tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/pan-africanism-24738/articlesPan-Africanism – The Conversation2024-03-05T13:14:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2241912024-03-05T13:14:17Z2024-03-05T13:14:17ZThe African Union is weak because its members want it that way – experts call for action on its powers<p>The <a href="https://au.int/">African Union (AU)</a> comes in for a lot of criticism. Most recently this is from within its own ranks. The AU Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, <a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20240217/speech-he-moussa-faki-mahamat-chairperson-african-union-commission-thirty">set out his frustrations after an AU summit</a> in February 2024. The commission is the executive organ which runs the AU’s daily activities. Mahamat accused member states of getting in the way of the commission doing its work, and failing to match rhetoric with action:</p>
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<p>Over the last three years, 2021, 2022 and 2023, 93% of African Union decisions have not been implemented.</p>
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<p>We think many of the criticisms of the AU are justified. This is based on more than 15 years of researching its <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/advance-article/doi/10.1093/afraf/adad026/7333637">political</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-12451-8">legal</a> development.</p>
<p>The AU was formed <a href="https://au.int/en/overview">in 2002</a> to replace the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/organisation-african-unity-oau">Organisation of African Unity</a> (OAU). Its institutions include the <a href="https://au.int/en/commission">AU Commission</a>, the <a href="https://au.int/en/pap">Pan-African Parliament</a> and the <a href="https://www.african-court.org/wpafc/">African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights</a>, but the real power lies in the hands of its assembly, composed of heads of state and government. </p>
<p>The assembly has refused to transfer meaningful powers to any of the AU organs. For example, the Pan-African Parliament does not exercise any binding legislative powers. And the AU Commission cannot compel member states to comply with AU rules. Most member states <a href="https://theconversation.com/successes-of-african-human-rights-court-undermined-by-resistance-from-states-166454">refuse to comply</a> with the decisions of the human rights court. </p>
<p>The AU differs in this regard from the European Union (EU), where supranational, binding powers are exercised by organs such as the European Commission and the European Parliament. </p>
<p>The AU’s aim of deepening continental integration in Africa is not matched by the powers of its organs. As various AU-mandated reports have shown, the organisation is <a href="https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/RO%20Audit%20of%20the%20AU.pdf">dysfunctional</a> and not <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/pages/34915-file-report-20institutional20reform20of20the20au-2.pdf">fit for purpose</a>. </p>
<p>We have previously argued that the <a href="https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/SAPL/article/view/11284">AU has come a long way in its first 20 years</a>. But we believe its <a href="https://theconversation.com/pan-african-integration-has-made-progress-but-needs-a-change-of-mindset-183541">long-standing weakness</a> lies with member states, not its executive, the AU Commission. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toothless-pan-african-parliament-could-have-meaningful-powers-heres-how-87449">Toothless Pan-African Parliament could have meaningful powers. Here's how</a>
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<p>Fixing the problem requires political willingness by member states to gradually sacrifice their sovereignty for the greater good of continental integration. Also, more innovative and creative ways are needed to see how powers can be transferred to weak AU organs. </p>
<h2>Structural weaknesses</h2>
<p>Member states have little trust in the AU. Since its creation in 2002, there has been more talk about what is needed to make it effective than actually fixing its many problems. The <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/pages/34873-file-constitutiveact_en.pdf">AU Constitutive Act</a> allows the assembly to transfer some of its functions to organs such as Pan-African Parliament and AU Commission. Very little has been done about this, though. </p>
<p>Rather than granting the parliament the ability to make binding laws, the amended <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/7806-treaty-0047_-_protocol_to_the_constitutive_act_of_the_african_union_relating_to_the_pan-african_parliament_e.pdf">PAP Protocol</a> only gave it the powers to make “model laws”. These are no more than recommendations. The same applies to the AU Commission. It can’t compel member states to comply with its decisions. So the AU has no way to exercise supranational powers (binding over its member states). </p>
<p>The AU is only as strong as member states allow it to be. African leaders have a worrying track record of putting narrow domestic gains ahead of transferring higher powers to the AU. </p>
<p>This is unfortunate because African regional integration does not, as is often assumed, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27800540">come at the cost of national sovereignty</a>. </p>
<p>In 2016, African leaders mandated Rwandan president Paul Kagame to provide a report on how to reform the AU. The report was submitted to the AU Assembly <a href="https://au.int/en/documents/20170129/report-proposed-recommendations-institutional-reform-african-union">in 2017</a>. It called for better coordination between AU organs and the regional economic communities, and enhancing the capacity of AU organs to achieve continental integration. After eight years, Kagame is <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/337642/frustrated-kagame-hands-au-reform-over-to-ruto/">frustrated with the lack of results</a>. </p>
<p>Though proponents of ambitious AU reforms are disappointed, the reforms suggested by Kagame have produced some tangible progress. They have prompted a welcome rethink of the institutional structures. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-yet-uhuru-the-african-union-has-had-a-few-successes-but-remains-weak-187705">Not yet uhuru: the African Union has had a few successes but remains weak</a>
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<p>One example is the decision on self-funding, which has revialised the <a href="https://au.int/es/node/43455">AU Peace Fund</a> and the <a href="https://au.int/es/node/43455">UN peacekeeping budget available</a> for requests to support AU peace support operations. However, <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/43077-EX_CL_Dec_1217-1232_XLIII_E.pdf">61% of the overall AU budget</a> is still financed by the AU’s <a href="https://ecdpm.org/application/files/7216/6074/7083/DP240-Financing-the-African-Union-on-mindsets-and-money.pdf">external partners</a> – including the EU, the US, China, India, Turkey and South Korea. Member states still pay <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/43203-doc-2022_AU_Consolidated_Final_Audit_Report_and_financial_statements_E_Signed-merged-1.pdf">on average only 80%-90%</a> of the contributions they owe. </p>
<h2>Poor leadership and weak empowerment</h2>
<p>The AU’s situation is not helped by some aspects of its leadership. Mahamat’s stewardship of a number of key projects and issues has been controversial. Notably, he largely remained silent about <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/14/addis-summit-raises-questions-about-ethiopias-many-conflicts">atrocities</a> committed by Ethiopian forces in Tigray during the two-year Ethiopia war which broke out in November 2020.</p>
<p>More hands-on, principled leadership would have been desirable. At the same time, member states haven’t created an environment in which the chairperson could operate as an effective change-maker. </p>
<p>AU member states and international partners have become <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-audit-finds-nepotism-corruption-and-worse-at-the-african-union-commission-99181">frustrated</a> with the AU Commission’s performance, often attributing the AU’s problems to Mahamat’s personal leadership. </p>
<p>But blaming the chairperson is to ignore the deep-rooted structural deficiencies of the organisation. Without addressing these structural problems, whoever is <a href="https://assodesire.com/2024/02/19/outcomes-of-the-african-union-summit-in-7-points/">elected when Mahamat’s term ends in February 2025</a> will fall into the same inefficiency trap.</p>
<h2>Pathways to supranationalism</h2>
<p>The AU’s exercise of binding powers over its member states will require separating personal from institutional politics, ratifying existing legal instruments, and showcasing instances of good pan-African governance.</p>
<p>AU member states should commit to coming up with a feasible plan that shows how, in the short to medium term, they intend to transfer meaningful powers to the AU Commission and the Pan-African Parliament.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-a-lot-has-been-achieved-despite-many-flaws-175932">The African Union at 20: a lot has been achieved despite many flaws</a>
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<p>For example, member states that are willing and able to move ahead with endowing the parliament with supranational legislative powers should be encouraged. The amended <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/7806-treaty-0047_-_protocol_to_the_constitutive_act_of_the_african_union_relating_to_the_pan-african_parliament_e.pdf">PAP Protocol</a> does not prevent this as it encourages member states to experiment with direct elections of membership to the parliament. </p>
<p>Also, the AU <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36403-treaty-protocol_on_free_movement_of_persons_in_africa_e.pdf">Protocol on Free Movement</a> encourages willing member states and regional economic communities to take action. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-unions-panel-of-the-wise-an-unfulfilled-promise-184488">The African Union's Panel of the Wise: an unfulfilled promise?</a>
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<p>Nothing prevents such member states from getting into an arrangement with the Pan-African Parliament and AU Commission to provide guidelines and even monitor the way they implement these objectives. Along the example of the <a href="https://au.int/en/treaties/agreement-establishing-african-continental-free-trade-area">African Continental Free Trade Area</a>, national ratifications of AU instruments should be public and transparent to speed up action on agreed decisions. </p>
<p>Member states should encourage the inclusion of wider civil society in framing the terms and conditions of moving forward with the AU supranational project. In this way, the sense of popular ownership and legitimacy of the organisation will be guaranteed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ueli Staeger has received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Babatunde Fagbayibo receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. </span></em></p>African leaders have a worrying track record of prioritising narrow domestic gains over transferring supranational, binding powers to the AU.Ueli Staeger, Assistant Professor of International Relations, University of AmsterdamBabatunde Fagbayibo, Professor of International Law, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130072023-09-26T12:12:46Z2023-09-26T12:12:46ZQueer film in Africa is rising – even in countries with the harshest anti-LGBTIQ+ laws<p><em>A recent book, <a href="https://www.nisc.co.za/products/111/books/queer-bodies-in-african-films">Queer Bodies in African Films</a>, studies the growing LGBTIQ+ output from film-makers around the continent, from Morocco to South Africa. In the process it analyses what queerness is and means within the context of African countries. Its author, Gibson Ncube, is a lecturer and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=M5o4S3EAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">scholar</a> who focuses his research on queerness in African cultural production – from literature to films. We asked him four questions.</em></p>
<h2>Is there a growing queer representation in films from African countries?</h2>
<p>Yes, the last decade has seen a proliferation of these films. <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-nollywood-to-new-nollywood-the-story-of-nigerias-runaway-success-47959">Nigeria’s Nollywood</a> has produced a <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/nollywood-lgbtq-movies/">considerable body</a> of films portraying queer lived experiences. Although most of these experiences remain largely formulaic and moralistic, there have been films like the 2020 lesbian love story <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/ife-queer-film-nigeria-intl/index.html">Ife</a> which offer positive images of queerness in Nigeria. </p>
<p>With its long history of queer representation in film, South Africa continues to produce work that highlights the diversity of LGBTIQ+ experiences. Christiaan Olwagen’s coming-of-age war musical <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8595480/">Kanarie</a> appeared in 2018. The following year saw <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10699362/">Moffie</a> by Oliver Hermanus, set in the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> army. And Bonnie Sithebe’s 2022 lesbian drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21437200/">Valley of a Thousand Hills</a> is set in traditional rural South Africa.</p>
<p>Importantly, there have also been features from countries that previously had not produced such themed films. For example, the 2015 <a href="https://www.tchindas.com/">Tchindas</a> is about a queer carnival in Cape Verde. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14154538/">Kapana</a> is a 2020 gay love story from Namibia. A documentary about being gay in conservative Sudan, <a href="https://www.theartofsin.movie/about">The Art of Sin</a>, appeared in 2020. </p>
<p>Also, there have been films from countries with some of the harshest <a href="https://theconversation.com/being-queer-in-africa-the-state-of-lgbtiq-rights-across-the-continent-205306">LGBTIQ+ laws</a>, such as Nigeria (<a href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/movies/pulse-movie-review-hell-or-high-water-starts-a-necessary-conversation-about/9t7nfeg">Hell and High Water</a>), Uganda (<a href="https://pearlofafrica.tv/">The Pearl of Uganda</a>) and Kenya (<a href="https://www.watchiamsamuel.org/">I am Samuel</a>). </p>
<p>But film-makers still have to contend with diverse forms of <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-african-films-like-rafiki-and-inxeba-doesnt-diminish-their-influence-162315">banning and censorship</a>. This does not, of course, diminish the films’ growing influence.</p>
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<p>African queer films often navigate unique social, cultural and political challenges – such as deep rooted homophobia and colonial legacies. They explore the complexities of being both queer and African, and often incorporate traditional cultural elements. These films contribute to a broader global discourse on queer issues while offering distinct perspectives and narratives.</p>
<h2>What is the book’s main argument?</h2>
<p>The main argument is in two parts. Firstly, I argue that the body is central in understanding queerness in African film. I first watched some of the films in their original languages and without subtitles. Although I did not understand languages like Afrikaans, Arabic or Kiswahili, I found that the visuality of queer bodies told stories. The bodies told stories in a language that wasn’t verbal or oral. </p>
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<p>Secondly, I contend that it is important to think of how queer bodies come into being in different parts of the continent. I undertake a pan-African reading of films from various regions to emphasise not only the differences in how they depict queer bodies but also the shared experiences that transcend regional and cultural differences. </p>
<p>One of the main differences between films north and south of the Sahara is the openness of depicting queerness. In north African films, queerness exists in silence and is expressed through suggestive language. In sub-Saharan films, there is a move to more unconcealed representations. But the films capture the cultural and social realities of the societies being portrayed. </p>
<h2>Please tell us about a few of the films you studied</h2>
<p>Some were better known than others. I examined contemporary films like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1922721/">Skoonheid</a> (Beauty) by Oliver Hermanus, the 2011 gay drama set in a conservative Afrikaans community, and the 2013 Moroccan coming-of-age drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3016266/">Salvation Army</a> by <a href="https://theconversation.com/abdellah-ta-a-is-moroccos-first-openly-gay-writer-his-work-reimagines-being-muslim-queer-and-african-205574">Abdellah Taïa</a>. I also looked at the gay 2017 Xhosa initiation school drama <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-the-award-winning-film-inxeba-isnt-a-disrespectful-gay-sex-romp-92462">Inxeba/The Wound</a> by John Trengove and the 2018 Kenyan lesbian romance <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8286894/">Rafiki</a> by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kenyan-film-director-taking-on-the-world-with-positive-stories-of-black-life-149689">Wanuri Kahiu</a>. </p>
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<p>These films have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=skoonheid&btnG=">attracted</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=salvation+army+film&btnG=">considerable</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=inxeba&btnG=">academic</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=rafiki+wanuri+kahiu&oq=rafiki">attention</a>. But I reread them by focusing on the representation of the queer bodies. </p>
<p>For example, Inxeba has previously been <a href="https://issuu.com/849269/docs/signals_edition3_august_2021/s/13170457">analysed</a> for the way in which queerness exists within the traditional Xhosa ceremonies of <em>ulwaluko</em> (circumcision and rites of initiation into manhood). I concentrate rather on the penis and how <em>ulwaluko</em> is a process of conferring symbolic and cultural authority to this organ. I demonstrate that the penis can be a site of rethinking masculinity and also what queerness means in traditional black societies of post-apartheid South Africa. Instead of portraying the penis as virile and domineering, Inxeba considers the penis as vulnerable and feeble. Through this focus, I attempt to understand queer embodiment.</p>
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<p>I also examine little-known films from north Africa like the 2009 lesbian drama <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2021/01/silence-and-skin-depicting-queerness-in-maghrebian-films/">Al Dowaha</a> (Buried Secrets) by Tunisian director Raja Amari and the 2006 Muslim drama exploring masculinity <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/14/worldcinema.drama">Imarat Yácubyan</a> (The Yacoubian Building) by Egyptian film-maker Marwan Hamed. </p>
<p>Through their varied depictions, these films play a significant role in making visible marginalised gender and sexual identities. They provide a crucial visual archive that contributes to our understanding of queer lives in north Africa.</p>
<h2>What did you learn from studying these films?</h2>
<p>Studying these films has yielded a profound understanding of queer experiences within diverse African cultural contexts. They undoubtedly <a href="https://mg.co.za/thoughtleader/opinion/2022-05-25-opinion-how-film-can-shape-our-understanding-of-african-queer-realities/">shape our understanding</a> of queer lives and experiences in a continent where queerphobia remains rampant. </p>
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<p>The films provide vital representation, challenging stereotypes and fostering visibility for marginalised communities. African queer cinema contributes to global discussions on important human rights questions. </p>
<p>The films also showcase cinematic innovation and underscore the role of media in social change. Moreover, studying these films chronicles the journey of queer rights in Africa. It reflects both progress and setbacks, while fostering community building and solidarity among queer individuals and allies.</p>
<p>The book highlights the rich diversity of experiences within African LGBTQ+ communities. It debunks the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/02/homosexuality-unafrican-claim-historical-embarrassment">myth</a> that queerness is unAfrican and a western import and shows that queer individuals have always been part of African societies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gibson Ncube does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite harsh laws, a growing number of African countries are representing queer life in their cinema.Gibson Ncube, Lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120662023-08-31T13:59:13Z2023-08-31T13:59:13ZWinnie and Mandela biography: a masterful tale of South Africa’s troubled, iconic power couple<p>A new book on South African liberation struggle icons Nelson and Winnie Mandela is a masterful biography of the pair. It’s a work of scholarship involving an immense body of primary and secondary research, written with flair and panache but in an easy and compelling style, making it accessible to anyone with an interest in politics, power and South Africa and looks set to become the definitive work on them. </p>
<p>Jonny Steinberg’s splendid 550-page biography, <a href="https://www.jonathanball.co.za/component/virtuemart/winnie-and-nelson">Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage</a>, ends on a note of pathos with a poignant tale from Nelson Mandela’s deathbed.</p>
<p>Four days from death <a href="https://www.britannica.com/question/When-did-Nelson-Mandela-die">in December 2013</a>, Nelson is in an advanced state of dementia and refuses to eat. <a href="https://theelders.org/profile/graca-machel">Graça Machel</a>, his third wife, invites his estranged second wife, Winnie, to be with him, noting that she was “Nelson’s great love”, and it’s Winnie who feeds him. Winnie remarks to a friend: </p>
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<p>First he decided to leave me; now he won’t eat without me. </p>
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<p>In a sense, their story came full circle. The estranged power couple couldn’t quite keep apart all the way to the end, and there is something of the nation’s <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html">id (instinctive inner nature) and superego</a> (moral standards) reflected in their contradictory roles.</p>
<p>Nelson emerges as a man plagued by inner strife and anger, saddened about the fate of his family (including his youngest daughter <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/zindziswa-zindzi-nobutho-mandela">Zindzi</a>’s inability to separate herself from her volatile mother) and his inability to play his role of patriarch, and yet so keenly aware of what is required that he self-consciously puts on his impassive and sometimes avuncular mask in public. Winnie, on the other hand,</p>
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<p>is at once the most commanding figure and a figure of terrible subjection.</p>
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<p>Earlier Steinberg uses the adjective “diabolical” to describe her tormented, mercurial mind, which had its full expression in the murders that emerged from her household –</p>
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<p>the violence of the world without mirrored the violence of the world within.</p>
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<p>The story begins with a tale Steinberg says is “not entirely true” – one Nelson and Winnie spun about their courtship, 57 years earlier: he saw this beautiful young woman at a bus stop, was overwhelmed, and soon swept her off her feet. In reality, Winnie had another lover at the time (who was still on the scene several months into her relationship with Nelson) and, as Nelson reminded her in a 1970 letter from prison, it was she who courted him.</p>
<h2>Ambition and expedience</h2>
<p>The early Nelson is portrayed as a man consumed by insecurity and ambition. He’s discovered by the wise ANC activist <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/sisulu-walter-1912-2003/">Walter Sisulu</a>, who sees immense potential in this tall, regal-looking young man, draws him into his ANC world, and sets him on his way.</p>
<p>Sometimes ambition and expedience get in the way of altruism and principle. He swings towards Africanism after the ANC Youth League’s launch but veers away from it when offered the leadership of the 1952 <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/defiance-campaign-1952">Defiance Campaign</a> against apartheid, led by the ANC. He joins the Communist Party, but when the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pan-africanist-congress-pac">Pan-Africanist Congress</a> takes off, he proposes sidelining whites and dropping the Party.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/mandela-was-a-flawed-icon-but-without-him-south-africa-would-be-a-sadder-place-142826">Mandela was a flawed icon. But without him South Africa would be a sadder place</a>
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<p>He’s portrayed as a voracious womaniser during his first marriage to Evelyn (whom he admitted assaulting) and also while with Winnie. This book gives space to just two of his many lovers – the Women’s Federation leaders <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/lilian-masediba-ngoyi">Lilian Ngoyi</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ruth-mompati">Ruth Mompati</a>.</p>
<p>Steinberg hints that Winnie’s inner turmoil was rooted in the lack of love in her childhood, and her need to please her overbearing father, even if her long periods of detention, imprisonment and banishment, and her resort to heavy drinking, exacerbated what was already lurking. Other accounts have taken the early influences further. Emma Gilbey’s 1993 biography <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1994-05-01/lady-life-and-times-winnie-mandela">The Lady</a> portrays a psychopathic Winnie who, while still a teenager, committed a violent assault on a young woman. </p>
<p>Winnie defied convention by having lovers throughout her marriage. One of those was Brian Somana, who emerged as a security police informer. Winnie and Somana remained lovers after his exposure, prompting Nelson’s resolve to divorce her in 1965. However, Sisulu persuaded him against it.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/winnie-madikizela-mandela-revolutionary-who-kept-the-spirit-of-resistance-alive-94300">Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: revolutionary who kept the spirit of resistance alive</a>
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<p>Winnie seemed to have been a soft touch for security police spies. Not only did several of her young lovers emerge in this light, so did several of her friends and associates. One was her aide Jerry Richardson, who on New Year’s day 1989 cut the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/media/1997/9712/s971203f.htm">throat of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei</a> who’d been accused by Winnie of being a spy. Nelson again made moves to divorce her, and once more pulled back.</p>
<h2>Nelson and Winnie post-1990</h2>
<p>While in prison, he had hid his angst about Winnie, who openly pursued her love affair with the young lawyer Dali Mpofu. It was in his bid to save her after the murder of Seipei that Nelson bared his teeth and emerged in the least favourable light.</p>
<p>First, when Winnie failed to get elected to the executive of her local ANC branch in Soweto, he got his aides to set up a new branch, which duly elected her. Then he used his muscle to get her elected to the regional executive.</p>
<p>Next he prompted the breakup of the <a href="https://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization/210-813-532/">International Defence and Aid Fund</a>, cajoling them into helping fund her trial for kidnapping and assault. As Steinberg puts it:</p>
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<p>He had corrupted the democratic processes of his organisation; he had wounded a fund to which he, personally, owed an enormous debt; he had received covert money from a private corporation.</p>
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<p>The book suggests Nelson approved when a key witness and one of the accused were abducted and taken out of the country until the trial was over. Thus the court accepted Winnie’s false alibi that she was not in Soweto when the assaults on Seipei and others were taking place. In the end, she was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault.</p>
<p>Nelson did all this to save Winnie. And yet finally it all became too much for him. In 1992 he announced <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/nelson-mandela-announces-his-separation-his-wife-winnie-mandela">their marriage was over</a>, prompting a wave of despair from her.</p>
<h2>Four murders</h2>
<p>The book directly implicates Winnie in the murders of two young men, Lolo Sono and Siboniso Tshabalala (both falsely accused of being informers, when the real informers were Winnie’s lover Johannes Mabotha and Jerry Richardson). It also strongly implies that she was behind the murder of her doctor <a href="https://www.newframe.com/abu-baker-asvat-a-forgotten-revolutionary/">Abu Baker Asvat</a> (who’d examined Seipei) but leaves the question open as to whether she’d ordered Seipei’s murder.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nelson-mandelas-legacy-is-taking-a-battering-because-of-the-dismal-state-of-south-africa-209883">Nelson Mandela's legacy is taking a battering because of the dismal state of South Africa</a>
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<p>Inevitably, with a book on two such immensely significant lives, the author will choose to emphasise some things and leave out others. For instance, there is no mention of her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/apr/24/southafrica">conviction in 2003 on 42 counts of fraud</a>.</p>
<p>It draws to a close by looking at the denigration of Nelson and rehabilitation of Winnie, particularly after her death in 2018, her slate wiped clean by young activists frustrated by the slow pace of post-apartheid change. They came to believe that all the allegations against her were the product of state invention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The early Nelson comes across as a man consumed by insecurity and ambition, plagued by inner strife and anger.Gavin Evans, Lecturer, Culture and Media department, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2097182023-07-20T15:59:11Z2023-07-20T15:59:11ZAfrican Union: climate action offers organisation unique chance for revival<p>Much has been written about <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/05/16/six-african-nations-to-send-peace-mission-to-ukraine_6026867_4.html">the decision by certain African countries</a> to send out a peace mission to Ukraine in May. Reporters, however, failed at the time to pick up on one notable point: that the initiative was not taken within the framework of the <a href="https://www.cairn.info/la-guerre-de-l-information-aura-t-elle-lieu--9782100759729-page-252.htm">African Union</a> (AU). This is yet another illustration of the fact that this organisation is struggling to establish itself on the international stage.</p>
<p>The institution, which replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 2002 and brings together the continent’s 55 states, is based on the model of the European Union (EU). Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the AU’s main aims are to <a href="https://au.int/fr/appercu">“promote peace, security and stability on the continent”</a>, and to develop “common policies on trade, defence and external relations”. However, it has been grappling with its <a href="https://www.jeuneafrique.com/454759/politique/financement-union-africaine-budjet-bailleurs-fonds-independance/">financial reliance on international partners</a> for a number of years, which <a href="https://issafrica.org/fr/iss-today/lindependance-financiere-de-lua-est-indispensable-au-renforcement-de-ses-partenariats">has called its independence into question</a>.</p>
<p>The AU is facing another difficulty relating to <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2022/01/04/l-union-africaine-manque-de-dirigeants-a-la-vision-reellement-panafricaine_6108185_3212.html">its leadership</a>: absorbed by internal and national problems, its successive chairpersons <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-guerres-mondiales-et-conflits-contemporains-2003-4-page-113.htm">often neglect pan-Africanist initiatives</a>.</p>
<p>The African Union is tasked with representing all the countries of an immense continent. There would be no position more in keeping with its status than putting the fight against global warming – the greatest challenge of our time – at the heart of its policy. Tackling this issue, which <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-africas-unreported-extreme-weather-in-2022-and-climate-change/">particularly affects the African continent</a>, could enable it to position itself at the <a href="https://aiccra.cgiar.org/news/africas-new-climate-change-strategy-gives-continental-roadmap-and-key-recommendations-towards">centre of the international chessboard</a>.</p>
<h2>The African Union, a secondary player in international relations</h2>
<p>Global players have always <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/rint_0294-3069_2009_num_85_1_1136">taken a great interest in Africa</a>, from the slave trade through colonisation to the present day. Since the end of the Cold War, we have witnessed a <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/03/07/the-new-scramble-for-africa">“new scramble for Africa”</a>, with the world’s powers expressing a growing interest in the continent. The number of Turkish diplomatic representations has more than tripled in just 20 years, and China is now the <a href="https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/china-ranks-ahead-of-america-as-the-largest-investor-in-africa-since-2010/62532rh">leading investor in Africa</a>. Despite all this, Africa’s role on the international stage has not fundamentally changed since the 19th century. In the eyes of the outside world, the African continent remains largely a passive subject, a mere supplier of raw materials.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 85,000 readers look to The Conversation France’s newsletter for expert insights into the world’s most pressing issues</em>. <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=france&region=fr">Sign up now</a>]</p>
<p>Yet in the 21st century, some claim that <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/africa-is-worlds-future-for-touring-us-vice-president-harris-20230324">Africa is the future of the world</a>. Large-scale conferences and summits are being organised by the United States, China, the EU, Russia, Turkey, Japan and many others. But let there be no mistake: this attention is mainly focused on certain African countries that are useful for their strategic resources or their particular geographical location. The AU, as an organisation, often takes a back seat.</p>
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<p>For example, at three recent high-profile conferences – the <a href="http://www.focac.org/eng/">Forum on China-Africa Cooperation</a> in November 2021, the <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2022/02/17-18/">African Union–European Union Summit</a> in February 2022 and the <a href="https://www.state.gov/africasummit/photos/">US–Africa Leaders Summit</a> in December 2022 – the vast majority of African personalities invited represented states, while the AU was represented only by its chairperson and/or the chairperson of its commission.</p>
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<p>In a <a href="https://publicpolicyafrica.org/publications/policy-recommendation-will-the-african-union-become-irrelevant-on-the-international-stage">recent publication</a>, we pointed out that this configuration observed at forums that present themselves as platforms for dialogue between two entities demonstrates unambiguously that, today, the AU’s voice counts for no more than that of an African head of state.</p>
<p>The divisions within the intergovernmental organisation, which is often perceived as a <a href="https://www.hsfk.de/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_publikationen/prif2211.pdf">union of heads of state</a>, reduce the scope of its decisions and prevent the emergence of a common pan-African voice.</p>
<h2>Reforming the African Union and identifying its key objectives</h2>
<p>To mobilise the resources it needs to function and regain the status it should have on the world stage, the AU urgently needs to propose priorities for action that are likely to massively attract external partners as well as member states.</p>
<p>In this respect, two documents dating from several years ago, whose recommendations have been insufficiently implemented, contain some interesting ideas. They are the 2017 <a href="https://archives.au.int/bitstream/handle/123456789/9024/Assembly%20AU%202%20XXIX_F.pdf">“Report on the Implementation of the Decision on the Institutional Reform of the African Union”</a>, drafted under the supervision of Rwandan President Paul Kagamé, then Chairperson of the AU, and aimed at turning around the AU as a whole, its modus operandi and its finances, and the <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/36204-doc-agenda2063_popular_version_fr.pdf">“Agenda 2063: the Africa We Want”</a>, published on 31 January 2015, aiming to make Africa a major and essential player on the international scene, through 20 fundamental objectives. Objective 7 seems the most likely to generate the massive global support that the pan-African institution really needs.</p>
<p>It reads as follows: “Economies and communities are environmentally sustainable and climate resilient”. To achieve this, the Agenda recommends insisting in particular on the sustainable management of natural resources and the conservation of biodiversity, developing sustainable consumption and production patterns, improving the security of water supplies and resilience to climate change, and working on prevention and preparedness in the face of natural disasters.</p>
<p>As global warming is a <a href="https://www.livescience.com/climate-change-humans-extinct.html">threat to the entire human race</a>, and <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ar4-wg2-chapter9-1.pdf">particularly to Africans</a>, this objective is naturally the one on which the AU should focus its efforts.</p>
<h2>Great Green Wall and Congo Basin as continental priorities</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unccd.int/our-work/ggwi">Great Green Wall</a> for the Sahara and Sahel (GGW) has the vision to “sow the seeds of prosperity, peace and stability in the dry zones of Africa” by combating climate change. A key part of the GGW initiative is planting trees and restoring degraded land in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-grande-muraille-verte-enfin-en-passe-daccelerer-198900">dozen Sahelian countries</a>, from Mauritania to Djibouti.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://2100.org/wp-content/uploads/Prix-de-theses-francophones-prospective-2022-synthese-K.-Nsah.pdf">Congo Basin</a>, on the other hand, directly covers six Central African countries and is reputed to be home to around 10% of the world’s biodiversity and to <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/critical-ecosystems-congo-basin-peatlands">tropical rainforests and peatlands</a> that absorb huge quantities of greenhouse gases.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/literature-from-the-congo-basin-offers-ways-to-address-the-climate-crisis-182357">Literature from the Congo Basin offers ways to address the climate crisis</a>
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<p>Both are major areas for climate action for the AU, Africa and the world. We recently suggested <a href="https://lejournaldelafrique.com/en/the-role-of-english-and-local-languages-%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8Bin-communication-and-public-diplomacy-in-the-congo-basin/">stepping up climate communication and public diplomacy</a> on the Congo Basin.</p>
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<p>Bodies such as the <a href="https://www.fondsbleu.africa/">Congo Basin Blue Fund</a>, the <a href="https://pfbc-cbfp.org/home.html">Congo Basin Forest Partnership</a> (CBFP), the <a href="https://www.comifac.org/">Central African Forest Commission</a> (COMIFAC), and the <a href="https://pafc-certification.org/linitiative-pafc-bassin-du-congo/">PAFC Congo Basin Initiative</a> (CBI) are, from this point of view, large-scale environmental initiatives that have already prompted the AU’s main partners to commit themselves wholeheartedly.</p>
<h2>Climate action and the African Union</h2>
<p>In light of the above, we believe that climate action and diplomacy, particularly through the GGW initiative and the Congo Basin, could help the AU to restore its international image.</p>
<p>The GGW covers an area of 8,000 kilometres across the continent, where the fight against armed violence and extreme poverty are daily challenges. By <a href="https://unfccc.int/fr/news/la-grande-muraille-verte-pour-le-sahara-et-le-sahel-restauration-de-la-productivite-et-la-vitalite-de-la-region-du-sahel">restoring the productivity and vitality</a> of the Sahel region, the GGW would make it possible to achieve two thirds of the United Nations’ <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/fr/goals">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDG), although it is difficult to estimate how long it will take for the region’s populations to enjoy the benefits of this vegetation structure.</p>
<p>The fact that the AU has not included the GGW among its <a href="https://au.int/fr/agenda2063/projets-phares">flagship projects</a> could mean that the organisation has not yet grasped the enormous potential that such an initiative can generate in terms of financial and political resources. Through climate action alone, the GGW could considerably reduce <a href="https://www.banquemondiale.org/fr/region/afr/publication/climate-migration-in-africa-how-to-turn-the-tide">climate migration</a> and <a href="https://www.senat.fr/lc/lc209/lc209.html">illegal immigration</a> from Africa, on the one hand, by increasing the number of jobs in the various beneficiary countries and trade between these countries, and, on the other hand, by raising the level of food and human security.</p>
<p>In short, as <a href="https://www.publicpolicyafrica.org/publications/policy-recommendation-will-the-african-union-become-irrelevant-on-the-international-stage">we have demonstrated</a>, if the GGM is successfully implemented, it can gradually alleviate, or even resolve, a number of problems that concern not only Africa but also the West. Should it achieve the desired results, it will serve as an example for the restoration of certain desert areas on other continents.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grande-muraille-verte-au-sahel-les-defis-de-la-prochaine-decennie-169177">Grande muraille verte au Sahel : les défis de la prochaine décennie</a>
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<p>Climate action backed by the Congo Basin could yet add more weight to the AU’s diplomacy. Unfortunately, the Congo Basin is not one of the AU’s flagship projects either. The continental institution has been almost invisible in climate negotiations such as the <a href="https://oneplanetsummit.fr/en/events-16/one-forest-summit-245">One Forest Summit</a> held in Gabon in March 2023 and is nowhere to be found in the <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/leplandelibreville30.03.23_cle4181e5.pdf">Libreville Plan</a> adopted at the summit. The time has come to wake up.</p>
<p>It is essential that the African Union plays a central role in climate diplomacy. To this end, we recommend that it immediately include the GGW and the Congo Basin among its priorities and flagship projects, for example by appointing special ambassadors responsible for these two initiatives. The GGW, on the one hand, and the Congo Basin, on the other, are valuable opportunities for which the AU must be the standard-bearer across the globe.</p>
<p>Better management of climate change and reduced food insecurity could have a significant impact on extreme violence in the Sahel and on illegal immigration, among other things. The industrialised countries will be among the first beneficiaries of successful action on the GGW and the Congo Basin. The AU could also boost regional trade and integration between some of the 11 GGW target countries and the six Congo Basin countries, thereby further strengthening its international position.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The emergence of a pan-African voice in the fight against global warming, a global issue, could enable the African Union to regain ground on the international stage.Kenneth Nsah, Expert in Comparative Literature and Environmental Humanities, Université de LilleEric Tevoedjre, Lecturer International Relations, African Politics, Regional Integration in Africa, and International Economics, Institut catholique de Lille (ICL)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2082512023-07-06T10:38:19Z2023-07-06T10:38:19ZKiswahili: how a standard version of the east African language was formed – and spread across the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534332/original/file-20230627-17-hl1r78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Kiswahili originated in east Africa, spreading around the continent and the globe. It’s been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60333796">adopted</a> as a working language at the African Union and there’s a push for it to become Africa’s lingua franca or common language. Morgan J. Robinson is a <a href="https://www.history.msstate.edu/directory/mjr530">historian</a> of east Africa with a research focus on language who has published a <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/A+Language+for+the+World">book</a> on Kiswahili called A Language for the World. We asked her how today’s accepted standard version of Kiswahili came into being.</em></p>
<h2>Where is Kiswahili spoken?</h2>
<p>Kiswahili is spoken across eastern and central Africa. Mother-tongue speakers are found mainly along the coast, but Kiswahili is spoken as a second or third language by people around the world. According to Unesco, which in 2021 proclaimed 7 July as <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/7-july-2023-edition-world-kiswahili-language-day#:%7E:text=7%20July%3A%20The%202023%20Edition%20of%20the%20World%20Kiswahili%20Language%20Day">World Kiswahili Language Day</a>, it’s <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/kiswahili-language-day">spoken</a> by 200 million people.</p>
<h2>What led to it becoming so prominent?</h2>
<p>Kiswahili’s role as a prominent symbolic and practical language in Africa is the result of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-how-swahili-became-africas-most-spoken-language-177259">multiple factors</a>. These range from political and economic to cultural and historical. Already by the 1800s Kiswahili was being used all along the caravan trade network that crisscrossed east-central Africa. In the centuries before this, the language had been used to formulate legal, philosophical and poetic contributions that influenced the entire Indian Ocean world.</p>
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<p>But one of the arguments of my book is that the creation of a standardised version of the language resulted by the mid-1900s in a version of Kiswahili that was more portable than ever before. A standard language is a uniform written version that is generally recognised as the “official” form. This comes with the creation of dictionaries, grammars and literature that allow this version to travel further. </p>
<p>Another important part of the story of the standardisation of Kiswahili is that it was central to a variety of community-building projects across the course of a century. It was used by formerly enslaved students and missionaries alongside native speakers on Zanzibar and was central as a language of administration in Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Kenya and parts of Uganda during the colonial period. Kiswahili also played a political role in the anti-colonial movements of eastern Africa and among southern African freedom fighters who trained in Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s. It was even embraced by some US civil rights activists. </p>
<p>All these communities used the language at various times to strengthen ties and communicate across barriers that otherwise might have kept people apart. This led not only to an increase in the number of people speaking and writing Kiswahili, but also to its reputation as a potential pan-African and even global connecting language.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-how-swahili-became-africas-most-spoken-language-177259">The story of how Swahili became Africa's most spoken language</a>
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<p>Many, including literary heavyweights <a href="https://udadisi.com/kiswahili-urithi-wetu-afrika/?fbclid=IwAR1g4MY3MvaTMdMuTVner-_Sfo3M5_KDQ-wNTvI2ZiLO4lv40vtp2BMcus0">Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o</a> from Kenya and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/23/books/wole-soyinka-writing-africa-and-politics.html">Wole Soyinka</a> from Nigeria, have advocated for the embracing of Kiswahili as a pan-African language of communication. </p>
<p>But there’s legitimate concern that the expanded use of Kiswahili in official and unofficial realms could endanger the linguistic diversity of east Africa.</p>
<p>It’s a problem for which I don’t have an answer. Perhaps multilingualism is the key. As Ngũgĩ encouraged in a 2021 <a href="https://udadisi.com/kiswahili-urithi-wetu-afrika/?fbclid=IwAR1g4MY3MvaTMdMuTVner-_Sfo3M5_KDQ-wNTvI2ZiLO4lv40vtp2BMcus0">speech</a> in Mombasa: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Therefore let us be proud of our mother tongues; let us be proud of Kiswahili as the national language; and on top of that let us add the knowledge of English or Mandarin or French or Yoruba, etcetera. These will only give strength to our proficiency and communication. But our foundation is made of our mother tongues and the language of the entire nation, that is Kiswahili.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What exactly is standardised Kiswahili?</h2>
<p>Just as there are many “Englishes” spoken around the world, so are there multiple “Kiswahilis”. That’s to say, Kiswahili is a language of multiple dialects – the Kimvita spoken at Mombasa, for instance, or the Kiamu of Lamu – of which Standard Swahili is just one. It is the version that shapes the textbooks and curricula with which Kiswahili is taught around the world, so that most students learning Kiswahili in classrooms are learning Standard Swahili.</p>
<p>Its history is a long one that did not follow a single, straight path. However, broadly speaking, Standard Swahili is based on Kiunguja, the Zanzibari dialect of the language. It’s also important to note that while Standard Swahili is written in the Latin script – the alphabet used to write English, French, Italian etcetera – Kiswahili has a much longer history of being written in the Arabic script, a tradition that lives on in some communities.</p>
<h2>What were the key moments in the standardisation of the language?</h2>
<p>One of my main arguments is that the standardisation of Kiswahili was a long-term and, by necessity, collaborative process. The standard version was neither wholly imposed by the British colonial regime in the 1920s, nor was it a “naturally” developed tool of anti-colonial resistance. Starting in 1864 with the arrival of Anglican missionaries on Zanzibar, through the independence and early post-colonial eras, multiple communities participated in the process. They all used the language to create their own diverse communities.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-kiswahili-science-fiction-award-charts-a-path-for-african-languages-163876">New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages</a>
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<p>One of my favourite examples to describe this process is the figure of Owen Makanyassa. He was enslaved as a young man, but before arriving at its destination the ship carrying him was captured by the British Royal Navy and, in the late 1860s or early 1870s, Makanyassa was placed under the care of a missionary society on Zanzibar. He attended the mission’s school and became an invaluable worker at its printing press, producing some of the translations that would go on to form the basis of Standard Swahili. Though Makanyassa and his fellow students and workers spoke a variety of mother tongues, their language of communication very quickly became Kiswahili, and they all participated in this early stage of its standardisation – though they haven’t always been credited for their contributions. </p>
<p>In my book I zoom in on moments like this, moments in which freedom and unfreedom, oppression and empowerment, official and unofficial knowledge production combined, slowly creating a written version of Swahili that would be exported around the world, creating a truly global language.</p>
<p><em>Download a <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/A+Language+for+the+World">free copy</a> of the book at Ohio University Press</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan J. Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By the 1950s a standard version of the language emerged, today spoken by an estimated 200 million people.Morgan J. Robinson, Assistant Professor, Mississippi State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2069662023-06-11T05:58:48Z2023-06-11T05:58:48ZAnimal Farm has been translated into Shona – why a group of Zimbabwean writers undertook the task<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530850/original/file-20230608-30-g3nm04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Hopps/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since independence in 1980, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Zimbabwe/Rhodesia-and-the-UDI">Zimbabwe</a> has in some ways become like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Animal-Farm">Animal Farm</a>. Like the pigs in the classic 1945 novel by English writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Orwell">George Orwell</a>, the country’s post-liberation leaders have hijacked a revolution that was once rooted in righteous outrage. In Zimbabwe, the revolution was against colonialism and its practices of extraction and exploitation. </p>
<p>The lead characters in Animal Farm have the propensity for evil and the greed for power found in despots throughout history, including former Zimbabwe president <a href="https://theconversation.com/robert-mugabe-as-divisive-in-death-as-he-was-in-life-108103">Robert Mugabe</a>. Zimbabwe’s leaders have also acted for personal gain. They remain in power with no <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/04/zimbabwe-43-years-independence-commemoration-marred-by-rapidly-shrinking-civic-space/">accountability</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-deepening-crisis-time-for-second-government-of-national-unity-122726">suffering</a> of the people they claim to represent. </p>
<p>Animal Farm’s relevance is echoed in celebrated young Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo’s recent novel <a href="https://theconversation.com/noviolet-bulawayos-new-novel-is-an-instant-zimbabwean-classic-185783">Glory</a>. Her satirical take on Zimbabwe’s 2017 coup and the fall of Mugabe is also narrated through animals. And visual artist <a href="https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/admire-kamudzengerere/">Admire Kamudzengerere</a> founded <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjpVCcDZARQ">Animal Farm Artist Residency</a> in Chitungwiza as a space for creative experimentation.</p>
<p>It’s within this context that a group of Zimbabwean writers, led by novelist and lawyer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/13/petina-gappah-zimbabwe-writer-interview">Petina Gappah</a> and poet <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/wait-is-over-for-muchuri/">Tinashe Muchuri</a>, have translated Animal Farm into <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shona">Shona</a>, the country’s most widely spoken language. A dozen writers contributed to the translation of <a href="https://houseofbookszim.com/product/chimurenga-chemhuka/">Chimurenga Chemhuka</a> (Animal Revolution) over five years.</p>
<p>It’s clear to me, as a <a href="https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/cpt_people/mushakavanhu-dr-tinashe/">scholar</a> of Zimbabwean literature, that too few great books are available in the country’s indigenous languages. This matters particularly because there are few bookshops and libraries where young people can access good writing. But Zimbabwe’s writers are taking matters into their own hands. </p>
<h2>The translation project</h2>
<p>Translating Animal Farm into Shona makes perfect sense. Historically, Shona novelists have used animal imagery to conjure up worlds of tradition and custom, and also to examine human foibles. Great Shona writers – such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Solomon-M-Mutswairo">Solomon Mutswairo</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrick-Chakaipa">Patrick Chakaipa</a> and more recently <a href="https://munyori.org/2022/04/interview-with-ignatius-mabasa/">Ignatius Mabasa</a> – have written books that use allegory to respond to a range of crises in Zimbabwe. (Allegory is a literary device that uses hidden meaning to speak to political situations – such as using pigs instead of people in Animal Farm.) </p>
<p>Gappah kickstarted the <a href="https://pentransmissions.com/2015/10/22/on-translating-orwells-animal-farm/">translation project</a> in a private post on Facebook in 2015:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A group of friends and I thought it would be fun to bring the novel to new readers in all the languages spoken in Zimbabwe. This is important to us because Zimbabwe has been isolated so much in recent years, and translation is one way to bring other cultures and peoples closer to your own.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover featuring an illustration of the imprint of a pig's hoof in blood." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530914/original/file-20230608-28-9rmwf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The House of Books</span></span>
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<p>Eight years later, Chimurenga Chemhuka has come to life. It’s a big achievement, considering that publishing has not been performing well in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwes-economy-is-collapsing-why-mnangagwa-doesnt-have-the-answers-104960">dire Zimbabwean economy</a>. Gappah and her friends have ambitions to translate and publish Animal Farm in all indigenous languages taught in Zimbabwe’s schools. </p>
<h2>Chimurenga Chemhuka</h2>
<p>Though Chimurenga Chemhuka is mainly in standard Shona, its characters speak a medley of different Shona dialects – such as chiKaranga, chiZezuru, chiManyika – plus a smattering of contemporary slang. It’s a prismatic translation in one text. As leading UK translation theorist Matthew Reynolds <a href="https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0206/ch6.xhtml">explains</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To translate is to remake, not only in a new language with its different nuances and ways of putting words together, but in a new culture where readers are likely to be attracted by different themes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The use of dialects activates the book in a comical way that also leaves it open to different interpretations and connections. For example, Zimbabwe’s president <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-mnangagwa-usher-in-a-new-democracy-the-view-from-zimbabwe-88023">Emmerson Mnangagwa</a>, who does not have the same rhetorical gifts as his predecessor, has always tried to distinguish himself with his use of chiKaranga, a dominant dialect of Shona. He adopts a popular wailing Pentecostal style that rises and falls, raising laughter and dust among the rented crowds who attend his rallies.</p>
<p>The title, Chimurenga Chemhuka, is poignant and a direct reference to Zimbabwe’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/DC/renov82.10/renov82.10.pdf">liberation war</a>. Chemhuka (animal) Chimurenga (revolution) is not a literal translation of Animal Farm, but here the writers take liberties to connect the book to the country’s larger struggles for independence, commonly known as Chimurenga. </p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>This translation project is a significant event in Shona literature. </p>
<p>It’s done by an eclectic group of writers who are passionate about language and literature. They use Orwell’s book and its satiric commentary as a way to creatively express themselves collectively. If this was a choir, the choristers Gappah and Muchuri do a good job of leading a harmonious ensemble.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/noviolet-bulawayos-new-novel-is-an-instant-zimbabwean-classic-185783">NoViolet Bulawayo’s new novel is an instant Zimbabwean classic</a>
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<p>This is also the first of a series of Shona translations from <a href="https://houseofbookszim.com/">House of Books</a>, a new publishing house in Zimbabwe. The book is being promoted via social media platforms, where it is generating conversation about the need for more Zimbabwean translations of classic literature.</p>
<p>Translation was a major activity in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. It was a way for the newly emergent nation to reintegrate into the pan-African intellectual circuit. As Zimbabwe again reels from political and economic oppression, the translation of Animal Farm reveals to the country that what it’s going through is not new. It has happened before, and it will happen again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tinashe Mushakavanhu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Novelist Petina Gappah’s call for translators on Facebook has resulted in the publication of Chimurenga Chemhuka.Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Junior Research Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2054982023-05-31T13:28:36Z2023-05-31T13:28:36ZWest African countries show how working together over decades builds peace and stops wars breaking out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528872/original/file-20230529-17-fnjtie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From left; Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire Patrick Achi, President of Togo Faure Gnassingbe, President of Benin Patrice Talon, and President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nipah Dennis/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa is often portrayed as a continent ravaged by war, terrorism, poverty and political instability. But over the past five decades few violent conflicts have occurred between states. In Europe, for comparison, there have been more than 25 inter-state conflicts since 1945. </p>
<p>It’s true that Africa has seen <a href="https://projects.voanews.com/african-coups/">214</a> coups, the most of any region; 106 have been successful. Out of <a href="https://projects.voanews.com/african-coups/">54 countries</a> on the African continent, 45 have had at least one coup attempt since 1950. </p>
<p>West Africa, a region of 16 independent states, has <a href="https://projects.voanews.com/african-coups">experienced</a> 53 successful and 40 failed coups since 1950. There are also cross-border security challenges such as terrorism, banditry, piracy and the wide presence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/west-africa-has-a-small-weapons-crisis-why-some-countries-are-better-at-dealing-with-it-than-others-203085">arms</a>. </p>
<p>But, since independence in the late 1950s, the region’s countries have not gone to war with one another – <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/69">except</a> for a minor armed confrontation between Burkina Faso and Mali in 1985.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10246029.2023.2193165">recent paper</a> we explored the possible reasons for this. As scholars studying the political dynamics of west Africa, we arrived at our insights by analysing historical data, diplomatic interactions and scholarly research. </p>
<p>We found evidence that the principles of non-aggression and peaceful settlement of disputes defined the relationships between west African countries. The 15 states under the <a href="https://ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Revised-treaty-1.pdf">umbrella</a> of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) positively identify with the fate of others in the bloc. The regional body was formed in 1975 by west African countries seeking to promote economic development. </p>
<p>We found a strong correlation between decades of regional cooperation and the rarity of conflicts between states in west Africa.</p>
<p>We conclude that systemic cooperation between states in the region has led to a collective identity forming over time. A sense of community has developed. The community has developed conflict management mechanisms. This has prevented members from going into war. </p>
<p>This finding highlights the importance of collaboration and diplomacy in maintaining peace and resolving conflicts. </p>
<h2>Making sense of the ECOWAS peace</h2>
<p>Regional dynamics and historical factors shape conflict, as can be seen in the Horn of Africa. That region has witnessed conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and between Ethiopia and Somalia, for example.</p>
<p>In the west African region, we found that the security arrangements agreed under ECOWAS have helped to foster peace between states. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Revised-treaty-1.pdf">ECOWAS agreement</a> was updated in 1993. It includes principles that were absent in the earlier pact. Among them are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>solidarity and collective self-reliance </p></li>
<li><p>non-aggression between member states </p></li>
<li><p>promotion and strengthening of good neighbourliness to maintain regional peace, stability and security </p></li>
<li><p>peaceful settlement of disputes among member states</p></li>
<li><p>active cooperation between neighbouring countries </p></li>
<li><p>promotion of a peaceful environment as a prerequisite for economic development.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This has led to west African countries choosing peaceful dispute resolution over sovereignty. For example, a <a href="https://foleyhoag.com/news-and-insights/news/2017/september/ghana-wins-maritime-boundary-dispute-against-cote-divoire/">border dispute</a> between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire was settled in 2017 through an international tribunal. This approach has prevented violent conflicts. </p>
<p>A key factor is that member states have mechanisms for settling disputes peacefully. In both <a href="http://www.peacebuildingdata.org/research/liberia/results/civil-war/root-causes-civil-war">Liberia’s</a> and <a href="http://peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/Sierraleone.pdf">Sierra Leone’s</a> wars, which threatened to engulf other countries in the region, ECOWAS used these settlement mechanisms. It deployed military troops to supervise <a href="https://www.accord.org.za/ajcr-issues/peace-agreements-and-the-termination-of-civil-wars/">ceasefires brokered</a> by the then Ghanaian <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-ghanaians-hate-him-some-love-him-the-mixed-legacy-of-jerry-john-rawlings-163310">president, Jerry Rawlings</a>.</p>
<p>Another factor is what in our study we call pan-West Africanism. We describe this as a regional version of pan-Africanism that emphasises unity and collaboration among countries. In practice it has facilitated trade, cultural exchanges and diplomatic collaborations. It has also created a sense of shared identity and solidarity among member countries. </p>
<p>We argue that the idea of pan-West Africanism has promoted regional solidarity and reduced the possibility of violence in inter-state relations. It is not just a philosophy, but a practical approach to regional integration and cooperation. </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Our paper supports the argument that systemic cooperation among states can lead to a collective identity forming over time.</p>
<p>This has happened with the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Their collective identities are based on norms that reflect the history and political cultures of their member states.</p>
<p>The importance of shared identity and peaceful coexistence is often overlooked in explaining complex international relations. But it’s essential in understanding the relations of west African states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abubakar Abubakar Usman is a research fellow with International Islamic University Malaysia Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance (IIiBF) and affiliated with the Asia Middle East Centre for Research and Dialogue (AMEC). </span></em></p>Africa has been relatively peaceful in terms of inter-state violent conflicts.Abubakar Abubakar Usman, Researcher, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2039352023-05-24T05:47:18Z2023-05-24T05:47:18Z60 years of African unity: what’s failed and what’s succeeded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528198/original/file-20230525-27-v5unbk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (C) and Ghana's founder and first President Kwame Nkrumah (L) during the formation of the Organisation of African Unity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">STR/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa Day this year marks 60 years since the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/organisation-african-unity-oau">founding</a> of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The anniversary begs the question: How much of the vision of the OAU’s founding fathers has been realised 60 years on? What would not be there but for the efforts of the organisation and its successor the <a href="https://au.int/">African Union</a>?</p>
<p>There were two competing visions lobbying at the founding. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s president, in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KKxpuxpVfc">Africa must Unite</a> speech, argued the pan-African case for continental federalism, for a Union of African States, with one continental diplomatic corps, one department of defence, and a common market.</p>
<p>He was hugely outvoted by other presidents refusing to give up their sovereignty. So the OAU, formed on 25 May 1963, was instead modelled on the Organisation of American States. It was an inter-governmental organisation whose charter pledged it to not interfere in the internal affairs of its member states – even in the event of massacres. This followed the precedents of the UN <a href="https://www.un.org/en/">United Nations</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arab-League">Arab League</a>, and the <a href="https://usoas.usmission.gov/our-relationship/about-oas/">Organisation of American States</a>, and would soon be followed by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).</p>
<p>The OAU was committed to decolonisation, including the end of apartheid in South Africa and the settler regime in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). It contributed herculean diplomatic lobbying and sanctions to achieve this. Its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41394216">Liberation Committee</a>, based in Dar es Salaam (the Tanzanian commercial capital), donated weapons and funds to the insurgencies in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, and Mozambique.</p>
<p>The OAU was a state-centric realisation of pan-Africanism. It launched a variety of continental NGOs, which were allocated to one or other member state to host. Space allows for only one example: it supported the launch of the <a href="https://panafricanwritersassociation.com/">Pan-African Writers’ Association</a>. Ghana pledged to provide it with premises for headquarters.</p>
<p>One development not anticipated when the OAU was founded in 1963 was the subsequent establishment of regional economic communities. There are over a dozen of these. Out of the <a href="https://au.int/en/recs">eight officially recognised</a> by the AU, the most significant are the <a href="https://ecowas.int/">Economic Community of West African States</a> (ECOWAS), the <a href="https://www.sadc.int/">Southern African Development Community </a>(SADC), and the <a href="https://www.eac.int/">East African Community </a> (EAC). These three are each free trade areas and, on paper at least, the ECOWAS and EAC are custom unions. These each provide stepping-stones towards that continental common market that Nkrumah had lobbied for back in 1963.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-a-lot-has-been-achieved-despite-many-flaws-175932">The African Union at 20: a lot has been achieved despite many flaws</a>
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<p>As a political scientist who has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt9qf58g">researched</a> the OAU and AU, I argue that it has performed far better than almost all of its global counterparts, though it has also experienced several shortcomings.</p>
<h2>The hits</h2>
<p>One success of the AU is its growing prestige. After its founding in 2002, Wikipedia did not consider it merited an entry until 2011. But today 50 non-African states <a href="https://www.usau.usmission.gov/our-relationship/policy-history/">accredit ambassadors to the AU</a>. The diaspora demanded inclusion during South African president <a href="https://au.int/en/cpau">Thabo Mbeki’s leadership</a>, and is now formally recognised as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43526692">“sixth region”</a> of the AU <a href="https://diasporadigitalnews.com/sixth-region-of-africas-official-flag-launched/#:%7E:text=In%202003%2C%20the%20African%20Union,sixth%20region'%20of%20the%20continent.">since 2003</a>. Caribbean nations, members of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Caribbean-Community">CARRICOM</a>, recently started <a href="https://au.int/fr/node/19489">formal links</a> with the AU: these are African-descendant nations, abducted out of Africa during centuries of slave trade.</p>
<p>The AU architecture for peacekeeping and peacemaking has no peer in the Organisation of American States, Arab League, or ASEAN. While most AU organs meet only twice per year, the <a href="https://au.int/en/psc">Peace and Security Council</a> has met twice per month since its founding in 2004.</p>
<p>Dozens of its ad hoc military missions help governments with the suppression of terrorism everywhere from the Sahel to northern Mozambique. Various AU and regional economic community peacekeepers have served in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s numerous civil wars for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Soldiers carry the flags of the African Union and Uganda next to a plane." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522798/original/file-20230425-3274-p3ifr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the first African Union peacekeepers arrive in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in March 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ali Musa/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The AU seeks a role in global governance. It tries to negotiate that Africa speaks with one voice in the halls of international organisations. Since some of the most important economic decisions about Africa are made outside the continent, the urgency of this is self-explanatory. The AU has its own embryonic diplomatic corps, with permanent diplomatic missions <a href="https://au.int/en/commission/permanent-mission-european-union-and-acp-brussels-office">in Brussels</a> (to negotiate with the EU), <a href="https://lejournaldelafrique.com/en/african-union-opens-permanent-mission-in-china/?noamp=mobile">Beijing</a>,<a href="https://au.int/en/office/permanent-delegation-league-arab-states-cairo-office"> Cairo</a> (to negotiate with the Arab League) <a href="https://www.africanunion-un.org/">in New York</a> (at the United Nations), and <a href="https://au.int/en/mission-usa">in Washington</a> (to negotiate with the World Bank and IMF).</p>
<p>Kwame Nkrumah appealed for an African common market back in 1963. The <a href="https://au.int/en/treaties/treaty-establishing-african-economic-community">1991 Treaty of Abuja</a> proposed an elaborate 34-year schedule to achieve this. The first real step towards such economic integration is the <a href="https://au-afcfta.org/">African Continental Free Trade Area</a> - headed by a South African Secretary-General, <a href="https://au-afcfta.org/secretary-general/">Wamkele Mene</a>. Clearly, this will take at least a decade to substantially achieve. But the prize of <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/international-trade-can-help-africa-grow">“defragmenting Africa”</a>, as the World Bank calls it, will be worth the herculean lobbying and negotiating it will take. The <a href="https://au-afcfta.org/">African Continental Free Trade Area</a> is currently negotiating “rules of origin” and dispute-settling mechanisms as its opening steps.</p>
<p>The AU tries to be norms-making. The <a href="https://au.int/en/treaties/treaty-establishing-african-economic-community">1991 Treaty of Abuja</a> must surely be the world’s most ambitious attempt to import lock, stock, and barrel the institutions and norms of the EU into another continent, which was of course only partially successful.</p>
<p>Few AU members have implemented the <a href="https://au.int/en/treaties/african-charter-democracy-elections-and-governance">Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Good Governance</a>. But a majority of countries have one by one signed up to the <a href="https://www.aprm-au.org/page-about/">African Peer Review Mechanism</a> which, like the AU, has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. This is part of the peer pressure towards constitutionalism, and against autocrats.</p>
<h2>The misses</h2>
<p>One failure of the AU is in not preventing serial <a href="https://www.idea.int/blog/new-model-coups-d%C3%A9tat-africa-younger-less-violent-more-popular">coups-de-etat</a>. There have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-west-africa-has-had-so-many-coups-and-how-to-prevent-more-176577">more than 200 coups</a> following the era of independence in the 1960s. The obvious reason is that the continental body never sends a military intervention to suppress the putchists, to capture them and bring them to trial for treason. It limits itself to diplomatic pressures against them, such as suspending their membership.</p>
<p>In 2016 the AU launched a campaign to <a href="http://www.peaceau.org/en/article/au-retreat-to-elaborate-a-roadmap-on-practical-steps-to-silence-the-guns-in-africa-by-2020-concludes-in-lusaka-zambia">“silence the guns by 2020”</a>. Unhappily, it <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-african-union-has-failed-to-silence-the-guns-and-some-solutions-139567">proved powerless to prevent</a> both coups and terrorist insurgencies from continuing, so the slogan was repackaged as <a href="https://issafrica.org/pscreport/psc-insights/staying-on-target-to-silence-the-guns-by-2030">“silence the guns by 2030”</a>. It remains to be seen if wars can be suppressed throughout the African continent by 2030.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-unions-conflict-early-warning-system-is-no-more-what-now-183469">The African Union's conflict early warning system is no more. What now?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another failure is in getting member states to <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/african-union-set-to-sanction-countries-for-non-payment/1314757">pay their annual dues</a>. Clearly, the current penalties of suspension, which only fully come into effect when a state falls two years behind in payments, is not a deterrent. The AU surely needs to follow the universal practice by banks - that if a customer falls more than two months behind in repaying a mortgage bond, full sanctions are implemented.</p>
<p>The AU often dispatches election observers to countries to monitor voting, and hopefully to deter vote-rigging in its various forms. It has been <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/election-observation-in-africa-put-to-the-test">criticised</a> for reluctance to censure incumbent regimes that tilt the playing field in the electoral contest for power.</p>
<h2>Cornerstone</h2>
<p>In conclusion, the AU compares well with its peers in developing countries such as ASEAN, Organisation of American States, and Arab League. The AU accomplishes more than the <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/">Commonwealth</a>, or the <a href="https://www.francophonie.org/francophonie-brief-1763">Francophonie</a>. Only the EU is way ahead – because its budget is three orders of magnitude larger than that of the AU.</p>
<p>The AU has put cornerstones in place towards realising the goals of the founders. The end of coups and civil wars; working towards establishing an African common market; and getting Africa to speak with one voice in global governance are worthy goals to persist in pursuing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is a member of the African National Congress, but writes this article in his professional capacity as a political scientist.</span></em></p>The African Union compares well to other continental unions. It accomplishes more than the Commonwealth or the Francophonie.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049252023-05-10T12:23:48Z2023-05-10T12:23:48ZMedia freedom and democracy: Africans in four countries weigh up thorny questions about state control<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524888/original/file-20230508-213756-p9hzmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Democracy cannot survive without free media. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In July 2022, BBC Africa Eye released a documentary on gang activity in northwestern Nigeria. The programme, <a href="https://web.facebook.com/watch/?v=836558110682248">The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara</a>, examined the raids on villages, abductions and murders that have plagued swaths of the country. Notably, it included <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-fPEHUqhyA">interviews</a> with so-called bandits, who described their violent actions and laid out their grievances.</p>
<p>The Nigerian government responded furiously to the documentary’s airing. The minister of information, Lai Mohamed, called it “<a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/545568-nigerian-govt-threatens-to-sanction-bbc-trust-tv-for-airing-interviews-with-terrorists.html?tztc=1">a naked glorification of terrorism and banditry</a>”. The <a href="https://web.facebook.com/nbcgovng/?_rdc=1&_rdr">National Broadcasting Commission</a>, which regulates broadcasting, said it “<a href="https://dailytrust.com/nbc-fines-multichoice-startimes-others-over-documentary-on-banditry/">undermines national security in Nigeria</a>”. </p>
<p>The commission slapped <a href="https://dailytrust.com/nbc-fines-multichoice-startimes-others-over-documentary-on-banditry/">fines</a> of ₦5 million (about US$11,922) each on MultiChoice Nigeria Limited, NTA-Startimes Limited and TelCom Satellite Limited Trust Television Network for airing the programme. </p>
<p>The documentary, and the Nigerian government’s response to it, sparked a fierce debate over the limits of media freedoms. Some justified the fines, saying the BBC’s reporting was “<a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/545399-the-bbc-in-nigeria-between-reporting-and-propagating-terror-by-kadaria-ahmed.html?tztc=1">becoming a tool for terrorists</a>”. Others condemned the reporting as “<a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/08/06/the-bandit-warlords-of-zamfara-2/">whitewashing</a>” reality to serve the government and as <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-justification-for-fines-imposed-on-nigerias-media-houses-over-bandits-documentary-188839">undercutting the public’s right to learn</a>.</p>
<p>The debate gets to the heart of a question facing all democracies: when, if ever, should the government impose limits on media? </p>
<p>In 2021, I joined a team of researchers from Afrobarometer on a <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/NED-Confronting-Threats-Report-Final-Submission-26june22.pdf">project</a> to understand how citizens think about media freedom. <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/">Afrobarometer</a> is an independent, pan-African research organisation dedicated to the study of public opinion. In over a year, we focused on four countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/restricting-digital-media-is-a-gamble-for-african-leaders-159788">Restricting digital media is a gamble for African leaders</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We found that citizens in these countries cannot be simply characterised as either for or against media freedom. People who supported democracy were more supportive of protecting the media from government interference. But this group swung behind the need for censorship when it came to hate speech and false information.</p>
<h2>Thorny questions</h2>
<p>Thorny questions about media freedoms and democracy face other African countries too. On the one hand, empowering governments to limit media <a href="https://www.unesco.org/reports/world-media-trends/2021/en">might undermine fragile democracies</a> by allowing incumbents to squelch investigative reporting and opposition voices. </p>
<p>On the other hand, free media bring potential problems. These include <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/world/africa/russia-africa-disinformation.html">disinformation</a>, <a href="https://internews.org/story/hate-speech-heats-local-radio-kenya/">hate speech</a> and even calls to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/129/4/1947/1853091">violence</a>.</p>
<p>Our project sought to provide insights into how people from various African countries weigh these potential reasons for and against limiting media freedom. Are citizens more supportive of limits to particular kinds of content than others? And how do characteristics of individuals, such as their support for democracy, shape their attitudes about media?</p>
<p>These questions are important in light of <a href="https://theconversation.com/fresh-vigilance-is-needed-to-protect-media-freedom-across-africa-121030">recent declines in support for media freedom across Africa</a>, even as <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-squeeze-on-african-media-freedom/">attacks on those freedoms by governments increase</a>. For example, in 2022, dozens of journalists were arrested in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/05/east-and-southern-africa-attacks-on-journalists-on-the-rise/">Ethiopia</a>, and more than 120 attacks on media houses and practitioners were documented in the <a href="https://jed-afrique.org/2022/11/01/rdc-situation-securitaire-alarmante-pour-les-journalistes-congolais/">Democratic Republic of Congo</a>. And new laws in countries like <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/tanzania-announces-new-tough-rules-for-foreign-media/a-54528870">Tanzania</a> target foreign and independent media, often in the name of addressing misinformation and divisive messages.</p>
<h2>Limiting freedoms to protect democracy?</h2>
<p>To answer our questions, we conducted interviews with experts on media, using nationally representative phone surveys and focus groups. We also analysed data from <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/survey-resource/merged-round-8-data-34-countries-2022/">nationally representative surveys</a> Afrobarometer conducted in the four counties in 2019 and 2020.</p>
<p>Attitudes about democracy affected how citizens felt about the media. Those who thought positively about democracy and rejected non-democratic alternatives were more likely to agree with the statement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The media should have the right to publish any views and ideas without government control.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Democracy sceptics were more likely to agree with the alternate statement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The government should have the right to prevent the media from publishing things that it disapproves of.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We delved deeper by providing different types of potentially problematic media content and measuring support for government censorship of each one. </p>
<p>Those who supported democracy were more likely to oppose the censorship of messages that a government disapproved of. In other words, supporting democracy again meant supporting media’s rights to share content that might upset those in power.</p>
<p>However, we found very different results when it came to two other kinds of content: hate speech and false information. </p>
<p>In these cases, people who were the most committed to democracy were the most likely to support censorship. Supporting democracy meant supporting restrictions on what the media could say.</p>
<h2>Justifying censorship for democratic ends</h2>
<p>We normally associate censorship with authoritarianism. What then explains why people who were most supportive of democracy were also most supportive of certain kinds of censorship? </p>
<p>We posit that Africans in the countries we studied actually found limiting certain content as necessary for defending democracy. Sixty per cent of our phone survey respondents told us that media spread too much hate speech. Such language can harm the public good by generating violence and disorder. But it can also lead to discrimination and other violations of individual rights central to democracy. </p>
<p>As one focus group participant in Lagos told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The pen is created for writing. But I can also use it to stab somebody. So, if it is misused, it becomes bad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our study participants had similar concerns about false information. Just over 60% called it a problem. As a Ugandan from Rwampara district told us, media nowadays are </p>
<blockquote>
<p>all about the business, so much so that they have been known to report un-researched facts, and in other cases lied outright.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Democracy requires an informed citizenry, which false information undercuts. It is easy to see how many committed democrats might see censorship as a necessary step. </p>
<h2>Complicated paths forward</h2>
<p>Many of our study participants did see the dangers of empowering governments to censor media. Most who supported democracy erred on the side of supporting media’s right to produce content without serious limits. As a Kenyan participant put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we are not careful about this, the steady erosion of media freedoms will continue and will end up in a bad place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is clear to most that democracy cannot survive without free media. The challenge is that, in many citizens’ eyes, democracy cannot survive with it, either. Finding the right balance between freedom and limits remains one of the greatest challenges modern democracies face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy for this research.</span></em></p>Finding the right balance between media freedom and limits remains one of the greatest challenges modern democracies face.Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz, Associate Professor of Political Science, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963452023-02-22T12:54:48Z2023-02-22T12:54:48ZGlobetrotting Black nutritionist Flemmie P. Kittrell revolutionized early childhood education and illuminated ‘hidden hunger’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509502/original/file-20230210-18-axl9fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=238%2C274%2C5663%2C3282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">She traveled far and wide to support children and families around the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:549027">Cornell University</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nutrition is among the most critical issues of our time. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/31/1120004717/the-u-s-diet-is-deadly-here-are-7-ideas-to-get-americans-eating-healthier">Diet-related illnesses</a> are shortening life spans and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-urban-planning-and-housing-policy-helped-create-food-apartheid-in-us-cities-154433">the lack of conveniently located and affordable nutritious food</a> makes it hard for many Americans to enjoy good health.</p>
<p>Physicians are also alarmed by nutritional trends they see among the nation’s most vulnerable people: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/well/family/childhood-obesity-guidelines.html">children</a>. </p>
<p>I think that this situation would frustrate Black nutritionist <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/kittrell-flemmie-pansy-1904-1980/">Flemmie Pansy Kittrell</a> if she were alive today. Throughout a trailblazing career that spanned half a century, she worked to enhance food security and to improve both diets and children’s health – under the umbrella of home economics. </p>
<p>While you might view home economics as merely a set of practical skills concerning cooking and budgeting, <a href="https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/masterlabel.html">in the mid-20th century it applied</a> scientific concepts to improve home management, strengthen parenting skills and enhance childhood development.</p>
<p>Kittrell went further, by making the case for healthy and strong families a tool for diplomacy. </p>
<p>While researching Black women’s global activism for rights and freedom, I became aware of Kittrell’s work on behalf of the U.S. State Department, women’s organizations and church groups. I was struck by her <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">pragmatic approach to foreign relations</a>, which emphasized women, children and the home as the keys to good living and national and global peace and security.</p>
<p>I was also stunned by the Black nutritionist’s commitment to <a href="https://ww3.aauw.org/2016/02/24/flemmie/">shattering traditional assumptions about home economics</a> and improving the health of low-income families around the globe, especially for people of color. </p>
<h2>Humble roots</h2>
<p>Kittrell, the eighth of nine children born to a sharecropping family, grew up in Henderson, North Carolina. She began working as a nursemaid and cook when <a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">she was only 11 years old</a>. </p>
<p>In 1919, Kittrell enrolled at Hampton Institute, a small historically Black Virginia college that later became Hampton University. </p>
<p>A professor encouraged her to major in home economics. She initially rejected the suggestion, claiming the home was “<a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">just so ordinary</a>.” Kittrell reconsidered once she learned about <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/metro/ellen-h-swallow-richards-pioneer-sanitary-engineering-science/">Ellen H. Swallow Richards</a>, the first woman to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the nation’s earliest female professional chemists.</p>
<p>Kittrell realized that the field was about <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-bringing-back-home-economics-the-answer-to-our-modern-woes-161632">more than cooking and sewing</a>. Furthermore, women who majored in the subject could then <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/did-home-economics-empower-women">pursue sciences</a> that were closed to them because of their gender.</p>
<p>With a growing belief that the home and family were the basis of society, Kittrell chose to major in home economics rather than political science or economics.</p>
<h2>Nutrition and Black families</h2>
<p>After her 1928 graduation, Kittrell briefly taught at a high school before becoming the director of home economics and dean of women at <a href="https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/bennett-colleges-home-economics-institute-materials-now-online/">Bennett College</a>, a historically Black college in Greensboro, North Carolina. During a 12-year tenure there, she created a nursery center that trained parents and provided child care.</p>
<p>The center also served as a laboratory for experimenting with different teaching techniques. </p>
<p>Kittrell drew on this research when she became the <a href="https://www.human.cornell.edu/flemmie-kittrell-visiting-scholar-college-human-ecology">first Black woman to earn a doctorate at Cornell University</a>. In her 1936 doctoral dissertation, she argued that the health of Black families could be improved by focusing on infant feeding practices and parental education. She was the first Black woman to get a doctorate in nutrition at any college or university.</p>
<p>In 1940 she returned to Hampton. During World War II, Kittrell and her students taught local families how to ration and substitute food. The home economics department also joined female students in hosting evening activities, including dances for <a href="https://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2018/03/hampton-institute-and-navy-in-second.html">Black military trainees and their families</a>. </p>
<p>Four years later, Kittrell became the head of Howard University’s home economics department. She remained on that faculty for 28 years. </p>
<p>Taking advantage of Howard’s Washington, D.C., location, Kittrell persuaded national leaders that <a href="https://ww3.aauw.org/2016/02/24/flemmie/">home economics could help transform society</a> at home and around the world. She spent so much time working and traveling for the U.S. government that one biographer called her “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/958934382">a good will ambassador with a cookbook</a>.”</p>
<h2>‘Hidden hunger’ at home and abroad</h2>
<p>In 1947, the State Department sent Kittrell to Liberia to conduct a nutrition study. Her efforts supported an American commitment to strengthen diplomatic and military with countries around the world.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/reprints/230/">her follow-up report</a>, Kittrell explained that while food shortages and hunger were not significant issues, more than 90% of Liberians suffered from vitamin deficiencies, resulting in “hidden hunger.” Though she did not invent the term, she was among the first to draw widespread attention to the issue at home and abroad.</p>
<p>Arguing that what happens in one place often occurs in others, Kittrell implored the U.S. to examine diet issues at home.</p>
<p>In 1949, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/5545597277">she published a study</a> comparing the diet and food choices of Black and white Americans. She showed that the illnesses that many Black Americans experienced were tied to racial discrimination in housing, employment and medical services rather than poor decision-making. <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/oc/np/HistoryofHumanNutritionResearch/HistoryofHumanNutritionResearch.pdf">In later years</a>, academic, professional and activist organizations similarly applied this intersectional lens to nutrition campaigns.</p>
<h2>Nutrition and democracy</h2>
<p>American foreign policy leaders found <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/us-and-ghana-1957-1966-2.html">Kittrell’s pragmatic and balanced approach</a> indispensable in forging alliances during the Cold War. </p>
<p>In 1950, Kittrell persuaded the State Department’s Fulbright program to send her to India, which had recently won its independence from the U.K. She returned there in 1953 under <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/InternationalAid_Background.pdf">a government program that provided technical expertise</a> to newly independent nations as a form of diplomacy. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, Kittrell traveled across Africa to improve relations with African states that had criticized the U.S. for boasting of its freedoms while <a href="https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Keeping-the-Faith/Postwar-Foreign-Policy-Civil-Rights/">denying basic civil rights to many of its citizens</a>. </p>
<p>In September 1958, the nutritionist traveled to Ghana, the <a href="https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/ghanaians-campaign-independence-british-rule-1949-1951">first West African country to gain independence</a> from a colonizing power. She met with Ghanaian political leaders and members of women’s organizations, delivering lectures on home economics and the value of higher education for women. </p>
<p>Ghanaians asked Kittrell about racial incidents, including the 1957 Little Rock crisis, in which a white mob tried to stop nine Black students from <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration">integrating a public high school</a>. Kittrell cast this incident, which violated the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board 1954 Supreme Court ruling</a> that rendered segregation in public schools unconstitutional, as a Southern dilemma rather than a national one.</p>
<p>She also optimistically emphasized Black Americans’ progress since emancipation and <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/us-and-ghana-1957-1966-2.html">contended that the U.S. Constitution would prevail</a> in ensuring equality.</p>
<h2>An appetite for justice</h2>
<p>Though Kittrell’s answers sidestepped larger issues of discrimination at home, she claimed to reject U.S. boosterism in her thinking about cross-cultural interactions, family and society.</p>
<p>She argued that newly independent nations had much to teach Americans. Even more, Kittrell claimed to see herself not as a representative of the U.S. but as “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">a citizen of the world</a>.” </p>
<p>A closer look at Kittrell’s activities reveals that she maintained a strong appetite for justice. Even as a dedicated bureaucratic infighter, Kittrell was willing to move beyond these bounds.</p>
<p>In 1967, for example, she protested apartheid in South Africa, the system of segregation that oppressed that country’s nonwhite communities and privileged a white minority. Incensed by American inaction, <a href="https://projects.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/210-808-3403/ACOA12-6-67Summaryopt.pdf">Kittrell became one of five Americans to stage a fly-in</a> – an impromptu trip in which she and her colleagues sought to enter the country without visas to dramatize their protest. </p>
<p><a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">In a 1977 interview</a> with the Black Women’s Oral History Interviews Project of the Harvard University Radcliffe Institute, Kittrell hinted that she was engaged in other acts of protest, slyly suggesting that she “was very fortunate not to have gotten into more trouble.” </p>
<p>Three years later in an interview for a faculty profile with Howard University, Kittrell boldly claimed that she had not been “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">afraid to speak against evil as I see it</a>.”</p>
<p>These statements suggest that she was more of a strategist and activist than many people at the time believed. </p>
<h2>Head Start</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx539W3E41w">Kittrell kept traveling extensively</a> in the 1960s. </p>
<p>She took trips to Russia and several African countries on behalf of the United Nations and professional, women’s and religious organizations, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the United Methodist Church. </p>
<p>Kittrell also increased her focus on the needs of U.S. children. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/10/how-the-geography-of-u-s-poverty-has-shifted-since-1960/">In the 1960s</a>, 1 in 5 U.S. children lived in poverty. With the conviction that good living began at a young age, <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/42072097">Kittrell expanded Howard University’s nursery program</a> with a deeper focus on parents, whom she contended were the key to stronger families.</p>
<p>That center became an early model for the <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/about-us/article/head-start-history">Head Start program</a>, which emerged as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.</p>
<p>Refusing to “<a href="https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=finaid_manu">sit still enough to hold hands</a>,” Kittrell never married or had children.</p>
<p>Instead, as <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu/117/">her archival papers</a> at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center show, she dedicated herself to assisting others by cultivating strong families through nutritious habits and healthy children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandy Thomas Wells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kittrell’s legacy shows that home economics was always about more than cooking and sewing. It’s also a reminder that issues that affect families are simultaneously local and global.Brandy Thomas Wells, Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997912023-02-16T08:26:04Z2023-02-16T08:26:04ZPan-Africanism remains a dream: four key issues the African Union must tackle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510080/original/file-20230214-22-qyk3hy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Delegates at an African Union summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-general-view-shows-delegates-in-malabo-on-may-27-2022-news-photo/1240955390?phrase=african%20union&adppopup=true">AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://au.int/en/overview">African Union</a> (AU) – made up of 55 member countries – has made significant progress with integrating the countries of the continent and giving them a voice in global politics. </p>
<p>Over the past two decades it has developed meaningful policies on <a href="https://au.int/documents/1504">peace and security</a>, and trade, like the <a href="https://au-afcfta.org/">African Continental Free Trade Area</a>. The <a href="https://au.int/en/commission">African Union Commission</a> helps set the agenda and represent African interests in global forums alongside important partners like the United Nations and the European Union. </p>
<p>But the AU still has a long way to go to achieve the political, economic and cultural goals set out in <a href="https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview">Agenda 2063</a>, adopted in 2013. </p>
<p>I was an adviser to the union for over a decade and I am now the editor of the <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/61135">Yearbook of the African Union</a>. In my view, progress in implementing the pan-African agenda has stalled. This is partially due to the challenging dynamics in how member states, the AU’s governing organs and external partners relate and pursue their interests. </p>
<p>The annual <a href="https://au.int/en/assembly">Assembly of African Heads of State and Government</a> offers an opportunity to consider these issues and decide how to resolve them. In 2023, the summit will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from <a href="https://au.int/en/summit/36">18 to 19 February</a>.</p>
<h2>Four factors stalling progress</h2>
<p>I believe that four issues have stalled progress in the pan-African agenda. These issues relate to collective decision making, independent financing, division of labour and the adoption of common policies that would nurture strategic partnerships. </p>
<p><strong>1. Member states have implemented too few collective decisions</strong> </p>
<p>The AU has adopted several <a href="https://au.int/en/treaties">important legal documents</a> which member states are supposed to adopt for themselves, too. These documents – signed during heads of state and government meetings – must be ratified and then deposited with the union. </p>
<p>This usually happens very slowly and only very patchily. The reasons vary. According to one of the few <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/1687380/Maluwa.pdf">academic inquiries</a> into the subject, these reasons include a lack of political will, administrative lethargy and deficits in technical capacity among member states.</p>
<p>The AU has no power to force member states to carry out common decisions. It can only monitor compliance on three legal instruments, including the 2007 <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/36384-treaty-african-charter-on-democracy-and-governance.pdf">African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance</a>).</p>
<p>To see progress in policy implementation, member states will have to think seriously about how to arrive at binding, transparent and enforceable mechanisms. </p>
<p>One way to do this would be through introducing a clear and limited window of time for ratifying legal documents. The union could also make it mandatory to report on the implementation of all decisions. </p>
<p><strong>2. Independent finances have not been established</strong></p>
<p>The AU’s ambitious plans depend heavily on external finance. Almost two-thirds of the union’s annual budget comes from donors, dubbed international partners. </p>
<p>Contributions from member states account for the remaining third. However, these tend to come late, or in some cases only in part. About <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/pages/31953-file-faq.pdf">30 member states</a> default partially or completely each year. In 2007, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa volunteered to make higher contributions. They account for 45% of the funds raised by African governments. Morocco, which rejoined the AU in 2017 after a 33-year absence, has replaced Libya as a major donor. </p>
<p>The AU’s <a href="https://au.int/en/aureforms/financing">financial reform</a> process began in 2015 to make the organisation more self-reliant. Members committed to paying a <a href="https://au.int/sites/default/files/pages/31953-file-faq.pdf">0.2% levy</a> on various goods imported from outside the continent.</p>
<p>This money is expected to support 100% of the union’s operational budget (which includes maintenance and salaries), 75% of the programme budget (which includes implementation of policies) and 25% of the budget for union-led peace operations.</p>
<p>The union still must decide how the 100/75/25 target will be met by 2025. In the <a href="http://apanews.net/en/news/aus-2023-budget-at-6548m">current budget</a> (US$655 million for the 2023 financial year), the financial shortfall stands at US$201 million, a 31% deficit.</p>
<p><strong>3. The division of labour between the African Union and regional economic communities remains unclear</strong></p>
<p>Relations between the African Union and the eight officially recognised <a href="https://au.int/en/recs">regional economic communities</a> are based on two principles. These are subsidiarity (where, whenever possible, the regional level takes the lead) and comparative advantage (where the institution that’s better equipped to deal with a situation leads).</p>
<p>A <a href="https://static.pmg.org.za/Kagame_Report.pdf">2017 report</a> on the operations of the AU noted that the division of labour between the union and regional communities was “unclear”. This caused a duplication of roles and a lack of clear boundaries.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.tralac.org/blog/article/15548-how-relevant-is-the-protocol-on-relations-between-the-recs-and-au">new protocol</a> on the relationship between the AU and regional economic blocs was adopted in 2020. But its details are yet to be finalised.</p>
<p><strong>4. The instruments of a common global policy are either underused or underdeveloped</strong></p>
<p>The AU is working to increase its bargaining power in global politics by developing common policies and nurturing strategic partnerships. </p>
<p>But because of member states’ insistence on sovereignty, <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ar-30-2.pdf">few common policies</a> have been developed. The most prominent one relates to the <a href="https://oau-aec-au-documents.uwazi.io/en/document/jc4bndxh7vpc23nevov18aor?page=2">reform of the UN Security Council</a> to give Africa more power. </p>
<p>In terms of strategic partnerships, the AU currently is <a href="https://au.int/en/partnerships">focusing its activities</a> on three multilateral (Arab League, European Union and United Nations) and five bilateral (China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey) partnerships. However, the frequency of meetings, scope of activities and meaning of the word “strategic” vary widely. </p>
<h2>Opportunity for change</h2>
<p>This year’s <a href="https://au.int/en/assembly">Assembly of African Heads of State and Government</a> is expected to attend to these urgent items:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>implementing and domesticating union decisions</p></li>
<li><p>the division of labour between the AU and regional economic communities</p></li>
<li><p>how best to use the organisation to shape Africa’s place in the world. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The financial dependency issue will be tackled by the African Union <a href="https://au.int/en/executivecouncil">Executive Council</a> in July.</p>
<p>In my view, there is likely to be progress on some of these issues and stalling on others. What’s at stake is Africa’s place in the world and averting harm to the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199791/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ulf Engel receives research funding from the German Research Council, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the EU Commission. </span></em></p>Member states need to arrive at binding, transparent and enforceable priorities to see progress.Ulf Engel, Professor, Institute of African Studies, University of LeipzigLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1992322023-02-07T13:30:39Z2023-02-07T13:30:39ZW.E.B. Du Bois, Black History Month and the importance of African American studies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508198/original/file-20230205-15-zit4rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C124%2C4094%2C3225&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scholar-activist W.E.B. DuBois in 1946.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/william-e-b-dubois-sociologist-scholar-and-cofounder-of-the-news-photo/159788642">Underwood Archives/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The opening days of Black History Month 2023 have coincided with controversy about the teaching and broader meaning of African American studies. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153434464/college-boards-revised-ap-african-american-studies-course-draws-new-criticism">On Feb. 1, 2023</a>, the College Board released a revised curriculum for its newly developed Advanced Placement African American studies course.</p>
<p>Critics have accused the College Board of caving to political pressure stemming from conservative backlash and the decision of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/1150259944/florida-rejects-ap-class-african-american-studies">ban the course</a> from public high schools in Florida because of what he characterized as its radical content and inclusion of topics such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-critical-race-theory.html">critical race theory</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/879041052/william-darity-jr-discusses-reparations-racial-equality-in-his-new-book">reparations</a> and the <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a> movement. </p>
<p>On Feb. 11, 1951, an article by the 82-year-old Black scholar-activist W.E.B. Du Bois titled “<a href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b210-i014">Negro History Week</a>” appeared in the short-lived New York newspaper The Daily Compass. </p>
<p>As one of the founders of the NAACP in 1909 and the editor of its powerful magazine <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-crisis">The Crisis</a>, Du Bois is considered by historians and intellectuals from many academic disciplines as America’s <a href="https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/815-turning-high-fashion-into-politics-henry-louis-gates-jr-on-web-du-bois-and-the-new-negro-movement-of-1900">preeminent thinker on race</a>. His thoughts and opinions still carry weight throughout the world. </p>
<p>Du Bois’ words in that 1951 article are especially prescient today, offering a reminder about the importance of Black History Month and what is at stake in current conversations about African American studies. </p>
<p>Du Bois began his Daily Compass commentary by praising <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fugitive_Pedagogy/dnUZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=carter+g+woodson&printsec=frontcover">Carter G. Woodson</a>, founder of the <a href="https://asalh.org/">Association for the Study of Negro Life and History</a>, who established Negro History Week in 1926. The week would eventually become Black History Month.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="An elderly black man dressed in a dark business suit poses for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508201/original/file-20230205-23-27sr65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black historian Carter G. Woodson in 1946.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2016/02/lcm-trending-african-american-history-month/carterwoodson/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Du Bois described the annual commemoration as Woodson’s “crowning achievement.” </p>
<p>Woodson was <a href="https://www.nps.gov/cawo/learn/carter-g-woodson-biography.htm">the second African American</a> to earn a doctorate in history from Harvard University. <a href="https://guides.library.harvard.edu/hua/dubois">Du Bois was the first</a>.</p>
<p>Du Bois and Woodson did not always see eye to eye. However, as <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=7f443ffde35747ba69faca210faff07145fab78c">I explore</a> in my new book, “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374293154/the-wounded-world">The Wounded World: W.E.B. Du Bois and the First World War</a>,” the two pioneering scholars always respected each other.</p>
<h2>Reckoning with history and reclaiming the past</h2>
<p>Du Bois’ connection to and appreciation of Negro History Week grew during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/w-e-b-du-bois-and-black-history-month/">During this time</a>, whether in public speeches or published articles, he never missed an opportunity to acknowledge the importance of Negro History Week. </p>
<p>In the Feb. 11, 1951, article, Du Bois reflected that his own contributions to Negro History Week “lay in my long effort as a historian and sociologist to make America and Negroes themselves aware of the significant facts of Negro history.” </p>
<p>Summarizing his work from his first book, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Suppression_of_the_African_Slave_tra/04mJJlND1ccC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade</a>,” published in 1896, through his magnum opus “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Black_Reconstruction_in_America_1860_188/Nt5mglDCNHEC?hl=en">Black Reconstruction in America</a>,” published in 1935, Du Bois told readers of the Daily Compass piece that much of his career was spent trying “to correct the distortion of history in regard to Negro enfranchisement.”</p>
<p>By doing so, the nation would hopefully become, Du Bois wrote further, “conscious that this part of our citizenry were normal human beings who had served the nation credibly and were still being deprived of their credit by ignorant and prejudiced historians.”</p>
<p>In addition to championing Negro History Week, Du Bois applauded other Black scholars, like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Franklin-Frazier">E. Franklin Frazier</a>, <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2015/02/11/black-history-month-charles-s-johnson-scholar-race-relations/23256961/">Charles Johnson</a> and <a href="https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collections/shirley-graham-du-bois">Shirley Graham</a>, who were “steadily attacking” the omissions and distortions of Black people in school textbooks. </p>
<p>Du Bois went on to chronicle the achievements of African Americans in science, religion, art, literature and the military, making clear that Black people had a history to be proud of.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of black men, women and children are marching on a street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508199/original/file-20230205-504-ix6lu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">W.E.B. Du Bois, third from right in the second row, joins other marchers in New York protesting against racism on July 28, 1917.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prominent-african-americans-residents-of-the-city-paraded-news-photo/530843082?phrase=web%20du%20bois&adppopup=true">George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Du Bois, however, questioned what deeper meaning these achievements held to the issues facing Black people in the present.</p>
<p>“What now does Negro History Week stand for?” he asked in the 1951 article. “Shall American Negroes continue to learn to be ‘proud’ of themselves, or is there a higher broader aim for their research and study?”</p>
<p>“In other words,” he asserted, “as it becomes more universally known what Negroes contributed to America in the past, more must logically be said and taught concerning the future.”</p>
<p>The time had come, Du Bois believed, for African Americans to stop striving to be merely “the equal of white Americans.”</p>
<p>Black people needed to cease emulating the worst traits of America – flamboyance, individualism, greed and financial success at any cost – and support <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/web-du-bois">labor unions</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3041154">Pan-Africanism</a> and <a href="https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/web-dubois">anti-colonial struggle</a>. </p>
<p>He especially encouraged the systematic study of the imperial and economic roots of racism: “Here is a field for Negro History Week.”</p>
<h2>Black history and Black struggle</h2>
<p>Looking ahead, Du Bois declared that if Negro History Week remained “true to the ideals of Carter Woodson” and followed “the logical development of the Negro Race in America,” it would not confine itself to the study of the past nor “boasting and vainglory over what we have accomplished.” </p>
<p>“It will not mistake wealth as the measure of America, nor big-business and noise as World Domination,” Du Bois wrote in his article.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Under a large headline that reads The Shame of America, a newspaper advertisement lists a number of lynchings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337712/original/file-20200526-106815-f764c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 1922, the NAACP ran a series of full-page ads in The New York Times calling attention to lynchings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6786">New York Times, Nov. 23, 1922/American Social History Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, Du Bois believed Negro History Week would “concentrate on study of the present,” “not be afraid of radical literature” and, above all else, advocate for peace and voice “eternal opposition against war between the white and colored peoples of the earth.” </p>
<p>Were he alive today, Du Bois would certainly have much to say about current debates around the teaching of African American history and the larger significance of African American studies. <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/05/specials/dubois-obit.html">Du Bois died</a> on Aug. 27, 1963, in Accra, Ghana. </p>
<p>But he left behind his clairvoyant words that remind us of the connections between African American studies and movements for Black liberation, along with how the teaching of African American history has always challenged racist and exclusionary narratives of the nation’s past. </p>
<p>Du Bois also reminds us that Black History Month is rooted in a legacy of activism and resistance, one that continues in the present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199232/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chad Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the 20th century’s preeminent scholar-activist on race, W.E.B. Du Bois would not be surprised by modern-day attempts at whitewashing American history. He saw them in 1930s and 1940s.Chad Williams, Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984302023-02-01T12:36:54Z2023-02-01T12:36:54ZSouth Africa and Russia: President Cyril Ramaphosa’s foreign policy explained<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507115/original/file-20230130-6879-11w5zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>January was a busy diplomatic month for South Africa. The country <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/russias-lavrov-visits-ally-south-africa-amid-western-rivalry-2023-01-23/">hosted</a> Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US treasury secretary <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-treasury-secretary-yellen-meet-president-ramaphosa-south-africa-trip-2023-01-24/">Janet Yellen</a>. Josep Borrell, vice-president of the European Commission, was also <a href="https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/media-advisory-high-representative-josep-borrell-travels-south-africa-and-botswana_en">in town</a>.</p>
<p>The biggest talking point, though, has been Lavrov’s visit, which met with criticism in the west. Similarly, the South African-Russian-Chinese joint maritime exercise, <a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/sea/sea-sea/sandf-on-ex-mosi/">Operation Mosi</a>, scheduled for February off the South African Indian Ocean coast. Critics have slammed South Africa’s hosting of the war games in the light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-orders-military-operations-ukraine-demands-kyiv-forces-surrender-2022-02-24/">in February 2022</a>. </p>
<p>South Africa has been reticent to criticise Russia openly for invading Ukraine. The country <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-countries-showed-disunity-in-un-votes-on-russia-south-africas-role-was-pivotal-180799">abstained during each vote</a> criticising Russia at the United Nations. Some have read this as tacit support of Russia.</p>
<p>The visits and South Africa’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have put the spotlight on the country’s foreign policy.</p>
<p>I follow, study and have published extensively on South Africa’s foreign policy. In a recent publication, <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/south-african-foreign-policy-review-volume-4">Ramaphosa and a New Dawn for South African Foreign Policy</a>, my co-editors and I point out that South Africa’s voting pattern in these instances should be read in the context of its <a href="https://pmg.org.za/briefing/28596/">declared foreign policy</a> under the stewardship of President Cyril Ramaphosa. </p>
<p>Like his predecessors, Ramaphosa’s policy encompasses at least five principles:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>pan-Africanism </p></li>
<li><p>South-South solidarity </p></li>
<li><p>non-alignment </p></li>
<li><p>independence </p></li>
<li><p>progressive internationalism. The governing ANC <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/anc-npc-discussion-document-on-foreign-policy">defines</a> this as</p></li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>an approach to global relations anchored in the pursuit of global solidarity, social justice, common development and human security, etc. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Evolution of South Africa’s foreign policy</h2>
<p>In the era of Nelson Mandela, the first president of democratic South Africa, the country, once a pariah state, returned to the international community. Under him, the country saw a significant increase in its <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC88112">bilateral and multilateral relations</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/history-may-explain-south-africas-refusal-to-condemn-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-178657">History may explain South Africa's refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine</a>
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<p>It enjoyed global goodwill and Mandela was recognised for his <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-russian-visit-says-about-south-africas-commitment-to-human-rights-in-the-world-188993">outspoken views</a> on international human rights abuses. His involvement in conflict resolution efforts in, for example, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/07/22/mandela-indonesia-and-liberation-timor-leste.html">Timor Leste</a> (East Timor) and Africa also received <a href="https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/page/building-legacy-nelson-mandela">international acclaim</a>. The UN declared 18 July <a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/">Nelson Mandela International Day</a>. </p>
<p>Mandela’s tenure was followed by the aspirational era of President Thabo Mbeki’s <a href="https://journals.co.za/journal/aa.afren">African renaissance</a>. Mbeki’s foreign policy aspired to reposition Africa as a global force as well as to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330614094_Mbeki_on_African_Renaissance_a_vehicle_for_Africa_development">rekindle</a> pan-Africanism and African unity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man wearing a suit and tie shakes hands with a woman wearing a dress." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507113/original/file-20230130-14-p18rp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, (left), with South African foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, in Pretoria on 23 January 23.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His successor <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26976626#metadata_info_tab_contents">Jacob Zuma’s era</a> could be described as indigenisation of South Africa’s foreign policy, driven by the values of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">ubuntu</a> (humanness). In giving effect to ubuntu – equality, peace and cooperation – as a foreign policy principle, South Africa gravitated towards the global south, rather than just Africa. Yet the continent remained a focus of South Africa’s foreign policy.</p>
<h2>Ramaphosa’s foreign policy</h2>
<p>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/south-african-foreign-policy-review-volume-4">foreign policy</a> under President Cyril Ramaphosa has shifted to a strong emphasis on economic diplomacy. This is joined by a commitment to <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/National-Policy-Conference-2017-International-Relations.pdf">“progressive internationalism”</a>.</p>
<p>Progressive internationalism formed the basis for South Africa’s vocal position on UN reform, global equity and ending the dominance of the global north. The global north could view this as challenging to its hegemonic power and dominance in the UN. </p>
<p>This has challenged South Africa’s declared foreign policy principles. It maintains strong economic and political relations with the global north. But it also maintains strong relations with the global south (including Cuba, Venezuela and Russia). For this, it has been <a href="https://gga.org/south-africas-foreign-policy-decisions-ambiguous-or-misunderstood/#:%7E:text=South%20Africa%20has%20been%20criticised,means%20deployment%20is%20more%20rapid">criticised</a> by the west.</p>
<p>South Africa’s quest for global status in line with its declared foreign policy principles continues under Ramaphosa. It has adopted several roles to achieve this: balancer, spoiler and good international citizenship. </p>
<p>As a balancer, it has attempted to rationalise its relations with both the north and south in accordance with the principles of non-alignment and independence. As a spoiler, it has failed to condemn, for example, China for its poor human rights record, claiming it is an internal Chinese matter. This could be read as an expression of its south-south solidarity with China. Its role as a good international citizen has made it an approachable international actor. It has promoted the rule of international law and upholding international norms. This speaks to its progressive internationalism principle.</p>
<h2>At home and abroad</h2>
<p>The Ramaphosa era set off in 2018 with less emphasis on foreign policy. But by the time the COVID pandemic broke out <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30211-7/fulltext">in December 2019</a>, his foreign policy really came to the fore as he led both the South African and African pandemic responses.</p>
<p>South Africa has been attempting to capitalise on the geostrategic changes in the balance of forces on the world stage. Blatant realpolitik has returned. During the past year, for example, the country has conducted joint multilateral military exercises with several states, most notably with France (<a href="https://www.defenceweb.co.za/featured/ex-oxide-2022-will-be-west-coast-based/">Operation Oxide</a>), a permanent member of the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>South Africa’s soft diplomacy has <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-09-22-jerusalemadancechallenge-south-africas-display-of-soft-power-amid-covid-19/">made some inroads</a> at UN agencies and through its cultural diplomacy. But this has not necessarily resulted in material gains – such as more leadership in multilateral organisations.</p>
<p>Moreover, its gravitation towards strong non-western military powers such as Russia, China and India has met with western disappointment. Its foreign policy position of solidarity, independence, non-alignment and <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/remarks-president-cyril-ramaphosa-south-african-heads-mission-conference-7-apr-2022-0000">progressive internationalism</a> has not translated into material foreign policy benefits either, such as increased foreign direct investment as envisaged by Ramaphosa’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/remarks-president-cyril-ramaphosa-south-african-heads-mission-conference-7-apr-2022-0000">economic diplomacy</a>.</p>
<p>Trade with states such as China, Turkey, Russia and India has <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/06/20/cyril-ramaphosa-brics-partnership-has-great-value-for-south-africa">increased</a>. But it is not enough as the country requires massive investment to update infrastructure and start new development projects in line with Ramaphosa’s vision of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-new-dawn-should-be-built-on-evidence-based-policy-118129">“new dawn” </a> for South Africa.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and a woman smile for the camera while sitting. Miniature South African and America flags are on the table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507110/original/file-20230130-14-90njg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South African finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, meets his American counterpart, Janet Yellen, in Pretoria on 26 January.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The post-pandemic international political economy has also adversely affected the country. This has been amplified by the <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bloomberg/news/2022-08-05-donor-fatigue-could-mean-starvation-for-900000-in-west-africa/">economic impact of the Ukraine crisis </a>. Massive Western financial commitments are <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/12/10/council-adopts-18-billion-assistance-to-ukraine/#:%7E:text=The%20Council%20reached%20agreement%20on,its%20possible%20adoption%20next%20week">directed towards Ukraine</a>. This leaves South Africa in a vulnerable economic position as it <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/DT.ODA.ODAT.CD?locations=ZA">needs foreign development assistance</a>.</p>
<h2>Looking forward</h2>
<p>As our South African Foreign Policy Review volume 4 has shown, Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/south-african-foreign-policy-review-volume-4">has been deferred</a>. This as his party and government jump from crisis to crisis. This kind of instability often seeps into the diplomatic landscape. Investors are aware of the investment risks posed by <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">state capture</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-power-crisis-five-essential-reads-187111">power</a> crises.</p>
<p>Globally, the age of soft power has somewhat waned since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. South Africa needs to be proactive – not only reactive – to emerging international geostrategic conditions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russia-in-africa-can-it-offer-an-alternative-to-the-us-and-china-117764">Russia in Africa: can it offer an alternative to the US and China?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Besides its current leadership of the <a href="https://infobrics.org/">BRICS bloc</a> (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), the country needs to be bolder. It should, for example, campaign for a fourth term <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13533312.2022.2144250?journalCode=finp20">on the UN Security Council</a>, and for leadership in multilateral organisations. In these, it can actively achieve its foreign policy objectives in support of the country’s national interests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo-Ansie van Wyk has taught at the Diplomatic Academy of the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation. </span></em></p>South Africa’s foreign policy under Ramaphosa emphasises economic diplomacy and ‘progressive internationalism’, which promotes global equity and ending the dominance of the global north.Jo-Ansie van Wyk, Professor in International Politics, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925202023-01-24T13:05:54Z2023-01-24T13:05:54ZGhana’s Nkrumahist parties keep splitting - a threat to their strength in the 2024 election<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506301/original/file-20230125-16-ace5r6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kwame Nkrumah's political legacy is struggling to stay afloat in Ghana.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Political parties are not always completely united, as most classical political scientists argue. Dissenting opinions and the scramble for party apparatus tend to trigger internal schisms and factions. If these aren’t managed well, parties can split. A notable example is the recent emergence of splinter parties from the <a href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/publication/new-political-parties-and-the-reconfiguration-of-turkeys-political-landscape">Justice and Development Party</a> in Turkey.</p>
<p>In Ghana, all three of the country’s main political traditions have experienced internal conflicts and sometimes party splits. The <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-Danquah-Dombo-Busia-Tradition-179601">Danquah-Busia-Dombo</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-small-political-parties-have-found-a-way-to-stay-afloat-124810">Nkrumahist</a> and <a href="https://asq.africa.ufl.edu/tag/provisional-national-defense-council-pndc/">Provisional National Defence Council/Rawlings traditions</a> differ in terms of ideology. The Provisional National Defence Council/Rawlings tradition subscribes to social democracy while the Danquah-Busiasts hold property-owning democratic ideals. The Nkrumahist group is known for socialist beliefs grounded in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44484206#metadata_info_tab_contents">Nkrumahism</a> – the philosophy of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. This tradition focuses on self-reliance and pan-Africanism, and abhors neocolonialism. </p>
<p>The broad traditions have endured since the 1940s, but the parties within them are susceptible to conflicts. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10220461.2022.2127870">research</a> explored the possible reasons for factions and schisms in the Nkrumahist parties. I focused on the <a href="https://asq.africa.ufl.edu/tag/provisional-national-defense-council-pndc/">Convention People’s Party</a> and the <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/republic/pnc.php">People’s National Convention</a> and interviewed present and past party technocrats, academics and media practitioners. I also reviewed the literature on intra-party conflict, factionalism and fragmentation in Ghana.</p>
<p>The breaking up of parties affects their electoral fortunes. Political party fragmentation often culminates in elite disarray and cynicism among voters.</p>
<h2>Party schisms in Ghana</h2>
<p>The first account of intra-party squabbles and splintering in Ghana occurred in 1949. This was when Nkrumah and some members of the United Gold Coast Convention youth wing <a href="https://www.cegastacademy.com/2020/11/18/6-reasons-why-nkrumah-broke-away-from-the-ugcc/">rebelled</a> to form the Convention Peoples Party. It marked the birth of the Nkrumahist tradition in Ghana. </p>
<p>The tradition has had the most splinter parties in Ghana over the years. The People’s National Convention, National Independence Party, Peoples’ Heritage Party and National Convention Party emerged in 1992. The Progressive People’s Party was formed in 2012 and the All People’s Congress in 2016. </p>
<p>The Danquah-Busia tradition has also experienced some splits. The most devastating one <a href="https://d-nb.info/1201276179/34">occurred ahead of the 1979 elections</a>. The tradition, which had just recovered from a coup in 1972, divided into two feuding groups and ultimately two parties emerged: the Popular Front Party and the United National Convention. </p>
<p>Disagreements within the Provisional National Defence Council/Rawlings-inspired National Democratic Congress resulted in splinter parties like the National Reform Party in 1992, Democratic Freedom Party in 2006 and National Democratic Party in 2012.</p>
<p>Despite the divisive tendencies within the National Democratic Party and the New Patriotic Party, they have managed the problems in order to sustain their dominance of Ghanaian politics. However, the Convention Peoples Party and the People’s National Convention have failed to manage theirs.</p>
<h2>Diagnosis of the problem</h2>
<p>I found three major factors that help explain the instability within the Nkrumahist tradition. </p>
<p>First, there is evidence of a personality cult, especially among the “old guard”. These are individuals who have been described as gatekeepers and have personalised the party apparatus. <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/671143/why-i-resigned-from-cpp-dr-abu-sakara.html">Foster Abu Sakara</a>, the 2012 presidential candidate of Convention Peoples Party, cited this as a reason for his resignation from the party in 2016. </p>
<p>Second, political opportunism and patronage by some leading party members worsens the schisms. For instance, political personalities like Edward Nasigiri Mahama and Bernard Mornah of the People’s National Convention have benefited through <a href="https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/ghana-news-appointment-of-ambassador-at-large-killing-pnc-mornah.html">political appointments</a> from two major parties in Ghana. <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/200601180216.html">Kwabena Duffour </a>and <a href="https://ghanaguardian.com/freddie-blay-renounces-cpp-says-he-is-the-joseph-of-npp">Freddie Blay</a> of the Convention Peoples Party have defected to the National Democratic Party and the New Patriotic Party respectively. The 2012 presidential candidate of the People’s National Convention, Hassan Ayariga, is believed to have defected to <a href="https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/hassan-ayariga-forms-all-people-s-congress.html">form</a> the All People’s Congress because he was <a href="https://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/politics/201211/147231.php">accused</a> of having close relations with the National Democratic Congress.</p>
<p>Finally, I found that ethnocentrism has stalled unity talks between the People’s National Convention and the Convention Peoples Party in the past. <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0045.xml">Ethnocentrism</a> is when an individual views the world from the perspective of his or her own ethnic group.
In that regard, the People’s National Convention was viewed as a party with restrictive membership to the northern regions of Ghana without any strong appeal to other parts of Ghana. Hence, in coalitions, the Convention Peoples Party has projected itself as true Nkrumahists, labelling the People’s National Convention as just an offshoot, as a strategy to lead the coalition.</p>
<h2>Ghana’s 2024 general elections</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/975755/are-ghanaians-really-tired-of-npp-and-ndc-are.html">Public debates</a> ahead of the 2020 general elections – and currently – suggest that voters are somewhat tired of the three-decade two-horse race between the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party. With barely two years to Ghana’s 2024 general elections, <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/The-third-force-needed-to-win-the-2024-election-has-been-divided-1518095">the call for a third force</a> is audible. But its feasibility keeps waning. The recurrent bickering and fragmentation within the Nkrumahist parties raises doubts as to whether they can rise to the call by Ghana’s electorate. </p>
<p>I recommend that leaders of all Nkrumahist groups reconsider merger talks so as to form a united front. Second, leaders should focus on building effective and robust structures, rather than political patronage. Finally, Nkrumahists must adopt pragmatic political strategies to appeal to all sections of Ghana’s electorate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Baffour Agyeman Prempeh Boakye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recurrent bickering and fragmentation within the Nkrumahist parties raises doubt as to whether they can rise to the call by Ghanaian electorate.Baffour Agyeman Prempeh Boakye, PhD Student, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1974502023-01-12T13:55:49Z2023-01-12T13:55:49ZJohn Chilembwe: a new statue celebrates Malawi Pan-Africanist the world forgot<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503790/original/file-20230110-15-sdnf2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Antelope", a sculpture by Samson Kambalu, at Trafalgar Square in London with Malawian Baptist preacher and Pan-Africanist John Chilembwe in the foreground. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://samsonkambalu.com/">Samson Kambalu</a> is a Malawian conceptual artist, writer and academic, whose sculpture <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/arts-and-culture/current-culture-projects/fourth-plinth-trafalgar-square/whats-fourth-plinth-now">Antelope</a> was installed on the <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/arts-and-culture/current-culture-projects/fourth-plinth-trafalgar-square/whats-fourth-plinth-now">Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square</a> in London in September 2022. The Fourth Plinth was originally designed for a large scale equestrian statue of a British monarch but is now reserved for a contemporary sculpture, chosen every two years. This is the most significant public sculpture award in the UK. Antelope is a bronze sculpture depicting two figures: <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2015/12/the-legend-of-john-chilembwe">John Chilembwe</a>, a Baptist preacher and Pan-Africanist who in 1915 led the first uprising against the British occupation and colonial rule of Malawi (then Nyasaland), and his friend, a British missionary named John Chorley. Its sheer scale and subject matter provide a powerful counterpoint to the imperial iconography of Trafalgar Square. Historian <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/white-malice/">Susan Williams</a> discusses the work with Kambalu.</em> </p>
<h2>How did you arrive at the choice of Chilembwe?</h2>
<p>Chilembwe’s photograph from 1914 chose me. When I moved to Oxford to pick up a professorship at Ruskin School of Art, the first thing I did was to visit <a href="https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/weston">Weston Library</a>, where British colonial bureaucrats deposited documentation of their lives in the colonies. The Malawi-related archives produced the mysterious photograph of Reverend John Chilembwe, of Providence Industrial Mission, wearing a white hat, standing next to a white man, John Chorley, of Zambezi Industrial Mission. </p>
<p>I had wondered why Reverend Chilembwe drew attention to his hat. He is wearing it sideways for effect. It turns out that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Hero_of_the_Nation.html?id=ndtyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Africans were forbidden to wear hats in the presence of white people</a> during colonial times, and Chilembwe had created this photograph at the opening of his church as an act of defiance, with support from his friend. Africans were also forbidden to run a mission. Chilembwe would be killed months later, in an uprising against colonial injustices. </p>
<p>When the London Mayor’s office got in touch asking me to propose for the Fourth Plinth, I had the photograph as wallpaper on my phone. I immediately decided that I would propose a work based on the photograph. For me, it is his killing by colonial police months later that dictated the final look of the sculpture. Chilembwe looms over his white friend like a ghost. </p>
<h2>Why is it called Antelope?</h2>
<p>Chilembwe’s name means “antelope”. It alludes not only to the animal, but also to the Chewa principal mask, Kasiya Maliro, a womb disguised as an antelope. For the Chewa people of Malawi, it’s a symbol of radical generosity. Chilembwe’s photograph very much recalls aspects of <a href="https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33777/1/11010550.pdf">Nyau masking</a>, a Chewa secret society marked by prodigious gift giving through play, the Gule Wamkulu. Often transgressive, their purpose is to speak truth to power. Chilembwe hangs on to his African heritage even as he steps forward as a modern Malawian.</p>
<p>Malawi society, where I’m from, is heavily inspired by masking, and Nyau masking is all about critical thinking. When the masks come out from their secretive workshops (or dambwes) in the ancestral graveyards, received knowledge is questioned in unorthodox performances and prodigious gifts, opening up new ways of looking at the world. </p>
<p>Antelope shares Trafalgar Square with other statues which celebrate Britain’s imperial and military conquests, such as Nelson’s Column. The iconography of Antelope might be anti-imperialist, but it is also very much a piece of British history. </p>
<h2>What remains of Chilembwe’s memory?</h2>
<p>Chilembwe features on Malawi’s banknotes and he is remembered in a public holiday every year on 15 January – Chilembwe Day. But as I grew up in Malawi, the then President for Life, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, rendered Chilembwe as a peripheral figure in the fight for Malawi’s independence. </p>
<p>A revisiting of Chilembwe during the research for this sculpture revealed to me a man who was much more critical to the birth of Malawi as a nation. He was the first Malawian to resist colonial rule beyond tribal lines. </p>
<h2>Why does this work of art matter today?</h2>
<p>The statue will remain on the Fourth Plinth for two years. After that I think it would look good at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Chilembwe was sponsored by many black churches in America, and taking this sculpture to America after its stay on Trafalgar Square would be Chilembwe returning the gift of liberty, freedom, to the American people. I’d like a copy too in Malawi, and another copy in Britain, and in Europe. </p>
<p>Chilembwe, who trained as a Baptist minister in the US before returning to Nyasaland in 1901, is believed to have influenced Pan-Africanists such as Marcus Garvey. But whereas they are widely known, Chilembwe has remained an obscure figure outside Malawi. I think Antelope will change this. </p>
<p>I hope we can now begin to detail the African colonial experience beyond generalisations of African or black.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197450/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>John Chilembwe features on Malawi’s banknotes and is remembered in a public holiday every year. But he is little-known elsewhere.Susan Williams, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959872022-12-27T07:56:44Z2022-12-27T07:56:44ZAfrobeats in 2022: global mobility, election songs, placemaking albums – and Tems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499522/original/file-20221207-26-xvx42e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian star Tems performs at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jim Dyson/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-nollywood-to-new-nollywood-the-story-of-nigerias-runaway-success-47959">Nollywood</a> films, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-nigeria-to-the-world-afrobeats-is-having-a-global-moment-179910">Afrobeats</a> is arguably Nigeria’s strongest cultural export since the turn of the millennium. It is a hugely dynamic music category that incorporates a range of moods, languages, styles, and existing genres. To understand its impact, a cultural connoisseur has <a href="https://www.songtradr.com/olaolu.ladeinde">equated</a> good Afrobeats music with well-made, smoky Nigerian <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/nigerian-party-jollof-the-king-of-rice-pan-atlantic-university/FgVBNgJDD3KMJg?hl=en">party jollof rice</a>!</p>
<p>As suggested, the core of Afrobeats is celebratory pop music originating from Nigeria, West Africa and beyond. In 2022, Afrobeats artists were regular names on the global stage, winning awards, featuring on Hollywood soundtracks, packing out stadiums and even getting their own music charts in the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-62992689">UK</a> and <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-u-s-afrobeats-songs/">US</a>. The <a href="https://en.parisinfo.com/paris-show-exhibition/272799/fela-anikulapo-kuti-rebellion-afrobeat">exhibition</a> Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Afrobeat Rebellion opened, with a pilgrimage of the Afrobeats community to Paris – to pay homage to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-art-provocateur-fela-kuti-who-used-sex-and-politics-to-confront-58599">Nigerian musician</a> who helped create <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide#what-is-afrobeat">Afrobeat</a>, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/2022-grammys-what-fela-kuti-has-to-do-with-west-africas-growing-pop-fame-179899">ultimately spawned</a> Afrobeats. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/asake-the-breakout-pop-star-from-nigeria-who-owned-2022-194361">Asake, the breakout pop star from Nigeria who owned 2022</a>
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<p>At home in Nigeria, some Afrobeats artists started to become more politically conscious while big names competed to release landmark albums. The Hollywood film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9114286/">Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</a> held its African <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/black-panther-wakanda-forever-lagos/">premiere</a> in Lagos with an Afrobeats-drenched <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/black-panther-soundtrack-wakanda-forever/">soundtrack</a> highlighting the talents of Nigerian singer-songwriter <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tems-dazed-interview-1234638363/">Tems</a>.</p>
<h2>Election season</h2>
<p>In Nigeria in 2022, Afrobeats had an additional layer due to the run-up to the <a href="https://inecnigeria.org/timetable-and-schedule-of-activities-for-2023-general-election/">2023 general elections</a> in February. In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2019.1598880">my study</a> on the relationship between pop music and electoral consciousness, I mapped a number of ways that popular musicians influence the electoral terrain – and how the electoral terrain influences popular music in Nigeria. Among these was the positive development of pop stars setting the campaign agenda for political parties and politicians by addressing challenges in society. </p>
<p>Take, for example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhS0aKygDww">Electricity</a> by <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/8768">Pheelz</a> and <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/12436">Davido</a>, one of the year’s bigger singles. It addresses the burning subject that Nigeria is so poorly electrified. It subtly yet loudly sets the agenda for the political class to solve the problem and improve lives. It is a non-partisan electoral season hit that resonates with audiences while keeping politicians on their toes. </p>
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<p>In 2022, several Afrobeats stars were inspired by the political class whose attention they sought, or simply appropriated slogans and songs popularised by politicians. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_-R1JKCNrA">Asiwaju</a> by <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/ruger">Ruger</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rgGvSZa54Y">Sweet Us</a> by <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/timaya">Timaya</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWhd_0sURa0">Emi lo kan</a> by <a href="https://buzznigeria.com/qdot-biography-net-worth-and-songs-that-made-him-famous/">Qdot</a> are a few examples. None of these singles necessarily enriches electoral value nor prescribes solutions to societal problems. Each, however, offers mileage to the performing artists and to the referenced politicians.</p>
<p>On Sweet Us, Afrobeats veteran Timaya echoes a triumphant cry popularised by Governor Nyesom Wike. The song gained national momentum after the governor lost a bitter presidential primary. It resonated with disadvantaged audiences; expanding after Timaya made his version sensual. On the catchy but cheesy Asiwaju (Leader), rising sensation Ruger subtly references Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of Nigeria’s ruling party, almost yearning for the attention of the party’s campaign team.</p>
<p>Several Afrobeats and Nollywood personalities – like <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/9783">P-Square</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2099651/">Kenneth Okonkwo</a> – have endorsed presidential candidate <a href="https://mg.co.za/africa/2022-10-08-who-is-peter-obi-and-why-is-he-making-the-nigerian-establishment-so-nervous/">Peter Obi</a>, popular with young Nigerians. </p>
<p>But not all of the music out of Nigeria in 2022 is electorally or politically slanted. </p>
<h2>Stand-out stars: Kizz Daniel and Asake</h2>
<p>2022 is the year of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WykD3CKbJj8">Buga</a> – a viral hit by singer-songwriter <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/9696">Kizz Daniel</a> with its dance moves being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xgcs_UOyj8">performed publicly</a> by notable figures including Liberian president <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Weah">George Weah</a>. </p>
<p>Daniel didn’t stop at that. He added <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN9TVKBVtrU">Cough</a> to an
already outstanding <a href="https://www.boomplay.com/albums/1905374">body of work</a>. Buga and Cough highlight the artist’s mastery in applying phrases from across the West African coast for pan-African effects. Buga is a Yoruba term meaning “flaunt it when you’ve got it”. </p>
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<p>2022 is undoubtedly also the year of breakout artist <a href="https://theconversation.com/asake-the-breakout-pop-star-from-nigeria-who-owned-2022-194361">Asake</a>, whose hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrIP_igi76U">Terminator</a> ignites memories of the Hollywood movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/">The Terminator</a>. Asake shows how trans-artistic and transnational Afrobeats gets. Some of Nigeria’s leading presidential candidates, while abroad, put out videos dancing to or working out to Asake’s crowd favourite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4_iWCvZ5c">Organise</a>.</p>
<p>“Queen of Afrobeats”, 42-year-old <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/10353">Tiwa Savage</a>, joined forces with Asake to pull off a hit single, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgeTnpTkzI0">Loaded</a>, addressing a leaked <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/entertainment/music/564234-loaded-tiwa-savage-recalls-sex-tape-shades-bloggers-in-new-song-with-asake.html">sex tape</a>. Rising singer <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/131106">Oxlade</a> captured the airwaves with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4qud199tQk">Ku lo sa</a>. Other notable mentions include <a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Ayra+Starr+music+in+africa&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8">Ayra Starr</a>’s career-defining <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crtQSTYWtqE">Rush</a> and <a href="https://buzznigeria.com/mohbad-biography-and-the-songs-that-made-him-famous/">MohBad</a>’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3DPxYbejFM">Peace</a>, which addresses unsatisfactory contracts with local labels. </p>
<h2>Year of the album</h2>
<p>More than these, 2022 was a year for Afrobeats stars seeking to cement their legacies with complete bodies of work.</p>
<p>With his first album as an artist, the producer and singer-songwriter <a href="https://www.ckay-music.com">CKay</a>’s <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/ckay-sad-romance-album-review/">Sad Romance</a> contained the hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3B_XXmTYU">Love Nwantiti</a>, which went <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/ckay-love-nwantiti-trending-tiktok/">global</a> and lifted <a href="https://www.bellanaija.com/2022/10/tems-wizkid-ckay-bmi-london-awards/">awards</a>. Other celebrated releases include <a href="https://www.omahlay.com">Omah Lay</a>’s <a href="https://thenativemag.com/featured/review-omah-lay-boy-alone/">Boy Alone</a>, <a href="https://www.heisrema.com">Rema</a>’s <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rema-rave-and-roses/">Rave and Roses</a>, <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/88851">Fireboy DML</a>’s <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fireboy-dml-playboy/">Playboy</a>, <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/93364">Adekunle Gold</a>’s <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/adekunle-gold-catch-me-if-you-can/">Catch Me if You Can</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-burna-boy-set-the-world-alight-with-his-mixed-brew-of-influences-188080">Burna Boy</a>’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/10/burna-boy-love-damini-review-heartfelt-sixth-album">Love, Damini</a> (the <a href="https://medianaija.com.ng/2022-year-end-statistics-burna-boy-is-the-most-streamed-nigerian-act-love-damini-claims-no-1-album-on-apple-music-spotify-and-boomplay-burna-crowns-2022-with-2-mobo-awards/">most streamed</a> album in Nigeria in 2022).</p>
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<p>Afrobeats trailblazer <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-nigerian-music-star-wizkid-and-why-is-he-taking-over-the-world-179775">Wizkid</a> presented <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/wizkid-more-love-less-ego-review/">More Love Less Ego</a> in a year that confirmed his transition into <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/og/">OG</a> status as he increasingly relies on the breaths of fresh air that are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipQpjUA_o8">Tems</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_oenl2Be-w">Ayra Starr</a>. There is, of course, also Asake’s debut <a href="https://www.complex.com/music/asake-mr-money-with-the-vibe-album-stream">Mr Money with the Vibe</a>. </p>
<h2>Embracing rap</h2>
<p>There is evidence of the impact of rap music as it gets increasingly subsumed within Afrobeats – almost every successful Nigerian rapper has learnt to make pop music. </p>
<p>In 2022, the duo <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/10108">Show Dem Camp</a> managed the release of <a href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/music/pulse-review-of-show-dem-camps-palmwine-music-3-album/nwj4cww">Palmwine Music Vol. 3</a>. <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/mi-abaga">MI Abaga</a> put out <a href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/music/a-pulse-review-of-mi-abagas-the-guy-album/gkz2vzg">The Guy</a> and fellow veteran Vector released <a href="https://remixdmagazine.com/nigerian-rap-icon-vector-shares-new-album-the-energy-still-lives-in-me/">The Energy Still Lives In Me</a>, invoking Afrobeats as a mirror of the untiring Nigerian spirit.</p>
<h2>Tems: face of the future</h2>
<p>A monumental year for Afrobeats was also the year of the Wakanda Forever <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/black-panther-wakanda-forever-album-review-1234624328/">soundtrack</a> featuring CKay, Fireboy DML, Rema, Burna Boy and Tems. </p>
<p>Alongside her rendition of Bob Marley’s <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/tems-interview-2022">No Woman, No Cry</a>,
2022 belongs to producer and R&B fusion singer-songwriter Tems. At home she won two <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2022-headies-awards-full-winners-list-1235134815/">Headies Awards</a> for her EP <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/tems-if-orange-was-a-place-1229515/">If Orange Was A Place</a> and then stormed the US, picking up a <a href="https://www.bet.com/article/femd2g/bet-awards-2022-best-international-artist-winner-tems">BET Award</a>, Best New Artist at the <a href="https://www.bet.com/article/vm6yuz/soul-train-awards-2022-three-songs-tems-helped-write">Soul Train Music Awards</a> and two <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/wizkid-and-tems-triumph-american-music-awards-2022">American Music Awards</a>. She is nominated in three categories for the <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/grammys-2023-nominations-burna-boy/">2023 Grammy Awards</a>. Tems performed at some of the most significant music festivals on the planet in 2022 and adorns the cover of the winter 2022 <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/57549/1/tems-alte-interview-dazed-winter-2022">Dazed Magazine</a>.</p>
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<p>The future of Afrobeats may not lie in Afrobeats. Afrobeats will progressively draw from western styles and, in many respects, Tems is a poster child of this future. Her association with Afrobeats is largely to do with her identity as a Nigerian rather than with the music itself. The rigour required of listeners to characterise her style is central to her growth. She reflects the coming together of Nigerian music margins with an amalgam of external influences. Before her, similar artists like <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/node/10507">Asa</a> and <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/nneka">Nneka</a> had a go at the international market, but not with Tems’s impact.</p>
<p>Tems represents a year in which the Afrobeats ecosystem experienced unprecedented mobility. Some analysts reckon the US will eventually move away from Afrobeats, but this is immaterial as Afrobeats can do no wrong for the time being – and this will spill deep into 2023.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garhe Osiebe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Afrobeats truly conquered the globe, influencing music styles, packing out stadiums and lifting awards.Garhe Osiebe, Research Fellow, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1898042022-09-23T10:11:40Z2022-09-23T10:11:40ZUhuru Kenyatta failed to turn Kenya into as big an international player as he could – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482493/original/file-20220902-3755-hm5l3f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Uhuru Kenyatta signs a treaty integrating DRC into the East African Community in June 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the notable achievements of Uhuru Kenyatta’s nine-year tenure as president was that he invigorated Kenya’s foreign policy. </p>
<p>A year after his 2013 inauguration, his government launched a <a href="https://www.kenyaembassy.org.tr/uploads/Kenya_Foreign_Policy.pdf">document</a> that outlined Kenya’s diplomatic engagements and foreign relations. It was the country’s first written foreign policy since independence.</p>
<p>Its themes can be distilled into four objectives and practices: regional and continental cooperation; promoting Kenya’s economic interests; revival of pan-Africanism; and an aggressive approach to foreign policy, including a plethora of high-level visits. </p>
<p>It was indeed a dynamic performance. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, in my view, based on the country’s mixed outcomes and foreign policy losses, it’s evident that the Kenyatta government’s foreign policy was not focused, consistent or effectively coordinated. Consequently, it failed to create a regional balance of power favourable to Kenya’s interests. </p>
<p>And while the country became more visible globally and actively engaged in international matters, the returns from this visibility have been dismal – save for an <a href="https://theconversation.com/uhuru-kenyattas-economic-legacy-big-on-promises-but-weak-on-delivery-188698">increased debt burden</a>. </p>
<h2>Regional and continental cooperation</h2>
<p>In the 2014 <a href="https://www.kenyaembassy.org.tr/uploads/Kenya_Foreign_Policy.pdf">Kenya Foreign Policy</a> document, Kenyatta affirmed that Kenya would seek to promote sub-regional and regional integration. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/134839269/H-E-President-Uhuru-Kenyatta-Inaugural-Address">inauguration speech</a> in 2013, he said his government would strengthen regional ties through the free movement of people, goods and investment. He underscored the importance of deepening relations with the <a href="https://www.eac.int/">East African Community</a> and Africa as a whole to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>deliver on the promise of independence and liberation from our colonial past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, critics faulted Kenyatta for using a pan-African approach to overcome the initial global isolation and non-receptiveness Kenya faced from traditional allies like Britain and the US. This chilly reception from the UK and US followed Kenyatta’s election as president despite his facing <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/kenya/kenyatta">an International Criminal Court (ICC) case</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, the president’s policy on global politics retracted to operating through the continental body, the African Union. </p>
<p>Kenya became an active contributor to the union’s programmes. In 2014, the country gave <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/counties/article/2000103662/kenya-pledges-sh130m-to-africas-heritage-preservation">US$1.1 million</a> to support the <a href="https://awhf.net/">African World Heritage Fund</a>. </p>
<p>In 2015, Kenyatta was elected the chairperson of the <a href="https://au.int/en/organs/aprm">African Peer Review Mechanism</a>. This is a voluntary assessment and monitoring system that evaluates and advises African Union member states on their progress in achieving good governance. </p>
<p>Moreover, Kenya was among the countries that contributed troops to the <a href="https://amisom-au.org/kenya-kdf/">African Union Mission in Somalia</a>.</p>
<p>Despite all this activity, Kenyatta failed to effectively exert influence and drive regional integration to Kenya’s advantage.</p>
<h2>Pan-Africanism</h2>
<p>A notable element in Kenya’s foreign policy under Kenyatta was the renaissance of pan-Africanism. In his first address to the African Union Summit in 2013, he <a href="https://www.kenyaembassyaddis.org/wp-content/uploads/speeches/presidential/INAUGURAL_STATEMENT_BY_HIS_EXCELLENCY_HON_UHURU_KENYATTA_PRESIDENT_OF_THE_REPUBLIC_OF_KENYA.pdf">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Pan-Africanism has sparked a Kenyan renaissance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The president said he had received tutelage on pan-Africanism from his father, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president. </p>
<p>Arguably, this pan-African reinvigoration into Kenya’s foreign policy was motivated by the existential threats of global sanctions that the regime faced. Yet, Kenyatta’s election against the backdrop of the cases at The Hague turned Kenya into an icon of resistance following what was perceived as the unfair targeting of Africa by the ICC.</p>
<p>During Kenyatta’s inauguration, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/09/controversy-kenya-uhuru-kenyatta-uganda">praised Kenyans</a> for rejecting western neo-colonialism. This was in reference to calls by diplomats that Kenyans should not elect people with cases to answer at the ICC. </p>
<p>The African Union convened an extraordinary summit that <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/kenya-leads-push-for-immunity-for-leaders-at-world-court-1399762">declared support</a> for Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, who was also facing charges at The Hague. </p>
<h2>Economic interests</h2>
<p>Kenyatta’s foreign policy of economic prosperity was pursued and achieved via a triple approach. </p>
<p>First was through encouraging trade ties with traditional allies like the UK, US and some countries in western Europe. Second was through a diversification of economic relations to include new markets in the form of a “look east” policy. </p>
<p>Third was through emphasising intra-African trade. Kenya signed trade agreements with states not considered traditional allies, such as Nigeria and Ghana. Additionally, the country quickly signed the <a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20180321/au-member-countries-create-history-massively-signing-afcfta-agreement-kigali">African Continental Free Trade Area agreement</a> in March 2018. </p>
<p>But questions have arisen on whether Kenya has the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uhuru-kenyattas-economic-legacy-big-on-promises-but-weak-on-delivery-188698">financial capacity</a> to meet present and future economic obligations. </p>
<h2>Assertive foreign policy</h2>
<p>Kenya hosted a wide range of high-level international meetings. Subjects ranged from climate change to trade. Kenyatta also received high-level delegations <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-moi-put-foreign-policy-at-the-centre-of-his-presidency-134048">reminiscent of former president Daniel Moi’s era</a>. His guests included the pope and leaders of India, Israel, US, UK, China and Japan. </p>
<p>From Africa, Kenyatta hosted leaders from Ghana, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and Rwanda, among many others. </p>
<p>By July 2022, a month to the election that would end his term in office, Kenyatta had made <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/how-uhuru-kenyatta-won-over-world-leaders-charm-offensive-3866492">158 official foreign trips</a>. In contrast, his predecessor Mwai Kibaki made just 33 foreign trips over 10 years of leadership. </p>
<p>The country’s foreign policy during Kenyatta’s second term, which began in 2017, is what I would describe as aggressive or assertive. The country took advantage of any international opportunity that arose to make its mark. </p>
<p>In February 2022, Kenya addressed a UN Security Council meeting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Its envoy to the UN, Martin Kimani, <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/national/article/2001438419/amb-martin-kimanis-full-speech-on-russia-ukraine-tension">came out strongly</a> in defence of Ukraine. He stated that the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter">Charter of the United Nations</a> was fading due to “the relentless assault of the powerful”. Kimani compared Ukraine’s plight to Africa’s colonial legacy. </p>
<p>Kenya’s aggressive foreign policy direction earned Kenya a <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/kenya-wins-un-security-council-seat-1443488">seat at the UN Security Council</a> as a non-permanent member. </p>
<p>But this aggressive foreign policy also portrayed Kenya as a nation that “wants everything”. This earned it some opposition regionally. For instance, states like Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Tanzania <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001227877/details-of-how-amina-mohamed-lost-african-union-commission-election">didn’t vote for Kenya</a> in its bid to chair the African Union Commission.</p>
<p>Kenyatta should have streamlined his priorities and made his foreign objectives sharper so as not to appear to be a “Jack of all trades” in foreign affairs. Many foreign interests were projected with little coordination; few were accomplished. </p>
<p>In some cases, the country’s goodwill was squandered in the pursuit of self-interest. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>The post-Kenyatta government needs to fast-track the realisation of East African Community objectives. It needs to support South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s active participation in regional integration. The new Ruto regime should also maintain a non-disruptive relationship with Rwanda and Tanzania. </p>
<p>In the Horn of Africa, Kenya needs to diplomatically endeavour to reduce Ethiopia’s growing influence in the leadership of the <a href="https://igad.int/">Intergovernmental Authority on Development</a>. </p>
<p>Under Kenyatta, Kenya’s foreign policy practice within the African Union was more “lone ranger”. The Ruto regime will need to forge closer ties with regional powers like Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa to make it easier for Kenya to push through its agenda at the African Union. </p>
<p>It will also need to renegotiate its foreign debts and re-examine <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/kenya-s-debt-repayments-to-china-shoot-to-sh73-5-billion-3821246">Kenya-China agreements</a> to re-organise debt repayments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wilfred Nasong'o Muliro received funding from the African Leadership Centre, London and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). He is affiliated with the International Relations Society of Kenya (IRSK). He teaches International Relations and Diplomacy at the Technical University of Kenya</span></em></p>Kenya’s new president needs to forge closer ties with regional heavyweights to create a balance of power that favours his country.Wilfred Nasong'o Muliro, Lecturer International Relations and Security, Technical University of KenyaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868432022-08-19T13:19:32Z2022-08-19T13:19:32ZThe African Union has had a shaky two decades but problems can be solved<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477885/original/file-20220805-29611-thzafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi making a speech at the AU headquarters.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On 9 September 1999, the Heads of State and Government of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/organisation-african-unity-oau">Organisation of African Unity</a> issued the Sirte declaration calling for the establishment of an <a href="https://au.int/en/overview">African Union</a> (AU). </p>
<p>Their mission was to accelerate the process of integration on the continent while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems. The AU was founded in May 2001 and officially launched on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa. </p>
<p>Its 20th anniversary is a useful moment to examine how far the AU has progressed towards meeting its core objectives. There is no dearth of <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/02/12/the-african-union-is-less-effective-at-20-than-it-was-at-two">criticism</a> of the union from scholars, analysts and journalists. </p>
<p>Some of the criticism is about <a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20190604/aga-platform-raises-concerns-over-weak-governance-trends">poor governance</a>, implementation problems and rising security issues. It seems, too, that citizens of member states lack trust in the AU. </p>
<p>Most of these criticisms are fair, given that the AU was expected to carry Africa in to the future through the ideals of African renaissance and Pan Africanism. The <a href="https://au.int/en/about/vision">mission statement</a> spoke of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”. </p>
<p>Based on my previously <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2767503">published research</a>, the commitment of African leaders remains the most pressing obstacle to African renaissance and development. </p>
<p>Governance of the AU is as good as its leadership. Therefore, the type of governance within member countries, especially among the regional leaders, affects the governance of the union. </p>
<p>The differences between the hope inspired by the union at inception and the reality of dashed hopes 20 years later can be partly linked to the quality of leadership in countries that championed the current AU. </p>
<h2>Progress</h2>
<p>Despite the governance problem, the AU has made some progress in peacekeeping across the continent by establishing the African Standby Force in December 2003. </p>
<p>To ensure effective operation, the force is decentralised and coordinated at a regional level. It is expected to manage <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-a-lot-has-been-achieved-despite-many-flaws-175932">insurgency-related conflicts</a> in various countries. The Standby Force is yet to start full operation, however.</p>
<p>Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the AU has elevated the <a href="https://africacdc.org/">Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention</a> from a specialised technical institution to a public health agency with regional collaboration centres. This action is an improvement. It will help in tackling future epidemics and will support member states’ public health in general. </p>
<p>In 2015, the Heads of State and Government created <a href="https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview">Agenda 2063</a> with 20 priority goals. The initiative is supposed to be based on lessons of past experiences and the understanding that globalisation can provide new development opportunities for the continent.</p>
<p>The Agenda has highlighted important areas that would accelerate the development of member states. For example, it led to the launch of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa in 2020. The goal of the programme is to intensify regional economic integration, which has been held back by a poor transport network. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-some-reason-to-cheer-but-lots-of-work-ahead-183651">The African Union at 20: some reason to cheer, but lots of work ahead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Disappointments</h2>
<p>The regional peacekeeping process has not translated into regional economic integration and a socio-economic framework for development. </p>
<p>Economic development remains the AU’s weakest area. The <a href="https://www.nepad.org/">New Partnership for Africa’s Development</a> was supposed to develop a homegrown policy framework for sustainable economic development. Its goals include eradicating poverty, promoting growth and integrating Africa into the world economy. </p>
<p>The AU has also been criticised for its lack of consultation with member states’ civil society stakeholders. Consultation of civil society would contribute to accountability and provide a sense of ownership for the citizens of member states.</p>
<p>The AU’s inability to implement its economic development framework remains an obstacle to achieving its goals. The importance of regional integration cannot be exaggerated given the low proportion of inter-African trade when compared with other regions. The <a href="https://www.scielo.br/j/cint/a/kjGF6hQVNj9v4jfm8kXJwKQ/?lang=en&format=pdf">volume of trade</a> among countries of the continent is around 15% of total trade, while in Europe, North America, and Latin America, rates are 68%, 37% and 20% respectively. </p>
<p>More trade among African countries would improve manufacturing, reduce dependency on natural resources and expand the African market.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pan-african-integration-has-made-progress-but-needs-a-change-of-mindset-183541">Pan-African integration has made progress but needs a change of mindset</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>The introduction of <a href="https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview">Agenda 2063</a> as a development framework is the first step forward. To avoid a repeat of the discarded <a href="https://repository.uneca.org/handle/10855/14129">Lagos Plan of Action</a> it is important that the AU aligns the agenda with its values of self-reliance and inclusiveness. </p>
<p>To achieve this, the Agenda 2063 agency needs to expand its consultation with civil society and stakeholders of member states. This would increase participation by member state citizens, improve the sharing of information and tighten up accountability. </p>
<p>Funding for projects is one of the biggest challenges facing the AU. It still depends on external funding for its own operations. A solution would be a binding institutional arrangement where members have to contribute funds and there are penalties for not doing so. </p>
<p>The AU has had a shaky two decades burdened with intertwined problems of governance, external dependence and poor capacity. But these problems are not insurmountable. A prosperous and united Africa is within reach if the AU addresses its core problems and fosters more participation of member state citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Agupusi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The commitment of African leaders remains the greatest obstacle to African renaissance and development. Consultation with citizens is also called for.Patricia Agupusi, Professorial Lecturer, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880802022-08-11T15:25:24Z2022-08-11T15:25:24ZHow Burna Boy set the world alight with his mixed brew of influences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478504/original/file-20220810-590-s2rtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Burna Boy promotes his new album Love, Damini in the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prince Williams/Wireimage</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigerian Afrobeats star <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/burna-boy-mn0003297650/biography">Burna Boy</a> burst onto the global stage in 2018 with a slew of irresistible hits on his third album, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4wXXJEoblA">Outside</a>, accompanied by mandatory fiendish good looks and charm. <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/burna-boy/251682">Grammy</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsvCb59TcDk">BET</a> awards helped firm up his status within a highly competitive global music industry. </p>
<p>Before his international success, which has been cemented by his latest offering <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/burna-boy-love-damini-album-stream-1235109630/">Love, Damini</a> (2022), Burna spent years experimenting with different sounds in London and South Africa and his ragga-inspired vocal style became distinctive.</p>
<p>His 2014 contribution to South African hip hop mainstay AKA’s infectious song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuXDU-V954">All Eyes on Me</a> first put him on the African radar. His smouldering hook on the multiple award-winning track made all the difference and demonstrated he was an artist to watch, channelling both West African and Jamaican musical flavours.</p>
<p>Although he was deemed talented by his South African hip hop peers, his shine remained somewhat muted. He had to return to his native Nigeria to attain the level of success he obviously yearned: awards, global tours and A-class industry connections.</p>
<p>Although he rose in a whirlwind, with an enigmatic combination of singing styles and influences, Burna Boy has, at least for the moment, become mainstream; a slightly compliant agent of the commercial music industry. (The same is true of most of today’s Afrobeats stars, even if this is a Faustian truth everyone might choose to ignore.)</p>
<p>On Love, Damini (he was born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu) Burna still exudes just the right amount of foreboding and palpable intrigue to remain credible as an artist. But how much of his much-touted originality does he have left? Perhaps a way to begin to answer this question is to revisit his musical influences.</p>
<h2>Spotting his influences</h2>
<p>It is difficult not to love club bangers such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-h7ltwACLs">Soke</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPe09eE6Xio">Ye</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7WfPHHXCAY">Gbona</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecl8Aod0Tl0">On the Low</a>, all produced before Burna Boy’s groundbreaking 2021 Grammy win with his fifth album, <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/burna-boy-twice-as-tall/">Twice as Tall</a> (2020). </p>
<p>In most of these songs, Fela Kuti’s influence is crystal clear in samples and the unequivocal lifting of various hooks. For many, it seemed like Burna was Kuti’s heir apparent. </p>
<p>From the late 1960s Nigerian musician and singer Kuti, along with his amazing bands, almost single-handedly pioneered a genre called <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide#what-is-afrobeat">Afrobeat</a>. This sound incorporated strong Pan Africanist politics, intricate call and response singing, and heavy West African drumming laced with enticing jazz and funk riffs. <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/afrobeat-history">Afrobeats</a> is an umbrella term for a more radio-friendly and commercial version of Kuti’s Afrobeat. </p>
<p>Burna Boy’s Kuti credentials appear impeccable. His maternal grandfather, the broadcaster and jazz enthusiast Benson Idonije, had <a href="https://guardian.ng/art/dis-fela-sef-a-benson-idonije-memoir/">managed</a> Kuti in the 1960s. In one <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/bose-ogulu-burna-boy-mom-manager-fela-kuti-dancer-okayafrica-100-women-2019/">interview</a>, his mother and manager, business woman Bose Ogulu, reportedly refers to Kuti as the closest thing she had to a godfather.</p>
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<p>Burna has also been influenced by ragga, dub and grime ever since his days as a student in the UK. The foundations of these genres were laid mainly in Jamaica but found fresh creative wings in urban UK music scenes. This culminated in a hit like Burna’s 2017 song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xho39TPlL4Q">Rock your Body</a>. </p>
<p>Even before the arrival of Love, Damini, Burna Boy had succeeded in melding his diverse cultural and sonic experiences into one powerful aural stew.</p>
<p>Burna has not only cribbed the Jamaican sound. He’s also adopted the rude boy persona with tales of <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/burna-boy-faces-police-probe-for-the-second-time-in-six-years/">private security gunshots</a>, <a href="https://dailytrust.com/burna-boy-shatta-wale-and-rape-culture">rape allegations</a> and a trail of broken hearts that have clouded his already threatening aura.</p>
<h2>Ways to weigh Burna</h2>
<p>Obviously, Burna was aiming to act as some kind of generational spokesperson for a restless and burgeoning <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/world/africa/who-are-afropolitans/index.html">Afropolitan</a> brigade. It couldn’t have been otherwise after being fed on a diet of Kuti-inspired Pan Africanism and neocolonial resistance. By most standards, this is heavy stuff for a market and generation captured by instant gratification.</p>
<p>And then he struck musical gold with his eclectic brew of West African rhythms, West Indian jungle grooves and the ubiquity of hip hop. Burna once <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa6DweKPf1A">described</a> part of this gumbo as “pepperoni pizza” with Kuti’s Afrobeat as the dough. There is nothing particularly unique about this recipe. Instead, the X factor can be found in his own winning combination of ingredients – bound with an arresting personality. Of course, there’s also his amazing dexterity in sampling to ponder.</p>
<p>He has <a href="https://theconversation.com/setting-the-record-straight-burna-boy-didnt-create-a-music-genre-called-afrofusion-187189">proclaimed</a> that his brand of music is a new genre called Afrofusion. Probably this is just a way of leveraging newfound success for greater effect. A way to distinguish himself from the teeming throng of Afrobeats aspirers. </p>
<p>To the undiscerning, Burna Boy’s sound is pure genius. But for those conversant with Kuti, with Jamaican godfather of dub, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/reggaes-mad-scientist-65011/">Lee “Scratch” Perry</a>, and similar genres of <a href="https://jamaicansmusic.com/learn/origins/toasting">Caribbean toasting</a> (lyrical chanting over dancehall music), it all seems a bit déjà vu. </p>
<p>There are different ways to weigh Burna. If we put him against Kuti, Perry and the greats of dub, he is arguably minor. But in an incessantly Instagrammed era, endlessly photographed and reproduced, he is a giant bristling with substance, creative menace and yet to be decoded signification. </p>
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<p>Burna was birthed from robust foundations of Afrobeat, hip hop, ragga, grime, drum ‘n’ bass and dub-related sounds. There are hardly any other foundations as deep as these. His work, up till now, has mainly consisted of translating and reconfiguring those jungle-laden sounds for a mass audience. </p>
<p>In this regard, he is a faithful conduit, a vehicle for simmering, unadulterated and quasi-spiritual grooves. Sometimes, it isn’t even certain that Burna recognises the depth of what he is channelling. If he did, he wouldn’t be so eager to pair up with every hot music star that pops up on the scene.</p>
<p>Burna’s lyrics in hits such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=421w1j87fEM">Last Last</a> (2022) are replete with profanity, inanity and nonsense rhymes that sound good to the ears especially if you happen not to understand West African <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38000387">pidgin</a>. This is yet another aspect of his work that can be quite bewildering; the sudden swings between sense and nonsense, pseudo-philosophical gravity and outright puerility.</p>
<h2>Rolling in dollars</h2>
<p>Lately, Burna has launched a campaign to gain even greater success. Just look at his high profile collaborations with the likes of US musicians <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aiCPsNcRMU">Pop Smoke</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxb5GItBjJI">Beyoncé</a> as well as UK pop stars like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byO74UGa8bI">Sam Smith</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDZ25anwgjc">Ed Sheeran</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXeOBkKdiAg">Stormzy</a> or Nigerian singer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNTkoLf5x5U">Wizkid</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/100-years-of-pop-music-in-nigeria-what-shaped-four-eras-181298">100 years of pop music in Nigeria: what shaped four eras</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Already, some of his hits are beginning to sound a little laboured, over-thought or under-thought. But perhaps this hardly matters as long as the dollars, brand endorsements and festival invitations keep rolling in. In today’s music industry, that’s all that counts. </p>
<p>Burna Boy has won the world and retained his brooding sense of menace, but it remains to be seen how much of his true creative soul he has left. </p>
<p><em>This article was updated to more accurately reflect the biography of Bose Ogulu.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanya Osha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With his new album Love, Damini he has conquered the world. But how much of his creative soul does he have left?Sanya Osha, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1870462022-07-21T18:18:42Z2022-07-21T18:18:42ZSouth Africa’s Thabo Mbeki at 80: admired on the continent more than at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475139/original/file-20220720-20-plykfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kevin Sutherland</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s second post-apartheid president, celebrated his <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-80th-birthday-celebrations-former-president-thabo-mbeki-18-jun">80th birthday</a> on 18 June 2022. Following Mandela’s era of multiracial and multicultural <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-rainbow-nation-is-a-myth-that-students-need-to-unlearn-66872">rainbowism</a>, Mbeki had to squarely address the challenges of acute inequality and the numerous grievances of the black majority caused by colonialism and apartheid. This was tough work with no easy solutions.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki-mr-0">Mbeki</a> was born in what is now the Eastern Cape province to fairly educated and politically conscious parents – <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/epainette-nomaka-mbeki">Epainette</a>, a schoolteacher, and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/govan-mbeki">Govan</a>, a contemporary of Mandela and other freedom fighters of that era. Govan was seldom home as he pursued the cause of freedom for South Africa. Thabo had to grow up fast and joined the youth league of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-national-congress-anc">African National Congress</a> (ANC) when he was only 13.</p>
<p>The topic of Mbeki’s political legacy is moot. Even his position between global icon <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/nelson-rolihlahla-mandela">Nelson Mandela</a> and alleged <a href="https://pari.org.za/betrayal-promise-report/">state capture architect</a> Jacob Zuma is quite telling. For the most part, Mandela, whom he succeeded, basked in the glow of post-apartheid reconciliation and euphoria. But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00064246.2018.1514927">Mbeki</a> could not afford that luxury. There was serious work to be done in building a post-apartheid political dispensation. Much of this arduous task fell on him, whom many considered Mandela’s de facto prime minister. </p>
<p>Mbeki is attractive to many intellectuals beyond South Africa because of his thinking about pan-Africanism, the <a href="https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/mbeki.html">African renaissance</a> and neocolonialism. All these issues are pertinent in Africa and its vast diaspora, which put Mbeki in the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thabo-Mbeki-Short-Histories-Africa/dp/082142274X">spotlight of the pan-Africanist movement</a>. Numerous works have been written on his <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.18772/22010105027">tenure as president and his legacy</a>.</p>
<p>Mbeki found his second wind as probably the most respected African elder statesman after his ignominious exit as ANC leader. His transition from national politics to the African continental stage has been without great fanfare but quite effective.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thabo-Mbeki-Battle-Soul-ANC/dp/184277848X">ANC</a>, which has governed South Africa since 1994, became afflicted by widespread corruption and deadly politicking, Mbeki kept above the fray. His nemesis and erstwhile deputy, <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/president-jacob-zuma-0">Zuma</a>, who succeeded him as president, went further in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Keepers-Those-keeping-prison-ebook/dp/B076YBL1WS">tarnishing the ANC brand and legacy in the most disrespectful manner</a>. </p>
<p>This is the uncomfortable position from which Mbeki is compelled to be assessed.</p>
<h2>A no-frills technocrat</h2>
<p>Mbeki is not a charismatic leader, neither does he pretend to be. He does <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thabo-Mbeki%20Short-Histories-Africa/dp/082142274X">not possess Mandela’s charm</a> or Zuma’s demotic earthiness, which can move people to declare they’d <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/we-will-kill-for-zuma-20080616">kill for him</a>. </p>
<p>Mandela had a winning smile that floored <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-30-me-476-story.html">Hollywood A-listers</a>. Zuma sang and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBc1n5HqXxs">danced</a> his way into the hearts of the South African masses and wasn’t afraid to make a fool of himself. Mbeki always remained aloof. His appeal was largely among intellectuals.</p>
<p>Mbeki is rather a conscientious technocrat equally at home with other technocrats such as <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/directorate/former-executive-director-phumzile-mlambo-ngcuka">Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/people/trevor-manuel">Trevor Manuel</a>. The two served in prominent positions in Mbeki’s cabinet.</p>
<p>During his tenure as ANC president (<a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/former-leaders-2/">1997-2007</a>), Mbeki couldn’t woo the rank and file in his party with rousing speeches delivered with visceral directness. That isn’t his forte. He is, instead, a manager of systems and institutions and a purveyor of ideas.</p>
<h2>Downfall and resurrection</h2>
<p>Mbeki is a promoter of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24351577#metadata_info_tab_contents">pan-Africanism</a> – the quest to unite Africans in pursuit of a united, prosperous Africa. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frantz-fanon/">Frantz Fanon</a>, the Haitian revolution, the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance">Harlem Renaissance</a> and important milestones of black empowerment powerfully shaped Mbeki’s ideological make-up. There is a certain cosmopolitanism present in his outlook. But the masses of the South African people did not appreciate it. Instead, he was deemed cold, unresponsive and, therefore, uninteresting. This, more than any other failing, was the reason for his political downfall.</p>
<p>His detractors and the party <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2007-12-18-zuma-is-new-anc-president/">cast their lot</a> with a more engaging Zuma in December 2007, which turned out not to be the best of choices. Mbeki was subsequently unceremoniously fired as president of the country by the ANC <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/20/southafrica1">in September 2008</a>.</p>
<p>Mbeki’s rejection by his party undoubtedly reduced his political influence within the ANC. But he did not become idle. He worked diligently on the continental African stage, where his expertise and experience are highly valued. He has been traversing the continent on behalf of the <a href="https://au.int/">African Union</a>, putting out political fires and helping broker peace with an energy and commitment that many of his age don’t possess.</p>
<p>While Zuma reigned supreme in the ANC <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/former-leaders-2/">from 2007 to 2017</a>, Mbeki kept a respectful distance. All through <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-capture-in-south-africa-how-the-rot-set-in-and-how-the-project-was-rumbled-176481">Zuma’s scandals</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42510304">motions of impeachment</a>, Mbeki more or less maintained his silence and dignity.</p>
<p>Zuma, on the other hand, abdicated his powers to a shady cabal that influenced key government appointments and commandeered most of the lucrative government <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">contracts of the ANC-led administration</a>. </p>
<p>Then people started to think that perhaps Mbeki wasn’t that bad after all. Some might argue that he had dictatorial tendencies but he was always his own man. Under Zuma, foreign actors without the least connection to the South African electorate wielded unimaginable power and influence.</p>
<p>After years in a political purgatory, Mbeki seems to have undergone a resurrection, based on the unmitigated disasters of his successor. He is now <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbcCp6vI5Wo">helping to save the ANC</a>.</p>
<h2>Africa’s elder statesman</h2>
<p>It is a pity that Mbeki’s invaluable work on continental affairs isn’t much valued in South Africa.</p>
<p>Beyond South Africa, Mbeki is increasingly being considered among African intellectuals such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/toyin-falola-1358213">Toyin Falola</a> (Nigeria), <a href="https://www.theblackscholar.org/board/zeleza/">Paul Zeleza</a> (Malawi) and <a href="https://www.tut.ac.za/rni/rs/research-chairs/prof-muchie">Mammo Muchie</a> (Ethiopia). He’s placed in the same league as African philosopher-kings like Senegal’s <a href="https://www.presidence.sn/en/presidency/leopold-sedar-senghor">Leopold Sedar Senghor</a>, Ghana’s <a href="https://aaregistry.org/story/kwame-nkrumah-fathered-pan-africanism/">Kwame Nkrumah</a> and Tanzania’s <a href="https://www.juliusnyerere.org/about">Julius Nyerere</a>.</p>
<p>At 80, Mbeki still articulates his pet concerns of African unity, African renaissance and pan-Africanism with diligence and precision. His analyses are usually well-considered and deserving of attention. His interventions to end the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20101205-ivory-coast-thabo-mbeki-arrives-ivory-coast-mediate-crisis-gbagbo-ouattara">Ivorian</a> and <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-04-26-mbeki-comments-on-the-south-sudan-crisis-urges-reconciliation/">South Sudanese</a> crises are noteworthy.</p>
<p>Mbeki continues to function as probably the most resourceful elder statesman on the African continent. For instance, he is involved in efforts to solve the <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/news/mbeki-urges-african-lawyers-support-crusade-against-continents-stolen-funds">impasse</a> that has pitted Anglophone Cameroonians against their Francophone counterparts.</p>
<p>He is also involved in efforts to resolve the crisis in the Great Lakes Region. The conflict has been called <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1wn0rvj.10#metadata_info_tab_contents">Africa’s first world war</a> because of the number of external actors and African nations engaged in the scramble for the region’s mineral wealth. </p>
<p>Because violence anywhere on the continent tends to have broader continental consequences, Mbeki makes it his business to try to prevent outbreaks of war and mayhem.</p>
<p>In Cote d’Ivoire, he led initiatives to resolve the confrontation between two presidential aspirants, Alassane Quattara and Laurent Gbagbo. Their bloody stand-off put their country into a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoRTpv6lEfA">downward spiral</a>. Finally, Mbeki has advised that to end the civil war in South Sudan, all the stakeholders <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoRTpv6lEfA">must be involved in the peacemaking process</a>.</p>
<p>It is clear that Mbeki has successfully transitioned from being an old horse of his party, the ANC, to a highly venerated and in-demand African elder statesman. And just as Nkrumah was, he is more respected on the continent than in his country. Given his attitude, composure and utterances, Mbeki seems quite natural in speaking and acting on behalf of the entire continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanya Osha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mbeki has successfully transitioned from being an old horse of South Africa’s governing ANC to a highly venerated and in-demand African elder statesman.Sanya Osha, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1835412022-05-24T09:01:40Z2022-05-24T09:01:40ZPan-African integration has made progress but needs a change of mindset<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464807/original/file-20220523-21-unn2ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses an African Union summit in Addis Ababa via video in February 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year’s celebration of <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/africa-day-2022-18-oct-2021-1312">Africa Day</a> provides another opportunity to assess how far continental integration has progressed. </p>
<p>Integration would mean a truly united Africa – either a federalist “United States of Africa” or the African Union (AU) exercising <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337898687_Can_Africa_ever_achieve_continental_sovereignty_in_the_shifting_West-to-East_strategic_landscape_The_geopolitics_of_integration_and_autonomy">binding powers over member states</a>. At present the AU merely serves as a platform for coordinating the interactions of its <a href="https://au.int/en/member_states/countryprofiles2#:%7E:text=The%20AU%20is%20made%20up,divided%20into%20five%20geographic%20regions.">55 member states</a>. </p>
<p>Although some progress has been made, more needs to be done to achieve the goal of integration.</p>
<p>Member states need to move beyond paying lip service to unity, and empower critical AU organs. This requires a shift in mentality. States need to appreciate the need to sacrifice some autonomy for common socioeconomic and political gains. Lacklustre commitment to continental integration is connected with Africa’s peripheral position in global dynamics. </p>
<p>In my view, as a researcher of the institutional dynamics of Africa’s integration process, pan-African integration is in a crucial phase. This phase is as important as the creation of the Organisation of African Unity <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/organisation-african-unity-oau">in 1963</a> and its eventual replacement with the AU <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/september-2002/african-union-launched">20 years ago</a>.</p>
<h2>A pan-African worldview</h2>
<p>In a 1969 speech, the then Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere, <a href="https://www.tanzania.go.tz/egov_uploads/documents/stability_and_change_sw.pdf">captured</a> what the African worldview entails:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We recognise that we are involved in the world and that the world is involved in us. Involvement without understanding, however, can be embarrassing and even dangerous. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A pan-Africanist worldview understands that the continent cannot exist in isolation. However, this must be accompanied by a determination to drive an agenda that enhances pan-African goals.</p>
<p>This position reflects the views of many of Nyerere’s contemporaries, and those who came after him, on how Africa should position itself on the global stage. </p>
<p>Kwame Nkrumah’s <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2F9780230118645_8.pdf">“African personality”</a>, Thabo Mbeki’s <a href="https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/mbeki.html">“African renaissance”</a>, and the oft-repeated <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/african-solutions-to-african-problems">“African solutions to African problems”</a> have also been used to capture the essence of an effective pan-African worldview. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601">Sobukwe's pan-Africanist dream: an elusive idea that refuses to die</a>
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<p>Mbeki’s idea speaks to restoring Africa’s dignity, and pushing for its economic and political development. Nkrumah’s advances the principles of societal equality. It places the community over the individual in preparing African societies to establish a federal union of African states that is assertive on the global stage.</p>
<h2>What’s working</h2>
<p>The continent has seen some positive developments that could advance integration. They include the adoption of the following instruments and processes: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview">AU Agenda 2063</a>, the AU’s blueprint for faster economic growth </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://au.int/en/aureforms/financing">0.2% import tax levy</a> on member states to finance AU programmes and policies </p></li>
<li><p>the <a href="https://www.tralac.org/resources/our-resources/6730-continental-free-trade-area-cfta.html">African Continental Free Trade Area</a> </p></li>
<li><p>the <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/africa-intracontinental-free-movement">free movement protocol</a> (yet to come into force) </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20181127/african-union-strengthens-its-sanction-regime-non-payment-dues#:%7E:text=Cautionary%20sanctions%20will%20be%20applied,meetings%20of%20the%20African%20Union.">sanctions</a> for non-payment of membership dues</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au-commission-has-made-a-good-start-on-gender-equality-but-a-lot-remains-to-be-done-155005">reducing</a> the number of AU Commission members</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au-commission-has-made-a-good-start-on-gender-equality-but-a-lot-remains-to-be-done-155005">gender equality in leadership</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.tralac.org/blog/article/15548-how-relevant-is-the-protocol-on-relations-between-the-recs-and-the-au.html">regulating the relations</a> between the AU and the eight regional economic communities.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464981/original/file-20220524-24-2q84o5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The African Union: timeline of events.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Usifo Omozokpea / AU</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-a-lot-has-been-achieved-despite-many-flaws-175932">Thomas Tieku</a>, an expert on Africa’s international relations, has observed, despite some of the failures of pan-African integration, the AU has set admirable guidelines on governance, peace and security. </p>
<p>It has also developed enforcement mechanisms for violations of its standards. It has quickly adopted the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-a-lot-has-been-achieved-despite-many-flaws-175932">African Continental Free Trade Area</a>, empowered the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-african-union-at-20-a-lot-has-been-achieved-despite-many-flaws-175932">mobilised resources to get COVID-19 vaccines</a>, and integrated the AU development agenda <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/MDG/SDGs_Country_Report_2019_South_Africa.pdf">into national development plans</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-sense-of-decades-of-debate-about-nkrumahs-pan-african-ideas-132684">Making sense of decades of debate about Nkrumah’s pan-African ideas</a>
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<p>Yet pan-African continental integration remains constrained by many problems. These include countries’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/toothless-pan-african-parliament-could-have-meaningful-powers-heres-how-87449">unwillingness</a> to transfer powers to AU organs.</p>
<p>Addressing this will require a change of worldview. Africa needs to rebalance the way it sees itself and relates to the world. African states need to equip national and regional institutions to deliver on the promise of political and economic development.</p>
<h2>What’s not working</h2>
<p>The ability to project a strategic pan-African worldview is undermined by several factors. One is the unwillingness to transfer supranational powers to key AU institutions. For example, the Pan-African Parliament has only <a href="https://theconversation.com/toothless-pan-african-parliament-could-have-meaningful-powers-heres-how-87449">limited, advisory</a> rather than full legislative powers.</p>
<p>Similarly, the AU Commission lacks the power to make member states comply with institutional rules. The 2017 <a href="http://www.mandelaschool.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/78/News/FInal%20AU%20Reform%20Combined%20report_28012017.pdf">Kagame report</a> on AU reforms noted that the union has passed over 1,500 resolutions but has no mechanism for tracking their implementation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toothless-pan-african-parliament-could-have-meaningful-powers-heres-how-87449">Toothless Pan-African Parliament could have meaningful powers. Here's how</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Member states have failed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/successes-of-african-human-rights-court-undermined-by-resistance-from-states-166454">comply</a> with about 75% of the decisions of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In reaction to judgments against them, member states such as <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/individual-and-ngo-access-to-the-african-court-on-human-and-peoples-rights-the-latest-blow-from-tanzania/">Tanzania</a>, <a href="https://ijrcenter.org/2020/05/06/benin-and-cote-divoire-to-withdraw-individual-access-to-african-court/">Benin</a>, <a href="https://ijrcenter.org/2016/03/14/rwanda-withdraws-access-to-african-court-for-individuals-and-ngos/">Rwanda</a>, and <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2020/04/30/ivory-coast-withdraws-from-african-human-rights-and-peoples-court/#:%7E:text=Ivory%20Coast%20withdrew%20from%20the,to%2020%20years%20in%20jail.">Côte d’Ivoire</a> have withdrawn the permission allowing individuals and NGOs access to the court.</p>
<p>The AU’s dependence on external funding is another impediment. Despite ongoing financial reforms, at least <a href="https://au.int/en/articles/african-union-sustainable-funding-strategy-gains-momentum">61% of its budget</a> comes from external donors. Some use donations as a tool to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354654152_'She_who_pays_the_piper'_Examining_the_delegitimising_influence_of_European_Union's_financial_support_to_the_African_Union">manipulate</a> AU processes. </p>
<p>The continuous violation of AU norms and standards on human rights and governance is a major obstacle to deepening continental integration. For example, there has been an <a href="https://theconversation.com/burkina-faso-coup-latest-sign-of-a-rise-in-the-ballot-box-being-traded-for-bullets-175642">upsurge</a> in military coups in recent years. In addition, <a href="https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/publications/publication/did/a-divided-continent">democratic backsliding</a> is on the rise, through unconstitutional changes of term limits, <a href="https://africacenter.org/spotlight/deluge-digital-repression-threatens-african-security/">digital repression</a>, violent <a href="https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/publications/publication/did/a-divided-continent">clampdown on opposition voices</a>, and <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2020/03/how-african-presidents-rig-elections-to-stay-in-office/">electoral fraud</a>.</p>
<p>The AU’s response has been tepid. In some cases, leaders involved in <a href="https://www.africaportal.org/features/sisis-chairmanship-isnt-tonic-african-union-currently-needs/">suppressing</a> democratic voices are <a href="https://au.int/en/speeches/20200209/statement-president-paul-kagame-overview-implementation-institutional-reform-au">tasked</a> with leading key processes in the AU.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/connecting-african-citizens-with-african-decisions">limited role</a> of civil society in pan-African integration is another concern. And there is little public awareness of what the AU does and how.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/successes-of-african-human-rights-court-undermined-by-resistance-from-states-166454">Successes of African Human Rights Court undermined by resistance from states</a>
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<p>Despite the benefits that could come from <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/promise-of-african-economic-integration-by-c-lestin-monga-2019-01">an integrated Africa</a>, many African countries remain wary of the process. For example, some restrict human mobility. They have refused to sign the continental protocol on free movement, citing security concerns and <a href="https://blogs.eui.eu/migrationpolicycentre/barriers-free-movement-africa-remove/">protection of local jobs</a>.</p>
<h2>Changing mindsets</h2>
<p>The effectiveness of reforms at the AU depends on a change of mindset. Members need to understand that enhancement of Africa’s position in global realpolitik depends on an internally cohesive body. This will require actions in three key areas:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a detailed but <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/bafr/8/2/article-p156_7.xml">flexible</a> plan showing how willing states will transfer supranational powers to AU organs </p></li>
<li><p>including the African populace in AU programmes and processes </p></li>
<li><p>adherence to constitutionalism. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Without a system that emphasises fundamental rights and good governance, regional integration goals such as trade, free movement of people, gender equality, peace and security cannot be realised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Babatunde Fagbayibo receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. </span></em></p>Despite the benefits that could come from integration, many African countries remain wary of the process.Babatunde Fagbayibo, Professor of International Law, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1786092022-03-05T14:53:37Z2022-03-05T14:53:37ZHow Kwame Nkrumah’s midnight speech set a tradition for marking the moment of liberation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450141/original/file-20220305-19-gqchw6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kwame Nkrumah's vision still resonates with Ghanaians</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbdodane/9761663542">JB Dodane/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Ghana celebrates the <a href="https://nationaltoday.com/ghana-independence-day/">65th anniversary</a> of its independence from Britain, it is worth revisiting the landmark speech Kwame Nkrumah delivered at midnight to mark the event of Ghana’s birth. Nkrumah had led a mass movement demanding self-government in the anticolonial struggle and was, with independence, poised to become the first Prime Minister of independent Ghana.</p>
<p>Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from colonial rule. Accordingly, Nkrumah’s speech at the moment of liberation set a tone of pride in Ghana’s accomplishment along with hope for freedom struggles still in progress across decolonising Africa and its diaspora. </p>
<p>Today, Nkrumah’s midnight speech stands as a model of African political leadership that avoids the mimicry of Western models.</p>
<p>Addressing a large and excited crowd, Nkrumah’s first words at midnight were:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At long last the battle has ended! And thus Ghana, your beloved country, is free for ever.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the climax of the speech, Nkrumah acknowledged the larger stakes of the moment, declaring: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with total liberation of the African continent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15358593.2022.2027996">recent analysis</a> of Nkrumah’s midnight speech reflects on how he used his performance at the moment of Ghana’s independence to outline his vision of colonial freedom. Nkrumah’s revolutionary rhetoric refused the narrow grounds on which Britain was offering Ghana independence. Instead, he sought to generate new forms of belonging outside the conditions that were the remnants of colonialism. </p>
<p>Nkrumah embraced various populations in the colony who had been devalued by the colonial administration and ignored by African leaders who were his rivals. His rhetoric worked alongside political rallies to organise a mass base that was a means of distinction for his party, the Convention People’s Party.</p>
<p>In addition, he advocated for pan-African union so that Ghana and other emergent African countries wouldn’t perpetuate the legacies of colonial rule. At the time, Nkrumah worried that the piecemeal liberation of colonised territories would limit the transformative potential of independence. Instead, he promoted African union as a way to establish new shared identities and a self-determined presence in international affairs. </p>
<p>Today, Nkrumah’s vision of a united Africa stands as a testament to the common humanity of Africans. Nkrumah’s embrace of the mass base and pan-African discourses mattered because it injected populist energies into Gold Coast politics and demonstrated a way for Africans to pursue sovereignty within conditions of their own making.</p>
<h2>Nkrumah’s vision of freedom</h2>
<p>Trinidadian journalist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/274609">George Padmore</a>, one of Nkrumah’s closest advisors, singled out how Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party offered a new form of political leadership that was centred on</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the plebeian masses, the urban workers, artisans, petty traders, market women and fishermen, the clerks, the junior teachers, and the vast farming communities of the rural areas.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is fitting, then, that, in the speech, Nkrumah named the people on equal terms with the chiefs when he recognised those who would “reshape the destiny of this country”. Rather than taking his cues from traditional rulers, Nkrumah used this mass base to ensure that the possibilities of postcolonial society would not be limited by precolonial traditions. </p>
<p>He also promoted the masses as representatives of the “new African” who is </p>
<blockquote>
<p>ready to fight his own battle and show that after all the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This proud and defiant vision of African political achievement was in stark contrast to racist and imperial ways of knowing that degraded and doubted African and black potential. </p>
<p>A second major theme of Nkrumah’s midnight speech was his view of the role of pan-Africanism in relationship to national consolidation. He said that Ghana’s independence was</p>
<blockquote>
<p>meaningless unless it is linked up with total liberation of the African continent. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although this became one of the most famous statements of the speech, its novel sentiment should not be overlooked. It marked Nkrumah’s widening of freedom to include pan-African dimensions. In subsequent years, Nkrumah would coordinate efforts across the continent, including the <a href="http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/africa/OAU_Charter_1993.html">1963 ratification of the Organisation of African Unity</a>. </p>
<p>Today, one of the enduring tributes to his work encouraging political and economic cooperation among African nations is the statue of Nkrumah on the grounds of the African Union building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which depicts him as he was dressed during the midnight speech.</p>
<p>One of the curious aspects of Nkrumah’s midnight speech is the fact that he asked the band to play the Ghana National Anthem twice. The first time, it was played after a moment of silence and Nkrumah’s declaration: “Ghana is free forever!”</p>
<p>Later, Nkrumah called for the anthem to be played again, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>this time … it is going to be played in honour of the foreign states who are here with us today.“ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This second anthem, however, has been written out of most of the widespread records of the speech (including the version that Nkrumah included in his 1961 book, <em>I Speak of Freedom</em>).</p>
<p>My archival work in both Ghana and the US has recovered a complete version of the speech that includes the second anthem and other omitted passages.</p>
<p>In my view, these dual anthems mark both the national and international audiences that Nkrumah was addressing. </p>
<p>For Nkrumah, achieving genuine freedom was not as simple as merely renaming the Gold Coast "Ghana” and replacing the colonial administers in Accra’s Christiansborg Castle with African agents. The “hard work” that Nkrumah focused on that night included a social and ideological reorganisation to match the political changes underway within independence. In this view, the pursuit of pan-African union was central to the transfiguration of the political kingdom. </p>
<h2>Beyond Ghana</h2>
<p>Nkrumah’s midnight speech is everywhere in Ghana today. It circulates on radio and in social media posts. Key quotations from it are emblazoned on t-shirts, posters, magazine covers, billboards, and beyond. As Nkrumah has ascended to founding father status within Ghana’s current Fourth Republic, contemporary politicians from all sides of the political spectrum invoke it. This is true even when advocating for policies that are in direct tension with those of Nkrumahism.</p>
<p>What is less well known, however, is that, in part because of Nkrumah’s influence and the catalytic role of Ghana’s freedom, the midnight independence speech has become a transnational tradition tied to moments of postcolonial foundation across the globe. </p>
<p>The midnight staging of Nkrumah’s speech was, in fact, an allusion to <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/tryst_with_destiny">the midnight speech</a> that Jawaharlal Nehru delivered for India’s independence ten years earlier. In addition, the convention of a midnight independence ceremony became a recurring practice for other countries emerging from colonial rule. Midnight independence ceremonies in subsequent years included Nigeria (1960), Sierra Leone (1961), Tanzania (1961), Botswana (1966), Angola (1975), and Zimbabwe (1980). </p>
<p>Across the Black Atlantic, Guyana marked independence with a midnight celebration (1966) and even the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China was celebrated with a midnight countdown.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erik Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nkrumah’s rhetorical vision used the politics of the crowd to build a postcolonial community outside of the conscripts of colonialism.Erik Johnson, Assistant Professor, Media and Communications Studies, Stetson University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1772592022-02-20T05:50:45Z2022-02-20T05:50:45ZThe story of how Swahili became Africa’s most spoken language<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447271/original/file-20220218-37276-ov27yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere, a Swahili advocate.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keystone/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once just an obscure island dialect of an African Bantu tongue, Swahili has evolved into Africa’s most internationally recognised language. It is peer to the few languages of the world that boast over 200 million users. </p>
<p>Over the two millennia of Swahili’s growth and adaptation, the moulders of this story – immigrants from inland Africa, traders from Asia, Arab and European occupiers, European and Indian settlers, colonial rulers, and individuals from various postcolonial nations – have used Swahili and adapted it to their own purposes. They have taken it wherever they have gone to the west. </p>
<p>Africa’s Swahili-speaking zone now extends across a full third of the continent from south to north and touches on the opposite coast, encompassing the heart of Africa.</p>
<h2>The origins</h2>
<p>The historical lands of the Swahili are on East Africa’s Indian Ocean littoral. A 2,500-kilometer chain of coastal towns from Mogadishu, Somalia to Sofala, Mozambique as well as offshore islands as far away as the Comoros and Seychelles. </p>
<p>This coastal region has long served as an international crossroads of trade and human movement. People from all walks of life and from regions as scattered as Indonesia, Persia, the African Great Lakes, the United States and Europe all encountered one another. Hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and farmers mingled with traders and city-dwellers. </p>
<p>Africans devoted to ancestors and the spirits of their lands met Muslims, Hindus, Portuguese Catholics and British Anglicans. Workers (among them slaves, porters and labourers), soldiers, rulers and diplomats were mixed together from ancient days. Anyone who went to the East African littoral could choose to become Swahili, and many did.</p>
<h2>African unity</h2>
<p>The roll of Swahili enthusiasts and advocates includes notable intellectuals, freedom fighters, civil rights activists, political leaders, scholarly professional societies, entertainers and health workers. Not to mention the usual professional writers, poets, and artists. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-and-pan-africanism-from-blitz-the-ambassador-to-beyonce-151680">Hip hop and Pan Africanism: from Blitz the Ambassador to Beyoncé</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Foremost has been Nobel Laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">Wole Soyinka</a>. The Nigerian writer, poet and playwright has since the 1960s repeatedly called for use of Swahili as the transcontinental language for Africa. The <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/african-union-adopts-swahili-as-official-working-language/2498467">African Union</a> (AU), the “united states of Africa” nurtured the same sentiment of continental unity in July 2004 and adopted Swahili as its official language. As <a href="https://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/member/joaquim-chissano/">Joaquim Chissano</a> (then the president of Mozambique) put this motion on the table, he addressed the AU in the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3871315.stm">flawless Swahili</a> he had learned in Tanzania, where he was educated while in exile from the Portuguese colony.</p>
<p>The African Union did not <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/200407060715.html">adopt</a> Swahili as Africa’s international language by happenstance. Swahili has a much longer history of building bridges among peoples across the continent of Africa and into the diaspora.</p>
<p>The feeling of unity, the insistence that all of Africa is one, just will not disappear. Languages are <a href="https://qz.com/africa/996013/african-languages-should-be-at-the-center-of-educational-and-cultural-achievement/">elemental</a> to everyone’s sense of belonging, of expressing what’s in one’s heart. The AU’s decision was particularly striking given that the populations of its member states speak an estimated <a href="https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5769808/mod_resource/content/1/MAKONI%20and%20PENNYCOOK%20Disinventig.pdf">two thousand languages</a> (roughly one-third of all human languages), several dozen of them with more than a million speakers.</p>
<p>How did Swahili come to hold so prominent a position among so many groups with their own diverse linguistic histories and traditions? </p>
<h2>A liberation language</h2>
<p>During the decades leading up to the independence of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the early 1960s, Swahili functioned as an international means of political collaboration. It enabled freedom fighters throughout the region to communicate their common aspirations even though their native languages varied widely. </p>
<p>The rise of Swahili, for some Africans, was a mark of true cultural and personal independence from the colonising Europeans and their languages of control and command. Uniquely among Africa’s independent nations, Tanzania’s government uses Swahili for all official business and, most impressively, in basic education. Indeed, the Swahili word uhuru (freedom), which emerged from this independence struggle, became part of the <a href="https://inpdum.org">global lexicon</a> of political empowerment.</p>
<p>The highest political offices in East Africa began using and promoting Swahili soon after independence. Presidents <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Nyerere">Julius Nyerere</a> of Tanzania (1962–85) and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jomo-Kenyatta">Jomo Kenyatta</a> of Kenya (1964–78) promoted Swahili as integral to the region’s political and economic interests, security and liberation. The political power of language was demonstrated, less happily, by Ugandan dictator <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Idi-Amin">Idi Amin</a> (1971–79), who used Swahili for his army and secret police operations during his reign of terror.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-kiswahili-science-fiction-award-charts-a-path-for-african-languages-163876">New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Under Nyerere, Tanzania became one of only two African nations ever to declare a native African language as the country’s official mode of communication (the other is Ethiopia, with Amharic). Nyerere <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/shakespeare-goes-to-east-africa">personally translated</a> two of William Shakespeare’s plays into Swahili to demonstrate the capacity of Swahili to bear the expressive weight of great literary works. </p>
<h2>Socialist overtones</h2>
<p>Nyerere even made the term Swahili a referent to Tanzanian citizenship. Later, this label acquired socialist overtones in praising the common men and women of the nation. It stood in stark contrast to Europeans and Western-oriented elite Africans with quickly – and by implication dubiously – amassed wealth.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the term grew even further to encompass the poor of all races, of both African and non-African descent. In my own experience as a lecturer at Stanford University in the 1990s, for instance, several of the students from Kenya and Tanzania referred to the poor white neighbourhood of East Palo Alto, California, as Uswahilini, “Swahili land”. As opposed to Uzunguni, “land of the mzungu (white person)”. </p>
<p>Nyerere considered it prestigious to be called Swahili. With his influence, the term became imbued with sociopolitical connotations of the poor but worthy and even noble. This in turn helped construct a Pan African popular identity independent of the elite-dominated national governments of Africa’s fifty-some nation-states. </p>
<p>Little did I realise then that the Swahili label had been used as a conceptual rallying point for solidarity across the lines of community, competitive towns, and residents of many backgrounds for over a millennium.</p>
<h2>Kwanzaa and ujamaa</h2>
<p>In 1966, (activist and author) <a href="https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/maulana-karenga-39">Maulana Ron Karenga</a> associated the black freedom movement with Swahili, choosing Swahili as its official language and creating the Kwanzaa celebration. The term <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kwanzaa-means-for-black-americans-88220">Kwanzaa</a> is derived from the Swahili word ku-anza, meaning “to begin” or “first”. The holiday was intended to celebrate the matunda ya kwanza, “first fruits”. According to Karenga, Kwanzaa symbolises the festivities of ancient African harvests.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman sings and dances, dressed in traditional East African fabric with headpiece and holding a wooden bowl, the sides strung with cowrie shells." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447275/original/file-20220218-43804-1dt7li6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Kwanzaa celebration in Denver, US.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Celebrants were encouraged to adopt Swahili names and to address one another by Swahili titles of respect. Based on Nyerere’s principle of <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-172">ujamaa</a> (unity in mutual contributions), Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles or pillars. Unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), shared purpose (nia), individual creativity (kuumba) and faith (imani). </p>
<p>Nyerere also became the icon of “community brotherhood and sisterhood” under the slogan of the Swahili word ujamaa. That word has gained such strong appeal that it has been used as far afield as among Australian Aborigines and African Americans and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Swahili_State_and_Society.html?id=-9MwAAByvf0C&redir_esc=y">across the globe</a> from London to Papua New Guinea. Not to mention its ongoing celebration on many US college campuses in the form of dormitories named ujamaa houses.</p>
<h2>Today</h2>
<p>Today, Swahili is the African language most widely recognised outside the continent. The global presence of Swahili in radio broadcasting and on the internet has no equal among sub-Saharan African languages. </p>
<p>Swahili is broadcast regularly in Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland and Tanzania. On the international scene, no other African language can be heard from world news stations as often or as extensively.</p>
<p>At least as far back as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022495/">Trader Horn</a> (1931), Swahili words and speech have been heard in hundreds of movies and television series, such as <a href="https://intl.startrek.com/database_article/uhura">Star Trek</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089755/">Out of Africa</a>, Disney’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/">The Lion King</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146316/">Lara Croft: Tomb Raider</a>. The Lion King featured several Swahili words, the most familiar being the names of characters, including Simba (lion), Rafiki (friend) and Pumbaa (be dazed). Swahili phrases included asante sana (thank you very much) and, of course, that no-problem philosophy known as hakuna matata repeated throughout the movie. </p>
<p>Swahili lacks the numbers of speakers, the wealth, and the political power associated with global languages such as Mandarin, English or Spanish. But Swahili appears to be the only language boasting more than 200 million speakers that has more second-language speakers than native ones.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kwanzaa-means-for-black-americans-88220">What Kwanzaa means for Black Americans</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By immersing themselves in the affairs of a maritime culture at a key commercial gateway, the people who were eventually designated Waswahili (Swahili people) created a niche for themselves. They were important enough in the trade that newcomers had little choice but to speak Swahili as the language of trade and diplomacy. And the Swahili population became more entrenched as successive generations of second-language speakers of Swahili lost their ancestral languages and became bona fide Swahili.</p>
<p>The key to understanding this story is to look deeply at the Swahili people’s response to challenges. At the ways in which they made their fortunes and dealt with misfortunes. And, most important, at how they honed their skills in balancing confrontation and resistance with adaptation and innovation as they interacted with arrivals from other language backgrounds. </p>
<p><em>This is an edited extract of the <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/extras/9780896804890_chapter_01_and_toc.pdf">first chapter</a> of <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/The+Story+of+Swahili">The Story of Swahili</a> from Ohio University Press</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M. Mugane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over two millennia, Swahili has built bridges among people across Africa and into the diaspora.John M. Mugane, Professor, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1765972022-02-09T14:02:18Z2022-02-09T14:02:18ZWhite Malice: how the CIA strangled African independence at birth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445362/original/file-20220209-13-1t2q9l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patrice Lumumba, left, first Prime Minister of independent Congo in 1960. The CIA celebrated his death. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Historian <a href="https://research.sas.ac.uk/search/fellow/185/dr-susan-williams/">Susan Williams</a> grew up in Zambia. Like other scholars of her generation raised in former settler societies of southern Africa, she empathises with the continent’s people.</p>
<p>Williams’ widely acknowledged new book, <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/white-malice/">White Malice – The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa</a>, adds to her track record, testifying to this engagement. Almost a forensic account, its more than 500 pages (supported by close to 150 pages of sources, references and index) are as readable as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-le-Carre">John le Carré</a> novel. </p>
<p>But make no mistake: Williams ruthlessly reveals through factual evidence the unsavoury machinations of the American <a href="https://www.cia.gov/">Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)</a> in Africa during the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War">Cold War</a> until the late 1960s. While scholarly analyses of this era have increased, the literature mainly focuses on how geostrategic aspects had an impact on international policy. In contrast, this is the first detailed account disclosing a Western dirty war through detailed quotes from original documents and by those involved.</p>
<p>Published in 2011, her investigative research titled <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/who-killed-hammarskjold-2/">Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa</a> made history. The evidence strengthened suspicions that the plane crash that killed the United Nations Secretary General and 15 others on 17/18 September 1961 near Ndola, in then <a href="https://www.history.com/news/dag-hammarskjold-death-plane-crash">Northern Rhodesia</a>, was no accident. As continuously updated by the Westminster branch of the <a href="http://www.hammarskjoldinquiry.info/">United Nations Association</a>, the disclosures triggered <a href="https://theconversation.com/speaking-truth-to-power-the-killing-of-dag-hammarskjold-and-the-cover-up-65534">new investigations</a> by the UN.</p>
<p>In 2016 Williams published <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/spies-in-the-congo-2/#:%7E:text=Spies%20in%20the%20Congo%20is,to%20build%20its%20atomic%20bomb">Spies in the Congo: The Race for the Ore that Built the Atomic Bomb</a>. The focus was on <a href="https://www.mindat.org/loc-4328.html">Shinkolobwe</a>, the world’s biggest uranium mine, in the Congolese Katanga province. Of crucial geostrategic importance, in the 1940s it supplied the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-manhattan-project">Manhattan Project</a>, which produced the first atomic bombs, which devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Shinkolobwe remained the main resource in the American nuclear arming of the 1950s.</p>
<h2>White Malice</h2>
<p>Williams’ new book seems like the third in a trilogy. Its title, White Malice, captures the racist arrogance of power, unscrupulously destabilising and (re-)gaining control over sovereign states as a form of colonialism by other means. </p>
<p>Not by coincidence, the book revisits the circumstances of Hammarskjöld’s death and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Katanga-province-Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo">relevance of Katanga</a>. More room is devoted to a step-by-step account leading to the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/L/bo20598433.html">elimination of Patrice Lumumba</a>, the first prime minister of an independent Congo.</p>
<p>Another major focus is on Ghana since independence <a href="https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/was-the-gold-coast-decolonised-or-did-ghana-win-its-independence">in 1957</a>. Documenting the continental role of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah">President Kwame Nkrumah</a>, it explains why and how he was removed from office. His role in promoting <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313574089_Kwame_Nkrumah_and_the_panafrican_vision_Between_acceptance_and_rebuttal">pan-Africanism</a> was equated with an anti-Western attitude. </p>
<p>All this is tied together by the interventions by the CIA and its predecessor, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Office-of-Strategic-Services">Office for Strategic Services</a>, often in cahoots with the <a href="https://www.sis.gov.uk/">British MI6</a>. The detailed accounts offer insights into the secret operations then. The display of mindsets and their consequences do not require theory or analytical comment. The facts speak for themselves. </p>
<p>Both agencies shared access to the encrypted messages used in confidential communication by Hammarskjöld and other high-ranking UN officials. As quoted by Williams (p. 290), the CIA celebrated this as “the intelligence coup of the century”.</p>
<p>The UK and the USA have still not disclosed insider knowledge concerning the deaths of Hammarskjöld and his entourage. Their secret agents were also involved in deliberations to kill Lumumba. Though they weren’t directly participating in his abduction, torture and execution in Katanga, it suited their agenda.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Book cover shows a map of Africa with its western parts in a sniper's sights." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445364/original/file-20220209-21-hhrw56.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nkrumah was luckier. A state visit to Beijing saved his life, when in his absence the <a href="https://www.eaumf.org/ejm-blog/2018/2/23/february-24-1966-dr-kwame-nkrumah-overthrown-as-president-of-the-republic-of-ghana">military coup took place</a>. Nelson Mandela was also “spared” by being imprisoned for most of the next 30 years. His <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/trials-and-prison-chronology">arrest in South Africa in 1962</a> under the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/suppression-communism-act-no-44-1950-approved-parliament">Suppression of Communism Act</a> was based on information provided by the CIA (p. 474). </p>
<h2>Western mindset</h2>
<p>Williams quotes (p. 77) a high-ranking CIA agent to illustrate the overall Western mindset. He declared in 1957:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Africa has become the real battleground and the next field of the big test of strength – not only for the free world and the communist world but for our own country and our Allies who are colonialist powers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The strategy included replacing independent nationalist leaders with <a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anthos/vol2/iss1/5/">“big men”</a> – autocrats who based their power on Western support, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mobutu-Sese-Seko">Mobutu Sese Seko</a>. A track record in or commitment to democracy and human rights was not a prerequisite.</p>
<p>In contrast, leaders like Guinea’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sekou-Toure">Sékou Touré</a> were considered enemies. Arguing for a referendum rejecting continued dependency from France, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/28/obituaries/ahmed-sekou-toure-a-radical-hero.html">declared in 1958</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Guinea prefers poverty in freedom to riches in slavery (p. 74).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Cultural operations</h2>
<p>CIA operations were not confined to plots ending in brute force. Some were cultural programmes, unbeknown to many artists and scholars who received CIA sponsorship.</p>
<p>This included stipends to South African writers in exile, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/eskia-mphahlele">Es'kia Mphahlele</a> and <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902011000100004">Nat Nakasa</a>, as well as the sponsoring of cultural festivals and conferences in Africa. Williams (p. 64) quotes the future Nobel laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">Wole Soyinka</a>, who after discovering that he had unknowingly received CIA funds <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we had been dining, and with relish, with the original of that serpentine incarnation, the Devil himself, romping in our post-colonial Garden of Eden and gorging on the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a spectacular disclosure (pp. 324-331) Williams presents details of CIA-funded concerts by <a href="https://npg.si.edu/exh/armstrong/">Louis Armstrong</a>, touring 27 African cities in 11 weeks during late 1960. This included a concert in Elisabethville, the Katanga breakaway province of Congo, at a time when Lumumba’s end was near. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/12/louis-armstrong-and-the-spy-how-the-cia-used-him-as-a-trojan-horse-in-congo">According to Williams</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Armstrong was basically a Trojan horse for the CIA … He would have been horrified.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Facts, not fiction</h2>
<p>The US’s <a href="https://www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp">obsessive anti-communism</a>, which escalated in the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy, at times took lethal forms when governments or leaders were considered to be obstructing Western interests. </p>
<p>A sense of guilt or remorse remains absent. Mike Pompeo says it all. Then CIA director from January 2017 to April 2018 and Donald Trump’s <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/pompeo-michael-r">Secretary of State</a>, “celebrated immorality”, as Williams drily comments (p. 515). “I was the CIA director,” Pompeo boosted in a quoted speech in 2019:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The story, unlike John le Carré’s, is definitely not fiction. CIA operations, at times in collaboration with other Western intelligence agencies, were pursuing a hegemonic agenda with lasting impact.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Melber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Detailed accounts from original documents offer insights into the secret operations of the CIA in Africa.Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1744852022-01-12T14:33:51Z2022-01-12T14:33:51ZAfricans and African-Americans would honour Martin Luther King by rekindling their bonds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440415/original/file-20220112-13-fulvzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, at a recent press conference preview the King Holiday observance in Atlanta, Georgia.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Erik S. Lesser</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During an official visit to Washington DC in 1962, Cameroon’s founding President Ahmadou Ahidjo informed President John F. Kennedy of his <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/equality-noninterference-and-sovereignty-president-ahmadou-ahidjo-and-the-making-of-cameroonus-relations/20C7C112F4588FFA414E0E0572ECFCA7">displeasure over anti-black racism in the US</a>. Ahidjo met and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/equality-noninterference-and-sovereignty-president-ahmadou-ahidjo-and-the-making-of-cameroonus-relations/20C7C112F4588FFA414E0E0572ECFCA7">praised</a> the leadership of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lift-Every-Voice-Making-Movement/dp/B0096EQTG0">National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)</a>, the oldest African American civil rights organisation, for its willingness to unite with Africa “in a world-wide movement to fight against the evils of racial discrimination, injustice, racial prejudices, and hatred”.</p>
<p>He later <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Contribution-national-construction-African-political/dp/B0007K7TL6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2Q1HLGGZVNUVF&keywords=ahmadou+ahidjo%2C+contributions+to+national+construction&qid=1639875012&sprefix=ahmadou+ahidjo%2C+contributions+to+national+construction%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-1">wrote that</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Each time a black man [and woman] is humiliated anywhere in the world, all Negroes the world over are hurt. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>President Ahidjo called for a united front between Africans and African-Americans to confront anti-black racism. </p>
<p>He was not the first postcolonial African leader to make such a request. Ghana’s founding President Kwame Nkrumah’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313574089_Kwame_Nkrumah_and_the_panafrican_vision_Between_acceptance_and_rebuttal">Pan-Africanism</a> was a message about black upliftment and unity, and his close ally, Sekou Touré of Guinea, <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/ahmed-s%C3%A9kou-tour%C3%A9-1922-1984">advocated similar objectives</a>.</p>
<p>Those calls for a crusade against anti-black racism were deeply rooted in the best of African nationalism. </p>
<p>On the other side of the Atlantic, calls for collaboration to end racism were also taking place. A leading proponent of that message was the <a href="https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/clayborne-carson/a-call-to-conscience/9780759520080/">Rev. Martin Luther King Jr</a>. He and many in his generation rejected the negative proscriptions of Africa, and called for Africans and African Americans to join forces in the anti-racism crusade.</p>
<p>They <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53360.A_Testament_of_Hope">spoke fondly</a> of their roots in Africa: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>we are descendants of the Africans…“our heritage is Africa. We should never seek to break the ties, nor should the Africans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Africans and African-Americans must rekindle the spirit of collaboration and cooperation which existed among black nationalists over half a century ago to counter the rising tide of anti-black racism in the US. It was a relationship which came with mutual political, economic, and cultural benefits. </p>
<p>I am a scholar of modern African history with particular emphasis on Africa-US relations and have <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498502375/African-Immersion-American-College-Studen">published extensively in the field</a>. My <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/equality-noninterference-and-sovereignty-president-ahmadou-ahidjo-and-the-making-of-cameroonus-relations/20C7C112F4588FFA414E0E0572ECFCA7">latest publication</a>, on Cameroon-US relations, among other things, addresses the importance of the collaboration between Africans and African Americans to uplift Black people. </p>
<h2>King’s eyeopening visit to Ghana</h2>
<p>King’s knowledge of Africa evolved slowly, and was initially peppered with the usual beliefs of African backwardness. But a trip to Ghana was transformative. In 1957, President Kwame Nkrumah <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trip-newly-independent-ghana-inspired-074416217.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall">invited him to his country’s independence ceremony</a>. </p>
<p>King honoured the invitation. During the ceremony King ”<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trip-newly-independent-ghana-inspired-074416217.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIaZb_DR4jGxK6EFPgOGI9NAxQlgNssgDR1Urqw_22DKWDTH4oAwgLKZi3XDKQ8oeNxxG2BJHmkTuYPo5lJS8i79BcdCPlLceLsaiKj6syRmfTPgGwLugTIUkBOO_ABBsxQXXVcgUo4yFnCFViPTo31rBpDUaaZJ0kNuhVwpvVgL">started weeping… crying for joy</a>“ when the British flag was replaced with the Ghanaian flag. He spoke endlessly about the endurance, determination, and courage of the African people. The anti-colonial struggle in Ghana mirrored what was taking place all over Africa.</p>
<p>Later, King <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-nation-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">noted</a> that Ghana’s independence </p>
<blockquote>
<p>will have worldwide implication and repercussions — not only for Asia and Africa, but also for America. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This gave African Americans new insights about the anti-colonial struggle. </p>
<p>Increasingly, King saw parallels between the anti-colonial movement in Africa and the civil rights struggle in the US. In his sermon, ”<a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-nation-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">The Birth of a new nation</a>“, he stated that the Ghana example reinforced his belief that an</p>
<blockquote>
<p>oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He added that nonviolence was an effective tactic against oppression.
European colonialism of Africa and segregation in America were both "systems of evil”, he wrote, and <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-nation-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">summoned all to work to defeat them</a>. </p>
<h2>African nationalism meets US civil rights movement</h2>
<p>While racial segregation remained entrenched in America, the tide of independence was changing quickly in Africa. In 1960, 17 African <a href="https://www.macmillanexplorers.com/national-and-regional-histories/history-of-africa/17078210">nations gained independence</a>. They took their anti-racism message to the United Nations, where they chastised the US for its failure to stop anti-black racism. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Marchers carry a poster demanding justice for George Floyd and another bearing his face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440420/original/file-20220112-17-nryl1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The murder of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin angered the African Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/ Craig Lassig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>African representatives in the US were often victims of American racism. Given the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/strategies-of-containment-9780195174472?cc=us&lang=en&">Cold War</a>, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated that one of America’s major Cold War problems was the continuous anti-black racism in the country.</p>
<p>After Nigeria, King increasingly spoke of a sense of urgency. In his article, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1961/09/10/archives/the-time-for-freedom-has-come-this-belief-dr-king-asserts.html#:%7E:text=%27The%20Time%20for%20Freedom%20Has%20Come%27%3B%20This%20belief%2C,By%20Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr.%20Sept.%2010%2C%201961">The Time for Freedom has Come</a>”, he praised the independence movement in Africa while blasting the slow pace of change in the US. He referred to the independence movement in Africa as the </p>
<blockquote>
<p>greatest single international influence on American Negro students.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>African nationalists such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tom Mboya, Hastings Banda were “popular heroes on most Negro college campuses”, King stated. He <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53360.A_Testament_of_Hope">urged</a> African governments to do more to support the civil rights struggle of “their brothers [and sisters] in the US”. </p>
<p>In addition, newspapers in several African nations used the treatment of African Americans to question the role of America as the <a href="https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2010/the-peace-corps-in-cameroon/">leader of the “free world”</a>.</p>
<h2>Ebb and flow</h2>
<p>King and his contemporaries took seriously the partnership with Africa. African American leaders, activists, and scholars alike turned to Africa for inspiration. For example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/W_E_B_Du_Bois.html?id=-KkRAQAAMAAJ">WEB Du Bois</a>, whose credentials included being co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Pan-African movement, relocated to Ghana. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/us/stokely-carmichael-rights-leader-who-coined-black-power-dies-at-57.html">Stokely Carmichael</a> (Kwame Ture), who introduced the Black Power concept in the civil rights movement settled in Guinea. Many others immigrated to Africa. </p>
<p>Poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou was transformed by the African experience. <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/7921/maya-angelous-meeting-with-africa/">She wrote</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For it is Africa that struts around in our rounded calves, wiggles around in our protruding butts, and crackles in our wide and frank laugh. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The 1960s and 1970s were decades of remarkable collaboration and cooperation between Africans and African-Americans.</p>
<p>American political leaders took note of the collaboration between Africans and African-Americans. President John F. Kennedy, the first American president to treat Africa with respect, created a more informed US foreign policy towards African nations – in part <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Black-Liberation-1948-1968/dp/0826204589/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1C1CIDK16G45D&keywords=Thomas+noer&qid=1639886835&sprefix=thomas+noer%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1">to woo the support of African-Americans in elections</a>.</p>
<p>Kennedy’s policy was later abandoned by his successors – some of whom reverted to referring to Africans as “<a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=WsIIDJlKm6sC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=Lyndon+Johnson+Africa+cannibals&source=bl&ots=bQBLUppsTF&sig=yZPq5JA4MdgbQH2LsdCke68rt3M&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Lyndon%20Johnson%20Africa%20cannibals&f=false">cannibals</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Enchanting-Darkness-American-Twentieth-Century/dp/0870133217/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LS3NS1GALRTI&keywords=an+enchanting+darkness%3A+the+american+vision+of+africa+in+the+twentieth+century&qid=1639879403&sprefix=an+enchanting+darkness+the+american+vision+of+africa+in+the+twentieth+century%2Caps%2C81&sr=8-1">genetically inferior</a>”.</p>
<p>Those new policies coincided with a deep level of ignorance about Africans by African-Americans and vice-versa. And little effort was made by each side to bridge the gap. African Americans increasingly saw Africans through a stereotypical lens invented by the western society to justify colonialism and slavery. </p>
<p>In turn, Africans accepted uncritically America’s <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498502375/African-Immersion-American-College-Students-in-Cameroon">mainstream society’s labels of African Americans</a>. The type of relations and advocacy forged by King’s generation had evaporated.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>But the tide may be changing. There was renewed interest following the release of the movie Black Panther which showed blacks as capable, determined, and <a href="https://apercu.web.unc.edu/2018/04/the-black-panther-to-african-american-society/">possessed civilisation</a>. Following the murder of <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-why-the-sight-of-these-brave-exhausted-protesters-gives-me-hope-139804">George Floyd</a> in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the African Union publicly condemned America for its continuous racism against blacks. </p>
<p>The spokesperson Ebba Kalondo <a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20200529/statement-chairperson-following-murder-george-floyd-usa">issued</a> a strong condemnation of</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kalondo demanded a full investigation of the killing. </p>
<p>This new position may rekindle the spirit of cooperation and collaboration which characterised the King era. A major part of ending anti-black racism in the US is to learn about the role Africa played in shaping the idea of the west and <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Born-Blackness-Howard-W-French/9781631495823">Africa’s contributions to global civilizations</a>. </p>
<p>That knowledge will implode centuries-old myths of Africa’s backwardness and incapability. It is up to African Americans to champion that conversation in university classrooms and many other public spaces. </p>
<p>Finally, what King said about Africa as full of “rich opportunities”, inviting African Americans to “lend their technical assistance” to a rising continent remains as true today as it was when he said it nearly 60 years ago. </p>
<p>The failure to do so has increasingly ceded the ground to other actors <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/03/07/the-new-scramble-for-africa">who continue to exploit the continent</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julius A. Amin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>King saw parallels between the anti-colonial movement in Africa and the civil rights struggle in the US.Julius A. Amin, Professor, Department of History, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.