SMART IDEA: Should Mbeki play a leading role on recharging African Renaissance philosophy?
Mbeki led initiatives like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) which is responsible for socio-economic development framework for Africa and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), then you had Africa’s renewal in motion
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: It’s been more than 10 years since former South African President Thabo Mbeki was recalled as President of South Africa.
This move would lead to weakening Mbeki position not only on national affairs but continentally as well.
Since Mbeki became the president of Africa’s most advanced economy in 1999, he immediately took charge of the renewal of the continent in a more appealing way than any other leader had done, at least in the modern era.
It was not long from the time Mbeki ascended to the South African presidency, that the Organization of African Unity (OAU), would convert to become the African Union (AU) in 2002, the whole process was spearheaded by Mbeki.
Mbeki would become the first Chairman of the African Union.
Many remark that during Mbeki’s reign at the AU, coups ceased to exist on the African continent, and Africa enjoyed more democratic, free and fair elections.
Add to the list Mbeki led initiatives like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) which is responsible for socio-economic development framework for Africa; and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), then you had Africa’s renewal in motion.
Even more powerfully, the African Renaissance was firmly in place to produce as Mbeki is fond of exclaiming, ‘Africa’s Rebirth’.
His capacity in planning, organizing, strategy and tactics led to a commodity boom on a scale unprecedented in SA.
Under his reign, South Africa’s economy grew by 5%. At some stage the country’s economic growth had reached the 6% mark.
With the fall of Mbeki from political power could be described as the end of the African Renaissance philosophy.
Although there are still institutions and projects that are meant to carry forward the programme of ‘Africa’s Rebirth’.
The spark of the African Renaissance mission disappeared with the recalling of Mbeki as South Africa’s second democratically elected president.
Much was lacking in the articulation of the philosophy from Mbeki’s office as the president of South Africa, I would argue.
Although Mbeki succeeded in promoting the concept of an African
Renaissance, there’s a lack of understanding as to the nitty gritties of
the philosophy, so that the various sectors that form Africa are
daily implementing the programmes and projects of renewing Africa.
In its essence, the African Renaissance is the concept that the African people shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal.
First articulated by Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop in a series of essays he wrote between 1946 and 1960.
And later collected to produce a book titled Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in Culture and Development, 1946–1960.
Diop had written these series of essays on charting the development of Africa as a student in Paris.
Diop’s ideas were further popularized by Mbeki during his tenure when he was SA’s Deputy President.
Today, the African Renaissance has been pinned in a broader fashion
as a philosophical and political movement to end the violence, elitism,
corruption, and poverty believed to plague the continent, and to
replace them with a more just and equitable order.
Mbeki proposes achieving these goals by primarily encouraging
education, and reversing the “brain drain” of African intellectuals to
foreign lands, hence the African Renaissance is meant to play a key
role in South Africa’s post-apartheid intellectual agenda.
Mbeki further encouraged Africans to take pride in their heritage, and to take charge of their lives, rather than depending on outside factors to be able to re-create our destiny.
However, according to Noel Moukala, the African Renaissance cannot exist without first achieving African Unity.
Professor W.A.J. Okumu compiled a list of perceived African traits that he believes are worthy of preservation and continuation.
These include aspects of interpersonal relations, such as “social
inclusion, hospitality, and generous sharing,” as well as attentive and
perceptive listening. He additionally argues that social
acceptance is not based on wealth, but on the basis of relationships to others.
Okumu’s perspective perfectly joins the African Renaissance with the philosophy of Ubuntu/Botho which is about ‘Humanity Towards Others’.
When giving his famous “I Am an African” speech in Cape Town,
celebrating the adoption of a new Constitution of South Africa in
Parliament on May 8, 1996, Mbeki said: “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.”
This was followed by the April 1997 Mbeki articulation on the elements that comprise the African Renaissance which include social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth, and the establishment of Africa as a significant player in geopolitical affairs.
Vusi Mavimbela, an advisor to Mbeki, two months
later, wrote that the African Renaissance was the “third moment” in
post-colonial Africa, following decolonisation and the spread of
democracy across the
continent in the early 1990s.
Later on Mbeki would codify Mavimbela’s beliefs, and the reforms that would comprise them, in the “African Renaissance Statement” given August 13, 1998.
All this would culminate in the African Renaissance Conference in Johannesburg in 1998, where 470 participants attended.
And in 1999 the book titled African Renaissance was released, with 30
essays arranged under topics corresponding to the conference’s breakout
sessions: “culture and education, economic transformation,
science and technology, transport and energy, moral renewal and African values, and media and telecommunications.
It needs to be mentioned that in the field of technology, this area needs close monitoring as in many instances it has led to replacing people’s jobs with machines.
A strong stance needs to be made in ensuring that only technology that creates more jobs and improves people’s lives will form part of our fabric.
And in Pretoria on October 11, 1999 Mbeki then led the formation of
the African Renaissance Institute (ARI, with its initial focuses on the
development of African human resources, science and technology,
agriculture, nutrition and health, culture, business, peace, and good governance.
In his book The African Renaissance, Okumu wrote that, “The most important and primary role of the African Renaissance Institute now and in the coming years is to gather a critical mass of first-class African scientists and to give them large enough grants on a continuing basis, as well as sufficient infrastructure, to enable them to undertake meaningful problem-solving R&D applied to industrial production that will lead to really important results of economic dimensions.”
Various analysts still credit much of this growth to the increase of employment in the middle sectors, which up until Mbeki’s tenure was difficult to come by.
Commenting generally on Mbeki’s leadership and vision, Khisimusi Sipho wrote: “Going through former president Thabo Mbeki’s 2007 political report at Polokwane, he said nothing but the vicious truth. Our anger, impatience & frustration engulfed many of us that we couldn’t listen to him properly at that time.”
The distinguished African scholar Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba remarked, “Thabo Mbeki should have been afforded more time to lead, because he had a clear direction as to where South Africa and Africa should go, South Africa lost a man in him.”
Mbeki’s vision and his pioneering of an African Renaissance, led to the successful bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In acknowledging Mbeki’s contribution, Business Day newspaper said in
its editorial opinion, “The fact is that it was the former president’s
vision of an African renaissance, with South Africa leading the charge
to
prove to the rest of the world that the continent was not destined to
disappoint in perpetuity, that resulted in us persisting in our bid to
host the tournament.”
Another newspaper, The Citizen commented: “Now we know he was correct in that assessment of South Africa’s ability to stage the greatest show on earth.”
Africa must look at the possibility of allowing Mbeki to contribute to the renewal of the continent’s fortunes.
Furthermore, the African Renaissance is now part of the International Decade for People of African Descent from 2015 to 2024, in which the Door of Return Initiative seeks to bring members of the African diaspora back to the continent.
This initiative is spearheaded by the historical Maroon community of Accompong, Jamaica, in cooperation with Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana.
The associated Renaissance revival is led by Accompong Finance Minister Timothy E. McPherson Jr., and Nigeria’s Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs, Abike Dabiri.
That should make us wonder why Mbeki’s predecessors in South Africa have turned to ignore the African Renaissance philosophy. Including Mbeki’s successors too.
Continentally, figures associated with the African Renaissance are President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe.
What about the others? And what about the men and women on the African streets?
The promotion of African literature and promoting the stories of the
forgotten heroes & heroines of the Liberation Struggle publicly and
in our schools, colleges and universities to decolonize the mind would
be
a good start.
And building Public Participation in communities, governmental, AU structures, programmes and projects will strengthen Africa’s case that we are serious about making the 21th century, an African Century.
The author, Thandisizwe Mgudlwa is a multi-award winning journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of the best-selling children’s book – ‘Kiddies World’.