Message-ID: <Pine.HPP.3.95.991123124255.2406B-100000@ccshst01> Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 13:00:53 -0500 From: Kofi V Anani <mailto:kanani@UOGUELPH.CA> Subject: Re: Road to Pan-Africanism - another development perspective To: mailto:DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
This is nice talk ... but how do we ensure the dreams of Pan-Africanism are realised? What concrete steps need to be taken in light of the flawed Modern African States on the continent which seem to have lost all direction and capcity to promote peaceful co-existence and transformation of the poor majority?. Is it not time for the pan-African crusade to include concrete suggestions and strategies to achieve that envisaged african unity? Is it only enough to call for African unity without any proposed agenda on how to get to that goal? Have we not heard enough of this call for unity which always end as soon as the delegates leave the conference halls and back to their countries? What are we doing with our indigenous systems of governance which have the potential for peace at the local levels, and possibility for redesigning the Modern African State on a solid foundation? Or we continue to think that democratic ideals are the postulations or creations of one particular society or community? How is the call for African Unity today different from the earlier calls echoed by the founding fathers? And what have our leaders done about the need for unity for all these years that the OAU have been in existence?This are just some questions which came to mind after reading once again about the Pan-African vision - which I share as well.
Kofi Anani Global Network for Peace and Poverty Alleviation
On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 mailto:AXEOXALA@AOL.COM wrote:
> Road to Pan-Africanism
> Motsoko Pheko
>
> Johannesburg (The Sowetan, November 15, 1999) -
>
> Following the dark cloud of slavery and colonialism in
> Africa, visionary African leaders realised that it was
> imperative that all Africans - wherever they might be
> - should unite to end their holocaust which began with
> the 'European Renaissance' in Italy in 1400.
>
> In 1900 Sylvester Williams, a lawyer of African
> descent, named this coming together of Africans
> 'Pan-Africanism'. But as a movement, Pan-Africanism
> began in 1776.
>
> It was, however, the fifth Pan-African Congress held
> in Manchester, England, in 1945 that advanced
> Pan-Africanism and applied it to the decolonisation of
> the African continent politically.
>
> Some African leaders involved in this noble cause were
> giants such as Kwame Nkrumah, William du Bois, Jomo
> Kenyatta, Robert Sobukwe and Patrice Lumumba.
>
> Pan-Africanism includes the intellectual, political
> and economic cooperation that should lead to the
> political unity of Africa. The Pan-African alternative
> provides a framework for African unity.
>
> It also fosters radical change in the colonial
> structures of the economy, and the implementation of
> an inward-looking strategy of production and
> development. It calls for the unification of financial
> markets, economic integration, a new strategy for
> initial capital accumulation and the design of a new
> political map for Africa.
>
> Contemporary Africa is beset with difficulties
> rooted in its inability to unite territorially. The
> consequences have been national economies incapable of
> developing because of geographical, economic and
> political reasons.
>
> We must accept this truth, and take it as our prime
> duty, if the restoration of Africa is to become a
> reality.
>
> As South Africa prepares for the ratification of the
> Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol
> on trade, we need to look beyond trade integration
> and analyse regional integration.
>
> The artificial borders that separate the national
> territories in the region are divisive of people
> united by history and divisive of regions united by
> geography to the extent that they are the subject
> of disputes and conflicts between African states.
> SADC must strive for a community that transcends the
> economic level and strive for the territorial and
> political unification of Africa. This is the only way
> for the continent to become a great modern power. This
> is the only protection against neo-liberalism and
> globalisation.
>
> Africa provided leadership of the world for 600 000
> years before its enslavement began about 1400.
> Monotheism was first taught in Africa by Emperor
> Akhenaton and his wife Nefertiti, before the so-called
> three major religions of the world taught this
> doctrine.
>
> Historical evidence reveals that Africa had its
> renaissance centuries, if not millenniums,
> before Europe. Some of Africa's past civilisations
> were in the Nile, Zimbabwe, Congo and Ghana. It was
> the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism which
> destroyed Africa and underdeveloped it. In his book
> How Europe underdeveloped Africa, Dr Walter Rodney
> gives a vivid picture of this African tragedy.
>
> Slavery and colonialism were made possible by the
> so-called European Renaissance. The authors of this
> renaissance used the compass and gunpowder. These
> Chinese inventions for peaceful purposes were used by
> Europeans to steal the land and wealth of Africans.
>
> Pan-Africanism demands that the riches of Africa be
> used for the benefit, upliftment, development and
> enjoyment of the African people. Pan-Africanism is a
> system of equitably sharing food, clothing, homes,
> education, healthcare, wealth, land, work, security of
> life and happiness. Pan-Africanism is the privilege of
> the African people to love themselves and to give
> themselves and their way of life respect and
> preference.
>
> Pan-Africanism was developed by outstanding African
> scholars, political scientists, historians and
> philosophers living in Africa and the diaspora. It was
> conceived in the womb of Africa. It is a product made
> in Africa by Africans.
>
> Pan-Africanism is the oldest vision in Africa. No
> other ideology has successfully challenged
> Pan-Africanism intellectually.
>
> That is why, in the midst of confusion caused by the
> so-called 'African renaissance', Colonel Muammar
> Gaddafi echoed the pan-African call for a United
> States of Africa when he opened the fifth summit of
> the Organisation of African Unity in Libya in
> September.
>
> In August a prominent Nigerian political scientist
> reminded participants at the fifth Pan-African
> Colloquium in Ghana of the historical context of the
> 'European Renaissance', from which the so-called
> 'African renaissance' is trying to borrow and
> transpose its rationale.
>
> He pointed out that the 'European Renaissance' was the
> foundation of slavery, colonialism and racism. Africa
> has nothing to gain from this decadence, which was
> responsible for the worst holocaust of the African
> people in memory.
>
> The inheritors of this inhuman 'renaissance' are still
> working hard to perpetuate the holocaust of the
> African people and the underdevelopment of Africa,
> which they inflicted through slavery, colonialism,
> apartheid and racism.
>
> Today these forces have their Pan-Europeanism through
> their European Union, making them a powerful economic
> bloc. They are integrating socially and politically,
> and working for a borderless Europe.
>
> On the other hand, Africa is wallowing in the quagmire
> of underdevelopment, poverty, endless border wars,
> economic domination and the dictatorship of the
> International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
>
> This is because African leaders are dragging their
> feet on the implementation of Pan-Africanism and have
> made Africa a perpetual beggar of foreign 'aid'.
>
> Some of these leaders have become agents of
> neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism, whose instrument
> is 'globalisation'. Globalisation is just a new form
> of recolonising the African continent.
>
> There will continue to be an ideological and
> intellectual crisis in the African world until
> Africans understand Pan-Africanism, its value and
> benefits, and apply it to their many problems.
>
> These include 'foreign debts', reparations,
> repatriation of African intellectual property from the
> museums of Europe, lack of continental railroads and
> air routes, intra-trade, communication and
> technological development among the African people and
> states.
>
> The triumph of Pan-Africanism, the only way Africans
> can survive the foreign onslaught and live as a truly
> liberated people, will come out of the sweat and blood
> of the African people themselves.
>
> As Nkrumah put it:
>
> 'Only a united Africa can redeem its past glory, renew
> and reinforce its strength for the realisation of its
> destiny.
>
> 'We are today the richest and yet the poorest of
> continents, but in unity our continent could smile in
> a new era of prosperity and power.'
>
> (The writer is deputy president of the Pan Africanist
> Congress.)
>