Some Pan-Africanists are calling for unwavering support for the Sahel region from African sister countries, stressing the need for solidarity in the face of political upheavals.
At a Pan-African Republic Day Seminar organized by the Office of Woyoe Ghanamanti at the African Study of History, International Relations Expert Prof Vladimir Antwi-Danso described the current developments in the Sahel as a “systemic coup.”
Prof Antwi-Danso explained that systemic coups are aimed at rescuing nations from instability, unlike conspiratorial coups, which often result in bloodshed and the killing of opponents or anyone who stands in the way.
According to him, the series of coups that have taken place, starting in Mali in 2012, through to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2023, were designed to save their respective systems from collapse and steer them toward a more defined path of order.
“What Burkina Faso is doing is clearly one of the systemic coups. In most of these systemic coups, there is no bloodshed; people are not killed, and again, there is spontaneity.
“The majority of the people support it because they have now embraced a new wave of direction. So, to say this is undemocratic means something entirely different to me.”
He added, “…So, for me, what happened in these three countries, though unfortunate, is ultimately good for the people of these nations.”
Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, a renowned Pan-Africanist and founder of Black History Month in the UK, delivered a passionate address at the seminar.
He urged Africans on the continent and in the diaspora to stand in uncompromising solidarity with the people of the Sahel particularly Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Addai-Sebo called for continent-wide protests at French embassies and advocated a boycott of French goods, starting symbolically with French wine.
He stressed that the fate of the Sahel is deeply connected to Africa as a whole, “It is very important we revive the spirit of solidarity for the Sahel, because if the Sahel fails, Africa is in trouble.”
The Pan-Africanist insisted that the current struggle in the Sahel is not a simple political transition but a deliberate break from neocolonial domination.
“The people of the Sahel are not seeking to return to a broken status quo,” he declared.
“They are fighting to uproot the deep roots of French domination—political, economic, cultural, and spiritual.”
He urged Ghanaians and other African nations to begin by rejecting French products, “We are saying no more to assimilation.
“No more do we want to be a caricature of France. African states are demanding freedom, justice, decolonization, and development in our own image and interest.”
Referencing Frantz Fanon and Martin Luther King Jr, Addai-Sebo reminded the audience that, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor but demanded by the oppressed.”
“Our freedom must be total, governance, economy, law, politics, religion, education, labour, culture, even our entertainment must be free of French manipulation.”
He echoed King’s famous words, “We are echoing the voice of Martin Luther Jnr, ‘Free at last!’”
Continuing, he said, “The Sahel is not stepping backward; it is daring to reinvent the future in the present.”
Addai-Sebo concluded with a strong appeal to African governments, “We must develop a national and continental consensus to purge French influence from our soul. We are reaching deeply into our collective memory, into our culture, to deconstruct the French order and reconstruct the African order.”
