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[RCM.19.06.2008]
 Benin
19 June 2008, Benin Youth Festival.
Brother
Moammar Al Qathafi Speech delivered at the occasion.
Ô youth of Benin, Ô youth
of Africa.
We are campaigning on your
behalf. We are building Africa for your sake. The future of
Africa is for you and you have to be on a high degree of
awareness.
Africa
is now at the cross roads. Either it has to be or not to be.
The world is changing. The
map of the world is changing and it is being formed. The
world is transforming into larger blocks. Europe is
challenging. It is a building a European force. It is
building one European market, one European currency, one
central European bank, one European visa. Europe is becoming
one state. As for North America, it is already one strong
state.
Latin America is also
transforming into a union.
China is a giant on its
own.
India and its surroundings
are transforming into something new.
This is the map of the
world. Tomorrow's world will be seven or ten major states.
Where is Africa? Africa has to be one of these major states.
Ô African youth. You
should not rely much on politicians. You have to rely on
your own will. Africa is not for the politicians. Africa is
for you and for the millions.
Africa
has around 50 presidents, 50 foreign ministers. But there
are a billion of Africans who are not presidents or foreign
ministers.
For whom is Africa? Is if
for those 50 or for the billions of people. Africa is for
you. You should not rely on anyone to build your future.
The presidents will meet
next week in Egypt and undoubtedly you are waiting and
looking forward but I don't think you will get anything to
please you. The thing that pleases you must be made by
yourselves. Africa's future is in its unity. Africa is a
very rich continent and because of its richness it was
colonized by Europe.
Europe needs Africa. That
is why it colonized it. All European states divided Africa
amongst themselves, colonized it and transformed it into
surrogates to Europe. They transformed us into slaves. They
hunted us in the jungle. They shipped us in ships like
animals and many were dumped into the sea. They have
Transported millions of
blacks to North America to do the hard work in North
America, to build the roads and construct the cities.
America was built by your
grandfathers. They have used us a muscular force.
They came from Europe and
treated us like slaves. They ransacked the minds, stole the
resources, the forests, the fruits, the animals and even the
elephants. They took it to use its ivory for decorations or
ornaments in their palaces. They demeaned Africa and which
was very uplifted. They colonized without any mercy.
Do you want to go back to
slavery? Do you want to go back to colonization? Shall we
remain slaves for Europe or the United States?
Definitely no! We will
never be slaves and we will never be colonies or surrogates.
Africa will not become their background. Africa will not be
a resource mine for their factories.
Africa
is for Africans. It is for the youth. It is for you. You are
the ones who must build Africa's unity and ensure its
future.
Once again, I say 50
presidents are not Africa and they are not the African will.
They are not the thinking mind of Africa. They are not the
hands that build Africa.
Fifty ministers who
established the so-called executive council are not Africa.
They are not making Africa or its future. They are not the
thinking mind of Africa. They are not the hands that built
Africa. You should not rely on 50 presidents or 50 foreign
ministers.
Do not rely on the
commission. The commission is nothing. It has no
capabilities or powers. It is must a décor.
We meet every six months
without any use. From 2006 we sought to establish a federal
African government but so far we did not agree on its form.
They have transformed the call for a federal government into
something like a football game. The football is always
kicked and whenever you get it you kick it. This how the
call for a federal government has become. The team who is
playing football is the fifty president and the fifty
foreign ministers.
We cannot put down Africa
like this. Africa is not a football game. It is a great
continent. It is rich and has to be respected. And it has to
take its proper place.
You, youth! you have to be
ready to make Africa's unity with your own hands.
We will make call after
call to the youth and to the women's masses, the strong
African women and to the youth, male and female. Those are
the ones who we are addressing and they can wait for the
results of the next summit.
If the next summit is held
and they did not agree to form a federal government, what
shall we do? You have to think and work out and consult. The
youth has to meet in all forms, all organizations, clubs,
societies, in schools, universities and institutes at work
and at any other field.
Everywhere we have to work
out how to create a united Africa. Forty-five years have
been lost for Africa. The OAU was established in 1963.
The first hero of Africa,
Kwame Nkrumah, was a hero of the African unity. He called
for the establishment of an African unity since 1963. But
the reactionaries did not respond to the revolutionary call
by Kwame Nkrumah. They laughed at him in the name of the
OAU. We have lost Nkrumah and we have lost the first grand
revolutionaries. We have rejected Nkrumah’s idea therefore
Africa has been standing in the same place for the last 45
years.
The world has gone to the
moon and Mars… and we are still harvesting with donkeys and
by hand. We live in the jungle or in the desert. Foreign
companies are stealing African resources and we are waiting
for what is to be decided by 50 foreign ministers and 50
presidents.
I have been alerting you
to all this. This is a warning for the next summit. A
warning for the rulers. A warning for foreign ministers. I
am addressing the masses. I am addressing the African
peoples, I am addressing African women. I am warning the
rulers and their foreign ministers. I am telling that the
millions of the African people will be after you. The
nations, women and youth will be after you, as long as you
do not achieve African unity. The masses will march towards
you.
The future of Africa is
not a game. Africa's future is not a game and is not to be
undermined or forsaken.
I will expose all enemies
of Africa's unity. Not today but after the summit. We will
expose all the reactionaries. We will reveal that they are
traitors. We will reveal that they are colonial agents. We
will expose those who want to sell Africa and that will be
after the summit. You should listen to what I will say to
you in the future. I will speak the whole truth. I will not
deceive you. I will expose the whole truth.
I will continue meeting
with you, God willing. This was not the first and it will
not be the last meeting with you. I am always with you. I am
with the youth, with African women, with the nations and
with the masses that create the future of our sons and
grandsons.
I am happy because you
enjoy a high morale and I have declared my trust in my
brother President Yayi Boni. He is the best one to lead you
at this stage. He is an African unionist and an African
revolutionary. You may join him, support him and listen to
him.
In addition to his
leadership of Benin we have asked him to lead the CEN SAD
community.
Long live Benin,
long live Yayi Boni,
long live Africa.
Death to the agents, death
to colonization, May Africa lives free, happy and strong.
And the struggle
continues. |
