Whereas\nAfrican leaders of old made mistakes that led to the colonization of the\ncontinent and enabled slave trade to thrive, contemporary leaders must ensure\nthese failings do not reoccur, President Museveni has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident was today (Monday) addressing a breakfast meeting as the African\nUnion marked the 400th<\/sup> anniversary of the Trans-Atlantic Slave\nTrade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosted\nby Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, the meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis\nAbaba, Ethiopia, was also attended by Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa of South\nAfrica, Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo and Namibia\u2019s Hage Geingob. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ngathering was also addressed by former Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga and\nJendayi Frazer, former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, who\nwas among the organisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe problems of Africa are mainly endogenous\nbut exploited by exogenous factors. Outsiders take advantage of African people\nweaknesses,\u201d said President Museveni, before taking the audience through the\nfirst colonial forays into Africa by Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy\n1460, the Portuguese had arrived in Sierra Leone. On the Christmas of 1497, he\nwas in Natal, South Africa. He later went through Mombasa before getting to\nIndia,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nAfrican leaders of the time, noted President Museveni, were very fractured and\nyet suffered the illusion of being strong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\nis a Kiswahili word \u2018kulala\u2019 (being asleep). African leaders were asleep. They\nwere asleep in their petty clans, wearing ostrich feathers and thinking they\nwere strong,\u201d said President Museveni. \u201cA strong external force had come and\nyet they had no plan for the enemy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Using\nUganda\u2019s example, the President said the first white man, John Speke, had made\nhis way into the hinterland in 1862, over 300 years after the first colonial\nforay into Africa, and yet the leaders had never prepared for this eventuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking\nat the other leaders present in the room, President Museveni said the challenge\nwas now theirs to unite and face the exogenous or perish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe\nbig question for us then, contemporary leaders, is what have we done since independence\nto make Africa stronger and counter any exogenous threats or shall we stay like\nthe African chiefs?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commenting\non the place of the African Diaspora, especially in the US, President Museveni\nsaid the group could only be as strong as their mother continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\nis no way the African Diaspora can be strong when Africa, their home, is itself\nweak,\u201d he said, adding that Indian and Chinese Diaspora were influential\nbecause their mother countries are strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President\nMuseveni also thanked his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, for hosting the\nforum, before extoling him for firmly embracing the Pan-Africanism agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nhis part, President Uhuru said Africans must reject the inferiority complex,\nsaying they have a rich heritage and culture with a bright destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms Jendayi Frazer challenged African leaders to work for Pan-Africanism, economic recovery and prosperity despite the setbacks of slavery and colonialism. She also called for a stronger relationship between Africa and Africans in the Diaspora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that slavery had been the ignition for apartheid in South Africa, describing it as a \u201ctragedy in which Africans had suffered most.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whereas African leaders of old made mistakes that led to the colonization of the continent and enabled slave trade to thrive, contemporary leaders must ensure these failings do not reoccur, President Museveni has said. The President was today (Monday) addressing a breakfast meeting as the African Union marked the 400th anniversary of the Trans-Atlantic Slave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":8047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-8046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n