HE is sprightly and full of energy at the ripe old age of 93.

Yet for Panama-born Dudley Thompson, the former minister of national security and justice in the Michael Manley-led People's National Party administration of the 1970s, his work on earth is far from
complete.

The top-of-the line lawyer — the only Rhodes Scholar produced by Mico College — is working feverishly on the formation of a United States of Africa, a working title for the possible coming together of African states in their quest
to build a stronger, more vibrant continent from whence came the ancestors of
many Caribbean people.

Thompson, in a recent interview with the Sunday Observer, admired the progress being made by African leaders in bringing countries of that region under a single umbrella.

"Oh yes, it is moving fast. There was a meeting not so long ago where 12 countries in Africa signed an agreement and said look, we are prepared to give up our positions to support the formation of a Federation of Africa,"
Thompson said.

"President (Dr Abdoulaye) Wade, a very progressive Pan-Africanist president of Senegal, said that he would be prepared to be the governor of Senegal, if there were a united Africa.

"They are moving in that direction. The constitution is being ironed out now, a Parliament is being looked at, and I hope to see it before I die.

"The target is 2017, that's seven years from now. In seven years from now I hope to see a federation or confederation of Africa. In seven years from now I will also be 100, God willing. I have been through it and I have known
every one of the leaders," Thompson said.

A united Africa under one political and economic roof, Thompson said, would allow the continent to perform better and gain more respect globally.

"Our ultimate aim in my association, that is the association of which I am president, the World African Diaspora Union, is to have a united Africa. They (African leaders) are taking steps in that direction and we are supporting
it.

"It would mean one government of a whole Africa ... a federal government, which would include the Diaspora as the sixth district, by which I mean a jurisdiction of a Central Africa over North Africa, South Africa, East
Africa, West Africa, Central Africa and the Diaspora as an integral part of the
African scenario. That is our aim, and once we do that we would place Africa,
us, as a major player in global affairs.

"We have been so far cut off from Africa that I have been trying my very best to rejoin. We have neglected Africa, and we are African, no matter how you take it. We must consider ourselves non-resident Africans, Africans residing
or naturalising abroad, whatever your citizenship, whatever your residence,
whatever your domicile, our ancestors did not give up their citizenship ... they
didn't have any passports. They were wrenched from the heart of Africa, taken by
force and dispersed throughout the world.

"We who descended from them have always kept up that African-ness. Why is it that we feel good when we hear of a black success... a Michael Jackson, for example? Why is it that we feel good when we see a Mohammed Ali on top? It's
because we feel something with them. There is an ethnic relationship. We have
never lost our African-ness and so we are Africans who happen to be residing
abroad. That is our status. That is what I have been working for over the last
five years in the World African Diaspora Union," Thompson said.

The former Jamaican Ambassador to African nations — Nigeria, Namibia and Ghana, who earned the nickname 'Burning Spear' through his defence of Jomo Kenyatta, who later became President of Kenya, in the Mau Mau trials of 1952,
insists that Africa has been treated unfairly, globally, and wants all that to
change.

"The portrayal of Africa is quite unfair. People think of it as a continent of corruption, and military coups. That is there, but we are thinking about a place that is large enough to include, geographically, the whole of the
United States, the whole of India, the whole of China, the whole of Argentina
... all of that could fit into Africa. It's a big place.

"Nigeria alone is about 80 times the size of Jamaica. Now with a place like that you can always pick out the sores and the warts, but there are some very good spots there.

"If you go to Dakar in Senegal, you will see wider streets than you have in any part of the West Indies. Wide streets that are kept clean with street sweepers all dressed in uniforms.

"You will see people who are educated and sartorially dressed ... you will see advanced people, but we don't know anything about that.

"There are good things that we can take from Africa. There are more people of African descent in Brazil than any country in Africa, except Nigeria. Therefore we (African/Americans) have the buying power in the trillions of
dollars. Now if 10 per cent of that were invested in Africa, you wouldn't have
these pictures of starving babies and famines and so on. We need to make the
connection. "We can bring some things to Africa. We have the know-how. Being
African alone doesn't qualify you to become a member of the Diaspora, because we
have people on the outside who say, 'Oh I don't want to hear anything about
Africa ... I am not African,' etc.

"To be a member of the Diaspora and to qualify, aside from your descent from your ancestors, you need to have a mind that Africa is your motherland and you have a duty to help her to reach that position of number one in the world.
You need to have that mind and that contribution ... that's when you qualify,"
said Thompson, who also served as a Royal Air Force pilot in active combat
during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945.

Thompson, in the meantime, is concentrating on his book, which he hopes to have published by the end of this year, while keeping a close eye on developments in Africa.

"I am finishing off a book in my temporary residence in Florida, but I do a lot of travelling around the world and I have been on recent trips to Senegal, Ghana and Uganda.

"It's a book or a memorandum of the various people, important people that I have met. People like (Jomo) Kenyatta from Kenya whom I defended. Because of my long age, I have had the opportunity of knowing and working with, on a
close level, most of the black leaders, from Marcus Garvey to Mandela; and
that's quite a lot," he said

Thompson wants United Africa by his 100th birthday

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Thompson-wants-United-Africa-by-his-100th-birthday_7766014

Sunday, July 04, 2010