African Liberation day, May 25 2013, was marked with
meetings and reflections in all parts of the Pan African world, from Kingston
to Abuja and from Kampala to Accra. It was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the
current heads of state held their celebration. Many international leaders
including the Secretary General of the United Nations participated in the
celebrations in Addis. The two day event at the new AU headquarters in Addis
Ababa had been preceded by a week of meetings by many groups from across Africa
and the dispersed Africa family. The reflections and discussions of these
groups were very different from the communiques that came from the heads of
State at the end of the celebration. While the Heads of state focused on a
standby force and their vision of Africa 2063, the intellectuals, activists,
artists and writers focused on the acceleration of the full unification of the
peoples of Africa and the need for concrete steps towards a government that can
defend Africans at home and abroad. It was from the Global African family where
the activists were reminded of the spirit of 1804 and why the challenges laid
down by the revolution in Haiti were still relevant, especially in relation to
the dignity and citizenship of the African person in the 21st
century. Hilaty Beckles of Barbados reminded the intellectuals who were
gathered in a session called Being Pan African, that the question of
reparations must be at the top of the agenda in order for there to be healing
and peace in the 21st century. The three terms of dignity,
emancipation and unity were repeated and elaborated on by confident presenters
who participated in a forum on “Framing a
21st Century Narrative on Pan Africanism and African Renaissance.”
In this submission, I want to share some of the discussions
and reflections that went on at these side meetings to celebrate 50 years of
African Unity.
Can the African Union
exclude the Rastafari?
The first session that I participated in at these
celebrations was a three day Symposium entitled “Being Pan –African.” Leading
intellectuals from Africa and the African Global Family were brought together
by a number of organizations in the Old Plenary Hall of the African Union on
May 17 - 19. On the morning that the
Symposium was supposed to be open there was a delay. What was the problem? We
were informed later by Giulia Bonacci (one of the organizers) that the
accreditation of representatives from the Rastafari community from Sheshamane
had been the reason for the hold up. Some members of the bureaucracy of the
African Union considered the Rastafari a security risk, especially because many
of the children of the brethren and sistren did not have the relevant
identification documents to enable entry. The matter was resolved before the
start when some of the Rastafari at the gates of the African Union were allowed
entry. This impasse between the grassroots Rastafari community and the leaders
of the African Union was like a metaphor about the freedom of movement of
Africans at home and abroad. Here was a community of Africans that had been repatriated
to Africa but the leaders of the current state felt threatened by those who
were active in the promotion of the ideas of African unity and dignity. It was
therefore, not surprising to hear from the press that many grassroots organs
were excluded from the big celebrations at the AU headquarters.
On Saturday evening
May 18, the Rastafari brethren and sistren gave a full cultural session,
bringing back the lyrics of Bob Marley and those cultural artists who called
for full unity.
The debates and discussions on the roots, achievements and
challenges of Pan-Africanism reflected the diversity of what is called Pan
Africanism today.
Pan Africanism and
Reparations
There were many outstanding presentations, two of which I would
like to highlight. The first was that of
Kofi Anyidoho, the Ghanaian writer and poet. Drawing from the creative genius
of a number of Ghanaian writers (such as
Casely Hayford’s novel Ethiopia
Unbound [1911]; Ama Ata Aidoo’s short story “She Who Would Be King” [1997];
Ayi Kwei Armah’s novels Osiris Rising: A
Novel of Africa Past, Present, and Future [1995] and KMT [2002]; and Kodwo Abaidoo’s trilogy Osimbe [1993] Black Fury
[1995] and Sealed Scroll [2000]),
Anyidoho elaborated on the creative
visions of these writers and how this body of literature has moved us far into the 21st Century. Anyidoho, formerly
the Kwame Nkrumah Professor of Pan Africanism at the University of Legon,
maintained that “these creative visions of a future Africa seen through the
minds of writers are remarkable for one fact, Africa’s resilience and triumph
against domination and exploitation, based on one pre-condition: unity along
lines defined by leading Pan-African thinkers, especially Kwame Nkrumah.
His presentation was a welcome antidote to that of a young
Ethiopian scholar who had castigated the Pan Africanism of Kwame Nkrumah and
sought to establish a false dichotomy between the aspirations of Nkrumah and
Haile Selassie.
The other memorable presentation in this symposium was that
of Hilary Beckles who spoke on the question of Reparations and the healing of
the African peoples. Drawing extensively from his new book Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations
for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide, Beclkles reminded the Pan
African movement of criminal legacies of the mass enslavement of Africans in
the trans-Atlantic slave trade. From the moment of the UN World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) in
Durban 2001, European diplomats and politicians have been active in Africa, claiming
that the enslavement of Africans was perfectly legal and moral. Those Africans
whose ancestors were complicit in this criminal enterprise argued that the
matter was simply a commercial activity.
Beckles reminded the gathering that the same leaders who
were selling their brothers and sisters in Africa yesterday, were the same
leaders who were assisting in the plunder of African resources today. These
leaders have been afraid to engage with the outcomes of the WCAR to bring
clarity on the lasting impacts of the enslavement on the health and well–being
of the current generations. Hemmed in by their alliance with Western Europe and
North America, the majority of African leaders (even within the NGO
communities) have been afraid to embrace the pro-reparations positions that had
been adopted in Durban. It has been the African descendants from South America,
North America and the Caribbean who have been most tenacious in placing the
issues of reparative justice at the center of the Pan African agenda. For the
past 11 years since Durban, the Global African family has been calling for solidarity
from Africans at home so that the entire international community could heal.
The current African leadership remained deaf to the calls
for reparative justice. The same leaders from the AU who were willing and able
to place on the agenda the matter of the relationship between Africans and the
current International Criminal Court could not whisper a word about the need to
build a solid front over reparations.
Pan Africanism and
the spirit of 1804
The mandate of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), when
it was launched on May 25, 1963 was to speed up the full decolonization of
Africa. Throughout the meetings, there was the celebratory mood that Africans
have been able to overcome colonialism and apartheid. At the time of the launch
of the OAU in 1963 there were more than twenty countries that had not yet
achieved independence. Many people may have forgotten the sacrifices that there
made so that African states could achieve formal independence. And yet, even in
this moment of celebration, Pan Africanists had to be reminded that the tasks
of decolonization have not yet been completed. There are still colonial
enclaves in Africa – in Mayotte, Diego Garcia, Cueta, and Western Sahara.
Outside of Africa there are millions who are still in colonial territories in
places such as Aruba, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe,
Martinique, Cayenne, Puerto Rico, Curacao, and Saint Maarten. During the period
of the activism of the OAU Liberation Committee, Africans who were fighting for
independence pressed that the status of these territories be placed before the
decolonization committee of the United Nations.
Hilary Berkles used his presentation to invoke what he
called the spirit of 1804. This was the spirit of the Haitian independence
struggle that conferred citizenship on all Africans. Any enslaved person from
any territory would automatically receive citizenship and be a free person in
Haiti. The current leaders of the African Union were called upon to confer the
same principle of automatic citizenship and freedom to all Africans and at the
same time guarantee freedom of movement for Africans everywhere.
In my own presentation on reconstruction and transformation
in the 21st century, I drew attention to the reality that the
meeting was taking place at a moment of deep crisis within the international
capitalist system and that the planning for a common currency in Africa may be
overtaken by the present currency wars manifest in the competitive
devaluations. Focusing on the positive lessons of the OAU Liberation Committee
at a moment when the majority of the African summit was dominated by generals,
I reminded the Pan Africanists that commitment and clear leadership can make a
difference. Like many, I underlined the reality that there can be no unity
without peace. Readers will recall my earlier proposals for the replenishing of
the African environment by planned interventions to reverse global warming in
Africa. Then I argued that, “The
unification of the water resources of Africa is one of the primary bases for
African unity, with a system of canals linking rivers and lakes in the kind of
infrastructure planning that ensures that all will have water.” (See “Water and
reconstruction in Africa: An agenda for transformation,” Pambazuka, April 2012.)
The Global African
Family
The presence of a large contingent of delegates from Brazil,
Colombia, Uruguay, and Venezuela shifted the tone of the discussions from
preoccupations of the neo-liberal discourses about ‘poverty reduction and
governance.’ It was in the meetings to discuss the future writing of the
volumes of the General History of Africa (GHA) where these sections of the
Global Pan African movement made their voices heard. Firstly, the delegates
from Brazil stressed the need to enrich the teaching and writing of African
history at all levels of the curriculum. Secondly, the Brazilian state
committed itself to supporting UNESCO for the completion of the task of the
writing of the ninth and tenth volumes of the GHA. Imperial states had intended
to hold UNESCO hostage so that the historical rendering of the spread of
Africans during the mass enslavement would be sanitized. The Brazilian
government made a clear financial commitment to the tasks of writing and
circulating this history. The past volumes have now been placed on a CD for
easy circulation internationally.
The use of terms such as “diaspora” in the context of Pan
Africanism was heatedly debated. Many of the brothers and sisters from South
America did not warm to the term “African diaspora.” Drawing attention to the
recent usage of the term diaspora by those who have alienated the lands of the
Palestinian peoples some brothers and sisters preferred the use of the term
Global African family to refer to those Africans who for diverse reasons do not
live at present on the continent of Africa.
The African Union and
the Legacy Project
Mention was made throughout these meetings that the current
leadership of the AU simply view the Global African family in relation to
remittances and the possible skills that could be useful for Africa. It is
estimated that from among the recent Africans who have migrated outside of
Africa in the past thirty years, billions are sent back to Africa. It is
estimated that these family members send back approximately US $60 billion
every year back to Africa. International
aid to Africa amounts to less than US $29 billion. The AU Commission has
established the African Diaspora Legacy Project and has placed this work in the
hands of the World Bank. From the published reports there are five elements to
this legacy project, The Skills Database of African Professionals in the
Diaspora; (ii) The African Diaspora Volunteer Corps; (iii) The African
Institute for Remittances (AIR); (iv) the African Diaspora Investment Fund; (v)
The Development marketplace for African Development as a framework for
promoting entrepreneurship and innovation.
African peoples at home who understand how the contemporary
leaders align with the Breton Woods Institutions to reinforce the exploitation
of the African peoples would not be surprised by these undertakings of the
current AU commission. As one commentator observed in relation to the Africa
Institute for Remittances, “Most of us were surprised
that the African Institute for Remittances had already begun in 2009, had been
launched in June 2010, without one of the most important so-called
stakeholders, the people who remit the funds, being aware of anything about
it.”
One representative of the African Union
of lawyers called for serious work on the question of integrating the peoples
of the sixth region (Global Africa) into the operations of the African Union.
This delegate called for the groups present to implement the work of inviting members
of the Global African family dispersed outside of Africa to participate in
their organizations and not wait on the AU Commission to clarify how the
dispersed Africans would be integrated and represented into the organs of the
African Union.
Africans must speak for themselves
The two concurrent meetings that
brought together some of the most diverse voices were the Colloquium of the
African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the Multi-Stakeholder dialogue on Pan
Africanism and African Renaissance in the 21st Century. Many of the
same speakers such as Amos Sawyer of Liberia and Joaquin Chissano of Mozambique
spoke in these meetings. Chissano reminded the assembled Pan Africanists of the
urgent need for a united government now and challenged the gradualist agenda
that had been adopted when the leaders had convened the Grand Debate on African
unity in Accra, 2007. In this multi
stakeholder meeting there was a consistent call for the basic ideals of Pan
Africanism to be fought for. These included a union government, the free
movement of people across the artificial borders, the establishment of an
African currency, the African monetary system, building the African
infrastructure, the need for investments in the transformation of African
agriculture, the creation of meaningful jobs for the growing youthful
population, defending the health and wellbeing of the people and defending
Africa from external plunderers.
Adebayo Olukoshi spelt out a
vision of a self-reliant Africa that harnessed its own resources to be able to
make a break from external domination. One clear tension in these discussions
on Pan Africanism was the distinction between the neo-liberal sound bites and
the challenge of a language that grasped a real break from western neoliberal
agenda. For example, there were some presenters who spoke of ‘partners’ when
referring to the European Union and the Untied States instead of labelling
these entities as imperial exploiters. The language of Millennium Development Goals
is fast receding as the Uniuted Nations Economic Commission for Africa spelt
out a clear vision of economic integration and investments to accelerate the
economic transformation of the continent.
The neo-liberal ideas of gender
equality were on full display from a large delegation from the Young Women’s
Christian Association (YWCA). There were lofty praises for Sirleaf Johnson of
Liberia and Joyce Banda of Malawi. There were progressive feminists who
reminded all that the question was not for women to be equal to men but for the
transformation of gender relations.
Towards the 8th Pan African Congress
The outcomes and resolutions of
these meetings will have to surface in order for those not present to get a
clearer picture of the deliberations in the meetings in Addis. From the international
press reports on the statements from the summit of the Heads of State, it is
clear that these leaders did not take up the questions of deepening Pan African
education or the numerous calls for breaking out of the confines of the
Berlinist states. In many ways the stakeholders meeting was a gathering of many
who had been inspired by the work and spirit of Tajudeen Abdul Raheem. The
Multi-stakeholder dialogue called for the convening of the 8th Pan
African Congress and there were already lobbying to call for Ghana to host the
8th Pan African Congress.
Throughout the year of 2013 to
2014, the AU Commission has called for celebrations to mark the 50th
anniversary of African Unity. Concerned Africans at home and abroad will have
to find their own way to celebrate. Jibrin Ibrahim in his article “Nigeria: No Country Is Enough,”
communicated the mood at one celebration hosted by the centre for Democracy and
Development in Abuja. These celebrations In
Nigeria to celebrate the life of
Tajudeen and the anniversary of African Liberation Day was a reminder that even
in the midst of the uncertainties unleashed by elements called Boko Haram,
there are Africans who are planning for a new dawn when societies such as
Nigeria will be part of the new road to emancipation.
Patrice
Lumumba was assassinated in 1961. The compromise of the OAU came directly from
the forces who did not want the Congo to be free. Fifty years after the
assassination of Lumumba, the Congo is still mired in destabilization and
plunder. The Congolese artists and
singers have risen above this plunder and for fifty years have given voice to
the spirit of love and peace. From all corners poets, writers, film makers,
story tellers and musicians are planning their own statement on African
Liberation.
One young
Egyptian scholar made a presentation on the Egyptian revolution 1952 and its
links to the 2011 revolutionary processes. This presentation reminded those who
would listen that the liberation of Africa will not be a smooth linear process.
In commemorating the African heroines and heroes over the past fifty years
there was the effort to steel the next generation so that the present
self-confidence will be imbued with new creativity to launch a leap so that
African emancipation and dignity will be a beacon for humanity in the 21st
century.
