahead of 2063.

African countries, through the help of Algeria, have had the hard test of national liberation by arms and this Africa should precisely be faithful to this history. 

Advance the right agenda

Agenda 2063 opens up the road on the importance of a peaceful path of African renaissance with the maintenance of values of unity, peace, Pan Africanism and strong political and cultural heritage links. 

In all matters, Africans need a complementary and unitary voice that has a say in this changing world.

The Agenda 2063 is too important to be left to the AU alone but instead, the renewal of Africa must be driven by its people and its governments on the platforms of shared mutual values that shun occupation, tension and externalist politics.

The SADR’s occupation, among other issues, is a greater danger to African aspirations and a taint on the vision of total independence of Africa’s territories by the continent’s founding fathers. 

Countries like Algeria, Ghana, Guinea and Libya provided significant help to Africa’s independence and a new continental renaissance. 

To demolish the unity that was formulated in fighting colonialism at this moment is an initiative that will only benefit those plotting against the continent.

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