The World Through My Eyes

Although instability and in extreme cases, coups d’etat are not a foreign nor new concept in Africa, the continent has collectively put very little effective actionable solutions in place to prevent and resolve these forces majeures, what happens then when governments have their powers threatened by armed militias? (Photo credit to Deutsche Welle) “We do not negotiate with terrorists”  These are words that have dominated the United States of America’s Foreign Policy Making since the 1970s under the leadership of President Richard Nixon and have further been intensified in the International Relations arena since the 9/11 attacks but how effective is this approach for African countries?  Our point of departure should be an emphasis on how we need to adopt and implement African solutions to African problems, it cannot be stressed enough just how important this principle is. This approach of resorting to force at the slightest inconvenience was first adopted by the United States of America

"Men at some time are masters of their fates. / The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings” (Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene III L. 139–141). This famous quote by Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare, although written possibly between 1599 and 1600 and loosely translated to mean that 'we are responsible for our own actions and not fate', stands as relevant in today's politics and life as it did centuries ago.  Today, the wedge between the African National Congress (ANC) and the people has grown exponentially, not because of fate but simply due to the former's own actions. This, I believe, is the raison d'etre of the President's letter to the Deputy President of both the ANC and the Republic of South Africa, Paul Mashatile.  Before the actual contents of the 17-pages long letter could be dissected, there was a lot of hullabaloo surrounding its recipient or rather why it seemed to bypass the Secretary General (SG