The Nature of Power and the Resurgence of Africa

The year was 343 BC at the battle of Pelusium, the last native pharaoh Nectanebo II of Kemet (Ancient Egypt) was defeated ending the existence of Kemet as a great power and a civilization. Nectanebo II fled south to the land of the ancestors in Nubia where he disappeared from history into oblivion.

That singular event marked the breaking of African power in the Mediterranean and the start of African decline and civilizational decay. The decline of African power reaching its apex in the colonization and humiliation of Africa in the last 300 years causes us to raise a deep philosophical question, what is the nature of power and how can a restoration of African power be achieved?

Power is a complex framework, a multidimensional structure comprising different components. We can clearly identify six major components of power- history, culture, intellect, economics, technology and military. In this multidimensional framework, history as a component of power lays the basis for the self consciousness of a people, gives a people a connection to their past, an understanding of their present and a key springboard to their future. A nation or a race that has lost its history has lost a key component of its power.

The case of Africa today is a stark realization of this fact. The loss of African historical consciousness caused and accelerated by the western domination of the African peoples has produced a people lacking self confidence and an awareness of their geopolitical standing in the grand scheme of world events. This has produced a dependency on external forces and an atrophy of thinking facilities to effect change in Africa.

The loss of national history has led to a culture in homeostasis shaped by external influences instead of shaping those influences. The homeostasis of African culture in turn has led to a decline in the dynamics of intellectual development.

This lack of intellectual development has led to an economy constantly on life support and unable to provide for its people. A weak dependent economic situation has caused a shrinking along the axes of technology and the military.

We now ask the important question, what is to be done?. A return to African history is not only imperative but critical to the resurrection of the African and to a fulfillment of his sacred mission to serve as a force for good, the guarantor of Maat in the world.

The decline of the Roman empire by 500 AD led to a decline of European power until the rediscovery of their classical Greco-Roman past serving as the engine for the European Renaissance. The rediscovery of the classical African past in the 3000 year long civilization of Kemet will cause a restoration of the African historical consciousness which will provide the self confidence to the renewed African and will be the spark that causes expansion along the other 5 axes of African power.

A renewed African power, resurgent, confident of its future, rooted in its classical past and dynamic in its present will then guarantee Maat on the African mother continent and protect the continent from its historical enemies, the West.

We will recall that the defeat of Nectanebo II at the battle of Pelusium in 343 BC was aided and abetted by his former servant,a Greek by name Mentor of Rhodes. The destruction of classical Africa had come from the West. The rape and humiliation of Africa in modern times has come from the West. This historical pattern serves as template for the future trajectory of Western behavior toward Africa.

A new resurgent Africa learning from the lessons of history should develop a multi-nuclei core of countries , each serving as a component of the political and economic engine that will drive the development of the continent.

The experience of Kemet a single superpower on the African continent should serve as a historical lesson for us. The destruction of Kemet destroyed the sole nucleus of African development and civilization and gave the crucial push to the decline of the African peoples. A multi-nuclei core of countries providing the political, economic and technological base of power will prove nearly impossible to destroy.

I refine the proposal presented in an earlier article that these countries- Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe and Rwanda also known as the A7 could serve as the initial multi-nuclei core of the new emerging Africa that will define the political, cultural, economic and technological drivers of a resurgent African power.

The A7 countries have a combined GDP of about 870 Billion dollars and comprise the biggest economies in Africa below the Sahara, the dynamic economy of Rwanda and the political trail blazing path of Zimbabwe. They encompass the major economies of the Anglophone and the Lusophone blocs.

The Francophone bloc with the Ivory Coast its largest economy is not yet ready to join the multi-nuclei core of countries. Once the Francophone countries cut the umbilical cord linking them to France with the support of the initial A7, the Ivory Coast as the leader of Francophone Africa could then be invited to join the multi-nuclei club.

The case of Ethiopia and the Sudan is problematic. They have not resolved their identity crisis as to whether they are African fully, partially or not. Once they resolve their identity crisis, Ethiopia and Sudan for strategic purposes could be added to the multi-nuclei club that will serve as the central axis that the African world will revolve around. This multi-nuclei group of countries will be the historical successors of Kemet and will define their historical role as the heirs of the greatest civilization of antiquity Kemet. The political elite of the multi-nuclei group of countries will see themselves as the successors of the pharaohs who saw themselves as the guardians of Maat .

The intellectual elite will see itself as the successors of Imhotep and the priests of the temples of Kemet who set the tone of the intellectual discourse in Kemet.

The military elite will see itself as the successor to the military commanders of Kemet that ensured the hegemonic and imperial power of Kemet in Africa and the southern Mediterranean.