United States of Africa: Continent Must Unite to Achieve Its Goals

July 24, 2009 - The Libyan leader and current chairman of the African Union, President Muamar Ghadafi has once again reiterated his clarion call for African unity, stressing that the continent must be united in order to achieve its goals.

He stressed that in the absence of unity and lack of political will, the continent's goals will be hard to achieve. The Libyan leader made these comments at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, Gambia, where he addressed thousands of Gambians as part of his activities in the country.

The African Union chairman also used the opportunity to implore the youths to distance themselves from illegal migration, stressing the need for them to stay on the continent. He noted that Africans should rely on themselves for development, saying "we have the mineral resources, and the people". To this end, he reminded the youths about the fact that the former colonials colonised the continent because it is the richest in the world. He told the youths that the colonisers had treated Africans like animals. Read full article HERE.

Mapondera, F. A. Says: - Having highlighted some of these issues in my commentary published in celebration of Africa Day on the 25th May 2009 (CLICK HERE)I couldn't agree more with His Excellency President Muamar Ghadafi. However there is a need to accurately define what Africa's goals are as well as to what extent unity amongst African brothers & sisters stretches. More often than not African goals have been distorted undoubtedly by external influences in the form of Western Governments and on the other hand 'unity' is often banded around when there is a political objective to be realised. There are many ways Africa could benefit from 'unity' but 'unity' should mean exactly that and should be evident in ALL aspects aimed at development in Africa.

In working to unify the continent we should not marginalise those in need and those who will suffer the consequences in future of a myopic approach, the YOUTHS. In all future pursuit of unity, Africa should realise the role youths have to play and how they are undeniably going to be the leaders of tomorrow. If through unity a United States of Africa is born eventually there needs to be a change in the approach for engaging youths, impart them with the necessary tools to make them successful leaders of tomorrow.

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What is CIYDA
Contemporary Indigenous Youth Development Africa (CIYDA) is an non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. CIYDA is working to develop and empower the youths of Zimbabwe for the benefits of the nation and Africa as a continent through the use of new media, information technology and networking amongst other things. Through these drivers, CIYDA aims to facilitate an information hub and service provision in the areas of Business Start-up, Social & Cultural Integration, Socio-economic Mentoring and Volunteering. CIYDA currently has a network connection of over 500 Zimbabwean youths in many countries amongst them, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Canada.