Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General,, at the closing of the 'Africa 21' conference on Africa's 50th anniversary, in YaoundГ©, Cameroon. They will nevertheless need the support of the new networks of international solidarity, a grand moral coalition beyond states, a coalition of all those who believe that without Africa, our world will certainly be poorer in spirit and humanity. If Africans want democracy, they must pay the price. What needs to happen is a kind of continental 'New Deal' collectively negotiated among the different Africa governments and international powers, a 'New Deal' favouring democracy and economic progress that would complete and finally close for everyone that chapter of decolonization. We will end the suppression of free thinking and ensure that all citizens can freely enjoy the fundamental freedoms outlined in the Declaration of Human RightsвЂ¦.ДЄchille Mbembe, Cameroonian scholar, in an article on Africa's 50th anniversary published in April in Le Messager and other publications.ДЄs long as the logic of extraction and predation that characterizes the political economy of primary commodities in Africa has not been broken, and with it the existing modes of exploitation of Africa's sub-soil, we will not go farвЂ¦. We will review all the old laws and make new ones that are just and noble. We will be attentive so that the soil of our homeland really benefits its children. We will show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we will make the Congo a radiant centre for all of Africa.

We will together establish social justice and ensure that everyone receives just pay for their labour. Together, my brothers and sisters, we will begin a new struggle, a magnificent struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness. The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our dear country is now in the hands of its own children. We have been mocked, insulted and struck morning, noon and night because we are вЂ¦. We have known hard labour for which we were paid salaries that could not properly feed us, nor dress or house us decently, nor raise our dear children. Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the Congo, 30 June 1960, independence address.Д®ven though this independence for the Congo is being proclaimed today in agreement with Belgium, a country with which we deal as equals, no Congolese worthy of that name can ever forget that independence was conquered through struggle, a daily struggle, a fierce and idealist struggle, a struggle in which we spared neither our energy, nor our hardship, nor our suffering, nor our bloodвЂ¦.Д«ecause of what we have gone through during 80 years of a colonial regime, our wounds are still too fresh and painful for us to chase them from our memories. There are now twenty-two of us in this Assembly and there are yet more to come. This is a new day in Africa and as I speak now, thirteen new African nations have taken their seats this year in this august Assembly as independent sovereign statesвЂ¦. The United Nations must call upon all nations that have colonies in Africa to grant complete independence to the territories still under their controlвЂ¦. The United Nations must therefore face up to its responsibilities, and ask those who would bury their heads like the proverbial ostrich in their imperialist sands, to pull their heads out and look at the blazing African sun now travelling across the sky of Africa's redemption. I look upon the United Nations as the only organization that holds out any hope for the future of mankindвЂ¦. Those days are gone and gone forever, and now I, an African, stand before this august Assembly of the United Nations and speak with a voice of peace and freedom, proclaiming to the world the dawn of a new eraвЂ¦. From the north to the south, from the east to the west, her sons languished in the chains of slavery and humiliation, and Africa's exploiters and self-appointed controllers of her destiny strode across our land with incredible inhumanity without mercy, without shame, and without honour. The flowing tide of African nationalism sweeps everything before it and constitutes a challenge to the colonial powers to make a just restitution for the years of injustice and crime committed against our continentвЂ¦.ДЇor years, Africa has been the foot-stool of colonialism and imperialism, exploitation and degradation. One cardinal fact of our time is the momentous impact of Africa's awakening upon the modern world. Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, 23 September 1960, at the UN General Assembly in New York.

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