| Why EU boast over Empire should not be taken with a pinch of salt |
| Monday, July 16, 2007 |
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Deborah Gabriel |
Eu President Barroso upstaged Gordon Brown who harks for days of British Empire
 We are a very special construction in the history of mankind…we have the dimension of empire.
EU President José Manuel Barroso
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Last week the EU president José Manuel Barroso prompted a nervous reaction from member states when he hailed the EU as an ‘Empire.’ But given its past and present behaviour towards former colonies, his comments should not be taken lightly.
The former Portuguese Prime Minister and president of the European Commission made the remarks whilst trying to sell EU members states the latest constitution that centralises power in Brussels and binds members states to laws created in Europe. “We are a very special construction in the history of mankind…we have the dimension of empire,” stated a smug Barroso last week, upstaging new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who himself appears firmly committed to the revival of the British Empire.
Barroso would have us believe that the EU is a “non-imperial” Empire consisting of 27 member countries who have voluntarily surrendered their sovereignty to become part of the European ‘super state.’ But in reality, just as rivalries existed hundreds of years ago when Europeans fought each other for control of Africa, so do these rivalries continue to exist today.
It is most ironic that the remark came from the former European president of the country that was the first to invade Africa in 1442 when Portuguese sailors kidnapped ten Africans from the Guinea coast and presented them to King Henry. As history tells us, thereafter, the Spanish, British and Dutch joined the scramble to engage in the dehumanization of African peoples motivated largely by greed.
The scramble for Africa and the crude division of the continent that took place at the Berlin conference in 1884-1885 affirmed the intention of Europe to maintain social, cultural and economic control over Africa which continues to have damaging consequences for African peoples through the continued economic exploitation and domination of the continent.
Such exploitation is clearly evidenced in the way that communication and transportation infrastructures facilitate the pillaging of resources from the continent, rather than make it easy for Africans to trade freely with their neighbouring countries and to move freely within the continent. Many African telephone networks cannot route direct calls within Africa but have to go via European telecommunications systems in the same manner that many flights between African states are not direct but make stops in European countries – usually those of its former colonizers.
Let us not forget the political protests in France in 2005, caused by the years of oppression, marginalization, victimization, criminalization and social exclusion of Africans who, like their kinfolk living in other European countries have become the underclass, who may no longer be in chains, but yet are still denied true freedom and equality.
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Africans should be more concerned than European states over Empire remark
President Mugabe has many faults as an African leader, but yielding to white supremacy isn't one of them.
It is not hard to see why there is so much support both on the continent and in the African Diaspora, for a United States of Africa.
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Through the WTO, rich European countries continue to wield immense power over world trade through trade agreements which ensure that developing countries, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean, are prevented from earning their way out of poverty whilst being crippled by debts imposed when reparations should have been paid to these nations instead for the damage caused by chattel enslavement.
Over the last few years we have seen a shift in Europe to the right, with the growth of racist and extremist groups from France's anti-immigrant National Front and Belgium's Vlaams Belang, and prominent members such as Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen and Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italy's former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who came close to gaining power in the European Parliament.
It is not hard to see why there is so much support both on the continent and in the African Diaspora, for a United States of Africa. But at the same time, the call for a gradual and measured approach advocated by several African leaders is not without good reason. Many African countries as has been observed, still operate economically and politically under the shackles of Europe and are too quick to adopt European models of the same brand of colonial democracy that breeds dependency.
What is needed in a revived Organization of African Unity is not a structure based on Europe or the USA whose foundations are based on conquest, greed, social inequality and white supremacy; but a model based on respect for and promotion of the diversity of African cultural traditions, practices and values and on the principles of social justice and equality.
With such a huge responsibility, a united Africa cannot be led by puppets who are ready to trade African sovereignty for grants and aid that ends up in the hands of unscrupulous presidents, but self-determined leaders who understand that power rests in the hands of its people; African leaders who are willing to challenge white supremacy and to restore the dignity and pride to black Africa that has been under attack for centuries.
The European ‘Empire’ has never ceased to exist but merely changed its modus operandi to disguise its true nature. So whilst Barroso’s comments alarmed European states, it is Africans on the continent and elsewhere in the Diaspora who have the most cause for concern.
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