Catalonia referendum should prove to Africa that the West plays dirty

Western nations must not be the sole barometer by which Africa judges herself. The violence in Spain with the Catalonia referendum, and the resultant response – or lack thereof – from external nations and bodies further highlights this.

The tumultuous events in Spain this weekend, and the silence of the EU, the UN the USA, and most European governments (Belgium and Slovenia being the exception that have spoken up), shows the West will discard any rules that do not suit them.

The EU has stated the Catalonia matter is an internal Spanish matter for the Spanish to deal with. The British Foreign office have also released a similar statement. Majority of the limited ‘muted scolding’ is coming from opposition parties and politicians in Europe.

HOWEVER, if the wide-spread crackdown in Catalonia had taken place in an African nation, the EU, the UN, USA and Western governments would all be falling over themselves to scream – ‘Rule of law’, ‘Respect democracy’, ‘Illegal to try to stop a vote’, ‘Wicked to unleash the police against citizens’ etc etc.

They would be criticising that African nation; telling her people to leave as it is unsafe; even threatening sanctions.

Please do not misunderstand. I am not knocking the West. The West has been a force for both good AND bad in Africa. However Africans must understand that whatever the West does, is mostly based on protecting and promoting its own interests.

Africa must look to itself for the answers to shape this continent into an economic and political powerhouse. We alone are our only ‘saviours’.

It is time our intellectuals, leaders of thought, writers, business titans, politicians, and ordinary citizens, begin formulating concrete ideals and ideas of what we want our individual African nations to be.