The Attempted Arrest of Sudanese President Omar Bashir, the Media Hype and an Opportunity for the New Africa

When I woke up this morning to the news that a warrant had been issued by a judge in South Africa for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Bashir on charges of committing acts of genocide against the peoples of Darfur and South Sudan, I thought we were witnessing a new dawn in Africa, a continent ravaged by sociopaths who maneuver their ways onto power, and then go about misruling and ravaging their countries, often with the open or tacit backing of foreign powers. But then I got sobered by the fact that Omar Bashir was in South Africa as a guest of the South African President Jacob Zuma who is hosting The African Union’s 25th summit, meaning that Jacob Zuma had to have guaranteed Omar Bashir’s safety.

So, based on African customs and traditions, Omar Bashir is untouchable while in South Africa. All the same, the arrest warrant sets a precedence and ignites the hope that henceforth, these African heads of state with the evil disposition would be held accountable for their actions. But then, for Africa to move forward, for the founding of the New Africa, justice wouldn't have to be selective, justice wouldn't have to be prescribed from capitals in Europe and North America; justice would have to be African born with the support of the rest of the world. Such an African justice would mean going after African-killing heads of state who are backed by foreign powers of the West and the East; that would meaning going after US, French, British, Chinese and other foreign backed sociopaths who are being maintained in power by these powers because they are good for business.

That is why Omar Bashir, Robert Mugabe and Western-backed dictators and killers like Paul Biya of Cameroon, Idris Derby of Chad, Eyademas of Togo, Bongos of Gabon, Sassou Nguessou of Congo Republic etc. should be in the list of African heads of state to be tried for crimes against their people. But would that ever happen? With the exception of the first two, the others are the puppets of foreign powers that see "good business" in maintaining these anti-people heads of state in power as they sell off the resources of their home countries, stash the wealth they steal in banks abroad and invest in the economies of these foreign powers. Taking the above into account, it is easy to figure out why many people find the hypocrisy in international justice mind-boggling.

World justice needs to go after the killing evil dictators in Africa, but the move has to be an across the board endeavor, aiming for the removal from power and trial of the western-installed and supported guys like Paul Biya of Cameroon etc. and the non-western-installed or supported ones like Bashir and Mugabe. 2015 and 2016 shook be declared the years to cleanse Africa of its dictators (whether Western backed or otherwise). Africa needs to start 2017 without the baggage of foreign-backed sociopaths who have hijacked their nations posing as heads of state.