Cry beloved continent

WHITHER mother Africa. While she's still on all fours, Europe is on its feet. But if she had embraced Kwame Nkrumah's Union of African States like South African luminary Robert Smangaliso Sobukwe, she would be the world's bread basket instead of a basket case

One can argue that Nkrumah's African nomenclature has been turned into a reality in the form of the flourishing European Union.

And on Africa Day yesterday, the mother continent was still not enthusiastic enough about unity or taking charge of her destiny.

We opened up the skies for the US and Europe to bomb and destroy Libya while France literally installed Alassane Quattara as president of Ivory Coast.

And, do not be surprised if the fate of troubled Zimbabwe is also decided at the United Nations.

Our leaders still can't fathom how Africa's natural resources can make her the envy of the universe. Instead, the world is plundering our riches at will because Africa stretches out a begging bowel at every turn.

It is this aid from the international community that has also stripped us of our dignity.

These grants are, ironically, a fraction of what the international community takes from the continent.

Europe, America, Asia, none of them gives without expecting something in return.

We must accept that Nkrumah and Sobukwe were right: until we learn to be neighbourly before we rush across the oceans, we will remain compromised.

Charity begins at home.