AFRICANRENAISSANCE

What stark images ofAfrica live in your mind?

Founder of the ARCheikh Anta Diop wrote a series of essays as a student from 1946 to 1960, charting the development of Africa. The essays, which are seen as a form of blueprint, are collected in book form as "Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in Culture and Development, 1946-1960".

Thabo Mbeki

The African Renaissance is a vision and mission for transformative change and development that is premised on the understanding that the future of Africa and the peoples of Africa and the diaspora lie in the fundamental processes of renewal, re-invention and rebirth. The required changes need to occur in people’s mindset and world outlook, which in turn require changes in material conditions as well as in the institutions and processes of intellectual, political, economical, and cultural governance.

Thabo Mbeki in 1996

“I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines [...] 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.”

The Third Moment

In June 1997, an advisor to Mbeki, Vusi Maviembela, wrote that the African Renaissance was the "third moment" in post-colonial Africa, following decolonization and the outbreak of democracy across the continent during the early 1990s. Deputy President Mbeki himself melded the various reforms he had discussed to a tone of optimism under the rubric "African Renaissance" in a speech in August 1998[3]

September 1998 Conference

On September 28-29th, 1998, there was a conference on this theme in Johannesburg. This was attended by some 470 participants. A book was published in 1999 with this title. Thabo Mbeki, keynote speaker at the opening plenary session, wrote the book's prologue. The volume's thirty essays are arranged under general topics largely corresponding to those of the conference's breakaway sessions: "culture and education, economic transformation, science and technology, transport and energy, moral renewal and African values, and media and telecommunications."[4]

African Renaissance Institute

On October 11, 1999, the African Renaissance Institute (ARI) was founded at an inaugural meeting in Pretoria.[5] It has its headquarters in Gabarone, Botswana.[6]

 Initial institute focus includes development of African human resources, science and technology, agriculture, nutrition and health, culture, business, peace and good governance.[7] Okumu in his book titled The African Renaissance writes very keenly on the importance of developing science and technology:

Description

Among other things the African Renaissance is a philosophical and political movement to end the violence, elitism, corruption and poverty that seem to plague the African continent, and replace them with a more just and equitable order. Mbeki proposes doing this by, among other things, encouraging education and the reversal of the "brain drain" of African intellectuals. He also urges Africans (led by African intellectuals) to take pride in their heritage, and to take charge of their lives. For Noel Moukala of *Renaissance Africaine, no African Renaissance without African Unity.

Description

For Noel Moukala, Congolese scholar, of *Renaissance Africaine, there can be no African Renaissance without African Unity.

African Renaissance Disciples

Other individuals seen as being the "new generation of African leaders" that would accomplish the goals of the African Renaissance were President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

Critiscism of African Renaissance

Cultural historian Owen Alik Shahadah says that the term is an anachronism and articulates the African reality in European historical terms thus posing African history as a cultural orphan of Europe. However, the term "African Renaissance" remains in frequent use. This is the case especially in South Africa, where the African National Congress has adopted it as part of its ideology and where the phrase is sometimes used in advertising.

Owen Alik Shahadah

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Response

One direct response (a mirror response in a sense) to Mbeki's call on artists and thinkers to take up his utopian vision, was offered by Andre Venter who published I Ching for the 'African Renaissance' in 2006. Before its publication a proof of concept work for the artists' book was exhibited at the Aardklop cultural festival and later at the University of Johannesburg.

African Renaissance – Between hope and despair

Is the African Renaissance at a threshold?

What does the future hold for Africa and ex-President Mbeki’s AR ideal?

The Political Science 144 Assignment should be approached against these questions

Areas of studyState, Business and Civil SocietyAfrican regional and Sub-Regional Institutions –Legal frameworks, Operational Systems, Capacity and ImpactAfrica’s Productive ResourcesAfrica in the Global SystemState Capacity, Legal Systems, Constitutional SovereigntyAfrican Indigenous Knowledge SystemsAfrican Leadership and Intellectual CapitalHuman RightsAfrican Democracy and Sustainable DevelopmentDiplomacy, International Relations and Strategic InterestsEndemic/Pandemic DiseasesPoverty Eradication and Food SecurityWomen, Gender, Power and HealthChildren, Youth and Development

NEPADNew Partnership for Africa’s Development

Founders of NEPAD

Obasandjo & Mbeki

President Wade

Definition

This NEPAD is a pledge by African leaders based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, and at the same time to participate actively in the world economy and body politic.

Africa in today’s world:between poverty and prosperity

The historical impoverishment of a continent

African and the global revolution

Challenges for African Leaders

• Strengthening mechanism for conflict prevention• Promotion and protection of democracy• Restoration and maintenance of macroeconomic

stability• Instituting transparent legal and regulatory

frameworks for financial markets and auditing of private companies and the public sector

• Revitalising and extent the provision of education, technical training and health services

• Promotion of the role of women• Building the capacity of the states in Africa• Promoting the development of infrastructure,

agriculture and its diversification

Appeal to the people of Africa

African peoples must take up the challenge of mobilising in support of the implementation of this initiative by setting up, at all levels, structures for organisation, mobilisation and action.

The leaders of the continent are aware of the fact that the true genius of a people is measured by its capacity for bold and imaginative thinking, and determination in support of their development.

Africans must not relent in implementing this ambitious programme of building sound and resilient economies, and democratic societies.

WHAT ARE THE IMMEDIATE DESIRED OUTCOMES OF NEPAD? o Africa becomes more effective in conflict prevention and the establishment of enduring peace on the continent;o Africa adopts and implements principles of democracy and good political economic and corporate governance, and the protection of human rights becomes further entrenched in every African country;o Africa develops and implements effective poverty eradication programmes and accelerates the pace of achieving set African development goals, particularly human development; o Africa achieves increased levels of domestic savings, as well as investments, both domestic and foreign;

WHAT ARE THE IMMEDIATE DESIRED OUTCOMES OF NEPAD? 

o Increased levels of ODA to the continent are achieved and its effective utilisation maximised;o Africa achieves desired capacity for policy development, coordination and negotiation in the international arena, to ensure its beneficial engagement in the global economy, especially on trade and market access issueso Regional integration is further accelerated and higher levels of sustainable economic growth in Africa is achieved;o Genuine partnerships are established between Africa and the developed countries based on mutual respect and accountability.

Wade on NEPAD

When Senegal and The Gambia decided to build a trans-national road to link the two countries, it’s NEPAD. When Ecowas wants to implement a regional powerplant that will supply all its member countries, it’s NEPAD, but not a compilation of what each country has done in its internal development process. NEPAD is to help us achieve what we cannot at a single country level," Wade continued.

"The redirection of the project has become inevitable, because nobody has yet understood anything from NEPAD and nobody implemented NEPAD," President Wade told the news conference.

Obasanjo and NEPAD

Only 10 years ago, The Economist news magazine reported that Africa was a hopeless continent. Ten years later; ten years after NEPAD, the same journal is screaming “Africa is rising”, Mr. Janneh recalled, praising NEPAD for having played a key role in this reversal.

Assignment on NEPAD

Political Science 144 aims to make significant contribution to developing and harnessing your understanding of Africa’s intellectual capital and heritages globally.

Never underestimate the significance of your assignment.

After you have made sense of all the information at your disposal, know that your assignments represents a small yet, significant contribution to developing an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for NEPAD.

NEPAD – QUA VADIS?

Failure or Success?Record of FailuresRecord of Successes

WEBSITES TO CONSULT

www.unisa.ac.za/iarswww.dfa.gov.zawww.africanrecovery.org

Thank you

Dr R.A van Diemel;Chair Interactive Telematic Education Faculty of Military ScienceEmail: raymond@ma2.sun.ac.zaOr vandiemeljohn@hotmail.com

Twitter Profile: raymondvndiemel