African Stirrings

Muammar al-Gaddafi

There are two news items related to Africa that I would like to show here today. Here is the first:

Gaddafi outlines African vision

BBC – April 15, 2009

Libyan leader and current African Union chairman Muammar Gaddafi has spelled out his plans to create a United States of Africa.

At an AU Executive Council session in Tripoli, he called on the continent to speed up the integration process.

His vision of a pan-African government was at the heart of disputes at February’s AU summit in Ethiopia.

He said an African Union Authority would replace all other organs and be run by three co-ordinators.

The BBC’s Rana Jawad in Tripoli says the establishment of an AU Authority is meant to be the starting point for the envisioned United States of Africa.

More than 60 AU ministers and delegates gathered for a one-day meeting in the Libyan capital to hear Col Gaddafi outline in detail for the first time how his plan would work.

He proposed:

The current AU Executive Council appoint a head secretary to be in charge of the continent’s foreign affairs

The AU’s economic development programme, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), would oversee foreign trade

The head of the AU’s Peace and Security Council would run the continent’s defence matters

Col Gaddafi envisages a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent.

Some officials, particularly from countries more favourable towards Libya have expressed a positive outlook towards the plan, while admitting it will take some time to implement.

But many will privately express deep concern over issues like state sovereignty, says our correspondent.

And others feel the divisions across the continent over the matter are simply too deep to overcome at this time, she adds. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8000761.stm

While it is likely that any African unity organization will be quite fragile, it is possible that it will help set the stage for the emergence of the one that the Bible refers to as the Future King of the South.

The second item I wanted to report on has to do with problems in South Africa:

Land grab spreads to South Africa as mob seizes farm

The Times – April 16, 2009

An armed mob, angered over the slow pace of land reform benefits, has launched a Zimbabwean-style invasion of one of South Africa’s new multi-million pound showpiece agricultural reform projects, the biggest yet in value instituted by the post-apartheid government.

Government sources said a mob, armed with knives and machetes, had seized control of Forana farm in the rich farming area of Mpumalanga province over the Easter weekend after threatening and driving off local managers and staff employed by the new owners, a black-run farming cooperative.

The 3200 hectare farm is part of Tenbosch estate, a Rand 10 billion (£740 million) land-restitution project. It is made up of several farms handed back to four local communities who progressively lost their historic land under apartheid legislation since 1923.

Invaders, mirroring complaints in rural communities across the country, are angry over the few benefits they have seen from the much-heralded land transfer although the new owners made clear it would take several years to turn around land which although originally seized from locals, has been abandoned and neglected for years.

Agribusiness Umlimi, which controls the joint-venture farm management company Makhombo for the Lugedlane community condemned the action as irresponsible and said it compromised farming operations and jeopardised the ultimate flow of benefits to the community.

Fifteen years after the end of apartheid, land reform remains one of the country’s most sensitive issues. Government attempts to redress an imbalance which saw whites holding some 83 percent of all land, have largely failed, angering all sides.

Critics say the programme has simply contributed to destroying viable commercial farming sector by drastically reducing the amount of land available for commercial agriculture without bringing any benefit to rural communities.

“I would say that 95 percent of land transferred under the scheme so far has simply resulted in once productive farms being turned over to subsistence farming,” Chris van Zyl, deputy general manager of the Transvaal Agricultural Union told The Times.

He said the situation had not been helped because the new owners were frequently denied title deeds without which they found it difficult to raise the necessary investment. In addition, white farmers who are keen to sell sometimes have to wait more than two years to receive promised funds from the government. In the meantime they make no investment on the land.

The land bank which organizes such purchases under the current “willing buyer, willing seller” scheme is bankrupt after successive corruption scandals.

“All this has led to a decrease in production and a crisis of food security,” Mr van Zyl added. “You can’t just take land away from one group and hand it to others and expect it to stay productive. The issue is far more complex. Unfortunately it is a very sensitive issue and needs to be handled with care but politicians take advantage of that and whip up expectations which cannot be met.”

Emotions are currently running high in South Africa as the country is in the midst of the most closely contested election campaign since democracy in 1994. Opposition parties are highlighting the failure of the ANC to deliver on previous pledges to end poverty and improve life for the black majority – some 85 percent of the population.

Land, land reform and agricultural production are some of the areas where the current government has failed most dramatically to the extent it recently warned black farmers they risked losing the land again under a new “use it or lose it” policy.

Farm invasions stoke fears that South Africa could go the same way as Zimbabwe where a “fast track” programme, aimed at meeting local people’s frustrations, saw white farmers losing farms violently without compensation with disastrous consequences for the broader economy.

Attorney Richard Spoor, who acted for a group of concerned members of the Tenbosch beneficiary community, told the Business Day newspaper the Tenbosch project was a shambles because certain of the new trustees had abused the trust of the community.

Through Makhombo, Umlimi has disbursed hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Lugedlane community in the past three years, but none of the income was passed on to the community, according to the group behind the “invasion”. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6101732.ece

When my wife and I visited South Africa (over two decades ago), a woman at church who moved there from Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) told us that what happened in Rhodesia would likely happen in South Africa. Sadly, she appears to have been accurate. It has long been my belief that God has allowed the formerly Anglo-dominated African nations to be the first to experience what happens when Anglos are considered to be an unnecessary people. This will worsen when the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand enter the “time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) also known as the Great Tribulation.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Africa: Its Biblical Past and Prophesied Future What does the Bible teach about Africa and its future? Did the early Church reach Africa? Will God call all the Africans?
The Arab World In the Bible, History, and Prophecy The Bible discusses the origins of the Arab world and discusses the Middle East in prophecy. What is ahead for the Middle East and those who follow Islam?
Is There A Future King of the South? Some no longer believe there needs to be. Might Egypt, Islam, Iran, Arabs, or Ethiopia be involved? What does the Bible say?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2009, 2010, or 2011? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What is the beginning of sorrows? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord?
Prophecies of Barack Obama? Eight reasons why Barack Obama is apocalyptic and eight reasons why Barack Obama is not the Antichrist. Here are there biblical and non-biblical prophecies, from around the world, that seem to discuss Barack Obama. Did Nostradamus predict Barack Obama dealing with the Antichrist? Might Barack Obama set the stage for the kings of the North and South as at least one Shiite prophecy suggests? This is the longest and most complete article on this page on Barack Obama prophecies.