The Africa Forum has built on the fact that today's rulers will be the former rulers of the future, writes Ahmed Haggag* Following the end of colonial rule, Africa witnessed Presidents who either came to power after having led their countries� in the struggle for liberation, or who seized power through military coups. In general, the period was characterized by the lack of democracy, the preponderance of single ruling parties and presidents for life. Most rulers attempted to extend their rule for the longest possible period and, generally, power was transferred either by the demise of the president or his unseating through a military coup. Even those who attained power by force but promised to introduce democratic rule within a short period, prolonged their tenures under numerous pretexts. The prominent exceptions to this rule were President Senghor of Senegal and President Nierere of Tanzania who left power voluntarily. Nevertheless, there was obviously no role envisaged for former heads of state in public life in their countries or in the service of the African continent as a whole.. During the last two decades and especially after the demise of the Soviet Union on whom several African rulers has depended, the winds of change and democracy came to the continent. For the first time in their history, many rulers were forced to compete for presidential office in multiparty systems and through "democratic" elections. Furthermore, in 1999 the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, declared that it would not recognize any regime or head of state who assumed power through unconstitutional means. As a consequence, several "heads of state" were not allowed to participate in the meetings of the Organization. The question then arose : "Now that Africa was to have "former" leaders, and given the tremendous challenges of globalization and democratization faced by the continent, how could it make use of their expertise and international contacts without competition with their present counterparts? The answer to this question was obviously significant, not least because but it would be instrumental in showing that there was life after leaving office for a head of state who relinquishes power on his own free will or through the democratic process. Thus, the idea of establishing the "Africa Forum" to bring together the former heads of state of Africa to help resolve, through their good offices, the continent�s conflicts and problems started to take shape. A small group of African experts was chosen to outline the framework of the envisaged new Forum and the role of its members, especially in view of the fact that some foreign non African centers had already started to benefit from the expertise of some former African leaders. Some former African rulers had already deposited all their papers, official and private, with universities in the United States and Europe. Unfortunately, Africa has no tradition of recording, documenting or writing the history of its former leaders, as is the tradition in the United States, for instance. Indeed certain quarters tried, and almost succeeded, in hijacking or preventing the establishment of the Africa Forum, were it not for the enlightened ex-leaders who objected to this attempt, and emphasized that any such Forum should be purely African and should depend on Africa alone in its financing. During the meeting of experts last year, several principles to guide the work of the Forum were agreed upon: First: That the purpose of the Forum would be to benefit from the experience of former leaders to support Africa�s quest for development and stability and to use their wide range of local and international contacts for resource mobilization. Second: That membership would be confined to those leaders who assumed office through free elections and who left it in a democratic manner. Several prominent African figures who held leading positions would also become members of the Forum, such as former UN Secretary General (Boutros-Ghali, and later Kofi Anan), former Secretary General of the OAU and African Union, former Presidents of the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Third: The Forum would be serviced by a small secretariat and would meet only once a year, except in exceptional circumstances. The secretariat would mobilize the resources to finance its activities which would include, commissioning studies of vital issues for Africa, issuing declarations on important African events and conducting peace missions etc�Fourth: Utmost care would be taken to avoid raising undue sensitivity between ex leaders and present ones. Members of the Forum should not be seen to be interfering in the methods or activities of their successors. Their main mission is to support and give advice and nothing more. The Africa Forum was inaugurated last January in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique with fifteen former leaders attending, including Nelson Mandela who, in spite of his fragile health insisted on participating, together with former leaders from Zambia, Botswana, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Benin, Mozamique, Mauritius etc� From North Africa, former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella was invited, but could not attend due to ill health. The gray-haired former leaders spoke modestly and without the aura of their former office or the presence of bodyguards, firmly indicating that they were not in a competition with present leaders. Some noted that they were already undertaking missions on behalf on non- African institutions, such as the United Nations, or that they belonged to the so called "Madrid Forum" whose members include former leaders from around the world, and that such activities should be conceived as conforming to the principles of the new Africa Forum. During this first meeting of the Africa Forum, former Ghanian President, Jerry Rollings related how he came to seize power by force. He said that politicians asked him as a military man to take power by force to get rid of the corrupt civilian rule which had led the country to ruin. They assured him that civilian rule would be reestablished shortly afterwards. However, when he reintroduced civilian rule the same politicians complained again that this new civilian rule was much worse than its predecessor, and convinced him to reassume power once again! Rollings related this story to show that it was professional politicians who convince the military in Africa to take power by force, hoping that they could manipulate them and enjoy privileges and influence. The former president of Mozambique, Joachim Chissano, was chosen as the first president of the Africa Forum. Thus the Africa Forum has built on the fact that today�s rulers will be the former rulers of the future. They should feel confident that there is an active life awaiting them after leaving office and that they could help their countries and Africa through the experience they have accumulated. They could contribute to spreading the culture of tolerance and democracy and respect for peoples� rights throughout Africa and outside. Could we envisage the creation of a similar Forum for former leaders in the Arab World? * The writer is a former Assistant Secretary General of OAU (1987 - 1999), and Secretary General of the Africa Society.
