By Victoria Onehi
The President of the African Diaspora Union ( Afridu) Archbishop Prof. Chidiebere Anelechi Ogbu, has said the book “African Twelve Apostles” is to be launched in October 2024.
The Book “African Twelve Apostles”–The Liberators is aimed at deconstructing the negative narratives that African leaders are violent and rebels, hence creating a new narrative for Africa.
Ogbu in a write-up tagged ‘The mind of the Author’ said he considers the African Twelve Apostles as the men that laid down their lives for the peace of Africa.They are Chief Jomo Kenyatta,Dr Julius Nyerere,Chief Obafemi Awolowo,Dr Patrice Lumumba and Dr Robert Mugabe.Others are Dr Kwame Nkrumah,Dr Kenneth Kaunda, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe,Dr Steve Biko, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Dr Nelson Mandela and Dr Chris Hani.
He said: “Men who sacrificed and committed their lives to the empowerment and dignity of the African man; Men who fought for the African freedom from enslavement; Men who gave liberty to the bonded in Africa; some of them assassinated and some died as a martyr of liberation of Africa. Without them there will not be African independence, freedom and human rights!.”
“For over 400 years of partition of Africa, slavery, colonialism and apartheid in Africa and the struggle for emancipation, up until the political arrangement called independence; many of our fathers and mothers had died during these struggles.”
“Our present Leaders had not collectively at any time remembered to celebrate our Fathers and Mothers and heroes who fell by the guns of those who hate the emancipation of Africa.”He stated.
Ogbu urged the present African leaders to help change the false narrative by the colonial masters that the past African leaders were rebels and violent.”It is not enough to criticise our colonial and slave masters, and certainly not enough to attend hundreds of summits, conferences and workshops talking about it; but we have to create strategies to change the false narratives and to leave our footprint for the generations to come by leaving a legacy of truth behind us before joining our ancestors.
“Now is the time for Africans to do a reversal of the false history and false labeling of our Liberators, and uncover hidden truth from the present generation; and to present the African historical position to the rest of the world by promoting and marketing these great Liberators of Africa to the world through a postmortem award and inducting them as the “African Twelve Apostles”.Ogbu noted.
