"In the period since December 30, 2004, we have visited five African countries in pursuit of the interdependent goals of peace, democracy, development and African solidarity. Our journeys confirmed that much work remains to be done to realise these goals. They also indicated the resolve of the peoples of our continent to succeed in this regard.

One of the countries we visited was Gabon in Central Africa. When we arrived at its capital, Libreville, we found a city shrouded in a sandy-coloured haze that blocked out the bright African sun and the normally strikingly blue African sky. This had not changed by the time we left Libreville forty hours later.

Our hosts explained that what we were seeing was a continuous shroud of very fine dust that had travelled from the faraway Sahara Desert. It had been carried from Africa's biggest desert by the dry seasonal harmattan winds that regularly pick up the desert dust during the months of December, January and February, blowing it across the Sahel region.

They informed us that normally the dust carried by the harmattan winds travels only as far as the northern regions of Cameroon. But they said that perhaps once in four or five decades, the harmattan winds bear their cargo of fine dust as far south as Gabon, as is the case during the current winter season in Africa north of the equator.

The fury of the harmattan was confirmed by reports we received of its impact in Cote d'Ivoire, which we visited directly from Gabon. There, further north on our continent and closer to the Sahara Desert, the dry fog of harmattan dust was so dense that for a few days, it had cut down visibility to only a few metres.

Among other things, this resulted in the cancellation of commercial flights, since the pilots would not be able to see the airport runways. Indeed, because of the persisting harmattan haze, our own pilots had to abort our first attempt to land at Yamoussoukro airport in Cote d'Ivoire.

They had to draw on their considerable skill and experience as pilots of our Air Force to make a successful landing, expertise that was noted and appreciated by our hosts who watched our plane from the ground, as it manoeuvred to land safely.

Our Ivorian hosts spoke to us about both the harmattan and the steady advance of the Sahara Desert southwards, every year turning yet another strip of Africa into a wasteland. They spoke about the importance of growing trees, as advocated by last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, the African patriot, Wangari Maathai. They talked about the need for them to protect their tropical forests, and expressed their admiration for the extensive indigenous forests they saw as they came to land at Libreville airport in Gabon.

What we saw in Libreville and Yamoussoukro could not but draw our attention, once again, to the powerful forces of nature, and their impact on human societies. This was especially so given the current and correct focus on the enormous tragedy brought to the peoples of Asia by the recent undersea earthquake in Indonesia and the resultant tsunami waves that have cost so much in human lives and property.

The harmattan cloud of dust that hung over much of Africa did not result in the destruction caused by the tsunami waves. Nevertheless, like these killer waves, it also spoke to the additional burdens the poor have to carry as they battle to extricate themselves from poverty, interacting with nature in pursuit of the goal of the sustainable development addressed by the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Like the tsunami waves, the harmattan dust made the firm statement that respect for, and a healthy interaction with nature, are of direct and immediate interest to the poor of the world, whose poverty means that they do not have the means to protect themselves from the destructive fury of angry nature.

The dust of the harmattan also drew attention to another cloud hanging over Africa, this time human-made. This is the cloud of conflict, poverty and underdevelopment, and human rights violations which our continent is determined to confront.

This cloud took us to five African countries in a fortnight, driven by the strong spirit of African solidarity that increasingly characterises the relations among the nations of Africa. Inspired by that spirit, Africa's peoples are responding to the imperative that their continent must, together, confront the human-made problems that continue to condemn them to lives of misery.

During the last fortnight, everywhere, interacting with the peoples of East, Central and West Africa, we have experienced among these masses a palpable spirit of hope for a better future. It is crystal clear that at all points on our continent, the peoples of Africa demand peace.

Everywhere they demand an end to violent conflicts based on racial, ethnic, religious and other differences. They are very comfortable with the diversity of their societies, despite the efforts of the mischievous actively to encourage xenophobia. They look forward to the beneficial development of their countries and their continent, Africa, characterised by democratic rule and a shared prosperity.

On New Year's Eve, we were fortunate to have the possibility to accompany President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori, to Naivasha in Kenya, to participate in the signing of the last two agreements that concluded the protracted peace negotiations between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. This also ended a war that had raged for 21 years.

It was indeed most heart warming to witness the joint celebration among the few Sudanese who could be at the banks of Lake Naivasha, who had stood at opposite ends of the North-South conflict that was coming to an end. These fortunate few were joined by the larger numbers who rejoiced in Khartoum in Northern Sudan, and others throughout Southern Sudan, at the news of the historic ceremony in Naivasha.

Our presence in Sudan gave us the possibility to visit the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur. Here we found the thousands of ordinary Sudanese who welcomed us similarly inspired by what had happened at Naivasha. They conveyed the unequivocal message to us that their most urgent desire was peace in Darfur and the rest of Sudan.

They hoped and prayed that the Naivasha peace agreement would also mean peace for Darfur. This sentiment was shared by the representatives of the Darfur rebel movements, SLM and JEM, whom we also met during this visit.

Truly we could say that the spirit of peace and reconciliation was abroad in Sudan, as this biggest country on our continent welcomed the New Year.

We have also seen thousands of ordinary people in Cote d'Ivoire convey the same message of hope and prayer. In the two months that we have been working with the sister people of Cote d'Ivoire as AU envoys, in the search for peace, national unity and reconciliation, we have been to the country's three major cities. These are Abidjan, Yamoussoukro and Bouake.

The first two are in government-held territory, and the last hosts the headquarters of the rebel movement, the Forces Nouvelles. Despite this division, and however intense the current enmities between these two belligerent areas within one country, there is absolutely no question but that the ordinary Ivorians in both sectors are united in their desire for peace, and therefore the removal of the things that make for conflict and war.

There is also no doubt that the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo share the same sentiment about their own country. They enthusiastically welcomed the agreements reached by their leaders and representatives through the many sessions of the Inter Congolese Dialogue that took place at Sun City and in Pretoria, facilitated by former President of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire.

Indeed, towards the end of the negotiations, the Congolese leaders who met in our country repeatedly made the statement that the masses of the Congolese people would not allow them to return to the DRC unless they carried back with them, to the banks of the mighty River Congo, the agreement they had been discussing, which would bring peace, national unity and democracy to the DRC.

Among other things, those agreements provide that that country's second democratic elections, the first after those that led to the independence of the DRC in 1960, would be held on June 30, 2005, historic Independence Day.

Cognisant of the challenges that would face them as they managed the transitional period leading to the elections, the Congolese leaders agreed that, if circumstances made this inevitable, the election date could be shifted by up to two six-month periods.

This time, we arrived in the DRC, the fifth African country we visited, two days after people had rioted in the streets of Kinshasa, resulting in a number of people killed. What occasioned these disturbances was a statement that had been made by the chairperson of DRC Electoral Commission.

The chairperson had indicated publicly that the June elections might have to be postponed to a later date in 2005, to ensure that all the necessary conditions had been created to guarantee free and fair elections throughout the territory of the DRC. The people responded to this in anger.

They rioted in the streets of Kinshasa, determined to convey their view that to guarantee peace, unity and development for their country, they wanted to exercise their sovereign right freely to elect a government of their choice as soon as possible.

We visited Gabon to attend a Heads of State or Government meeting of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC), of which our country is a member. The summit had three items its agenda. These were peace in Cote d'Ivoire, peace between the DRC and Rwanda and its impact on peace in the DRC, and peace in Darfur.

Before its internal conflict, beginning with the coup d'etat in 1999, Cote d 'Ivoire had the third largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa. Then, as now, its development constituted a critical condition for the successful development of a number of other important West African countries. It belongs firmly within the region of Africa that gave birth to the proud ancient African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songay.

The DRC has enormous and varied resources and an inestimable development potential, with the best water resources in the world for the generation of clean hydro-electric energy and the tropical forests that, like the Brazilian Amazon, constitute the environmental lung of the world. One of the largest countries in Africa in terms of population and geographic size, the DRC shares borders with nine other African countries, and thus links Central, East and Southern Africa, which regions it can serve as a focal point of development.

Sudan stands in a similar position. It shares borders with nine other African countries, and links North, Central and East Africa, bringing together the Arab and African worlds both within and across its borders. It has the potential to be one of the most outstanding drivers of the African development project. It is traversed by the ancient Nile River, its capital established at the confluence of the Blue and the White Niles, with its indigenous people and territory being the origin, foundation and progenitor of the ancient African civilisation of Egypt.

Without doubt, the transformation of these three African countries, Cote d' Ivoire, the DRC and Sudan, into stable and prosperous democracies would provide our continent with a solid, unequalled and indispensable platform from which we would be able to make a strategic leap forward towards Africa's renaissance.

The leaders of the 15 member states of the PSC, joined by the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Alpha Omar Konare, and other invited African leaders and international organisations, including the UN, spent twelve hours considering the matters on its agenda. Of particular note is the fact that all the regions of our continent are represented on the PSC.

Chaired by Gabonese President Omar Bongo, this month's Chairperson of the PSC, and attended by the current chair of the AU, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, it adopted important resolutions focussed on expediting the peace process in all the conflict areas it discussed. Its decisions constitute the all-Africa Road Map for the speedy resolution of these conflicts, which would open the way for the peoples of the relevant countries to pursue the fundamental goals of national unity and reconciliation, democracy and development.

Consistent with its determination to achieve progress in this regard, the PSC will hold its next summit meeting three months hence, to review the progress made in the implementation of its road map and adopt such new decisions as may be necessary.

This determination of Africa's leaders to succeed was evident throughout the many hours it deliberated on the agenda items. The serious discussion that characterised the meeting covered both the broad goals the AU PSC seeks to achieve, and the details of the actions that have to be taken to realise these goals.

Everywhere the new African masses are making the point very clear that they are no longer willing to be robbed of their right to peace, democracy and development. Everywhere they are making the statement that they are determined to discharge their obligations as the architects of their own and better future.

They are no longer willing to permit those who would be their leaders, cynically to incite them to respond to base passions, setting the poor one against the other, despite their shared wretchedness, sacrificing their lives for the ill-gotten benefit of a small, selfish and corrupt elite.

In action, they are saying that they are resolved to free themselves from the suffocating dust born aloft by Africa's metaphorical human-engineered harmattan winds. The African leaders who met in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, to address the burning continental issues that confront the AU PSC, demonstrated that they have heard and understood the voice of the African masses.

Together, they, including ourselves, are faced with the challenge to use the power they are privileged to exercise at the behest of the new masses, to take our continent yet another step forward towards its genuine renaissance.“ Thabo Mbeki