It is unfortunate that freedom of speech is still not free in Africa. Freedom of speech just occupies space in the constitutions of all African countries, but granting it full freedom is easier said than done.
There should be “freedom” of freedom of speech.
Free speech can be shielded by legalizing it in the Constitution. Once legalized, it must be respected by all, including those who legalized it. In the rest of the world, it is God who comes first, and then the law follows. But in Africa, someone is always between God and the law, and this is why what is in the Constitution is not put in use. The rate-limiting step in freeing speech in Africa is legal rectification and education to educate people on the significance of free speech, and limitations to free speech so that when expressing ourselves, we should be mindful of the borderline.
Secondly, civil society is a community that is speech-prone. In Africa, members of civil society are suffering to the core, to the real core that they face harassment, intimidation and arbitrary arrest almost on a daily basis.
This is because they exchange ideas for the betterment of the African continent and this exchange of ideas predisposes them to victimization by the incumbent governments. The slim empowerment of the civil society handicaps it from maximizing free speech, therefore, civil society should be strongly empowered and given a total independence to exercise freedom of speech. This way, the route to free speech can widen more than expected.
Thirdly, media plays a pivotal role in advocating for free speech, but its subordination makes it operate with limitations. Operating with limitations, the dark corners of the advocacy for free speech cannot be reached with ease and this neutralizes the call for free speech in Africa. As one of the pathways, media should be granted full freedom to unearth the vitality of free speech and to maximize the role of watchdog in supervising the performance of the governments.
One of the hindrances to free speech is the truth that African countries do not work in synergy with one another. Despite regional blocks formed to aid in cooperation, still there exist wide gaps in terms of collaboration. Not all African countries have democracy and good governance, therefore it should have been the work of those countries having democracy and good governance to collaborate to mold those countries having no or little democracy and good governance.
Democracy and good governance are hygienists of the pathways to protecting free speech because, in presence of democracy and good governance, free speech finds a sanctuary place to grow. This can be achieved with the help of the African Union as an overall umbrella of the African countries.
African Union is a pool where African countries go for refill if they have depleted their governances and democracies, therefore if it is influenced to take up the role of advocating for free speech, it would not take time for free speech to get incorporated into the systems.
Protecting free speech in Africa is a liberation in itself, but the good news is that it is a weaponless liberation. It takes time for a liberation to yield good results, but the time taken by speech to be free is abnormally long and that, today is the day to bid farewell to intimidation, harassment and arbitrary arrest of those in the forefront fighting for the freedom of speech. All it requires each one of us to do is to use Human rights as a buckler and constitutional rights as a sword in the fight for free speech in Africa.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.