Independent Africa is ostensibly ‘at peace’ yet far from peaceful. We talk of the often-misused philosophical concept of Ubuntu as the spirit upon which our society is anchored yet the endemic violence on the ground tells a different story, and this is the reality which must inform decisions on the model of our systems and institutions for the future. African systems and institutions must be modelled upon the contextual reality of our nations and times; today state repression is the biggest source of violence to citizens within countries in the African continent. For progress, systems and institutions must have in-built safety measures reflective of the reality that human society does possess individuals and organised criminal gangs who, given a window of opportunity, will willingly commit heinous crimes against fellow citizens either as an end to a means or a means to an end.
Criminals come from all levels of society including the state and linked organised gangs; there is a myriad of reasons why crime happens. However, inadequate security provision or deliberate actions that undermine it remain the major factor.
Ubuntu derives from the Zulu phrase “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”, which literally means that a person is a person through other people. Ubuntu is founded in humanist African philosophy that espouses the notion of community as one of the building blocks of society. In that conceptual appreciation, Ubuntu is that nebulous concept of common humanity, oneness: humanity, you, and me both.
As alluded to in the introduction the concept of Ubuntu is vulnerable to expropriation and misuse for personal gain by those in power. State-sanctioned violence against citizens and dissenting voices is emblematic of post-independent Africa yet continental bodies have no capacity to act to stop the violence and/ or bring perpetrators to account. Leaders within the continent misuse Ubuntu to help each other to evade accountability for crimes committed in their home countries. We have seen dictators like Mengistu (former president of Ethiopia) who committed heinous crimes in his homeland given refugee status by his friends in Zimbabwe.
We must be realistic and accept that human beings are not perfect as such the threat of behavioural and structural violence is a reality that we must be prepared to manage and eradicate or significantly reduce. African society must prepare its local and international capabilities to pre-empt acts of violence and/ or effectively deal with and reduce the impact of violence whenever it occurs regardless of the source.
Inequity, weak security systems present real threat to local stability and international security, economics, and politics. We need to improve the capabilities of our security systems and institutions to a level where they can effectively protect the public and nations from traditional to new cyber security-related threats and both local and international violence. To entrust peace and security on the benevolence of other societies is a treasonous act.
However, to this day we still find ourselves reliant on the West to apply pressure on warring factions in Sudan to uphold an agreed ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aid to reach vulnerable residents and a corridor out of the war-torn Khartoum. The question remains what is the AU’s role when Sudan citizens and citizens of other African states are being subjected to violence?
For our institutions to effectively deal with violence, we must be clear of what we are talking about. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines violence as “intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation”.
Violence must be understood beyond direct “behavioural” violence to include “structural” violence, which arguably is often unconscious. Structural violence results from unjust and inequitable social and economic structures and manifests itself in the form of poverty among other forms of deprivation.
Gaining a better understanding of violence will require us to break it down to its minute details, and that would be fundamental to building institutions that not only detect it early but ably dismantle it. Here we will classify violence into the following three categories:
- Direct violence such as physical or behavioural violence, for example war, bullying, domestic violence, exclusion, and torture.
- Structural violence in the form of poverty and deprivation of basic resources and access to rights; oppressive systems that enslave, intimidate, and abuse dissenters as well as the poor, powerless and marginalised.
- Cultural violence typically exemplified by the devaluing and destruction of certain human identities and ways of life, the violence of sexism, ethnocentrism, racism and colonial ideologies, and other forms of moral exclusion that rationalise aggression, domination, inequity, and oppression.
Dealing with violence be it from organised criminal gangs or from the state does not appear to be high priority in the African agenda. The recent ‘Gold Mafia’ documentary did not cause any ripples in Zimbabwe and South Africa; it has been normal day in office for everyone allegedly involved in the scandal. We must ask questions of the relevance and/ or effectiveness of the African Union and its regional equivalents. These organisations are clearly unable to stem state repression often executed in the pretext of maintaining law and order within national boundaries, but always ignoring justice and public safety; state security agents continue to deploy mass violence and excessive force against citizens.
Reforms are necessary in many national governments so that power is not concentrated in sections of society leaving the rest of society reeling in poverty of power and deprivation of all forms. But even more important will be re-designing the continent’s political institutions and the willingness of national governments to give these international bodies the mandate and resources they require to enforce resolutions that reflect Ubuntu; this is what will give African independence credibility and transfer real peace to citizens.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 