Samya Nkrumah (Photo: Ahmed Mahmoud)
On the sidelines of the International ArcVision competition held in the Italian city of Bergamo, Ahram Online met with the African leader Samia Nkrumah, where she was participating as a member of the jury.
Nkrumah is the daughter of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and her mother was Fathia Rizk, an Egyptian Coptic Christian.
AM: Egypt is passing through a critical period in its history, as an African-Egyptian politician, how do you see Egypt's position?
SN: The real solution to the current crisis is African unity. Africa, including Egypt, is full of rich resources. Africa contains huge reserves of gold and other resources, but we only make use of a little of this because we rely on international companies that get most of the profits and only give us the remains. For example, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire produce 60 percent of the world’s cocoa but can't control the market, because these international companies export the raw cocoa to their foreign countries and make it in their factories, and then we import it back. We must start to use our national experiences and with a country like Egypt there will be a difference.
AM: But the disagreements among states in Africa make things really hard, and look at the Nile Basin crisis for example. How do you think the Egypt-Ethiopia crisis can be solved?
SN: Water resources in Africa are abundant, and the Nile Basin states can simply reach a settlement. It needs nothing but distributing water in a way that guarantees the interests of all sides. Frankly speaking, this requires creating a vision on African affairs. We are fighting on water while leaving the rest of our resources prone to exploitation by foreign companies. Resources in Africa are efficient for Africans, and conditions will improve if we manage them wisely.
AM: The African Union (AU) is a strong regional institution that should have helped in reaching common ground among different views. This happened in the past, why has the situation changed now?
SN: The problem definitely involves the absence of leading figures in Africa. Leaders of states, in the past, used to take the continent's interests into consideration. They had no ambitions of hegemony. Leaders of that kind, such as Egypt's Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, are exactly what Africa needs now.
Does it make sense to have 16 states in a small area of West Africa while the whole world is moving towards creating alliances and unions? The colonial forces divided Africa into small states to maintain control over them. I can understand that, but I can't understand why this situation has lasted until now.
We have to consider cases of regional organisations such as the European Union. Africa, if united, will manage to support the people of the continent in many ways.
Bear in mind that Africa’s population is less than a quarter of some large, advanced populations, such as China and India. We have to create new economic plans for Africa as had been expected after the Lagos agreement. But this didn't happen.
AM: What do you think of Egypt's political conditions?
SN: Egypt is witnessing a transitional phase after two revolutions. It is normal to have an unstable situation in the country, but Egypt chose a democratic path and this is really good. Democracy, nevertheless, is not only about elections, which we should insist on when dealing with our people. Democracy should make us rich, not poor, and free. Anyway, I feel optimistic about Egypt despite many hardships along the way.
AM: I follow your posts on social networks from time to time. I have the impression that you'll soon be the Ghanaian president. If that happens, what will be the shape of relations between Egypt and Ghana?
SN: I lived half of my life in Egypt, what do you expect? Egypt-Ghana relations are strong, and they will definitely become stronger when I become president.
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