I was born and grew up in a rural area, and I went to a primary school called Nkumba Primary School. Is there anyone from Uganda here? I am asking because there is a Nkumba University in Uganda, and there is a Nkumba in Tanzania and a Nkumba in Rwanda.
That just shows that our primary identity is African. I think we must always remember that because all the things that have been discussed by the previous speakers, including Mama Graça, are things we should be doing. We cannot do them if we do not recognise that our primary identity is African.
I will not talk about the seismic shifts taking place at the United Nations, in multilateralism and in geopolitics, because a number of speakers have already covered those issues. What I want to concentrate on is Africa's role and its place in shaping the new world order.
Africa must believe in itself and unite
We must believe in ourselves. Who is going to believe in us if we do not believe in ourselves? Nobody.
We must believe that we have the capacity to shape the new world order. But that can only happen if we speak with one voice and remain united. If we are not united, nothing will happen.
Even when we speak at the United Nations, if individual countries say different things, people hear only noise. But if we come forward with a common African position, people will know what Africa is saying. That will influence what Africa wants and what Africa contributes.
We cannot simply be spectators, waiting for decisions to be made before following them. We must be part of making those decisions as Africans.
If you remember nothing else from what I have said, remember this: we must unite as Africans.
Our founding leaders stressed the need for unity. Recall what Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana, the first African country south of the Sahara to gain independence from colonial rule, said: that Ghana's independence was meaningless unless the rest of the continent was free.
He also spoke about the weakness that comes from division, and the strength that comes from unity. When we are divided, we are weak. But when we are united, we can be a global force for good.
This is the time for us to become that global force for good in the world.
Africa's population is a major opportunity
Africa has a population of about 1.59 billion people. By 2050, we are expected to have more than 2.5 billion people. We are told that about one in every four people in the world will be African.
That tells us that we can be a powerful force for good.
We also do not have an ageing population. We have a young population, with about 60% of our population being young people. Some developed regions have ageing populations, with fewer young people and more older people. In some places, more people are dying than are being born, whereas our situation is different.
That is a big advantage.
Africa's collective gross domestic product (GDP) is approximately US$3.97 trillion. As a continent, we are a significant economic force. However, our countries often act individually rather than collectively. That is why unity is so important.
Agenda 2063 is about building the Africa we want. We said that the Africa we have is not the Africa we want. Do you agree? Is the Africa we have the Africa you want? No.
It is about building the Africa we want, and we have to build it ourselves.
Africa must stop depending on aid
We must stop thinking that somebody else will come and develop this continent for us. We must also stop thinking that we need charity and aid to do anything.
No. A begging hand has no power. Why should we want to be beggars?
As the saying goes, "who pays the piper calls the tune."
We do not necessarily need that aid if we use what we have correctly. The resources that helped develop wealth in other parts of the world, especially in Europe, came from Africa and are still coming from Africa. Yet we are not using those resources to develop our own continent.
I have been saying this like a broken record: we must stop taking our resources from the mine to the port. That must stop.
Africa remains poor because we take our resources straight from the mine to the port, where they are shipped off to enrich other countries instead of enriching Africa and making Africans prosperous.
At the moment, we have a paradox. Everyone, everywhere, says that Africa is rich, but Africans are poor.
That paradox must change. We cannot continue having a rich Africa and poor Africans. Why? Because the wealth of Africa is taken out of the continent, and the countries that receive it become richer.
The resources we have been discussing, including rare earth minerals, must be developed here on the continent.
If you take resources from the mine straight to the port, you are left with mining jobs, while high-level jobs are created in the countries where those resources are processed.
We complain about unemployment, but we export jobs every day. We export high-level jobs by exporting our minerals and natural resources.
We are not only exporting jobs; we are also exporting revenue. We sell cheaply and buy expensively. Sometimes, we cannot even afford the finished products made from the resources we sent away.
Let us change our mindset. Let us change how we think about our resources and how we use them. If we do that, we will become a powerful player in the world.
We must therefore beneficiate our resources and create more value from them here in Africa.
Investing in young people
The most important resource we have is also our people, particularly our young people.
According to Agenda 2063, Africa needs a skills revolution. We need to equip every young person with skills. In some instances, a young person is unemployed but also lacks the skills needed to find employment.
It is important that we skill our young people so that they can not only get jobs but also create jobs and innovate.
African young people are great innovators when they are given the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.
We must invest in young people. When we do so, they can help fix and develop this continent instead of dreaming of escaping it.
We should not say that young people are only the future. They are here now, and they are also the future. They are both.
Women must be part of Africa's development
When we look at the populations of Africa and the world, women make up a significant proportion of the population. Women must therefore be part and parcel of everything we do.
They must be skilled and have access to the economy. They have great ideas, but sometimes they do not have access to finance. We must provide them with the finance they need to become entrepreneurs and achieve their goals.
Women are among the most important people in the world. If you disagree, tell me where you came from.
The human race cannot continue if women go on strike. If women went on strike, that would be the end of the human race.
Women do not only give birth to us; they also look after us when we cannot do anything for ourselves.
I always wonder how a grown man in a position of power can think that women are inferior. How can that be? It is a woman who helped make you who you are. How can she suddenly become inferior? Your mother cannot be inferior to you.
I am saying that everyone must be empowered, not just men, but both men and women.
If you leave women out of any area of human endeavour, do you think you will succeed?
I always say that it would be like one of the best football teams in the world suddenly becoming arrogant and putting only half of its squad on the field, while thinking it can defeat any other team. If you put only half your squad on the field, you make it difficult to win.
Why, then, do we think we can leave women out and reach our full potential? We cannot.
Women must be an essential part of building the Africa we want.
Strengthening trade between African countries
In the interest of time, I also want to speak about the African Continental Free Trade Area.
We must trade among ourselves. But, to trade among ourselves, we must also manufacture. We need to manufacture goods that we can trade with one another and with the rest of the world.
We must also embrace the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. This system allows us to use our own currencies when trading among African countries.
If I want to buy something in Nigeria, for example, I can use rand to make the payment, while the person receiving the payment gets naira.
It is an excellent system because nobody needs to go to their bank to look for US dollars before making a payment. You pay in your own currency, and the other person receives the money in their currency.
That is what the system is about. It will make trade among African countries much easier and more attractive.
We have the tools, but we must implement them.
Free movement is essential for unity
For us to unite, we must also have free movement within the continent.
A protocol on the free movement of people was agreed upon in 2018, but only a few countries have ratified it.
Once there is free movement, trade will also become easier because people will be able to move across borders more freely.
Some countries, which I will not name because I might not be able to answer all the questions that follow, believe that immigration is difficult to manage.
But countries that allow free movement can make it easier for people to travel legally. If you know you can enter a country, stay for the permitted period, leave when your time is up and return when you need to, why would you need to remain there illegally?
I believe that free movement can also help address what we call illegal immigration by allowing people to move legally within their own continent and do what they need to do where they need to do it.
Take Rwanda, for example. I can go to the airport with my passport and travel there without needing a visa. The same applies to other African passport holders under the relevant entry arrangements.
People can enter and leave legally.
That is part of uniting Africa. A united Africa will be able to determine and shape the future world order. A divided Africa will always be told what to do and may not even have a seat at the table where important decisions are made.
As we leave here, if we take nothing else from what I have said, we must remember that we need to unite, speak with one voice and build the Africa we want. Nobody is going to come and do it for us.
Africa must develop its own technology
We must also ensure that we are not only consumers of technology. We must become developers of technology, and our young people have the ability to do this.
However, we must also be aware of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI). AI has advantages, but there are also risks that have been discussed around the world.
We must understand these risks and consider how to avoid potentially catastrophic outcomes. These include AI-enabled weapons, cyberattacks and other capabilities that could cause mass harm. There are also concerns about the centralisation of power and the unequal distribution of AI's benefits.
The benefits of AI are not distributed equally. Some people and countries benefit much more than others.
We must be part of these conversations, and our young people, who make up about 60% of our population, must be skilled and at the forefront of these developments.
Africa must shape the future
As I conclude, I want to say that Africa should no longer be a testing ground for external experiments. It must be a strategic actor, a partner and a co-creator in shaping the continent and the world.
If we seize this moment, as other speakers have said, with vision, leadership and courage, Africa will not only supply the future. Africa will shape it.
The African Union is also critical in ensuring that we speak with one voice.
I must apologise that I will not be with you for the next two days because, when this invitation came, I already had other commitments. I will therefore only be with you today.
Agenda 2063 is clear, but its biggest challenge is implementation. We, as governments, civil society and businesses, all have a role to play in implementing Agenda 2063. We must ensure that we put it into practice.
Africa should not approach the international system simply as a petitioner, seeking accommodation within an order designed by others. We cannot do that.
When we are united, we will be able to shape the future.
Africa should approach the world as a critical stakeholder, with interests to defend, responsibilities to fulfil, ideas to contribute and institutions to reform.
Africa can articulate the kind of future it wants: the Africa we want. We can also build coalitions, both within the continent and internationally, to advance that vision.
The challenge before us is to ask whether Africa is ready and willing to help shape an international system that can respond to the realities of a changing world.
Before I sit down, I would like to quote one of our great leaders on this continent, the late Samora Machel:
"International solidarity is not an act of charity. It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains towards the same objective. The foremost of these objectives is to aid the development of humanity to the highest level possible."
Africa must remember this. It is indeed a clarion call.
Africans must unite, speak with one voice and act with courage.
Thank you.
Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma delivered this speech at the High-Level Dialogue on Africa and the Remaking of Global Power Multilateralism, Resource Sovereignty and the Politics of Resourcing, in Maputo.
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of IOL