Modern Africa has come a long way.
From slavery, colonialism, neo- colonialism, the Bandung Conference, the Bretton Woods structural adjustment chokeholds, along with their inexhaustible debt relief and poverty alleviation schemes, right up to liberation struggle traumas, idealistic Pan- Africanist dreams, dismal leadership and elite failures and, most recently, health sovereignty challenges brought on by the Covid-19 crisis, it has been a dreadful era for Africans.
Yet, amid the travails, Africa resiliently keeps thriving.
Nevertheless, every year, a sceptical and ritualistic question arises about whether to celebrate Africa Day.
It is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by Emperor Haile Selassie.
It was called African Freedom Day, to “mark each year the onward progress…