African Renaissance

Last updated

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. This concept was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a series of essays between 1946 and 1960, later collected in a book titled Towards the African Renaissance. Diop's ideas were further popularized by former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki during his tenure as Deputy President, where the African Renaissance continues to play a key role in the post-apartheid intellectual agenda.

Contents

Description

The African Renaissance is a philosophical and political movement to end the violence, elitism, corruption, and poverty believed to plague the African continent, and to replace them with a more just and equitable order. For Noel Moukala, however, the African Renaissance cannot exist without first achieving African Unity. [1]

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. [2]

Origins

As a student in Paris between 1946 and 1960, Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop wrote a series of essays charting the development of Africa. Diop's work was later seen as a blueprint for former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki. When giving his famous "I Am an African" speech at Cape Town, celebrating the adoption of a new Constitution of South Africa, 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. [3]

In April 1997, Mbeki articulated the elements that comprise the African Renaissance: social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth, and the establishment of Africa as a significant player in geopolitical affairs.[ citation needed ] Two months later, Vusi Maviembela, an advisor to Mbeki, wrote that the African Renaissance was the "third moment" in post-colonial Africa, following decolonization and the spread of democracy across the continent in the early 1990s.[ citation needed ] Deputy President Mbeki codified his beliefs, and the reforms that would comprise them, in the "African Renaissance Statement" given August 13, 1998. [4]

In March 1998, United States President Bill Clinton visited Botswana, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda in a 12-day tour, which he proclaimed as the "beginning of a new African renaissance" following apartheid, colonialism, and the Cold War. While Clinton praised the continent's increase in democratically elected governments, news outlets countered that many African leaders operated in one-party states. [5] The outbreak of the Eritrean–Ethiopian War in May 1998 and Second Congo War in August 1998 led to further doubts of a peaceful future. [6] By August 2000, the United States' National Intelligence Estimate argued that the movement had failed due to democratic backsliding, corruption, and disease outbreaks. [7]

The weekend of September 28, 1998, some 470 participants attended the African Renaissance Conference in Johannesburg. The next year, a book titled African Renaissance was released, with thirty 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." [8] Mbeki, the keynote speaker at the opening plenary session of the conference, wrote the book's prologue.

Other figures associated with the African Renaissance and the new generation of African leaders are President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.[ citation needed ]

African Renaissance Institute

On October 11, 1999, the African Renaissance Institute (ARI) was founded in Pretoria. [9] Its initial focuses were on the development of African human resources, science and technology, agriculture, nutrition and health, culture, business, peace, and good governance. [10] In his book The African Renaissance, Washington Aggrey Jalang'o 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." [11]

Revival

The African Renaissance has been taken up as 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. The initiative is spearheaded by the historical Maroon community of Accompong, Jamaica, in cooperation with Nigeria, Ghana, and Zimbabwe. [12] [13] The associated Renassiance 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, Hon. Abike Dabiri. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thabo Mbeki</span> President of South Africa from 1999 to 2008

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitutional Court of South Africa</span> Supreme court of South Africa

The Constitutional Court of South Africa is the supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction.

The following lists events that happened during 2003 in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheikh Anta Diop</span> Senegalese politician, historian and scientist (1923–1986)

Cheikh Anta Diop was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Diop's work is considered foundational to the theory of Afrocentricity, though he himself never described himself as an Afrocentrist. The questions he posed about cultural bias in scientific research contributed greatly to the postcolonial turn in the study of African civilizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheikh Anta Diop University</span> Public university in Dakar, Senegal

Cheikh Anta Diop University, also known as the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, is a university in Dakar, Senegal. It is named after the Senegalese physicist, historian and anthropologist Cheikh Anta Diop and has an enrollment of over 60,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African century</span> African belief

African century is the belief or hope that the 21st century will bring peace, prosperity and cultural revival to Africa. Among those who have spoken of an African century are South African politicians Thabo Mbeki and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chevron CEO David J. O'Reilly, US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and celebrity campaigner Bono. It has also inspired a radical policy journal - African Century Journal founded in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Théodore Monod African Art Museum</span> Art museum in Dakar, Senegal

The Théodore Monod African Art Museum in Dakar, Senegal is one of the oldest art museums in West Africa. It was promoted by Léopold Senghor, the country's first President.

The 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held in Polokwane, Limpopo, from 16 to 20 December 2007. At the conference, Jacob Zuma and his supporters were elected to the party's top leadership and National Executive Committee (NEC), dealing a significant defeat to national President Thabo Mbeki, who had sought a third term in the ANC presidency. The conference was a precursor to the general election of 2009, which the ANC was extremely likely to win and which did indeed lead to Zuma's ascension to the presidency of South Africa. Mbeki was prohibited from serving a third term as national President but, if re-elected ANC President, could likely have leveraged that office to select his successor.

The 51st National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) was held at the University of Stellenbosch in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, from 16 to 20 December 2002, during the ANC's 90th anniversary. President Thabo Mbeki was re-elected to the party presidency and, notably, there was no change in other five top leadership positions except for Deputy Secretary General. There was also little competition for other spots on the National Executive Committee (NEC). This ANC conference has thus been called "the quietest in its history."

"I Am an African" was a speech made by Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the African National Congress in Cape Town on 8 May 1996, on the occasion of the passing of the new Constitution of South Africa. At the time Mbeki was the Deputy President of South Africa under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. The speech defined the political mood of the moment in post-Apartheid South Africa and enhanced Mbeki's reputation as a political orator, in which respect he has been likened to Martin Luther King Jr.

The Baháʼí Faith in South Africa began with the holding of Baháʼí meetings in the country in 1911. A small population of Baháʼís remained until 1950 when large numbers of international Baháʼí pioneers settled in South Africa. In 1956, after members of various tribes in South Africa became Baháʼís, a regional Baháʼí Assembly which included South Africa was elected. Later each of the constituent countries successively formed their own independent Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly. Then in 1995, after a prolonged period of growth and oppression during Apartheid and the homelands reuniting with South Africa, the Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa was formed. In 2005 Baháʼís were estimated at 240,100 adherents.

John Glover Jackson was an American Pan-Africanist historian, lecturer, teacher and writer. He promoted ideas of Afrocentrism, atheism, and Jesus Christ in comparative mythology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NEPAD African Western and Southern Networks of Centres of Excellence in Water Sciences</span>

The NEPAD African Western and Southern Networks of Centres of Excellence in Water Sciences are international collaborations between teams of researchers working in different parts of southern and western Africa on the economic development of local water resources. The southern network of nine centres is coordinated from the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa, the western network of five centres from the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal.

This is a list of states headed by the Serer Lamanes. The Lamanes have a historical, economic and religious significance in Serer countries. The following pre-colonial kingdoms and new states (post-independence) were for a long time dominated by the Serer Lamanic class :

In South Africa, HIV/AIDS denialism had a significant impact on public health policy from 1999 to 2008, during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki criticized the scientific consensus that HIV is the cause of AIDS beginning shortly after his election to the presidency. In 2000, he organized a Presidential Advisory Panel regarding HIV/AIDS including several scientists who denied that HIV caused AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy E. McPherson Jr.</span>

Timothy E. McPherson Jr is a descendant of the Nanny Town Maroons and he is the chairman for the Economic Community of States, Nations, Territories and Realms of the African Diaspora Sixth Region (ECO-6) and he is also the founding governor of the Central Solar Reserve Bank of Accompong, which he created during his tenor as the minister of Finance for the Accompong Maroons. He is Chairman of the Door of Return initiative, which is being spearheaded across Africa in cooperation with Ghana and Nigeria as part of the United Nations' (UN) International Decade for People of African Descent. During the 2018 Door of Return celebration in Nigeria, McPherson was officially honoured by the Akran of Badagry Kingdom and conferred with the Royal Chieftaincy title as "Yenwa of Badagry Kingdom".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Door of Return</span> Symbolic monument

The Door of Return is an emblem of African Renaissance and is a pan-African initiative that seeks to launch a new era of cooperation between Africa and its diaspora in the 21st century. The initiative is Chaired by the Hon. Timothy E. McPherson Jr., Minister of Finance for the Accompong Maroons in Jamaica, and is being spearheaded across Africa in cooperation with Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe as part of the United Nations's International Decade for People of African Descent. The name is a reference to the "Door of No Return", a monument commemorating the transatlantic slave trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James G. Spady</span> American writer, historian, and journalist (1944–2020)

James G. Spady was an American Book Award-winning writer, historian, and journalist. Over his fifty-year career, Spady authored and edited numerous books, worked in radio, television, and film, wrote hundreds of newspaper articles for various print media, and received the National Newspaper Publishers Association's Meritorious Award.

Ndioro Ndiaye is a Senegalese doctor and politician. From 1999 to 2009 she was Deputy Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Thabo Mbeki</span>

The presidency of Thabo Mbeki began on 14 June 1999 when he, as leader of the African National Congress, was elected by the National Assembly and sworn into office following that year's national elections. Previously, in December 1997, the ANC's 50th National Conference elected Mbeki unopposed to succeed Nelson Mandela as ANC president. On some accounts, the election was not contested because the top leadership had prepared assiduously for the conference, lobbying and negotiating on Mbeki's behalf in the interest of unity and continuity. Mbeki was re-elected to office in the 2004 general election, but resigned from office after being recalled by the ANC National Executive. His resignation took effect 25 September 2008, and he was replaced as national president by Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri for 14 hours, who was then succeeded by Kgalema Motlanthe, who had been elected ANC deputy president at the Polokwane conference, for the remainder of Mbeki's term.

References

  1. ↑ Okumu 2002, p. 12.
  2. ↑ Okumu 2002, p. 7-8.
  3. ↑ Mbeki, Thabo (August 5, 1996). "Statement on behalf of the African National Congress, on the occasion of the adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of "The Republic of South Africa Constitutional Bill 1996"". Office of the Deputy President. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  4. ↑ Mbeki, Thabo (August 13, 1998). "The African Renaissance Statement of Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki". Office of the Executive Deputy Vice President. Archived from the original on October 20, 2002. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Clinton Begins Tour, Predicts `African Renaissance'". Deseret News . 23 March 1998. Retrieved 2024-08-03.
  6. ↑ Ingham, Kenneth (25 March 2018). "March 23, 1998: US President Clinton Marks Historic Visit to Ghana". Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  7. ↑ Wright, Robin (2000-08-25). "'African Renaissance' Hailed by Clinton Now a Distant Memory". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2024-08-03.
  8. ↑ African renaissance : the new struggle (First ed.). Cape Town: Mafube. 1999. ISBN   0-624-03805-X. OCLC   44841893.
  9. ↑ Okumu 2002, p. 157.
  10. ↑ Okumu 2002, p. 267.
  11. ↑ Okumu 2002, p. 170.
  12. ↑ "AFRICA: 4 Nations sign up On Door of Return with Accompong, Jamaica to drive Tourism with Diaspora". March 31, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  13. ↑ Olufowobi, Kamil. "Why the 'door of return' is open for people of African descent". cnn.com.
  14. ↑ "Nigeria: Lagos to Open 'Door of Return' to Africans During Diaspora Festival in Badagry". June 15, 2017 – via AllAfrica.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.