EL PAÍS offers the América Futura section for its daily and global informative contribution on sustainable development. If you want to support our journalism, subscribe here.
When Francia Marquez set foot in Gabon on her first tour as vice president, she was received with military honors and with great rejoicing, being the first woman of African descent vice president of Colombia to visit this country. While in Colombia and Latin America the relevance of this meeting has been criticized, the delegations of Gabon, South Africa and Kenya have welcomed with open arms the proposals of bilateral environmental agenda, trade with a gender focus and guarantees of citizen mobility between these countries and the Latin American continent. The journey of the Colombian environmental activist and one of the main references of the Afro movement is also fundamental to rethink the democratic leaderships of our times.
The visit of the vice president is not only a diplomatic priority of the current Government, but it is also a meeting that could mark a before and after in the face of the recurring problem of the absence of new leadership in the current democracies of the world. As has been seen in less than a year of government, Francia Márquez embodies a new face in Colombian and Latin American politics.
In the current context of the region, where there seems to be no new transformative figures in politics – to the point of having to re-choose old recipes such as the current Brazilian president Lula Da Silva – Márquez embodies a new voice in the Latin American progressive scenario. A woman, Afro, close to community-based organizations, Márquez represents a sector of the country that has historically not been allowed to participate in public decisions in Colombia. Their presence constitutes a new token on the board of regional progressivism.
Much can be said about her management in just over nine months as vice president, but it is clear that Márquez is especially characterized by the vindication of her roots and her past. Hence, the general meaning of his visit to African countries is not only the renewal of Colombia's diplomatic relations with territories that share much of our history. This meeting aims to connect its roots with a past of emancipation, community leadership and Pan-Africanism.
Marquez gives a lecture during his visit to Nairobi. DANIEL IRUNGU (EFE)
The search for what the Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Nkrumah called the "sense of oneness in Africa" is perhaps one of the main reasons for the reception in the countries of East and South Africa. The origins of what is known as Pan-Africanism occurred around the 50s and 60s, when Ghana achieved the first sub-Saharan independence, under the ideas of autonomy, union and struggle against colonial racism. And it is based on the pillars of twinning and defense of the African, with the intention of achieving the unity of the continent under a single state entity.
Structural ideas in Márquez's political bet such as "Ubuntu" or "I am because we are", in their most communitarian root, were also native to Africa. Hence, as a pilgrimage, in a gesture of gratitude, she would like to rediscover that political foundation and the raison d'être of her social movement. Not because it had lost it, but because it needs to reconnect with the territories that gave rise to the support for the community, the passion for the defense of the rights of nature and the evident commitment to the inclusion of underrepresented populations.
His agenda on ethnic equality and the need to move towards an anti-racist, anti-colonialist and anti-patriarchal peace not only breathe new life into Latin America, but also into Africa. The absence of new leadership in spaces of power is not only a phenomenon that impacts our region, but is also very present in the African context. The Pan-Africanist dream of more than 60 years ago, of autonomy and liberation, seems to have stalled at least because of the current state of democracies on this continent.
Examples of aging senior leaders such as Equatorial Guinea with its president Teodoro Obiang, 80, Cameroon with Paul Biya, 90, and Uganda with Yoweri Museveni, 78, and which, in addition, strengthens its authoritarianism by signing the entry into force of the anti-homosexual law in this country, are just a sample of outdated leadership. masculine and, in some cases, authoritarian from African countries. There also seems to be a pattern of permanence in power, taking into account that, for example, the Ugandan president has been governing for more than 26 years, the head of the Executive of Equatorial Guinea, more than 43 and, that of Cameroon, more than four decades. It is enough to look at other leaders on the African continent to determine that the ideas of Pan-Africanism, Ubuntu and community leadership took a back seat to the needs for greater security and development on the continent.
Márquez (center) takes a tour with Kenyan authorities of the Museum of the Judiciary, in Nairobi, on Monday. TONY KARUMBA (AFP)
But, despite the fact that these high leaders have been monopolizing spaces in power for years, innovative leaderships in African countries are consolidating, in turn, in neighborhoods, streets and daily life. Community and neighborhood leaders do not pretend to embody messianism in their daily work and try to strive to represent to the people many realities, of many "commons". They do see the importance of constantly interlocuting "with their people", of maintaining a direct dialogue with the needs of the people closest to them.
Young people from marginalized neighborhoods in East African countries have been organizing to form citizen assemblies called "barazas", citizen councils and social and political activism, in a search for decentralization of power and raising citizen voices. They are leaders who know that democracy requires a less egocentric and more deliberative exercise; a less individualistic and more collective exercise; of a scenario that understands the diversity and complexity of different realities and moves from "said to deed".
Francia Márquez challenges African democratic leaders, confronting the past of autonomy, union and liberation with the current state of their democracies. The need to return to these Pan-Africanist values, with innovative voices on the rise, allows the African and Latin American continents to exchange perspectives for the future and demonstrate that it is not that there is a lack of leadership in the democracies of the world, but that there has been no space for voices like those of Márquez to reach public power.
Sebastián Calderón is a Colombian lawyer and historian. Co-founder of Extituto de Política Abierta, an organization that seeks to strengthen democracy in Colombia, Latin America and the Global South. Activist of peacebuilding processes with experience in the creation of networks of mobilization, deliberation and citizen participation. Researcher with academic development in transitional justice, peacebuilding, democratic activism and digital rights.