Darfur crisis a lesson for the AU
By PETER MADAKA
The humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan has thrust the nascent pan-African Union (AU) into the global spotlight.
The newly minted body that had, until recently, operated under the radar - far removed from the glare of international media as most African events often do - suddenly finds itself the focus of international scrutiny, thanks to its bungling of the Darfur crisis. The sudden exposure appears to have also caught the AU unprepared for the media onslaught that not only focused on its operations, but exposed its flaws and raised questions regarding its efforts to shake off the shameful, historical image and mindset of docility, corruption, dependency and irresponsibility that bedeviled its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Until the Darfur crisis came along, the AU appeared to have a stellar image -- at least in theory -- much of it attributed to the laudable behind-the-scenes efforts by South African experts who toiled in anonymity to resurrect the long-dead pan-Africanist approach to handling the continent's affairs; strove for efficiency and accountability and set out to purge the AU of the attitude of dependency inherited by the post-colonial leadership that now dominates it.
The effort seemed to work well until Darfur came along, exposing the deep-seated and abhorrent mindset of state-centred warlordism that still lingers in most of the member states today. Anyone who has followed the past 50 years of African nationalism and post-colonial governance will find it hard to describe the continent's governance as anything short of perpetual crises management, with most of the crises actually brought about by inept African leaders themselves.
South Africa stands above this horde of former military generals and their culture of corruption, most of whom slipped into pre-existing, pre-independence colonial arrangements and simply carried on with colonial ways, with the exception that the agents in charge were now home-bred Africans who seemed to share the appropriate colonial mindset and scored high on the index of loathing their own kith and kin.
South Africa is different not only because it found its freedom much later, but because its freedom was the first truly continental and international effort that united mankind. The delay spared the African National Congress (ANC) leadership the same corrupting and mind-numbing influence left behind by departing colonial leaders, which now envelopes most African leaders of that generation.
This, among many other reasons, makes the timing of the Darfur crisis very unfortunate, coming as it does, at a time when the leadership of the AU is in the hands of one of Africa's generals-turned-politician-very much a product of the 1960s post-colonial mindset that to this day has paralyzed Africa. Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has long been part of the OAU culture of 'see-no-evil and speak-no-evil' about sister countries that have been responsible for many mini-Darfurs in Africa and still resists the kind of peer pressure envisaged by the reformist AU to clean up the continent.
Indeed, the fact that the advent of the AU is of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent of Africa cannot be argued. What, however, must be challenged are these emerging cracks and fissures that the response to the Darfur crisis has laid bare. The political inertia we all witnessed and the nauseating attempt by the top AU leadership to sacrifice the Darfur crisis in the interest of what some in the AU considered the noble long-term goal of securing peace between Khartoum and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army was as disrespectful and insulting of African lives as anything one can imagine. It revealed a continuing lack of respect for African lives by the same African political leadership that, in every sense, still stands behind state or renegade militias and armies that have killed more Africans than any other external enemy ever did.
A question that must still be asked is whether the AU, with only South Africa as a driving and inspiring force toward a reformist and pan-Africanist path, can single-handedly reverse this entrenched and abhorrent attitude inherited from the OAU. The fact that Darfur has been a failure of such colossal magnitude must serve to shift the onus to the international community to provide financial, logistical and managerial support as well as render the needed, albeit relentless, pressure on the AU to not only stay on the path of reform but to succeed quickly so it can, in time, handle Africa's never-ending crises.
The AU cannot be allowed to become another club where Africa's warlords meet to slap each other on the back and pass fatuous resolutions and then return home to wreck their countries. The OAU presided over this mess for too long, emasculating the continent while member states and the international community looked the other way. The AU now has no choice but to steer clear of the kind of tokenistic approach so far displayed regarding the Darfur crisis.
Darfur should serve as an object lesson for the AU and the international community about what needs to be done across Africa. Above all, the international community has a major responsibility to back the AU in all ways possible during these early stages of development and help steer it on the correct course. Canada, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations can do more in this process than merely send helmets, boots and tents.
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