DIVERSITY OF AFRICANNESS

By Sandile Memela

Not long ago a prolific public intellectual not only pointed out why social cohesion cannot be attained in South Africa but called for an examination of the state of Africanness, whatever that is.

It was noteworthy that the unnamed public intellectual defined himself as a member of a somewhat prominent association that has claimed for itself the right to be custodian of the gospel truth according to ‘Africanness.’ Some of its members included academics, activists, artists and writers.

But what intrigued me is what this public intellectual perhaps defined as the homogeneity of so-called Africanness.
In a post-Mandela, post-apartheid and non-racial society, this Africanness is not only complex and confusing but accessible to everyone who lives in this country, whatever shade of black you are – creatively, socially, intellectually, philosophically and, of course, politically.

The new Africaness, if we can call it that, is a new mental attitude that can be also adopted by those who are of European, Chinese or Asian descent, too, as it is definitely not about rallying around skin color.

This new Africaness, if you like, is not just intuitively owned or connected to descendants of Robert Sobukwe’s Pan-Africanist philosophy or its definition of what constitutes Africaness. In fact, Sobukwe’s understanding and interpretation of Africaness has not only been distorted by the self-appointed individual and organizations that claim to be custodians of his thinking but has, wrongly, been narrowed to issues of skin color and physical appearance.
This is what even some contemporary intellectuals understand it to mean: those who possess a particular physical appearance and have been adversely affected by apartheid and its legacy.

But as things stands now, this Africaness is a fusion of different classes, backgrounds, lifestyles, languages, cultures, ethnic groups and political orientations. In fact, there is not a single ideology, philosophy or perspective that is authentically ‘African.’ Africans have long splintered into diverse interests groups that can only be united, potentially, by their commitment to giving the world a human face or implementing the philosophical framework of Ubuntu. Besides that there is nothing that makes Africaness a monolithic group attitude.

Thus in this Africaness you are likely to find people who question its certainty and authenticity as espoused by the Father of Black Pan-Africanism like Sobukwe, for instance. After all, Sobukwe – just like Nelson Mandela and the late Steve Biko - was only human.

Today of course you hear young black people - who are called Cheese Kids - say Africaness is not a monolithic experience and is varied, depending where you coming from. And they are correct!

There are now millions of Africans who live in what can be called or defined as the post-African Age, that is, that period following the demise of apartheid where blacks are so free that they can define themselves in any way they want.
In fact, to deny them that right would be a development that is worse that apartheid that aimed to impose narrow, parochial ideological identities on people based on their skin color or group allegiance.

The South Africa we all inhabit today comprises of African people from all over the world, bringing not only other languages and cultures but experiences, perspectives, values and lifestyles as well.

We should all be ready to accept that so-called Africans come from a wider variety of places than just those who are considered natives of this beautiful land or were oppressed by the discredited and defeated apartheid regime.

I do not believe that there is any single person now, including Sobukwe who continues to rule from the grave, who has the authority and power to tell us what constitutes the state of Africaness. But even if this elusive and essential state of Africaness or identity exists, it cannot be something static. It is dynamic, forward-moving and undergoing constant change and transformation.

This 21st Century Africaness must not only connect the politics of identity preservationists and others who want to freeze philosophy and culture into an unchanging apartheid mode but integrate the progressive new generation of young people who do not necessarily speak so-called African languages or live outside the rural areas or township.
In fact, we have to push its boundaries to the limits to absorb the suburbian, continental and global experiences and influences of former exiles and refugees who come from all over the continent and the world.

If by Africaness you have something homogeneous, exclusive and impenetrable, it is a phenomenon that can no longer be found in the post-Sobukwe South Africa. The eclectic combination of the people, languages, complexions, cultures and values found in this country are not the result of any particular Africaness.

This country has become a big, diverse and intercultural melting pot where no single African experience or perspective is more important than the other except ideals, principles and values that promote social cohesion and national unity.
In fact, solidarity and unity beyond Africaness towards anti-racism is the new gospel that should influence and shape the new thinking, behavior and attitude of all people, including the alleged non-Africans.

If you open your eyes to the almost 20-years old South Africa, you can safely conclude that this is not the same country that Sobukwe and his disciples of Africaness lived in in 1959 where the battle lines were not only clear but simple and predictable.
In the last few decades since the death of Sobukwe, the release of Nelson, the return of exiles that were scattered throughout the world and the unbanning of the liberation movement, South Africa has not only unleashed diverse African perspectives and experiences but exploded into many parts that are greater than the whole.

Perhaps those who over-glorify frozen Pan-Africanism and perpetuate its unchanging nature in the name of 1950s radicalism are still trapped in communities that are relatively African and homogenous. Yes, there may still be a few die-hard but marginal exponents of this old Africaness who are like the super-Afrikaners who long for some homogeneous world view based on what happened in the past.

But we must be aware that African people have always been open to global influences which, inevitably, redefines and expand Africaness. Think back to Mapungubwe in Limpopo which was the cradle of world commerce and trade with China and Europe long before the arrival of the European conquerors.

After all, the freedom struggle has always been premised on bestowing freedom of choice, movement and self-definition for all. And some African choices may not necessarily be with the narrow, monotonous and predictable view of what constitutes Pan-Africanism.

In the South Africa that celebrates two decades of freedom and democracy in 2014, all people must be encouraged to embrace diversity of whatever it is that constitutes Africaness. Those who want to protect and preserve African homogeneity need to retain what they value with neither fascist prescription nor discrimination.

Well, yes, they will always be those who think their Africaness is a prerogative of Sobukwe’s descendants and disciples who continue to promote his legacy. But we should be ready to accept that there are other Africans who are not interested in being imprisoned in the past of how he defined Africaness, no matter how correct he was.

Africaness, whatever that is, now, is open and accessible to everyone who believes that the struggle was not only for human rights but to enable any African person to redefine himself in any way they wish, including speaking English only or turning their back on so-called African culture.

In fact, Africaness has gone global. Where it is portrayed or projected as homogenous and exclusive, as exponents of politics of identity and cultural preservationists are likely to do, they need to not only be warned against dictatorial tendencies but to be deplored and discouraged in the strongest terms. What this new world needs is absolute freedom for African people to express self-love, above all, in any way that promotes peace, unity and harmonious non-racial living. And this includes the gays, lesbians, heterosexuals, disabled, youth, aged and every other shade they come in.
Nobody should tell us that Africaness or its expression should be locked and ring-fenced into some form of relationship with what was espoused in the 1950s. Marcus Garvey, for instance is dead and buried but his legacy can only be promoted when it is allowed to redefine itself to be relevant for the new global world.
Those who feel that their Africaness is threatened must accept that it was destined to, inevitably, change because it is part of human progress in a changing world. Nothing is permanent except change.
The push towards a new Africaness should, rightly, be from within the evolving inclusive African community itself. Much as it is an unsettling thought, it will come from the creative tension that marks the fusion of the local, regional, continent and global experience.
Some will like it and embrace it. Others will not. But the African people must continue to be in the forefront of bring a ‘human face’ to the world. It is what has to happen in these times when Europe has not only failed and betrayed Africa but itself.
The push for a new Africa is an eternal struggle that is timeless, ever-changing, dynamic and forward-moving.


Sandile Memela is a journalist, author, blogger and a civil servant.

A Workshop on Forms of Business Ownership

The Business Incubator, an initiative of the Steve Biko Centre, invites you to a Workshop on Forms of Business Ownership to be hosted in Ginsberg, King William’s Town.

Facilitator: Mr. Lungile Sululu from the Steve Biko Foundation
Date: May 30, 2013
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape
Cost: R20

For more information contact Mr. Lungile Sululu on 043 605 6700 or email lungiles@sbf.org.za

NB: Clients are urged to book in advance for the Micro MBA Workshop

Awethu Kraal of Dreams

The Steve Biko Centre, in association with Artscape presents:
Awethu Kraal of Dreams - Directed by Mandla Mbothwe

Featuring:
Bulelwa Basse
Zanne Stapelberg
Melanie Scholtz
Steve Biko Centre’s Abelusi Performance Corps
Community PloughBack Cultural Ensemble
Vadhini Arts Dance Academy
Bongani Sotshononda's Indigenous Orchestra


Date: 07th & 08th June 2013
Venue: Artscape Theatre
Time: 20:00
Tickets: R80

Book at Computicket or Artscape Dial-A-Seat: 021 421 7695

Being African

By Thabo Mboneni

-Being African is being part of the origin of the human species in the Mother continent, before the earth broke into fragments, and nationalities evolving to claim their segments.
-Being African is living in peace with the environment, no industrial implement to harm, hurt and turn morbid only for profit, for a few pockets.

-Being African is having UBUNTU! To care, to share, to raise children without fear, giving them love and nourishment throughout the year, letting them know when they need us we’ll always be here!
-But what does it mean in the contemporary to be African? Is it the color of my skin that’s filled with melanin? Is it the history of my people who were enslaved and locked in prison, struggling for years in Robben Island, but never being silent, for freedom we remained defiant and resilient until we bought down the apartheid tyrant.
-Is being African growing up in the township, facing hardship, playing in the dusty street, not knowing what you going to eat, there’s no point in trying to compete, you’ll face defeat and the futures looking bleak!
-What exactly is being African? Can I define it? With my singular view of looking through my tunnel of perception, distorted introspection brings me to a conclusion that we need a revision, we need a new vision, a mission, a conscious decision, to move on from the colonial deception, that led us to this self destruction, a cognitive infection that was bought on by Hedrick Verwoerd’s bantu education!

-What is being African post 1994? Where Blacks wear Prada suits, checking time in their shiny Rolex watches and having conference calls on iPhone’s, Black Economic Empowerment we call them BEE fat cats, tenderpreneur’s riding the gravy train, they make money rain, ripping off the poor without a conscience because ethics are nonsense when you trying to get ahead in the concrete jungle. They leave the township streets, pack their bags and move to the suburbs to form a middle-class.
-How can I begin to define what being African is, when I’m stuck in a small portion of a big ocean called Africa! What does it feel like growing up in Uganda, in Ghana or Kenya? My neighbors in Zimbabwe, who smile through strife and poverty, but in Africa that’s not a novelty but a characteristic property, of an abnormal reality, that’s an anomaly.
-I’m still wondering what it means to be African. When I was growing up I was told Africans have Ubuntu, we embrace each other whether you Zulu or Sotho, but does that still hold true? When xenophobic attacks are rife, Africans are looted; some die by the gun, some die by the knife, the skin that’s as black as yours will take your life, blood flowing in the street bodies lay in the cold concrete.
-What does it mean today to be African? Is it a feeling, a way of life or a state of consciousness? Is it the color of my eye or the texture of my hair? Is it the click in my tongue when I talk, or is it the step that I take when I walk? Is it a physical attribute or is it all in my mental attitude?
-What does it really mean to be African?

For Chinua Achebe

You say your hurricane lamp can issue
no more the perfunctory flame
of artistic innocence.
(Ostrich mentalities, you have seen,
will not help the situation.)
I raise my fist to your guts

The strafing reports, the “assault and battery”
of questions which splinter our snailshells
decide us in their valedictory exercise.
For, none can afford the lyrical sanity
of the hermit when his clothes are on fire

I raise my fist to your guts

But, then, when troubadours become matchets
in the frenzy of storms they must underline,
their finest truths are iron banners
to wrap the corpses of fleeting slogans

And, Compatriot, this is my concern…

I suppose you can break the kernel of these days
better than my poor plastic slab will allow
You know the intricate weave of the barbwire-roost
Into which you must plunge
Oh, my concern overpowers me;
I do not know how to escape from
such wind as bear you, now, away
from your, once, unruffled waters

By: Odia Ofeimun

The Beauty of Mother Africa

By Mpho Mabala

Every time I look at my dowdy mother, Afrika, I smile broadly. My face beams for she is beautiful and intelligent. She has everything, she is rich with minerals, buffalos, rhinos, Kalahari desert, the cichlids of Malawi, table mountain, Taung cradle of humankind. She gave birth to all forms of life, she is my mitochondrial Eve, yeah!! That’s my mother, I am so proud. But one day it happened that I inadvertently saw her naked body. I was shocked!! I saw many scars all over her body. My mother has been thumped, whipped, kicked and more. My heart bleeds. "But she looked intact and unscathed from the outside"- I said to myself.


Out of anger and pain, I then asked around, "Who did this to my beloved Mother?"...."Your mother has been raped numerous times by a cruel man called a Westerner. This man raped your mom overtly and he did that together with his friends (acculturation, brainwash, oppression, missionary, kleptomania and many others)" he said.

Deep inside my mother is damaged. I felt a tear trickling down my cheeks as I was pondering how she managed to remain so composed after such an unspeakable harrowing ordeal.

My mother's reputation has been denigrated and sullied, her image has been defiled. They came, rape her, stole our bounty, brainwash her children and grandchildren, oppress them and all that. Then while in a daze and sombre mood I looked around and saw Haile Selassie,Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Winny Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Chris Hani, Nkwame Nkruma, Julius Nyerere, Robert Mugabe, Robert Sobukwe, Mamphele Ramphele, Ntuli ka Shezi, Oliver Thambo, Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, Kenneth Kaunda, Joyce Banda, Joe Slovo and many others. A flicker of delight, pride and contentment immediately crossed my face. I became even more proud when I realised that my mother gave birth to all these audacious people with extraordinary and unfathomable tenacity. These people have played their major roles in bringing back Mama's shape, integrity and dignity, so its up to ME and YOU to continue with the task.

Good people I say an African should show an insight understanding of where we come from as Africans. It’s easy to know where you going if you know where you coming from. An African should learn to forgive all those who did that to his Mother, so we can move on. An African should be smart and compete with a Westerner, intellectually so. Competition that is driven by hardwork, equity, knowledge and creativity. An African should know that he or she is smarter than a Westerner, it just happend that he got robbed of his brains back in the days through social engineereing which ensured prosperity and wealth for the whites and poverty and servitude for the blacks. An African should be proud of who he is. An African should remain African in England and Norway. Intellectual prowess of an African was manifested by the use of Nature's resources instead of gadgets. An African is inseparable from Nature. He speaks with Nature. He derives widom from his pristine surroundings. An African should be inspirational, aspirational and visionary. For Biko, a true African leader is someone who refuses to auction their soul to the imperialists only to become slavish instrument in the recolonisation of the African continent in the name of "foreign investment" and the "maintenance of world peace". Let’s re-write our history Ma-afrika, lets re-write it and revive the names of those heroes that have been forgotten, teachings of our ancestors is essential for the prosperity of posterity. Let’s follow in the footsteps of our ancestors for the mind is trained through knowledge.

And please let us stop being Banana republic to the West. Let’s do things for ourselves. Let us ignite our latent talents. Let us go to school and learn MaAfrika, let us be creative. Let us abolish Nepotism, corruption and incompetence that have mutated to be laws in our government, they are the hallmark of our government. Like Eskia Mphahlele once said:" As Africans we must learn to find ourselves happening to events, not always responding to events happening to us".

Mayibuye iAfrika. I love you Mama Afrika. You remain the best in the world.

I am an African

-A speech made by Thabo Mbeki on 8 May 1996, on the occasion of the passing of the new Constitution of South Africa.

I am an African

I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.

My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightening, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope.

The fragrances of nature have been as pleasant to us as the sight of the wild blooms of the citizens of the veld.

The dramatic shapes of the Drakensberg, the soil-coloured waters of the Lekoa, iGqili noThukela, and the sands of the Kgalagadi, have all been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of our day.

At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito.

A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say - I am an African!

I owe my being to the Khoi and the San whose desolate souls haunt the great expanses of the beautiful Cape - they who fell victim to the most merciless genocide our native land has ever seen, they who were the first to lose their lives in the struggle to defend our freedom and dependence and they who, as a people, perished in the result.

Today, as a country, we keep an audible silence about these ancestors of the generations that live, fearful to admit the horror of a former deed, seeking to obliterate from our memories a cruel occurrence which, in its remembering, should teach us not and never to be inhuman again.

I am formed of the migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land. Whatever their own actions, they remain still, part of me.

In my veins courses the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East. Their proud dignity informs my bearing, their culture a part of my essence. The stripes they bore on their bodies from the lash of the slave master are a reminder embossed on my consciousness of what should not be done.

I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour the cause of freedom.

My mind and my knowledge of myself is formed by the victories that are the jewels in our African crown, the victories we earned from Isandhlwana to Khartoum, as Ethiopians and as the Ashanti of Ghana, as the Berbers of the desert.

I am the grandchild who lays fresh flowers on the Boer graves at St Helena and the Bahamas, who sees in the mind's eye and suffers the suffering of a simple peasant folk, death, concentration camps, destroyed homesteads, a dream in ruins.

I am the child of Nongqause. I am he who made it possible to trade in the world markets in diamonds, in gold, in the same food for which my stomach yearns.

I come of those who were transported from India and China, whose being resided in the fact, solely, that they were able to provide physical labour, who taught me that we could both be at home and be foreign, who taught me that human existence itself demanded that freedom was a necessary condition for that human existence.

Being part of all these people, and in the knowledge that none dare contest that assertion, I shall claim that - I am an African.

I have seen our country torn asunder as these, all of whom are my people, engaged one another in a titanic battle, the one redress a wrong that had been caused by one to another and the other, to defend the indefensible.

I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.

I know what if signifies when race and colour are used to determine who is human and who, sub-human.

I have seen the destruction of all sense of self-esteem, the consequent striving to be what one is not, simply to acquire some of the benefits which those who had improved themselves as masters had ensured that they enjoy.

I have experience of the situation in which race and colour is used to enrich some and impoverish the rest.

I have seen the corruption of minds and souls in the pursuit of an ignoble effort to perpetrate a veritable crime against humanity.

I have seen concrete expression of the denial of the dignity of a human being emanating from the conscious, systemic and systematic oppressive and repressive activities of other human beings.

There the victims parade with no mask to hide the brutish reality - the beggars, the prostitutes, the street children, those who seek solace in substance abuse, those who have to steal to assuage hunger, those who have to lose their sanity because to be sane is to invite pain.

Perhaps the worst among these, who are my people, are those who have learnt to kill for a wage. To these the extent of death is directly proportional to their personal welfare.

And so, like pawns in the service of demented souls, they kill in furtherance of the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. They murder the innocent in the taxi wars.

They kill slowly or quickly in order to make profits from the illegal trade in narcotics. They are available for hire when husband wants to murder wife and wife, husband.

Among us prowl the products of our immoral and amoral past - killers who have no sense of the worth of human life, rapists who have absolute disdain for the women of our country, animals who would seek to benefit from the vulnerability of the children, the disabled and the old, the rapacious who brook no obstacle in their quest for self-enrichment.

All this I know and know to be true because I am an African!

Because of that, I am also able to state this fundamental truth that I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines.

I am born of a people who would not tolerate oppression.

I am of a nation that would not allow that fear of death, torture, imprisonment, exile or persecution should result in the perpetuation of injustice.

The great masses who are our mother and father will not permit that the behaviour of the few results in the description of our country and people as barbaric.

Patient because history is on their side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun shines.

Whatever the circumstances they have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be.

We are assembled here today to mark their victory in acquiring and exercising their right to formulate their own definition of what it means to be African.

The constitution whose adoption we celebrate constitutes and unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our Africanness shall be defined by our race, colour, gender of historical origins.

It is a firm assertion made by ourselves that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.

It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans, and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern.

It recognises the fact that the dignity of the individual is both an objective which society must pursue, and is a goal which cannot be separated from the material well-being of that individual.

It seeks to create the situation in which all our people shall be free from fear, including the fear of the oppression of one national group by another, the fear of the disempowerment of one social echelon by another, the fear of the use of state power to deny anybody their fundamental human rights and the fear of tyranny.

It aims to open the doors so that those who were disadvantaged can assume their place in society as equals with their fellow human beings without regard to colour, race, gender, age or geographic dispersal.

It provides the opportunity to enable each one and all to state their views, promote them, strive for their implementation in the process of governance without fear that a contrary view will be met with repression.

It creates a law-governed society which shall be inimical to arbitrary rule.

It enables the resolution of conflicts by peaceful means rather than resort to force.

It rejoices in the diversity of our people and creates the space for all of us voluntarily to define ourselves as one people.

As an African, this is an achievement of which I am proud, proud without reservation and proud without any feeling of conceit.

Our sense of elevation at this moment also derives from the fact that this magnificent product is the unique creation of African hands and African minds.

But it also constitutes a tribute to our loss of vanity that we could, despite the temptation to treat ourselves as an exceptional fragment of humanity, draw on the accumulated experience and wisdom of all humankind, to define for ourselves what we want to be.

Together with the best in the world, we too are prone to pettiness, petulance, selfishness and short-sightedness.

But it seems to have happened that we looked at ourselves and said the time had come that we make a super-human effort to be other than human, to respond to the call to create for ourselves a glorious future, to remind ourselves of the Latin saying: Gloria est consequenda - Glory must be sought after!

Today it feels good to be an African.

It feels good that I can stand here as a South African and as a foot soldier of a titanic African army, the African National Congress, to say to all the parties represented here, to the millions who made an input into the processes we are concluding, to our outstanding compatriots who have presided over the birth of our founding document, to the negotiators who pitted their wits one against the other, to the unseen stars who shone unseen as the management and administration of the Constitutional Assembly, the advisers, experts and publicists, to the mass communication media, to our friends across the globe - congratulations and well done!

I am an African.

I am born of the peoples of the continent of Africa.

The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, Burundi and Algeria is a pain I also bear.

The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a blight that we share.

The blight on our happiness that derives from this and from our drift to the periphery of the ordering of human affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow of despair.

This is a savage road to which nobody should be condemned.

This thing that we have done today, in this small corner of a great continent that has contributed so decisively to the evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes.

Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now!
Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!
However improbable it may sound to the sceptics, Africa will prosper!

Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say - nothing can stop us now!

Speech retrieved from http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/18444.html

O Mang: Let’s reassess our Afrikan identities

By Nompumelelo Zinhle Manzini

“Asses and re-assess
Define and redefine who you are!
You’ve submitted to their traps, submitted to their standard!
You’ve welcomed their bars- and you’ve created a home for their mental shackles.
You’ve allowed them to lay the bricks for the path that you’re travelling!
Are you walking or are you stumbling?

Break down those walls and break down those bars!
I challenge you:
Before you depart can you break free without falling apart?

Stop looking for truth in other people and start looking for it within yourself!
O mang mo Afrikan, o mang?
Sheba nnete ya gago gore wena o mang?

When we ask: “Who are you?”
Will you be able to answer us?
Or will you just purge yourself into the depths of someone else’s whole?

Assess and reassess
Define and redefine who you are!
Rather set your own traps!
Set your own standards...your own bars!
And stop looking for truths in others-
Dare to search your own soul!

And define who you are according to your own standards!”


It’s time that we as Afrikans reassess and redefine ourselves, our roots and embrace everything that has made us the Afrikans that we are today. It is time that we people of “Afrikan” or “African” origin come together to celebrate our culture and heritage. It is indeed time that we stop celebrating our Akrikaness only when is suits them and make it an everyday celebration. We need to start owning the tenets of our gun-shaped continent and show the rest of this universe that they cannot define us! Instead we should define ourselves, according to our own norms and standards!

As we mark the annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union on the 25th of May - I think that we should go back to the founding principles and philosophies of the organisation and really remind ourselves why the organisation was found. Concurrently, we must also go back and look at what makes us the Afrikans that we are today. It seems as though most of us have forgotten and lost our Afrikan identities, instead we have gone on this relentless onward march to submit to identities that are foreign to us.

Perhaps, you think that going back is not necessary, because it will just remind you of all the pains and repression that our ancestors went through. However, I beg to differ! The pains and repression that our ancestors went through, contributes greatly to our Afrikan identities. Whilst, my sister still introduces herself as “Boy-to-melow” instead of “Boitumelo” to her white counter-parts because she just wants to make it easier for them to pronounce, then indeed it is necessary for us to go back and remind her that the very same white-counter parts contributed to her ancestors’ repression.

I urge to remind you that being Afrikan should not only be seen in the attire that you will ‘cherry-pick’ to wear only on the 25th or when it is a wedding, but that being Afrikan is a daily journey where you will treat the street sweepers and the woman who cleaned that public toilet that you just used yesterday with respect. Furthermore, it means embracing your individual Afrikan culture but also the Afrikan culture as a whole- including the Ethiopians who supplied you with the bread that you have packed as a sandwich this morning. Being an Afrikan is not only marked by the colour of your skin, but also by the mentality that you choose to have!

Towards African Unity: OAU Summit Speech by Haile Selassie

By H.I.M. Haile Selassie

OAU speech, 1963, African Summit


We welcome to Ethiopia, in Our name and in the name of the Ethiopian Government and people, the Heads of State and Government of independent African nations who are today assembled in solemn conclave in Ethiopia's capital city. This conference, without parallel in history, is an impressive testimonial to the devotion and dedication of which we all partake in the cause of our mother continent and that of her sons and daughters. This is indeed a momentous and historic day for Africa and for all Africans.

We stand today on the stage of world affairs, before the audience of world opinion. We have come together to assert our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty to the great continent whose two hundred fifty million people we lead. Africa is today at mid- course, in transition from the Africa of yesterday to the Africa of tomorrow. Even as we stand here we move from the past into the future. The task on which we have embarked, the making of Africa, will not wait. We must act, to shape and mould the future and leave our imprint on events as they pass into history.

We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither we are going and to chart the course of our destiny. It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans. This world was not created piecemeal. Africa was born no later and no earlier than any other geographical area on this globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all human attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults. Thousands of years ago, civilizations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all by comparison with those of other continents. In those centuries, Africans were politically free and economically independent. Their social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous. The obscurity which enshrouds the centuries which elapsed between those earliest days and the rediscovery of Africa are being gradually dispersed. What is certain is that during those long years Africans were born, lived and died. Men on other parts of this Earth occupied themselves with their own concerns and, in their conceit, proclaimed that the world began and ended at their horizons. All unknown to them, Africa developed in its own pattern, growing in its own life and, in the nineteenth century, finally re-emerged into the world's consciousness.

The events of the past hundred and fifty years require no extended recitation from Us. The period of colonialism into which we were plunged culminated with our continent fettered and bound, with our once proud and free peoples reduced to humiliation and slavery; with Africa's terrain cross-batched and checkerboarded by artificial and arbitrary boundaries. Many of us, during those bitter years, were overwhelmed in battle, and those who escaped conquest did so at the cost of desperate resistance and bloodshed. Others were sold into bondage as the price extracted by the colonialists for the "protection" which they extended and the possession of which they disposed. Africa was a physical resource to be exploited and Africans were chattels to be purchased bodily or, at best, peoples to be reduced to vassalage and lackeyhood. Africa was the market for the produce of other nations and the source of the raw materials with which their factories were fed.

Today, Africa has emerged from this dark passage. Our armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men. The blood that was shed and the sufferings that were endured are today Africa's advocates for freedom and unity. Those men who refused to accept the judgement passed upon them by the colonies, who held unswervingly through the darkest hours to a vision of an Africa emancipated from political, economic and spiritual domination, will be remembered and revered wherever Africans meet. Many of them never set foot on this continent. Others were born and died here. What we may utter today can add little to the heroic struggle of those who, by their example, have shown us how precious are freedom and human dignity and of how little value is life without them. Their deeds are written in history.

H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I

Speech retrieved online from http://www.nazret.com/history/him_oau.php

The FrankTalk Radio Dialogue: What does it mean to be an African?

On May 28, 2013, the Steve Biko Foundation, in collaboration with YFM, will host the seventh session of the FrankTalk Radio Dialogues. Titled after the pseudonym under which Biko wrote, FrankTalk is designed to engage young people in discussion on salient issues impacting South Africa’s political, economic and social development.

May 25, 2013, is Africa Day and marks the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity which subsequently evolved into the African Union. This day provides us with an opportunity to acknowledge the achievements of the peoples and governments of Africa and to reaffirm our commitment to building a better future for Africa and all her people.

Panellists:
Ms. Liepollo Pheko, economist, political commentator and analyst;
Mr. Akin Omotoso, actor, film maker and director;
Two YFM DJ’s.

Please join us as part of the Live Studio Audience.

DATE: Tuesday 28 May, 2013
VENUE: YFM studio, 4 Albury Road, Dunkeld Crescent,South West Blocks, Dunkeld West, Ext 8, Sandton
TIME: 18:30 for 19:00

Limited Space!

Please RSVP to Dibuseng Kolisang via email: dibuseng@sbf.org.za or call on 011 403 0310 to indicate your attendance

Land Defended: The Land Reform Policy in South Africa

By Mmanoko Jerry Mathekga



During the last decades of apartheid capitalist system, social and economic relations have changed. Neoliberalism was never simply a market driven process but also a shaping of other social and economic relations, and institutions, especially the government. The state, private corporations, public discourses, and many aspects of everyday life were changed towards economic and international competitiveness. Aspects such as (re)distribution or social solidarity play a small role. As these societal changes have occurred, the administration and distribution of land have changed in South Africa. Land is increasingly becoming a valuable resource to be assessed for their value and incorporated into the capitalist accumulation process. In South Africa, the land reform policy, the willing buyer/willing seller policy, is the neoliberal policy that wants to keep land ownership in the hands of very few individuals, especially the existing white farmers and the emerging black elites. As Mangaliso Sobukwe once put it, African people have been effectively robbed of their land. This paper examines how the willing buyer/willing seller policy has protected the land from being redistributed in South Africa.

Land has always been very important in South African subsistence society for many reasons. To name a few, land provides crops for food, supports cattles and other animals, which were used for food, clothing and labour (Callinocos, 1924: 1). Land also provided materials for clay, bricks and thatch for building houses. Without access to land, people in South African subsistence society can hardly survive, except selling their labour to those who took their land. From the use of land, people were able to produce their basic needs (Callinocos, 1942:1-2). Land is very important to the pursuit of development in South Africa. It does play a key role in addressing issues of unemployment, inequality and poverty (APRM, 2007:276).

It is the single most key factor in social, political, and economic empowerment. In rural areas, land is considered a major asset and input in the agrarian system, and one cannot start farming without land. Agriculture continues to be the main source of income for many people in the country. Land redistribution is a very important component of agrarian reform, as it involves the redistribution of wealth in rural areas. Above all, land has a central role to play in wealth and income redistribution in Africa as a whole (APRM, 2007:276). Land and labour are not just connected, but also integrated elements of the livelihood activities and outcomes of both men and women. Beyond agriculture, land has a wide range of uses in the organisation of livelihoods and is also the basis of social and political power, and therefore at the heart of gender inequalities in the control of resources.
Then, by the end of the last century, most of the land in South Africa had been taken over by white farmers, mining companies and apartheid government from black people (Callinicos, 1924:24). After the discovery of diamonds and gold in the 19th century, indigenous farmers were forced off their land, and converted into cheap labourers. In addition, measures such as taxes, legislation and hostel migrant labour system were put in place to make sure that cheap labour is available (Cairncross, 2011:18). The mining industry had brought a new mode of production in South Africa, industrial capitalism. Industrial capitalism’s impact on the character of the country and on its future was decisive, and extends beyond the boundaries of South Africa (Jordan, 2010:51).

The Native Land Act was passed to disallow black people the rights and legal authority to own land outside the designated reserves, which constituted about 7% of the land area (Cairncross, 2011:19). The Act denied black people much of the land they owned before. The main aim of the Act was to guarantee that white farmers, especially in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, own as much land as possible as compared to Africans, and to protect them against the competition of successful African peasants. Terrablanche (2002:260) pointed out that it was truly a rock on which not only the political alliance between a section of farming elite and the English business elite was built on, but also a rock on which the particularly unequal system of racial exploitation was built and maintained until 1970s.

The Act denied South Africans an opportunity to be involved in cropping, tenant farming, and squatter farming in white South Africa. As a result, it was an impediment for economic independence of many Africans. Africans were regarded as servants under the Master and Servant Act (Terrablanche, 2002:260-64). The discrimination and forcibly removal of blacks from their land was done through the law. Black South Africans were forcibly removed from their land by the 1913 Land Act which gave the apartheid government so much authority to do so. By denying African farmers much of their land, and ending share cropping and tenant farming on white-owned land, a crucial agricultural and entrepreneurial traditions and store of indigenous farming knowledge was seriously destroyed (Terrablanche, 2002:264). If the African agricultural tradition had not been destroyed, but given more government support (financially and technologically) just like whites farmers during apartheid, South African agriculture and economic history could have been completely different today (Terrablanche,2002:164).

Lahiff (2007:1578) points out that at the end of apartheid, approximately 82 million hectares of commercial farmland were in the hands of white people, and concentrated in the hands of the 60 000 white owners. Over 13 million poor black people remained overcrowded into the former homelands, where rights to own land were not clear. Poverty in those areas of blacks is very high, and the place is not developed (Lahiff, 2007:1578). On privately owned white farms, more and more workers and their dependents are experiencing tenure insecurity, and they live without decent basic facilities (Lahiff, 2007:1578). Communities and people that wanted to live in peace in their own land find their rights ignored and their livelihood and culture jeopardised.
After 1994, the ANC government wanted to redistribute land to previously disadvantaged people. In order to do so, the ANC government came up with the willing seller/ willing buyer policy. This policy has been a shift towards a market-led approach (Lahiff, 2007:1577). The willing buyer, willing seller principle is a policy choice that fall squarely in the neoliberal system adopted by the ANC in 1996 (Lahiff, 2007:1580). Basically, it is a market-led land reform based on redistribution of land through willing seller-willing buyer transactions (Centre for rural legal studies, 2003). Under the willing buyer, willing seller principle, South African government does not have the rights of first refusal, and beneficiaries have to compete for available land on the open market at market prices. The policy simply means that farmers are not required and forced to approach the government first to offer land for sale.

However, the government has to find some money and go to the open market just like any other ordinary individual buyers and buy the land when it is available for sale (APRM, 2007:264). The willing buyer, willing seller policy (WSWB) has led to a situation where the government seems to have adopted a “hands-off approach to land reform in the country(APRM, 2007:264).” By doing so, the government removed agricultural marketing support, including agricultural price stabilisation, tariff protection and agriculture subsidies (Atkinson, 2010:366). Basically, in theory, the government has the authority and the resources to enter the land market on behalf of poor people, but it has chosen not to do so.

The willing seller, willing buyer policy (WSWB) deliberately protects the interests of the existing landowners, as it does not force them to sell land against their will nor at the price with which they are fully satisfied (Lahiff, 2005:2). There is no guarantee offered to would-be beneficiaries, who are dependent on government approval of their grant applications and willingness of landowners to transact with them. Landowners are at liberty to sell or not to sell their land property, to whom they will sell, and at what price (Lahiff, 2005:2). If the landowners do not want to sell their land, there is nothing that can be done under the willing seller, willing buyer policy to change the situation. If landowners want to sell their land, but not to reform beneficiaries (previously disadvantaged people); they have got the rights to do so. Landowners are at liberty to choose the prices they feel satisfied, as they are free to choose their own buyers (Lahiff, 2005:2). Basically, landowners are the determining factor when it comes to land redistribution programme, as they have so much power under the willing seller, willing buyer policy (Lahiff, 2005:2).

Under willing seller, willing buyer policy, the government has a minimal role to play, no matter what people without land express their land demands. As Lahiff (2005:2) put it, the government’s role has been limited to processing grant applications from people capable of following the approved procedure, and releasing funds, subjected to the reaching agreement with landowners and the availability of funds within a specific year. Regardless of funding the land reform process, the government does not take responsibility for identifying land on behalf of the people without land, and it failed to negotiate the land with the landowners, but it gave landowners total freedom to enjoy their land rights (Lahiff, 2005:3
The native land act of 1913 was only repealed by the abolition of racially based measures Act N0 108 of 1991. Since ANC government took over in 1994, it tried to transfer land through the willing buyer, willing seller policy, but they transfer of land has been very slow. When South African attained democracy and freedom in 1994, 13% of land was in the hands of blacks, while the enterer 87% of land was in the hands of white people. The present ANC government promised that it will redistribute close to 30% of the land in the first twenty years so that black people will own 43% of the land. But, thus far in 2013, the ANC government has managed to redistribute only 5% of the country’s land.

By the year 2014, much of the land would not be distributed, and the percentage will stand at 5% if the country continues with the same policy and pace of 5% distribution every 20 years. Then, only 25% of land would be distributed in hundred years. So, what does this mean? It’s simple, in hundred year’s time, the country’s inequality in terms of land property between Blacks, coloured and white people will still remain high, and this will lead to racism and economic exclusion of blacks and coloureds by white people and the very few black elites. Since 1994, the land reform and land redistribution programs have transferred less than 2% of white-owned land to blacks. Thus far, under 1996 SA constitution and the practice of successive government since then, the pattern of land ownership dating back to the 1930s has essentially been preserved through to the present (Cairncross,2011:19).

In the rural areas, home to about 50% of the population, successive ANC administrations not only failed to protect farm workers from exploitative conditions, but failed to protect hundreds of thousands of farm workers and their families who got evicted, turning these workers into seasonal and casual workers without access to land. Land reform is essentially non-existent, as may be expected under the willing buyer/willing seller policy that the ANC accepted during the pre-1994 negotiations (Cairncross, 2011:19). Thus far, the goal of redistributing certain amount of land to previously disadvantage people is impossible to reach and the progress is very slow, and it will continue to move very slowly as long as the willing buyer/willing seller policy is in place.

The ownership of land not only remained concentrated in the hands of handful of capitalists as in the past, but it has been transferred to foreign capital, either directly or through the liberalised stock exchange (Cairncross,2011:21). The state did not meet its target of 30%, and the target has been postponed to other years ahead (Lahiff, 2007:1581). Those who have benefited from the willing buyer, willing seller policy are males, especially those with access to income, and those with demonstrable assets such as agricultural equipments, livestock and cash. Basically it has favoured better-resourced individuals (Lahiff, 2007:1587). Where agricultural land was distributed, there was no systematic support from government and existing commercial farms to land beneficiaries. Lack of access to land pushes both men and women to seek alternative livelihood that further undermine their position in the society.

Large amount of African farmland are being allocated to investors on long-term leases, and at a rate not seen for decades. The fact that much of this land is being acquired to provide for the future food and fuel needs of foreign national has led to allegations that neo-colonial push by more wealthy and powerful nations is underway to take over the continent’s key natural resources (Futureagricultures,2011:1). However, new mining investments are planned or underway in most part of South Africa. Some local communities have been forcefully dispossessed their own land and make way for mining. For example, major new platinum mines are being established in the northern regions of Limpopo province by mining houses including Anglo platinum. However, purchase of white-owned farms for the new mines is impeded by awaiting land restitution claims, many of the new mining developments are on communal land in the former Batustans of Lebowa, Gazankulu and Venda (Hall, 2011:198). Those communities had no choice, but to be forced to open ways for new mining companies.

These have resulted in violence clashes with police, acting on orders from political leaders, and led local communities to form solidarity groups with other mining affected communities under the rubric of the “jubilee south Africa” campaign, and with legal support human rights organisations (Hall, 2011:198). In 2010, seven villages were involved in noisy violent disagreements with police brought in by local councilors who had allegedly been paid by mining companies to facilitate their forced removals from their own land (Hall, 2011:198). Close to 45 million hectares were under negotiations for allocations during 2009 alone, of which 70% (about 32 million hectares) was in Africa (Future agriculture, 2011:1). The figure could increase, at around 80 million hectares, 64% (about 50 million hectares) of those in Africa (Future agriculture, 2011:1). This means, sadly, the previously disadvantaged people will have to wait far too long for the realisation of their land rights, as their property rights.
However, small-scale farmers have been displaced, pastoralists have lost their grazing land, and rural people continue to loss access to crucial common property resources. The discourse about empty land in Africa is deeply and dangerously misleading (Future agriculture, 2011:3). Now, much attention has been given to foreign companies acquiring farmland. In other words, a range of actors have come forward, including multinational companies (Future agriculture, 2011:3). The institutionalisation of private land as alienable private property has substituted traditional communal ownership and land tenure system. The land ownership right by indigenous people is now claimed by superior powers from outside the country (Harris and Lauderdale, 2002:424). As a result, indigenous inhabitants of Africa, who were self-sufficient and culturally different, are in many instances forced to leave their productive land. Agricultural land and valuable natural resources are expropriated by and exploited for the benefits of the foreign countries, countries out of Africa (Harris and Lauderdale, 2002:424).

South Africa is still regarded as one of the most unequal society in the world in terms landownership that still largely fall along racial lines (Bauler and Taylor, 2005:239). The South Africa’s 4.5 million whites continue to dominate industry, commercial agriculture, the financial sector, mining sector and the vast majority of agricultural lands and resources (Bauler and Taylor, 2005:271). As Bauler and Taylor (2005:272) put it, “economic deprivation in the Black community remains the Achilles heel of the post apartheid state: it makes plain the absence of substantive democracy and imperils the genuine gains of the 1994 miracle (Bauler and Taylor, 2005:272).” So far, a small number of Blacks have joined the ranks of the new middle class, but poverty and inequality remain high, and has deepened in many part of the country. If South African people are denied access to land or land ownership, as it was the case during apartheid period, then the state is destroying the very foundation of their existence and their economy which needs state assistance. Based on the above information, the struggle for land reform and transfer of land is long overdue. As Robert Sobukwe once put it, Indigenous people have lost control over their land. Then, there is a need for a policy that calls for equal distribution of land. There is a cry ringing throughout the African continent crying for their land. “Africa for the Africans! Izwe Lethu IAfrika (PAC, 2000).”


Reference list
1. African Peer Review Mechanism (2007) country review report N0.5. Republic of South Africa.
2. Atkinson, D. (2010) breaking down barriers: policy gaps and new options in south African land reform, in Daniel J, Naidoo P, Southall R and Pillay D (eds) new south African review 1. 2010: development or decline? Wits university press. Johannesburg.
3. Bauler, G, and Taylor, S, D. (2005) politics in southern Africa. State and society in transition. Lynne Rienner publications. Boulder London.

4. Callinocos, L. (1924) a people’s history of South Africa: gold and workers. Volume one. 1886-1924.
5. Centre for Rural Legal Studies (2003) briefing paper: expropriating land for distribution. January 2003.
6. Cousins, Ben 2010. “The politics of communal tenure reform: A South African case study”, in: Ward Anseeuw and Chris Alden (eds), The Struggle over Land in Africa. Conflicts, Politics and Change. Cape Town: HSRC Press (55-70).
7. Future Agricultures (2011) land grapping in Africa and the new politics of food. Policy brief 041. June 2011. www.future-agricultures.org
8. Jordan, Z.P. (2010) historical origins of the African National Congress, in new agenda: South African journal of social and economic policy. Issue 40 fourth quarter 2010.
9. Lahiff, E. (2005) “from willing seller, willing buyer” to a people-driven land reform. Policy brief, debating land reform, natural resources and poverty. N0.17. September 2005. PLAAS.
10. Lahiff, E. (2007) willing buyer, willing seller: South Africa’s failed experiment in market led agrarian reform, in third world quarterly, Vol 28, No. 8. P1577-1597. Rutledge Taylor & Francis Group.
11. PAC (2000) speeches of Mangaliso sobukwe, adopted at the 6th National Congress held in Gamatlala, on 7-9 April 2000
12. Terrablanche, S. (2002) the history of inequality in South Africa. 1652-2002. university of Natal Press. Pietermaritzburg.
13. Wichterich C. (2009) women peasants, food security & biodiversity in the crisis of neoliliberalism, in development dialogue: postneoliberalism – a beginning debate. N0. 51. January 2009.

Africa Is Rising

By Anelisiwe Miza


The history of Africa begins with its prehistory and the emergence of Homo sapiens in East Africa, continuing into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states – our glittering prize remains our people. Some early evidence of agriculture in Africa dates from 16,000 BCE, and metallurgy from about 4000 BCE. The recorded history of early civilization arose in Egypt, and later in Nubia, the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa – our people have always been innovative since BC and we therefore hold the potential to allow Africa to grow.

As early as the 15th century we have had to fight for our freedom as slaves and from colonialism amongst other things and we remain soaring; gaining our independence and since then growing in our right being governed by our own which indicates the innovation, the resources and the leadership is right here in Africa. As decolonisation took place, we began to rise – this is evidence of Africa and the power she holds in her own right.

"Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being." The Definition of Black Consciousness, I Write What I Like, 1978.

Identity is a powerful weapon that can either break or build us as a continent. It is the way we view ourselves which in turn is the way we project ourselves to the rest of the world. It is the determinant of what is to become of our beloved Africa. It will lead us to being a strong continent and this is what Biko was trying to bring to light. Acceptance and celebration of who and what we are and of each other as different nations but one continent. No continent has more potential and infinite possibilities than Africa.

This is the only thing that stands between us and the glittering prize that loiters in the African air. Acceptance and celebration of Africa by Africans. Until we stop demeaning our own land and taking the face other continents place on us, we cannot move as a people, we will not move as a continent. Africa is rising and our people need to own it. Steve Biko continues to say: “It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth."
We Blacks, I Write What I Like, 1978.

Our glittering prize remains our pride, pride in which we are... African... African and beautiful and everything that entails: Pride, determination and resilience.

As it stands, we have several development banks: African development bank, eastern & southern African trade and development bank, east African bank, Arab bank for economic development in Africa, development bank of southern Africa but to name a few all working to develop trade, the economy and development of Africa as a whole. We have also seen South Africa joining BRICS, a growing power with a development bank emerging from it. A victory not only for South Africa but the rest of Africa with a promise to feed into our continent, Africa is rising.

Africa’s GDP has doubled over the past ten years and is not stagnant. It is emerging as one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. In 2010, The IMF forecasted Africa to grab seven of the top ten places over the next five years. Africa’s economy is growing with economies such as Nigeria booming with its real GDP growth is 7.1% in 2012.Rwanda taking innovative steps in easening African movement with its new visa laws for Africans and we can only hope it is the first of many to follow. We are becoming a united front and this will increase economic activity amongst ourselves. These are just examples of Africa rising.

We still suffer and mourn the political unrest that ravages our nations. However, we continue to fight for equality, stability and freedom. Today, we continue to celebrate the journey we started centuries ago. We celebrate the African Union alongside many other African forums and institutions in their achievements in building a better Africa through adopting conflict resolutions through mediation efforts, peace-keeping missions, transitional justice processes and uniting Africa.

Africa is rising with immense potential and infinite possibilities. Currently, Africa supplies 11% of the world’s fuel and mining is growing. We are rich in natural resources – there lies opportunities and possibilities not only for trade but also to explore innovative energy systems than can sustain us and explore this aspect as we tackle the challenge of the rapidly-deteriorating climate. Africa has seen growth in internet and media communication which has increased the speed of consumption in African households. Development and the adoption of technology have led to the growth of banking systems and e-commerce as a whole. Africa has a growing workforce with Africans becoming more educated, the possibilities are infinite.

The turmoil we are in today is a better advancement than before and it is with that fact that we should know that the darkness that still roams is a potential for light that will shine in Africa; potential for growth and for nations to watch Africa rise once again. And although immense poverty, political instability, corruption and inadequate infrastructure remain our biggest challenges and remains the darkness that shadows Africa, Africa is rising. Our glittering prize remains: the will to change and grow, unity to work together and make it possible, the strength and resilience to see this continent reach its fullest potential and its destiny.

The possibilities lie in our land and in our people. This is our glittering prize and with it AFRICA IS RISING.

A United Africa: A Dream Worth Fighting For

By Christopher Ndegwa



There is strength in unity; a common adage that depicts the spirit on which a number of today’s unions are founded upon. The United States of America has been a stellar example of this principle by becoming one of the greatest powers on the planet. With economic prowess and military prestige, the 50 states have become a force to reckon with. A number of African leaders have floated the idea of coming up with the United States of Africa. Were they merely building castles in the air or on the verge of a monumental idea?

In 1963, African leaders came together to form the Organisation for African Unity. Its main aim was to speed up the process of decolonization of African states; an objective it achieved. Not a single African country is still a colony.

The OAU was also formed with the intention of speeding up the process of economic growth of its member states and the promotion of social coherence and integration among the African people. Some of the achievements the OAU can boast of are the settling of boundary disputes among member countries and the emancipation of African countries. Furthermore, the eradication of apartheid in South Africa would not have been possible without the consistent support of the OAU.

However, with time, the OAU began to wither in strength and its impact began to slowly fade like an echo in the distance. This was, as opined by many, due to the perception created in the minds of the African people. They believed that the OAU was no longer the loving and caring shepherd that guided them to economic and political ideals. It had become the wolf that fed on the sheep for its nourishment. The names of a number of African leaders associated with the organisation were synonymous with nepotism, civil wars and pilferage of their respective state coffers.

There was a pressing need for change if the dream of a united African continent was to survive.
"We really have not become integrated as an African people into a real union" – Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.

Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader, spearheaded talks to revive and improve the organisation. Being an adamant fighter for African unity, the leader who ameliorated his country’s literacy levels to 83% believed the organisation could be salvaged. After the dissolution of the OAU, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the African Union was born on 9th July 2002, in Durban, South Africa.

Comprising an AU assembly currently headed by Haile Mariam Desalegn – the twelfth Prime Minister of Ethopia, a parliament composed of 265 officials and an African Court of Justice, inter alia, the presence of the AU cannot be ignored. Peacekeeping missions have been sent by the AU to places such as Darfur and countries like Burundi, Comoros and Somalia. This shows that the maintenance of peace and security on the continent is still of paramount importance.

It is this spirit of unity that has been the propelling force behind the AU. This spirit was advocated and championed by many a famous African leader such as Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. He was a staunch Pan-Africanist. He believed that as long as Africa was divided then it was destined to be economically and socially inferior to the West and other nations situated outside the black continent. It is this spirit of Pan-Africanism that is the wind beneath the wings of the AU that has given it the power to fly.

Although the AU is seen by many as an entity that has borrowed heavily from the European Union, both in structure and in goals, the similarities are undeniable. The establishment of the African Central Bank, for example, is seen as a mirror image of the European Central Bank (ECB) projected on an African platform. Its structure is a replica of that of the ECB.

Similarly, the idea of an African passport finds its roots in the Schengen visa which allows for its holder to travel freely within the Schengen area in Europe. This visa has, undoubtedly, made travelling much easier and consequently, promoted European relations. Further, the idea of a single African currency can be thought of as the African rendition of the euro; the currency that has united more than 17 countries economically.

The elephant in the room must be addressed; different African countries have economies growing (both positively and negatively) at varied speeds. This would translate into the strong lending a helping hand to those less powerful in economic terms. This is indeed the spirit of helping your neighbour. All for one and one for all!

Looking at the idea of a United States of Africa through a social prism may present a few challenges. To begin with, Africa is rich in culture. Africa is a melting pot of cultures, traditions and customs that form a rich blend of diversity. The United States of Africa – should it ever come into existence – possess a colossal threat to this crossroads of cultures. This is because the Proposed Constitution for the United States of Africa provides for a “national” language – Kiswahili. Although its unifying ability cannot go unmentioned, it will, as posited by some, overshadow the other languages and it is common knowledge that language is the main tool in the transmission of culture. Does this really affect our unity?

“Unity is not opposed to the multitude…what it excludes is the division of each thing to its components…” – Thomas Aquinas, Philosopher.

We must celebrate our differences. William Cowper, an 18th Century English poet once said that variety is the spice of life that gives it all of its flavour. It is precisely the diverse cultures and languages that make Africa unique. We are many in tribe, culture and tradition but we can be one in our goals, dreams and ambitions.

Africa has walked a long and tumultuous journey to reach where she is. Hers is a story of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice that have built this great continent. It is not yet over. It is a story that must continue to be written in the pages of history.

“We have a cause for great satisfaction in our achievements. But we have no cause at all for complacency. We have done quite well; but with effort…we could do better…we must build on what we have achieved…” Julius Nyerere – First President of Tanzania

Rise up Africa! Unite! Conquer! Prosper!

Written by:
Christopher Ndegwa,
Student at Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, Kenya

Invitation: 7th Robert Sobukwe Memorial Lecture

The CEO of the Steve Biko Foundation, Mr. Nkosinathi Biko, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, Dr. Mvuyo Tom and the CEO of the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Trust, Mr. Dini Sobukwe, cordially invite you to the 7th Robert Sobukwe Memorial Lecture to be delivered by Professor Shadrack Gutto.

Date: Thursday 23 May, 2013
Time: 17:30 for 18:00
Venue: The Auditorium at the Steve Biko Centre
One Zotshie Street
Ginsberg
King William's Town

RSVP Details:
Due to limited space, seating will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

Please reply by Monday, May 20, 2013 to Ms Dibuseng Kolisang;
dibuseng@sbf.org.za; or 011 403 0310.

Launched in 2003, The Robert Sobukwe Memorial lecture is an initiative of the Steve Biko Foundation, the University of Fort Hare and the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Trust. The lecture commemorates the legacy of the late Pan Africanist, who early on articulated the importance of African unity and the need for an African Renaissance. Accordingly, the gathering focuses on developments in Africa that have a bearing on the realization of Sobukwe’s vision.

This initiative has become a national ritual of collective remembrance. To date, the Robert Sobukwe Memorial Lecture has been delivered by such renowned speakers as:

 Professor Eskia Mphahlele;
 Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane;
 Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza;
 His Excellency Pierre Buyoya of Burundi;
 Minister Adama Samassékou of Mali;
 Professor Kwandiwe Kondlo.

May 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union, an organisation rooted in Pan Africanism. In celebration of this milestone the Steve Biko Foundation, the University of Fort Hare and the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Trust are privileged to host Professor Shadrack Gutto, Director of the Centre for African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa, as the guest speaker in a contemporary exploration of Pan Africanism.

Africa, My Africa

by David Diop

Africa, my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river
I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins
Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
Africa, tell me Africa
Is this you, this back that is bent
This back that breaks
Under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun
But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers
That is your Africa springing up anew
Springing up patiently, obstinately
Whose fruit bit by bit acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.

I Speak of Freedom

By Kwame Nkrumah

1961


On The African Citizen

… “Africa needs a new type of citizen, a dedicated modest, honest, informed man. A man who submerges self in service to the nation and to mankind. A man who abhors greed and detests vanity. A new type of man whose humility is his strength and whose integrity is his greatness…” Nkrumah

For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his mission, he claimed, was to “civilize” Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people.

All this makes a sad story, but now we must be prepared to bury the past with its unpleasant memories and look to the future. All we ask of the former colonial powers is their goodwill and co-operation to remedy past mistakes and injustices and to grant independence to the colonies in Africa….

It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.

Although most Africans are poor, our continent is potentially extremely rich. Our mineral resources, which are being exploited with foreign capital only to enrich foreign investors, range from gold and diamonds to uranium and petroleum. Our forests contain some of the finest woods to be grown anywhere. Our cash crops include cocoa, coffee, rubber, tobacco and cotton. As for power, which is an important factor in any economic development, Africa contains over 40% of the potential water power of the world, as compared with about 10% in Europe and 13% in North America. Yet so far, less than 1% has been developed. This is one of the reasons why we have in Africa the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty, and scarcity in the midst of abundance.

Never before have a people had within their grasp so great an opportunity for developing a continent endowed with so much wealth. Individually, the independent states of Africa, some of them potentially rich, others poor, can do little for their people. Together, by mutual help, they can achieve much. But the economic development of the continent must be planned and pursued as a whole. A loose confederation designed only for economic co-operation would not provide the necessary unity of purpose. Only a strong political union can bring about full and effective development of our natural resources for the benefit of our people.

The political situation in Africa today is heartening and at the same time disturbing. It is heartening to see so many new flags hoisted in place of the old; it is disturbing to see so many countries of varying sizes and at different levels of development, weak and, in some cases, almost helpless. If this terrible state of fragmentation is allowed to continue it may well be disastrous for us all.

There are at present some 28 states in Africa, excluding the Union of South Africa, and those countries not yet free. No less than nine of these states have a population of less than three million. Can we seriously believe that the colonial powers meant these countries to be independent, viable states? The example of South America, which has as much wealth, if not more than North America, and yet remains weak and dependent on outside interests, is one which every African would do well to study.

Critics of African unity often refer to the wide differences in culture, language and ideas in various parts of Africa. This is true, but the essential fact remains that we are all Africans, and have a common interest in the independence of Africa. The difficulties presented by questions of language, culture and different political systems are not insuperable. If the need for political union is agreed by us all, then the will to create it is born; and where there’s a will there’s a way.

The present leaders of Africa have already shown a remarkable willingness to consult and seek advice among themselves. Africans have, indeed, begun to think continentally. They realise that they have much in common, both in their past history, in their present problems and in their future hopes. To suggest that the time is not yet ripe for considering a political union of Africa is to evade the facts and ignore realities in Africa today.

The greatest contribution that Africa can make to the peace of the world is to avoid all the dangers inherent in disunity, by creating a political union which will also by its success, stand as an example to a divided world. A Union of African states will project more effectively the African personality. It will command respect from a world that has regard only for size and influence. The scant attention paid to African opposition to the French atomic tests in the Sahara, and the ignominious spectacle of the U.N. in the Congo quibbling about constitutional niceties while the Republic was tottering into anarchy, are evidence of the callous disregard of African Independence by the Great Powers.

We have to prove that greatness is not to be measured in stockpiles of atom bombs. I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind.

The emergence of such a mighty stabilizing force in this strife-worn world should be regarded not as the shadowy dream of a visionary, but as a practical proposition, which the peoples of Africa can, and should, translate into reality. There is a tide in the affairs of every people when the moment strikes for political action. Such was the moment in the history of the United States of America when the Founding Fathers saw beyond the petty wranglings of the separate states and created a Union. This is our chance. We must act now. Tomorrow may be too late and the opportunity will have passed, and with it the hope of free Africa’s survival.

What we need is unity and tranquillity at home and peace abroad. Today, peace is not only indivisible but the supreme and universal need of mankind. For the first time in our history, the world is threatened with total destruction. Our dreams and hopes for a better and richer life now hang on the balance and that is why I have appealed to the great statesmen of the great powers to turn their backs upon war and the preparation of war, and to think and work for peace. Small and insignificant as we are, Ghana is prepared to make any sacrifice towards the attainment of a lasting world peace. Sometimes I wonder whether it would not be helpful if we in Ghana, and all other like minded nations, established a separate Ministry of Peace as opposed to ministries of defence and war, which could devote itself exclusively to considering ways and means by which international tension could be reduced and understanding between the people of all nations increased. This would inspire us all to dedicate our national energies and resources to the cause of universal peace and to the total happiness of mankind.

As we look back into the history of our continent, we cannot escape the fact that we have for too long been the victims of foreign domination. For too long we have had no say in the management of our own affairs or in deciding our own destinies. Now times have changed, and today we are the masters of our own fate. This fact is evidenced in our meeting together here as independent sovereign states out of our own free will to share our minds openly, to argue and discuss, to share our experiences, our aspirations, our dreams and our hopes in the interests of Mother Africa.

For the first time, I think, in the history of this great continent, leaders of all the purely African states which can play an independent role in international affairs will meet to discuss the problems of our countries and take the first steps towards working out an African contribution to international peace and goodwill. For too long, in our history, Africa has spoken through the voices of others. Now, what I have called an African Personality in international affairs will have a chance of making its proper impact and will let the world know it through the voices of Africa’s own sons.

Africa is the last remaining stronghold of colonialism. Unlike Asia, there are on the continent of Africa more dependent territories than independent sovereign nations. Therefore we, the free independent states of Africa, have a responsibility to hasten the total liberation of Africa. I believe that there are lessons from the past which will help us in discharging this sacred duty.

If I have spoken of racialism and colonialism it is not, as I have said, because I want to indulge in recrimination with any country by listing a catalogue of wrongs which have been perpetrated upon our continent in the past. My only purpose in doing so is to illustrate the different forms which colonialism and imperialism old and new can take, so that we can be on our guard in adopting measures to safe-guard our hard-won independence and national sovereignty. The imperialists of today endeavour to achieve their ends not merely by military means, but by economic penetration, cultural assimilation, ideological domination, psychological infiltration, and subversive activities event to the point of inspiring and promoting assassination and civil strife. Very often these methods are adopted in order to influence the foreign policies of small and uncommitted countries in a particular direction. Therefore, we the leaders of resurgent Africa, must be alert and vigilant.

We the delegates of this Conference, in promoting our foreign relations, must endeavour to seek the friendship of all and the enmity of none. We stand for international peace and security in conformity with the United Nations Charter. This will enable us to assert our own African personality and to develop according to our own ways of life, our own customs, traditions and cultures. In asserting our African Personality we shall be free to act in our individual and collective interests at any particular time. We shall be able to exert our influence on the side of peace and to uphold the rights of all people to decide for themselves their own forms of government as well as the right of all peoples, regardless of race, colour or creed to lead their own lives in freedom and without fear. This inalienable right was emphasised and endorsed in the five principles, recognised at the Bandung and other conferences which are now well known, namely, non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence. I am confident that we, the representatives of free independent states of Africa here assembled, will reaffirm our support for these principles.

In the past, the economic pattern of our countries was linked with the metropolitan powers of Europe and we have been accustomed to look to them for the maintenance of our markets and sources of supply. As independent states, it is in our mutual interest to explore trade possibilities between our respective countries while at the same time enlarging our trade with the rest of the world. In this connection we should exchange trade missions among ourselves. While doing all we can by our own efforts to develop our economies, and so strengthen our political independence, we should at the same time welcome economic assistance offered through the organisations of the United Nations, such as the proposed Regional Economic Commission for Africa. We shall also welcome other forms of economic aid from outside the United Nations, provided it does not compromise our independence.

Addressing ourselves to the cultural aspects of our relationships, we must also examine ways and means to broaden and strengthen our association with one another through such means as the exchange of students and the visits of cultural, scientific and technical missions, both governmental and non-governmental, and the establishment of libraries specialising in various aspects of African history and culture which may become centres of research. There are no limits to ways in which we on this African continent can enrich our knowledge of our past civilisations and cultural heritage through our co-operative efforts and the pooling of our scientific and technical resources.

The goals which we have set before us require a world of order and security in which we can live and work in tranquillity towards their realisation. This is why we have a vested interest in world peace. Our foreign policies must therefore be such as to contribute towards the realisation of that fundamental objective. As free and independent nations we must also endeavour to follow the policy of positive non-alignment so as to enable us at any time to adopt measures which will best suit our national interests and promote the cause of peace. It is only by avoiding entanglement in the quarrels of the great powers that we shall be able to assert our African personality on the side of peace in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.

At the present time the great powers are spending astronomical sums of money on piling up stocks of the most destructive weapons that have ever been contrived; weapons which, if employed, will wipe out mankind and leave this earth barren and desolate. If these great powers can be persuaded to divert a small fraction of this precious capital, which they are now using for destructive ends, to finance the economic and social programmes of the under-developed countries of the world, it will not only raise the standard of living in these countries, but will also contribute greatly to the general cause of humanity and the attainment of world peace.

Like hundreds of millions of people all over the world we appeal to all the powers concerned to cease the testing of nuclear weapons. Radioactive winds know no international frontiers and it is these tests – in a period of so called peace – which can do no more than anything else to threaten our very existence. But what do we hear? At the very moment when a Summit Conference is being contemplated it is reputed that plans are being made to use the Sahara as a testing ground for nuclear weapons. We vehemently condemn this proposal and protests against the use of our continent for such purposes. We appeal to the United Nations to call a halt to this threat to our safety.

We must leave no stone unturned in our endeavours to lessen tensions in Africa no less than elsewhere, as every success which we are able to achieve in resolving issues like frontier disputes, tribal quarrels and racial and religious antagonisms, will be a step forward in the bringing about of world peace. To the extent that we are able by our own exertion and example, to maintain peace and friendship within our own states and on our continent, will we be in a position to exert moral pressures elsewhere and help to quench the flames of war which could destroy us all.

Today we are one. If in the past the Sahara divided us, now it unites us. And an injury to one is an injury to all of us. From this Conference must go out a new message: “Hands off Africa! Africa must be free!”

When I talk of freedom and independence for Africa, I mean that the vast African majority should be accepted as forming the basis of government in Africa. This does not imply that non-Africans should not live in Africa and play their full part in developing the continent, or that minority rights should be disregarded. As new African states emerge we look for a development of multi-racial understanding.

It cannot be denied that the process for the total liberation of Africa has begun in earnest, and that there is a strong case for very close association between the independent African states and those that will emerge as independent in future. I hope to see in Africa, not a large number of small and weak countries subject to all the dangers of Balkanisation, but rather the evolution of some sort of African Union. Such a union need not prejudice the local autonomy of individual territories, but it would provide a mechanism which would allow Africa as a whole to co-ordinate its defence, its main lines of economic and foreign policies, and its economic development.