Tomorrow (Sunday, May 25) is Africa Day, as designated by the African Union (AU) to replace African Liberation Day (ALD).
ALD was originally designated by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), launched on May 25, 1963 at the United Nations (UN).
The OAU, headquartered in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, was established to promote unity and cooperation between African nations and was replaced by the AU on July 9, 2002 in Durban, South Africa.
The AU started with 32 signatory governments, but now comprises 55 member-states, yet Africa continues to be quite under-represented globally.
For example, its actual size is minimized on the traditional World Map; and the world’s largest and richest continent has no permanent seat on the UN’s Security Council.
Africa is also still a victim of the same imperial (ex-colonial) powers exploiting its resources today — and more now than ever, thanks to scientific and technological advances in methods of extraction.
Africa’s rich resources are inexhaustible – it’s also home to all needed to keep today’s electronic world turning in ‘The Age of The Internet of Things’.
New African leaders – like everywhere else — are demanding and pursuing radical post-colonial change to try to end the prevailing economic dominance of former colonial powers.
Today’s Western powers (especially in the G-7) are therefore becoming increasingly frantic about the growing support across Africa (and the world) for the youthful leadership in Burkina Faso and that being provided by army leaders elsewhere on the continent who’ve replaced neo-colonial cohorts.
The Western nations of the Global North responsible for historically under-developing Africa are now quaking in their boots, especially following the recent establishment of a new alliance in the Sahel region by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
The three neighbouring nations have prioritized creating a self-sufficient regional entity and introduced measures aimed at deepening integration.
Influenced by the army coup in Burkina Faso led by Captain Ibrahim Traore and widespread support across Africa for similar coups (like in Gabon) that led to the departure of despotic family regimes, the new Sahel alliance is also creating waves worldwide.
Captain Traore, who led an army coup in September 2023 at age 34, is a living inspiration to people everywhere who support Africa’s quest to regain control of its destiny and resources.
The AU is more heard of today seeking ways to start negotiations to end the costly war in Sudan and prevent another starting in South Sudan, with the Western media permanently highlighting the resulting displacement of millions.
The emphases continue to be on division of the continent into ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘central’, ‘east’ and ‘west’, ‘sub-Saharan’ and other designations, while continuing the colonization of minds through the accelerated mental slavery that followed independence.
Today, the brunt of Western propaganda is aimed at denouncing African communicators who initiate creative ways to support Traore online, including fictional stories deifying him.
People everywhere are attracted by the IT-generated, imaginary online ‘letters’ supposedly exchanged between Captain Traore and Pope Francis (after he died) and his successor, Pope Leo.
As to be expected, the Western propagandists grab hold of the few cases of overblown exaggerations claiming Traore already did things he hasn’t – like ‘colossal’ housing projects and ‘ending taxes’.
But contrast these claims with the outright lies and fabrications historically used to justify Western plots to kill African leaders who advocated fundamental change anywhere on the continent after independence.
Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi, Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara and Mozambique’s Samora Machel are among scores of progressive world leaders assassinated through imperial plots involving the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
There’ve been more than 21 attempts on Traore’s life in just-over two years, leading to the worldwide expressions of defence and solidarity shown everywhere on April 30, 2025.
Much to the horror of their opponents, Traore and Burkina Faso have also secured reliable security support from Russia.
But this young leader and his nation have again exposed how ferocious the neo-colonial regimes and their backers on both sides of The Atlantic can become when their backs are against the wall.
Traore (et al) are also today’s latest reminders that slavery and colonialism have simply taken new forms, but without relenting on propagation of the mental slavery that still makes innocent Africans feel guilty about supposed ancestral facilitation of the slave trade.
They continue teaching and preaching that Africa had no history before slavery; and that the so-called ‘Great Triangle’ thankfully squared-up Africa’s introduction to ‘civilization’.
However, today’s reality behoves people of African descent everywhere to start taking-back (reclaiming and/or seizing) the narrative to beat-back the fables that underline the need for emancipating their minds from the mental slavery.
That’s exactly what Bob Marley advocated in ‘Redemption Song’ — and the legendary John Legend would remind the world of decades later, at an unforgettable 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony in Sweden.
Saint Lucia celebrates Africa Day today with an all-day rally at Derek Walcott Square organized by the Iyanola Council for Advancement of Rastafari (ICAR) that’ll include solidarity messages from a wide range of local political and cultural, activist and other entities – including a ‘Music Against Crime’ component.
The island’s Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) is also expected to start another three-year period of Emancipation Month observances (2025-2027), first designated by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre on August 1, 2021.
The CDF is expected to build on the first three years (2022-2024), observed under the theme ‘Enkindling Our Consciousness’.
This weekend’s Africa Day celebrations also precede the second summit between African leaders and their Caribbean Community (CARICOM) counterparts on AU-CARICOM Day, September 7.
Stakeholders worldwide are also working to ensure the Second Decade for People of African Descent (designated by the UN) achieves the aims of the first.
It’s left now for today’s heirs and successors of the ancient African empires to harness the wisdom of ages bequeathed through Time and History, to continue clearing the path for present and future generations.