Africa’s Last Defeat – Patrice Lumumba “Vea” Renacted at AFCON 2025 Games
Dear Beloved Africa, our shared heart weeps in this hour of reflection, as the flames of our past struggles flicker into ashes of unfulfilled promise; oh, how we lament the scars etched upon our vast and vibrant soul, from the chains of colonialism to the self-inflicted wounds of post-independence betrayal. In this sorrowful missive, we mourn the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, whose ousting in 2011 not only shattered Libya but also dealt a grievous blow to our broader emancipation; Western powers, in their zealous pursuit of regime change under the guise of well deserving humanitarian intervention, equated to doctors killing the host body out of fear of a single parasite, eradicating a nation to excise one perceived threat, thereby unleashing chaos that rippled across the Sahel, fueling instability, migration crises, and the weakening of the African Union he so ardently championed, bombing the country into a lawless jungle where survival of the fittest reigns, a disastrously shortsighted military strategy that left no order, transforming once stable Libya into an open market for human slaves, with sub Saharan migrants auctioned off for as little as $200 to $500 in places like Sabha, subjected to forced labor, sexual exploitation, torture for ransom, and unspeakable horrors in overrun detention centers and secret facilities like those in Tazirbu and Bani Walid, while countless souls, estimated in the tens of thousands since 2011 have perished crossing her scorching sands in desperate pushes to the porous coasts of Benghazi and beyond, only to drown in the Mediterranean’s treacherous waves, with over 3,000 deaths reported annually in peak years by the International Organization for Migration, their cries drowned out as the Western world blithely sings Jingle Bells amid holiday cheer, indifferent to the robbery, rape, murder, and starvation that define this man made hell. Libya under Gaddafi stood as a beacon of what our leaders could achieve through meaningful development; with its oil wealth channeled into free education, healthcare, and infrastructure, it boasted one of the continent’s highest human development indices, proving that self reliance and pan African investment could elevate a people without perpetual foreign aid. Yet, in the name of combating terrorism or dictatorship, they razed the forest to fell one tree; and now, in this era of growing advocacy for Muslims among Western populations; in places like the United States, where Muslim candidates have risen in prominence; or in Canada, with its 2025 federal election yielding a historic surge of Muslim MPs amid unprecedented civic mobilization on issues like Palestine and civil liberties; and in the United Kingdom, through campaigns influencing recent outcomes, one wonders if such destruction was ever necessary, for tolerance and dialogue might have preserved the whole rather than scattering its seeds to the winds of extremism.
Alas, Africa we grieve
Alas, Africa, we grieve too for the intoxication of power that has poisoned so many of our sons, fueled by religious ideologies imported and bartered as insidious components of the slave trade packages; these doctrines, whether cloaked in the robes of imported faiths, have evolved into a virus 2.0, mutating leaders into monsters who invoke the name of God to justify tyranny, blinding them to the suffering of their kin. Such afflictions turned once promising liberators into demigods, their egos swollen by the trappings of authority, leading to corruption, looting, and a betrayal of the very independence we fought to secure; we cannot unendingly blame the colonizers, for it is often our own who open the gates to neocolonialism, transforming from innocent champions of progress into unrecognizable aliens whom our people can no longer hold accountable. Consider John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania, whose untimely death in 2021 spared him the full grasp of this venom; he was not expected to succumb to the intoxication of power, for his tenure emphasized bulldozer like reforms against waste and graft, and in this lament written after his passing, we mourn that fate intervened before the law of diminishing returns could erode his legacy, leaving us to ponder what might have been had he endured without corruption’s taint. This intoxicating power reveals a deeper malaise, one echoed in the voices of our contemporary thinkers like Prophet Joshua Maponga, who has boldly critiqued democracy as a smokescreen for imperialism, initially seeming to prefer military dictatorship for its security and decisive action, as seen in his admiration for leaders like Captain Ibrahim Traoré; yet, upon deeper reflection, his advocacy aligns more profoundly with the restoration of kingdom monarchies, those ancient systems of kings, emperors, and queens that thrived before the dawn of British rule and imposed democracy, which has not been honored because, in our African DNA, we have long subscribed to such regal hierarchies where authority flowed from divine and communal mandates rather than fleeting ballots.
Illustration of Rwandan Genocide 1994
Oh, Africa, how we sorrow over the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when the United Nations turned away as anything between 800,000 and one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus perished in churches and fields within a mere 100 days; yet from those blood-soaked ashes arose Paul Kagame, a tall, lanky visionary and his comrades, who rebuilt Kigali into a model of order and progress, with one of the world’s finest airport drives symbolizing that our color is innocent, our DNA unburdened by inherent failure, proving that we Africans can indeed rise when errant elements within our ranks are held to account. Similarly, we lament the ravages of Idi Amin’s rampage in Uganda, only for Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to emerge and dazzle Ugandans with restoration; even as he has lingered perhaps too long now, on this January 3, 2026, with his seventh term bid looming amid reports of intimidation, violence, opposition crackdowns, and warnings of potential mass atrocities, history may yet remember him fondly for his early feats, though the call for political aging reminds us that lunch must be served, that diminishing returns demand graceful exits lest stagnation set in. Africa must be great, but only if we introduce integrity and accountability in our politics, cleansing it of the corruption and self-interest that allow leaders to stumble and make the continent pay, we must draw inspiration from Magufuli’s uncompromising stand for probity and service to renew our governance, and revisit our constitutions to forge ones attuned to the African environment, addressing the rise or fall hinged upon the politician’s character.
In this lament, we trace our historical journey with heavy hearts, from the agitations that birthed independence; Kwame Nkrumah’s 1957 declaration in Ghana that freedom meant nothing without the liberation of all Africa; Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere’s willingness to delay Tanganyika’s sovereignty for a unified East Africa, foreseeing fragmentation with prophetic clarity, to the betrayals that followed. Leaders like Patrice Lumumba, Agostinho Neto, Samora Machel, and Ahmed Ben Bella echoed unanimous calls for selfmastery, education, agriculture, infrastructure, health, and poverty’s end; yet no sooner had the Casablanca Group convened in 1961 than neocolonialism struck, with coups felling Sylvanus Olympio in Togo and Lumumba in Congo. By 1963 in Addis Ababa, at the founding of the Organization of African Unity; a toothless bulldog, as critics decried, Haile Selassie’s plea for unity, Nyerere’s celebration of opportunity, and Nkrumah’s urgent vision for a United States of Africa with one army, currency, and bank went unheeded; the trappings of power had already ensnared them, birthing a weak body that achieved little, later evolving into the African Union with scant improvement. Africa, our dear, we started with divine intent for selfdetermination, only to produce leaders whose power corrupted them into unrecognizable figures; it is time we extricate ourselves from mental slavery by demanding accountable governance, recognizing that while foreign policies exacerbate our woes, our leaders often are the core problem, granting outsiders entry through their greed. This peril of intoxicating power, evident in our push for independence and the quasi-realities of existence dictated by the West, finds timeless warnings in sacred texts; consider Joseph, who ascended to power in Egypt after divine encounters, yet his policies during the famine led to the enslavement of entire nations, as the people sold their lands, livestock, and themselves to Pharaoh for survival, a grim caution that absolute authority corrupts even the faithful (Genesis 47:13-26). Likewise, when Israel demanded a king like other nations, God, in His anger, permitted it through Samuel, who warned: “He will take your sons and appoint them for his chariots and to be his horsemen… He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards… He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards… and you shall be his slaves” (1 Samuel 8:11-17), foretelling the burdens of monarchy unchecked.
Ancestors of Africa’s Liberation Emperor Haile Selassie I + Kwameh Nkrumah + Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Kambarage + Nelson Mandela
Beloved continent, as we conclude this letter of lamentation, let’s move past faulting the whites which has been done and named rightly, and instead turn inward with courage; the United States of America arose amid blood and tears, forged upon the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples and the brutal enslavement of Africans, yet the United States of Africa shall emerge from fire and ashes, united not through domination but by our shared wounds, which forge an unbreakable identity and bind us as one resilient kin; our innocent elects turn monstrous once enthroned, yet by voting for those we can recognize and restrain, by fostering dialogue over division, Africa can unite, fight as one, and ascend to greatness. Thus, we look forward to a new earth, specifically a new Africa, in which our people subscribe to the Prince of Peace, a new world where there will be no more death, no more corruption, no more segregation, as the ancient promise declares: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4)—may the conversation endure, for in our shared sorrow lies the seed of redemption. Yet, in this vision, we must confront why the church, in her mighty institutions and imported doctrines, often fails to comprehend these brutal realities, entangled as she is in colonial legacies that prioritize spiritual salvation over systemic emancipation, her missions diluted by Western alliances that overlook Africa’s cries for justice, urging her now to refine her calling toward holistic liberation, addressing not just souls but the chains of poverty, exploitation, and neo-colonialism that bind our people.
Read more about the Author here: Philip Kakungulu
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