African Renaissance
Encyclopedia
The African Renaissance is the concept that Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n people and nations overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, economic, etc. renewal. This concept has been popularized by South African President
President of South Africa
The President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africa's Constitution. From 1961 to 1994, the head of state was called the State President....

 Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...

 during his term of office. This was first articulated in the 1990s; it continues to be a key part of the post-apartheid intellectual agenda, albeit sometimes considered to be much watered down, in danger of never getting off the ground.

Origins

The phrase was first used in 1994 in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 following the first democratic election after the end of apartheid, and was clarified with then-Deputy President Mbeki's famous "I am an African
I am an African
"I am an African" is the title of 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 vice president of South Africa under the presidency of Nelson Mandela...

" speech in May 1996 following the adoption of a new constitution:

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.


In April 1997, Mbeki listed the elements that would eventually be seen to comprise the African Renaissance: social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth, and the establishment of Africa as a significant player in geo-political affairs.

In June 1997, an advisor to Mbeki, Vusi Maviembela, wrote that the African Renaissance was the "third moment" in post-colonial Africa
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...

, following decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

 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

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."

African Renaissance Institute

On October 11, 1999, the African Renaissance Institute (ARI) was founded at an inaugural meeting in Pretoria. It has its headquarters in Gabarone, Botswana. Initial institute focus includes development of African human resources, science and technology, agriculture, nutrition and health, culture, business, peace and good governance. Okumu in his book titled The African Renaissance writes very keenly on the importance of developing science and technology:
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.

Description

Among other things the African Renaissance is a philosophical and political movement to end the violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...

, elitism
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...

, corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

  and poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 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
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and the reversal of the "brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...

" of African intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...

s. 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. When Africans overcome their differences to unite, they can then talk about African Renaissance.
.
Okumu in his "The African Renaissance" underlines the point that the term development and such forms as undeveloped, developing and developed require a more precise awareness than is generally accorded them.
For some time Africa has been referred to as a "developing continent", and Britain and America as "developed countries." This is, of course, reducing the term "development" to a purely financial or economic meaning, a form of reductionism that implies that only the material things of life matter. If Britain is a "developed" country, and Africa aspires to be like Britain, does this mean that Africa wishes to mimic Britain on issues like child abuse, divorce rates and treatment of the elderly? The great arrogance of the West is exemplified and explicit in its reference to low-income countries as "less-developed countries." A much more satisfying terminology would be a reference to "low-income" countries and "high-income" countries", omitting a reference to development altogether.


He draws attention to African cultural traits very much worthy of preservation and continuation. These include such aspects of interpersonal relations as "social inclusion, hospitality, and generous sharing." In addition there is attentive and perceptive listening to others. Also, social acceptance is not based on wealth, but on the basis of relationships to others. Individuals together support their extended family, avoiding the extremes of dependency and paternalism.

Other individuals seen as being the "new generation of African leaders" that would accomplish the goals of the African Renaissance were President Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Ugandan politician and statesman. He has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.Museveni was involved in the war that deposed Idi Amin Dada, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985...

 of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

 and President Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame is the sixth and current President of the Republic of Rwanda. He rose to prominence as the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front , whose victory over the incumbent government in July 1994 effectively ended the Rwandan genocide...

 of Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

.

Criticism

Cultural historian Owen Alik Shahadah says that the term is an anachronism
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...

 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
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...

 has adopted it as part of its ideology and where the phrase is sometimes used in advertising.

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. The exhibition curated by David Paton was entitled "Navigating the Bookscape".
The work's position takes "renaissance" to mean: a radical change in "systems of thinking". Venter's comment through the "I Ching for the 'African Renaissance'" was complex (both aimed at material and symbolic practices), but it illustrated (in an empirical sense) how unlikely it was that radical change could occur in our "systems of thinking" in South Africa at the time of its publication. Venter showed — through this "limit-experience
Limit-experience
A limit-experience is a type of action or experience which approaches the edge of living in terms of its intensity and its seeming impossibility. This approach has been lead to the seeking of limit experiences as a sort of mysticism. A limit experience breaks the subject from itself...

" — that to allow chance to play a role in the transformation of "govern-mentality" in South Africa was near impossible. The work posits chance as the only escape from a "system of thinking" which limits our ability to imagine alternatives to how we have come to think of ourselves as Africans. He did so by presenting President Mbeki's office with a leather bound, hand made copy of the artists' book — "I Ching for the 'African Renaissance' - and waits for a response. The soft cover (first edition) is out of print, but a digital version is available through the Internet Archive. An uncommon attribute of the publication is that it makes no claim to an Author. This strategy led both Wits University and the University of Johannesburg libraries to use derivatives of the publisher's name, as the author name, in order to classify the book.

External links

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