“The temporal Political boundaries that has been established by many of the African political leaders has been one of our major challenges in the areas of integration – King Francis Kelechi Nwaleri III”
In an interview with crowned Paramount Chief of Africa, (PCOA) His Royal Majesty, King Francis Kelechi Nwaleri III, founder South West Africa Federation (SWAF) and Dean of Ambassador, State of African Diaspora (SOAD), a virtual independent state of Africa, the Paramount Chief highlighted the need for the resuscitation of Africa’s wanning kingdoms, the royal significance of Kingship in Africa’s weakening leadership situation and the clarion call on all Diaspora Africans to join hands with his movement to restore the dignity and pride of the continent in her people and region.
Born of West Africa parentage, Nigeria and Liberia precisely, with a background training in Aeronautical Engineering in Scotland and Canada, King Nwaleri III, has traversed the African continent to drum support and register the presence of his organization in virtually all the African countries.
“The government should allow the kings to work with them in the governing the countries – If we come together it becomes easy because the kingship are hereditary, the government operates at a tenure by political appointment
Responding to questions granted by LensAfrik Media Inc., A Pan-African China based media platform, the Paramount Chief stated that Africa has been in the spotlight again for all the reasons people of the world has always find the need to go and explore the continent, in the process, exploiting the innocence of the people and natural habitat is never ruled out.
How Africans will take advantage of these existing opportunities has remained our focus, this is what have given birth to the creation of South West Africa Federation, established in 2014
LensAfrik: When you say South West African Forum – What do you mean and What exactly are you trying to achieve with the Forum?
PCOA: SWAF represents all Africans from the North, South, West, Central and East Africa, SWAF was established for the revival and restoration of African dignity – this is my mission as the Paramount Chief and Founder of SWAF and one of our missions is to pursue Restitution and Reparation of many of what was destroyed and stolen from motherland Africa.
Also. we want to see that our kingdoms are revived, most kingdoms have been destroyed – many Africans may not know that the idea of kingdoms in places like Comoros, Mauritius, Mauritania, Burundi has been destabilized – Cultural heritages has been disconnected or completely destroyed, they’re no more Kingship in these countries – what they have in place are elders, I have travelled to these countries and found out that there are no more Kingship and kingdoms, whereas, these are African territories.
“We are reconnecting with our original boundaries and cultural bonds that distinguishes us as Africans and not strangers in our own continent.
As the Paramount Chief of Africa, my mission is achieved in the SWAF when I see these anomalies and work with my team of ambassadors and elders towards correcting such error in Africa, in the countries where I have visited, I reappointed leaders in these countries to revive our kingship culture to coordinate the communities.
LensAfrik: Under the African Union, there are several regional blocks as in ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC, EAC etc, are you introducing additional block by establishing SWAF?
PCOA: – AU is in the process of recognizing SWAF as a body – We would be considered under the royal community of kings.
In Africa, it is the king that recognize the government and not the other way round – So we want to exist as organization that does what AU is doing but in the areas of our kingdoms and traditional constituencies that has been disconnected and humiliated in the past. By doing that, we are resuscitating all the kingdoms and regions in Africa as the custodians of the African traditions and culture.
By establishing SWAF, we are reconnecting with our original boundaries and cultural bonds that distinguishes us as Africans and not strangers in our own continent.
As a matter of fact, the African Union, has for long seized to command such interest it used to attract during the days of the Organisation of African Union (OAU). It has delved into partisan politics, alienating the ordinary Africans from cultural affinity to this continent, the evidence which is very obvious with cross border restrictions and giving undue recognition to strangers and foreigners in the African soil more than Children of the continent.
“Charity” they say “begins at home” – so we decided to use SWAF to revive our traditional constituencies to create awareness of our kingdoms
LensAfrik; I understand SWAF has outlined many programs – Has any been implemented, Or How do you plan to actualize many of the programs especially those that fall within your line of core objectives
PCOA: – Every movement begins with a step, first thing we have achieved is to establish SWAF federation in all African countries except about 5, we have also established representatives to begin the work of SWAF in these regions.
The Second step is my movement across these African countries – I have travelled to several African countries and met with Elders, Chiefs and Kings including King Mswati III of Eswatini, Paramount Chief of the Volta region, in the Ashanti Kingdom, I was also in Comoros and while I was there the country has been divided along racial lines, – The indigenous people of Comoros has been relegated, However with my presence I was able to influence a member of SWAF, one of the founding fathers, to join the government of Comoros where he was eventually appointed as a Minister of transport – these are some of the achievement of SWAF.
During the days of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as head of the African Union (AU) we made sure that a certain passport came out of Africa for Africans, I pressured that this should be done – the passport at the moment is being issued around the diplomats’ circle – it was one of the contributions of SWAF, we also push for bother free passport for ordinary citizens of Africa – that will be controlling visa of 90 days, these were all approved but at the verge of implementation the pandemic sets in.
We are still making efforts towards that – SWAF is also pushing for our indigenous language of Swahili to be spoken in most of our meetings, A people without a language has questions of identity.
Africans should have identity in language – Our quest for such identity in language has been approved at the State Of Africa Diaspora level, as you may know in many of our meetings, our greetings has remained “Uhuru Africa”
“We want to see that our kingdoms are revived, most kingdoms have been destroyed – many Africans may not know that the idea of kingdoms in places like Comoros, Mauritius, Mauritania, Burundi has been destabilized
We have been intervening in the affairs of Africa especially during the Ethiopian – Oromos crisis – I addressed the Ethiopian to sheathe their sword and embrace their brothers and sisters, We went to Ethiopia as a humanitarian organization
LensAfrik: What are the major challenges confronting the Association and do you have any special remedy to bring them to a minimum impact.
PCOA: – The temporal Political boundaries that has been established by many of the African political leaders has been one of our major challenges in the areas of integration, I have been called upon on several occasions to give up on the great mission and do something else but I have maintained my stance at all occasions
Finance, has also been a major barrier and the purpose of the mission is not something an individual can float alone – SWAF is for Africans by Africans – we cannot begin to seek funds from the Western world, or do any of those things that will make us appear as stooges to mercenaries and western powers, so I believe Africans can sustain this mission and it must begin in earnest.
“We do not have any major financiers – it has been on personal efforts and I do believe there would be Philanthropists from the kingdoms and ambassadors representing SWAF to support the work of the mission,
As you can see, I have set the precedents by spending on this mission and several of my trips and projects and funding the organization on self-recognition for the past 7 years.
We do not have any major financiers – it has been on personal efforts and I do believe there would be Philanthropists from the kingdoms and ambassadors representing SWAF to support the work of the mission, the ambassadors can raise these funds and use it to fund their programmes in their constituencies as long as they maintain the rules and regulations and mission and vision of SWAF, I believe we will get support
In summary, The government should allow the kings to work with them in the governing the countries – If we come together it becomes easy because the kingship are hereditary, the government operates at a tenure by political appointment and cannot go further than that which has often leads to greed and nepotism – but when they go with the king, we become the carry-on of their programs that they would be leaving when their tenure is over.
Then Language has also been a barrier and this is one of the heavy work we are doing by teaching Swahili – SWAF has been in the business of teaching Swahili because we must have our own language of communication.
