Since the invasion of the African continent by outside forces, the African people have never experienced peace. The first conquest were committed by Arabs. It was the Arabs who first came to Africa to plunder African resources and engage in slave trade. Gold, diamond and iron were stolen from Africa. As if this was not enough they stole our people and sold them to wealthy Arabs in Arabia.
Later the Europeans came and did the same, stealing both minerals and people! Our people were shipped across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and across Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and the Caribbean Islands. What baffles my mind always is that this plundering of African economies was done in the name of God and civilization! The question I always ask myself is, are these shameless, heartless robbers really civilized? Do they truly worship true God? The answer to that question was given by Cicel John Rhodes, when he was addressing the British parliament. And this is, what he said “in order to avoid civil war in England we must become imperialists”.
According to Cecil John Rhodes, it was a matter of survival.
Europeans would eat each other and perish. From slave trade by Arabs and Europeans, came colonialism. Colonialism means Europeans were now settling in Africa. African continent was shared like Christmas cake! The sharing of the African continent without consulting African people is one of the contributors of instabilities in Africa today. Kingdoms were recklessly divided.
In East Africa you find Massai people in Kenya and Tanzania. In Southern Africa we know that more than ten million Batswana live in South Africa in the former British Bechuanaland protectorate, this excludes Bapedi from Skukuneland. Batswana are also found in Namibia (Batlapeng, Barolong, Batlhware and Bahurutshe) Batswana are also found in Angola (Batawana).
The same in Zambia are Batawana. In Zimbabwe we find Batswana (Bangwato) Khamaland used to extend up to a place called Mphoeng in Zimbabwe.
We should always remember that 75% of the Nama and Herero people were killed by the German in Namibia
Because of African resources and good climate conditions Africans were invaded. This is what we should always teach our children and they must also pass that information to the next generations. We must do like the Jews. Every Jewish child is taught from childhood that your grand parents were once slaves in Egypt. We should never allow outsiders to teach our children our history. They will distort it.
African people who came back from the European wars code named war 11 realized for the first time that white people can also be defeated by the barrel of the gun started wars of liberations in Africa.
Bitter wars of liberation were fought in Algeria, Kenya Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and many other African countries.
It is only when the Europeans realized that they were dying and losing wars against the liberation movements that they started negotiating. As they came to the negotiations some Africans liberation leaders were turned into traitors. Jomo Kenyatta and many if not all French colonies had their leaders bought over night! What this means is that the heroes and heroines of the struggle against colonialism were turned against their own people and started to serve the interests of the same people they were fighting against. Those who refused to turn against their own people were killed or toppled from government by secrets agents of imperialism led by CIA, MI5 and Israel secret agents. Tom Mbuya, Kwane W kurumah, Patrice Lumumba Thomas Sankara. Josiah Tongogara, Lookout Masuko, Chris Hani were toppled or/and killed.
Only two African leaders who were serving the interests of their people were not killed namely Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda. It was due to their strong ties with the church. Some might not know it was the Catholic Church which saved both Nyerere and Kaunda from being killed by CIA and other secret agents for that matter. Some are saying even that’s how Mugabe survived CIA plots because he is a Catholic.
My argument is that many African leaders became agents of imperialism. At independent those who did not dance to the imperialist tune were removed from power though coups or worse murdered. This was done so that the colonial power could continue stealing the African resources and settling the population in Africa in order to avoid what Cecil John Rhodes calls civil war in England. African leaders were promised heavens on earth, bought houses in some Islands, bank accounts opened in the Caribbean’s, houses built in Cape Town. Those who refused all these “nice gifts” were blackmailed, or be told that they will be exposed of their secrets deals e.g cheating on their wives, selling drugs and many other crimes they were dealing with. This is how neo-colonialism works. The leadership of the so called independent African country must be in the payroll of the outside forces in cash or in kind.
In Botswana when the British government and their cousin settlers in Bechuanaland realized that the BPP was becoming very strong under Pan Africanist leadership of borre Kgalemang Motsete, Philip Matante and Motsamai Mpho, a plan was hatched to bring Seretse Khama to Botswana in order to prevent BPP from taking power. Remember Seretse Khama by then was working in the British Embassy in the Caribbean!
Seretse Khama when he came back, he came through Rhodesia and when he arrived at Saulsbury airport he was greeted by a 21 gun salute by the British police, that time Rhodesia was still a British colony. Police officers could be transferred from one colony to another. That is why we have borre Akambakamba and Nchindo who came to Bechuanaland from Zambia as police officers. My own uncle Boitsang Matlhare was transferred to Rhodesia and he was one of those officers who gave Seretse Khama 21 gun salute. My argument is that Seretse Khama was brought in to lead or establish a pro-government neo-colonialism. To confirm this, when I was in form 2, I was in a school choir and one day we were told to go and sing for the president who was addressing a kgotla meeting in Mahalapye.
While the president was addressing a kgotla meeting he saw Dr Kenneth Koma also sitting among the gathering and this is what he said: “Motho yole ke Kenneth (Koma) kana Kenneth ke motlogolo wame ko Serowe ko kgotleng ya Makolojane. O rutlegile thata le ka botlhale o a nkgaisa. E rile a tswa ko sekolong ko Moscow ka mo kopa gore a tsene mo party yame ya domocraga a nne mothusa tautona, a gana, ka mo kopa gore a emele lefatshe la rona ko lekgotleng la dichabachaba (UN) a gana ka mo kopa gore aye go nna mogokgo wa university a gana. Sa gagwe ke go tsamaya a sikere degree mo magetleng jaaka ngaka ya Setswana e sikere seditse ere e nesa pula mme pula e gana gona!”
The following day, in class because Dr Koma was our English teacher from form 1 up to form 3 he came to our class, one student by the name of Godfrey Motlhatlhobi asked Dr. Koma why he refused to join BDP and become the vice president and that was what Dr Koma said: Thaakaa monna Godfrey, Seretse ga ana phathi, phathi ya BDP keya makgoa, Seretse o hirilwe. Ke mmereki hela!” and then Godfrey continued to ask Dr Koma why he didn’t say this to Seretse yesterday. Dr Koma’s response was: Thakaaa monna Godfrey Seretse ke kgosi yame mme ka Setswana kgosi ga e ganediwe mo kgotleng!
What I am saying is that Botswana like most if not all Africa is a Pro-neocolonialist state. We are now in the second phase of the African revolution as Dr. Koma said. This is the struggle against neo-colonialism. This struggle against neo-colonialism will not be easy for several reasons. Some of them I have already mentioned above.
Neo-colonialism as Kwame Nkurumah has warned us is invisible. It cannot be seen by the naked eye! You need to be extra-ordinary intelligent and academically gifted and morally sound, and above all selfless, non-corruptible and non purchasable.
It is Mr and Mrs Smith, Mr and Mrs Patel, Mr and Mrs Choi-iho who are offering you a cup of tea and innocently you accept that cup of tea, accepting that cup of tea is the beginning of selling your country and your people!
In South East Asian countries like Singapore,Malaysia, South Korea any gift worth more than ten dollars must be declared, failing which a leader is arrested. Leaders here means MPs, ministers councillors and central committee members of all political parties.
Today is not only the former colonial power or its citizens which control the pro-neocolonialism state. Under the so called globalization.
Multinational corporations play a central role in promoting neo-colonialism. It is no longer only the French or the British or the Americans who want the African resources. The Chinese, Indians and Pakistanis do.
We in Africa like elsewhere in Africa we need investments, we need international trade but not at the expense of the African people. I lived in the USA for six years and all those years I saw Chinese goods of very high quality. Then why do the Chinese have to sell goods of low quality to Africa?
When I grew up in Ngamiland and Chobe, there were British investors. Those were really investors not exlploitors. Companies like Ngamiland Trading Company (NTC) Bechuanaland Trading Association (BTA) those were companies which came to invest and empower Batswana. Not to exploit and abuse them. This struggle against Neo-colonialism will need leaders who shall not be captured.
Our struggle is not to put relatives or friends into certain position of power but to liberate our people from the shameless and heartless so-called leaders and their sponsors. Because the struggle is against our own people, our own relatives and friends who are traitors, it is not any easy struggle. In short the enemy is invisible as Kwane Nkurumah has warned us.
But all said, those who “defend” these purchasable leaders are in reality digging their political graves. Ask Julius Malema who learnt the hard way. It was Julius Malema who told the world that he was prepared to die for Zuma! But Malema being Malema, could not see what Thabo Mbeki could see in Zuma in 2007. Thabo Mbeki’s father was a political giant and Thabo was groomed by O.R Tambo. It took Malema ten full years to see what Mbeki saw in 2007.
Those who insult some of us for critiquing our leaders we forgive them because that is how they survive. They don’t only lack academic understanding of events and interpretation of issues but also need to survive for the following day! Jesus said forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing!
Dr Cosmos K. Moenga is a BNF activist
