The reaction of the African Union and its regional blocs and member states to the current global order is not just disappointing but also an utterly scandalous betrayal of history. Having borne the brunt of Arab and European slavery, colonization, and imperialism, Africa owes the West absolutely nothing. If any continent has earned the moral authority to demand justice, it is ours.
We have endured the domination and destruction of racism and imperialism firsthand. We are intimately familiar with the language of exploitation dressed up as civilization. And yet, when faced with the West’s continued aggression and blatant abuse of international law, Africa’s institutions respond with cowardice.
The statements emanating from the AU, its regional blocs, and African governments regarding the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president, the assault on Iran and the genocide in Gaza are as unexpected as they are dangerous. By failing to speak in unequivocal terms, Africa is not remaining neutral rather it is aiding and abetting the very forces of imperialism that have enslaved, colonized, and exploited its people for centuries. This is not about taking sides in a distant conflict. It is about recognizing that the current war on Iran, the occupation of Palestine, and the West’s systematic dismantling of the rule-based order are part of a five-hundred-year continuum of violence against the Global South.
We must stop pretending that history began yesterday.
In 1455, Alvise Cadamosto, sponsored by the Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator, landed on the shores of West Africa. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, backed by the Spanish Crown, reached the Americas. In the centuries that followed, the likes of Cecil Rhodes, James Cook, and William Hawkins carved up the world from India to Australia, from China to the Middle East, through war crimes, genocide, and plunder. The First and Second World Wars were not fought for freedom, they were imperialist wars over the bodies, lands, and resources of the Global South. Tragically, Africans, Arabs, and Asians were dragged into those conflicts, only to emerge with colonial masters exhausted but still in control.
When the dust settled, the West built a new architecture to prevent a repeat of its own destruction. The United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Genocide Convention among other pieces of international law were drafted to enshrine peace, human dignity, and self-determination. The Charter’s preamble vowed to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Article 2(4) prohibited the threat or use of force against any state. Article 51 reserved self-defense only in the case of armed attack. The Genocide Convention, born from the ashes of the Holocaust, carried a sacred pledge: Never Again.
Yet, as soon as these instruments were signed, the West began violating them. Decolonization was delayed, resisted, and weaponized. Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Algeria, and South Africa had to fight bloody wars to achieve what international law had already promised them. Meanwhile, the United States and its European allies unleashed terror on Vietnam, Korea, and the Middle East. They overthrew democracies and installed puppets. In 1953, the CIA and MI6 deposed Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, not because he was a threat to peace, but because he dared to nationalize Iran’s oil for his people. They replaced him with a brutal Shah, whom they had earlier supported for decades to oppress his people.
Today, the West claims to defend human rights while arming Israel to the teeth as it commits genocide in Gaza. It sanctions Iranian leaders while cozying up to autocratic regimes in Riyadh. It threatens International Criminal Court judges with sanctions for daring to hold Benjamin Netanyahu accountable, while ignoring the UN Charter’s requirement that all states settle disputes peacefully. It lectures the world on the rules-based order, even as it burns that order to the ground.
And where is Africa in all of this? Silent. Subdued. Complicit.
The African Union has the largest voting bloc in the United Nations. It has the moral weight of centuries of suffering. It has every right and every obligation to demand a new world order. Instead, it issues limp statements that fail to name the perpetrators or demand accountability. It watches as the West weaponizes international law against the weak while shielding the powerful. It allows itself to be gaslit into believing that neutrality is wisdom, when in fact it is cowardice and surrender.
This cannot stand. Africa must become the conscience of the world.
The AU and its regional blocs and members must remind the West of its own contradictions. They must demand that the UN Charter be upheld, not selectively invoked. They must insist that self-determination is not a bargaining chip, but a binding legal right enshrined in both the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic Social and Cultural Rights.
AU and its regional blocs and members must call out the hypocrisy of a Security Council that grants permanent seats to the Americas, Europe, and Asia, while excluding an entire continent of 1.4 billion people. Above all, the African Union must lead the call for an urgent review and restructuring of the international system, which includes for the West to respect, uphold and abide by international law without exception. We must refuse to let the West have it both ways: championing a rules-based system while being its primary violator.
If the current leadership of the African Union cannot find the courage to do this; if they cannot be guided by history, by law, and by the suffering of their own people, then they must resign. They must hand over the reins to those who understand that in a world where hegemony and impunity prevail, Africa will always be the first to bleed.
This is not about choosing sides between great powers. It is about ensuring that we are never again enslaved, colonized, or discarded. It is about building a world where justice is not a privilege of the powerful, but a right of all.
Africa must speak. And it must speak now.
By Madi Jobarteh
