“I have read Bishop Gladwin's statement on arrival to England and would wish to make it clear that when we heard that he was a patron of Changing Attitude which advocates the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people at all levels in the church, we distanced ourselves from him and his group as this is where we differ. We have gays and lesbians in Kenya but we do not approve of what they are doing. We speak to them and give them pastoral care so that they may do the right thing. We do not believe that men should marry men or women marry women. Anyone advocating for the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the leadership of the church cannot be in communion with the Province of Kenya because we have said categorically that we do not support that. They are not abiding with our stand so we cannot be in communion with them.”

These were the words of The Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop of Kenya and Bishop of All Saints Cathedral in reaction to The Rt. Rev. John Gladwin, The Bishop of Chelmsford’s report that the Anglican Church of Kenya accorded his group extraordinary warmth, hospitality and Christian fellowship. “When we differ with people in Africa, we still give them hospitality but this does not mean that we agree with them. WE DO NOT,” said the Archbishop.

The prelate’s reaction raises an interesting angle in the African dilemma. Considering the fact that The Church of England has been supporting ACK. Should one bite the hand that feeds him? Should one agree with another simply because he is dependent on him?

Lack of pro-African principles has subjected the continent to many woes. It has made African governments to sacrifice their people on the altar of foreign dictates. In Uganda foe example, environmentalist pressure and disinformation halted work on the Bujagali dam, in a country where less than one million people have access to electricity and millions do not have the “luxury” of running water or safe drinking water.

“Our plan to build two new dams for hydro-power generation on the River Nile was disrupted by external meddling,” said President Yoweri Museveni in his recent Labor Day Speech, “We were told that Uganda was in “new danger” – “the danger of having too much electricity”!! This is outrageous and unacceptable. Ugandans have seen for themselves what we, the leaders, have always told them. Surrendering of sovereignty on decision-making is a very big mistake. I want to assure Ugandans that such mistakes will never occur again. We are going to build two new dams with or without the participation of outsiders in financing. Any external involvement will be strictly according to our time-table. There are sites on the River Nile on which we, in the medium-term, plan to build two new dams. There is Ayago North and Ayago South, for instance. As we complete plans for the construction of Bujagali and Karuma, that will be the next project.”

Museveni says that his country has moved from category “C” of the Human Development Index to category “B” according to the UN report due to firmness; self reliance; and being principled.

“We never yield to evil even when there are people pushing us in that direction. When Amin took over power in 1971, he had support of, especially, the Western countries because they thought he would serve their interests. We opposed Amin all the same until we removed him. We were only assisted by three African brothers: President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania; Samora Machel of Mozambique; and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.
We, therefore, never compromise with evil. Otherwise, Uganda would have been like Somalia, Burma or Congo today. It is almost impossible for outsiders to understand a situation of a country accurately. Countries in Africa that have excessively depended on external support always fail.”

The need for being principled is echoed by yet another leader. “We should not simply imitate the democratic frameworks used in older democracies in rich industrialised countries. The Wolof people in Senegal have a proverb: If you borrow a man’s legs you will go where he directs you. Our countries must be democratic; but we do not have to borrow another person’s legs. If it is accepted that “one size fits all” solutions cannot work in the domain of economic reform, how much more must such recognition apply to the political domain,” says former head of State of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa.

Outside pressure saw president Levy Mwanawa of Zambia bend when nearly 2.5 million people in his country were on the verge of starvation. The US had shipped 26 000 tons of corn to Zambia where many people could hardly afford a meal. Parroting the EU/Greenpeace line, Mwanawasa decreed the maize was unsafe for consumption, because some of it had been genetically modified to make it resistant to insect pests and increase crop yields. The fact that Americans have been consuming this corn for many years did not change his stand nor was he swayed by repeated scientific studies concluding that biotech foods are safe to eat-or by the demands of his own starving people who on several occasions attempted to break into the warehouses. The eco-lobby that he was in support of used $175 million to campaign against GM foods, money that was able to feed millions of starving people for several months.

Lack of being principled has seen African populations decimated by Malaria while bowing to the DDT ban by developed nations who don’t face the malaria threat. The US and Europe successfully used DDT to eradicate malaria. For them to downplay the lethal effects of this disease on developing nations-while obsessing about theoretical health concerns is hypocritical, paternalistic and callous.

It is strange that Africa exports raw materials as opposed to processed ones. It is strange that Africa still holds onto treaties such as the Nile treaty, that see huge populations deprived of the use of water in their own country. It is strange that to date, lobbies exist that would like to see Africa described in Edenic terms. The original innocence of nature is now found in places where modern Africans are excluded since they have been acquiring the technical power capable of subjecting nature to human purposes.

Africa is a nexus of both interests and responsibilities. It serves the greatest good when its stakeholders have an eye to more than the bottom line. We must not compromise with those who seek to erode our freedom and efforts to make Africa stand tall and proud among other nations of the world. We must work to create a climate where principled leadership is the minimum expectation.