tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/marcus-garvey-24746/articlesMarcus Garvey – The Conversation2023-12-08T14:17:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195152023-12-08T14:17:14Z2023-12-08T14:17:14ZHow Benjamin Zephaniah became the face of British Rastafari<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/07/british-poet-benjamin-zephaniah-dies-aged-65">sudden and untimely passing</a> of Benjamin Zephaniah at age 65 has rightly brought reflection on his legacy as a poet and as a writer, the two fields in which he made monumental contributions. </p>
<p>Zephaniah’s warmth, his accessibility –- and his lyrical genius – made him a household name and a national treasure. Hear him, in 2018, on BBC Radio 3, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0695pcz">waxing lyrical</a> about his favourite Shakespearean moments. “In Caribbean and African folklore,” he says, “there’s a character called Anansi who’s a spider and a bit of trickster, and it’s very much like Puck.” </p>
<p>See him on a Channel 4 chat show sofa, two years later, as MC Big Narstie asks why he <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-colonialism-and-slavery-why-empire-needs-to-be-removed-from-the-uk-honours-system-129311">turned down an OBE</a>. “I’ve been fighting against empire all my life,” Zephaniah replies. “How could I then go and accept an honour which puts empire on to my name?” </p>
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<p>These same attributes made Zephaniah the most prominent face of the UK Rastafari movement, in which he found his spiritual home. I had the privilege of getting to know him over the course of my research into Rastafari spirituality. </p>
<p>If the evergreen popularity of reggae music has resulted in public recognition of the Rastafari movement in name, in its beliefs, it remains misunderstood and mischaracterised. In the UK, Zephaniah became its standard bearer. His public adherence represented a full frontal challenge to the pervasive criminal stereotypes with which racist politicians and police forces have long tagged Rastafari. </p>
<h2>Persecution of Rastafari</h2>
<p>Zephaniah was born and raised in the Handsworth area of Birmingham in 1958. He came of age in the late 1970s, as the UK fell head first into Thatcherism and the far-right National Front achieved its biggest ever vote tally.</p>
<p>Black Rastafari of the era invariably faced daily racist persecution. Faith-based persecution, endorsed by the establishment, was soon to follow. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-19399-8_3">Sociologists</a> point to a 1977 report commissioned by the West Midlands Police and titled Shades of Grey as having been instrumental in creating, as journalist Derek Bishton <a href="https://derekbishton.com/shades-of-grey-a-report-on-police-west-indian-relations-in-handsworth/">notes</a>, “the popular sentiment that Black people were much more predisposed to criminality, and that it was their culture which produced this behaviour”. </p>
<p>The report insidiously associated “hardcore Dreadlocks” with “a criminalised sub-culture”. It asserted this community posed a constant threat to “the peace of individual citizens”. </p>
<p>There was of course crime and violence in the area, as in any other. Indeed, Zephaniah himself has spoken about possessing a gun at one point and also serving time in prison for burglary. </p>
<p>What Brown’s report served to do, however, was to designate this criminality as wholly tied to specific cultural norms. It hinged on a thinly defined and spurious characterisation of Rastafari as a criminal enterprise, rather than the spiritual movement it is.</p>
<p>Criminologists highlight how this false association of <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-people-are-often-associated-with-deviance-but-i-never-understood-the-true-impact-until-i-was-racially-profiled-179259">“deviance”</a> with Black communities and Black culture persists in British society, with horrendous consequences.</p>
<h2>Challenging oppression</h2>
<p>Zephaniah rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s through published poetry and subsequent musical and TV appearances. Through his titanic output, he showed Rastafari to be a vibrant and assertive movement, which rejected violence and hatred, and challenged oppression wherever it resided.</p>
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<img alt="A signed frontispiece in a book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564482/original/file-20231208-15-u3u9pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=691&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">Eternal optimism: Benjamin Zephaniah’s dedication for the author’s nephew, Henry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Powell</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Zephaniah had seemingly eternal optimism. This never limited his ability to confront. When he appeared on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0094495">Desert Island Discs in 1997</a>, presenter Sue Lawley asked, what it means to be Rastafari “beyond all the things we know, the dreadlocks and so on?”</p>
<p>Zephaniah inhaled, ever so slightly wearily. Then he replied: “Well, if you can imagine being in a non-Christian country and someone asking ‘Tell us what does it mean to be a Christian’ very quickly, it’s a very difficult thing to do.” He went on to list what he saw as three common uniting threads of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40654506?saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiIxODk3OTU5NS01YzhlLTRjZDctODAwZi03YjVkM2M2NDhmZmEiLCJlbWFpbCI6ImphcDg2QGNhbS5hYy51ayIsImluc3RpdHV0aW9uSWRzIjpbIjNhMWY4MjRiLWUzNzUtNDQ3Mi05YTc3LTg4NmMyODA3OTJiOCJdfQ&seq=9">Rastafari thinking</a>: veneration of former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie as divine and Jamaican pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey as a prophet, as well as a spiritual orientation toward Africa. </p>
<p>When I first reached out to Zephaniah <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14769948.2021.1897097#:%7E:text=The%20%E2%80%9Cnatural%20man%E2%80%9D%20premise%20can,to%20those%20first%20in%20creation.">about</a> Rastafari dietary practice, he welcomed me into his office at Brunel University. He explained his view that human intelligence lets us know that killing animals is wrong when there’s an alternative available. </p>
<p>The last time we spoke was in February 2020. He was typically generous with his time, turning what was officially a one-hour slot into a two-hour discussion ranging widely between Extinction Rebellion, the Trump presidency, environmental tokenism and the need for Rastafari to attempt to amplify its voice in ecological debates. </p>
<p>I still now recall his powerful and vivid descriptions of communing with nature and the Almighty in parallel. He said:</p>
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<p>For me when I meditate I don’t feel there’s a question about if there’s a God or not, I feel God. And at the same time I’m feeling God I feel my relationship to the tree, I feel my relationship to the grass, I feel my relationship to the animals. There’s a thing I feel more than anything, more than my hand more than my foot, more than my brain. That feels like spirit. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many of the people I’ve interviewed recognise Zephaniah as a figure of authentic and artistic Rastafari spirituality. In a system which still <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rastafari">“downpresses”</a> the movement, his mere presence served to demystify and to normalise it. As he once <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzL9A895KJ0">put it</a>:</p>
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<p>The seed of Abraham grows, it will not stop. </p>
<p>And those who see it know, Rastafari is on top.</p>
<p>Great schools and churches have been built to hide us from the real.</p>
<p>But those that built burn in their guilt, as prophecies reveal.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Powell 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>Poet, actor, activist and musical luminary, Zephaniah embodied a challenge to the pervasive, racist stereotypes that have long tagged the Rastafari movement in the UK.Joseph Powell, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Divinity, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2118302023-08-22T05:49:38Z2023-08-22T05:49:38ZWhy do we make violent art – and what does it say about the artist?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543887/original/file-20230822-29-rk91ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C310%2C2544%2C1571&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">El Tres de Mayo by Francisco de Goya</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sensationalised media coverage of the recent suspected mushroom poisonings in regional Victoria expanded last week, to include children’s scribblings on a wall. </p>
<p>The pictures, which comprised stick figures, rudimentary drawings and text that referenced death and dying, were removed last year from the former home of the woman who cooked the lunch. Drawn by her primary-school-aged children, and photographed long ago by the tradesman who cleaned the wall, they included tombstones, swords and the words “I am dead” and “You don’t long to live”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/death-wall-inside-mushroom-chefs-house/news-story/a879b2505a32b22dc16214201659dab4">news story</a> revealing the pictures quoted another tradesperson who saw the wall, saying the drawings were not what you’d “typically expect” from children of that age. “You’d think they’d be drawing flowers and unicorns, not gravestones and death.”</p>
<p>It was implied that these “eerie”, “scary” depictions of violence indicate something troubling. But art history doesn’t bear this out, whether we’re talking about children’s capacity for gruesome drawings, or indeed the tradition of modern artworks by fully fledged artists whose work deliberately explores troubling themes.</p>
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<h2>Ethical concerns and the human condition</h2>
<p>In fact, the history of modern art suggests depictions of violence are often tied to deep ethical concerns and explorations of the human condition. The idea that violent art must be the expression of a violent individual is simply not true.</p>
<p>In the wake of Freudian theories about the monster lurking inside “civilised man”, early 20th-century modernist explorations of violence were often a means of accessing unconscious human desires and fears. </p>
<p>Much <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-surrealism-52487">surrealist</a> and expressionist art sought to reveal deeper truths, beyond what was sanctioned in bourgeois society. </p>
<p>Man Ray’s 1921 <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/man-ray-cadeau-t07883">Gift</a> (or, <em>Cadeau</em>), a sculpture of a domestic iron studded with tacks, acknowledges the violent drives that unconsciously propel much human behaviour. And Andre Masson’s delicate <a href="https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/collection/artwork/massacre">line-renderings of massacres</a> (1930-34) confront the viewer with the violence of war.</p>
<p>Such work was often motivated by the desire to outrage polite society and compel it to confront its hypocrisy, particularly in the wake of the horrors unleashed by the ruling classes during the first world war.</p>
<p>A modernist impulse to shock and an attraction to the darker side of the human psyche are still common in art and popular culture. It’s partly about asserting freedom from social norms. But it’s also about highlighting the breadth of human experience – and the social and personal harm that can result when that complexity is denied. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/y/young-british-artists-ybas">Young British Artists</a>, who began to exhibit together after a 1988 exhibition organised by Damien Hirst (perhaps their most notorious member), made a very successful brand of it. </p>
<p>Their work included <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/21/marcus-harvey-margaret-thatcher">Marcus Harvey’s Myra</a> (1995), a portrait of a child serial killer, rendered in children’s handprints. Harvey’s work intends to shock us out of our assumptions about who serial killers are and their motivations, but also to force us to see that our society has produced people capable of such heinous acts.</p>
<p>Another strain of modern art represents violence as a means of holding perpetrators to account. Proto-realist painters such as <a href="https://www.parkwestgallery.com/francisco-goya-disasters-of-war/">Francisco Goya</a> depicted the atrocities of war in early 19th-century Spain in graphic detail as protest. </p>
<p>His contemporary Honoré Daumier was jailed for <a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/honore-daumier/gargantua-1831">Gargantua</a> (1831), a caricature of King Louis Phillipe. It was one of a series of engravings illustrating the brutality of the French administration’s class warfare. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543883/original/file-20230822-18-xeifp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&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="caption">Honoré Daumier’s caricature of King Louis Phillipe, Gargantua, had him jailed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<h2>Documentary and protest</h2>
<p>The legacy of such artists lives on in documentary photography and film. There, the violence of political and historical events is made widely visible, with the aim of influencing public opinion and forcing governments to act. </p>
<p>Nick Ut’s photograph of “napalm girl” (1972), since identified as nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc, photographed naked while fleeing a napalm attack, is an iconic example. It <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-11/nick-ut-kim-phuc-napalm-girl-photo-50-years-later/101139364">arguably helped end</a> the war whose horrors it captured.</p>
<p>And recent exposés about the horrors of factory farming – such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12185108/">Hogwood</a> (2020), a documentary focused on a UK pig farm that features undercover footage – compel us to confront the normalised violence embedded on our dinner plates. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/50-years-after-napalm-girl-myths-distort-the-reality-behind-a-horrific-photo-of-the-vietnam-war-and-exaggerate-its-impact-183291">50 years after ‘Napalm Girl,’ myths distort the reality behind a horrific photo of the Vietnam War and exaggerate its impact</a>
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<h2>Violence using the artist’s body</h2>
<p>Violence enacted on the artist’s own body has been a powerful means to explore the limits of the human condition, but also to make literal the violence of social and political repression. </p>
<p>In her early performance work, <a href="https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/yoko-ono-cut-piece-1964/">Cut Piece</a> (1964), Yoko Ono sits impassively onstage, a pair of scissors before her, awaiting the audience’s response to the invitation to cut off a little snippet of her clothing to take with them. </p>
<p>The audience’s latent gendered violence is gradually manifested, without a word being said by the artist: men take to her clothes with escalating bravado, until Ono is left in tatters.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece revealed the audience’s gendered violence.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In her <a href="https://www.lissongallery.com/about/confession">Rhythm</a> series of performances (1973-74), <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mystical-stillness-of-marina-abramovic-in-sydney-43640">Marina Abramovic</a> variously stabbed a knife between her splayed fingers, lay at the centre of a burning five-point star, and offered her prone body as an object for the audience to interact with, using a selection of objects that included a gun, a scalpel and a saw. </p>
<p>By subjecting herself to violence, Abramovic tests her physical and psychological limits – and by extension, our own. And she demonstrates the violent tendencies that are normalised and affirmed in patriarchal systems when, during Rhythm 0, her body is repeatedly assaulted by members of the public.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Select footage from Marina Abramovic’s Rhythm performances.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In 2002, Australian artist Mike Parr sewed his lips shut and nailed his arm to a wall in his endurance performance <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/flinch-art-20020612-gduail.html">Close the Concentration Camps</a>. It was an act of solidarity and empathy with those in detention centres – and a protest against Australia’s inhumane refugee policy. </p>
<p>Acts of violent destruction can be central to the very artworks themselves, as acts of political commentary. </p>
<p>Ai Weiwei’s <a href="https://theartling.com/en/artzine/artling-exclusive-ai-weiweis-dropping-han-dynasty-urn/">Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn</a> (1995) dramatically focused on how little we value the past. And Michael Landy destroyed all his personal possessions in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160713-michael-landy-the-man-who-destroyed-all-his-belongings">Break Down</a> (2001), in an anti-consumerist gesture. </p>
<p>The history of modern art shows compelling grounds for creating images of violence, including to reflect the complexities of human behaviour and to hold perpetrators accountable. </p>
<p>It tells us there is no clear causation between creating violent images and committing violent acts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Millner 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>It’s often implied that violent art means something sinister about its creator – most recently, in news stories about ‘scary’ kids’ drawings of death. But the history of modern art suggests otherwise.Jacqueline Millner, Professor in Visual Arts, La Trobe UniversityLicensed 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/1519722021-03-04T13:14:43Z2021-03-04T13:14:43ZRevisiting reparations: Is it time for the US to pay its debt for the legacy of slavery?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387595/original/file-20210303-13-1dqs0oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5100%2C3387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is spearheading fresh efforts in Congress to address reparations.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/subcommittee-chair-sheila-jackson-lee-arrives-during-a-news-photo/1231362365?adppopup=true">Al Drago/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some 156 years after the end of the Civil War and the official abolition of slavery through the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-xiii">13th Amendment</a>, the idea of reparations is gaining currency in Washington.</p>
<p>On March 1, Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, suggested the White House could “<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/biden-top-aide-says-white-223154235.html">start acting now</a>” <a href="https://www.axios.com/biden-cedric-richmond-reparations-f4984eab-18fd-4f4b-ad14-4cd10c54a18a.html">on the issue</a>. The comment comes just weeks after a House committee chaired by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, <a href="https://ibw21.org/reparations/021721-congress-hearing-on-reparations-bill-hr-40/">heard testimony</a> on H.R. 40, a bill that would establish a commission on the legacy of slavery that would look at possible payments for descendants of enslaved people of African descent.</p>
<p>Having <a href="https://annecbailey.net/">researched slavery</a> for the past three decades, I have concluded that there are many rationales for reparations. There has never been a leveling of the playing field, or payments for the debt of unpaid labor over 250 years of slavery. Furthermore, <a href="https://theconversation.com/slave-built-infrastructure-still-creates-wealth-in-us-suggesting-reparations-should-cover-past-harms-and-current-value-of-slavery-153969">Black contribution to the wealth of America</a> has not been acknowledged or given its due, in spite of the fact that the Southern planters and Northern manufacturers who helped shape the nation were made rich by turning raw commodities harvested by enslaved people into commercial empires.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Joe Biden takes part in a virtual event for Black History Month" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C11%2C3958%2C2646&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387592/original/file-20210303-17-b2hjzb.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">Will Joe Biden be the president to usher through reparations for slavery?.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-participates-in-a-virtual-roundtable-news-photo/1303728263?adppopup=true">Pete Marovich/Pool via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there is an additional reason that looking at reparations now makes sense. At a time when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/19/969196055/biden-takes-his-americas-back-message-to-the-world-in-munich-speech">Biden is trying to rebuild America’s image overseas</a>, reparations for this unpaid debt could, I believe, drastically improve the United States’ international standing and serve as an example to other nations on how to deal with past inequities.</p>
<h2>A promise never delivered</h2>
<p>Campaigns for reparations have a long history. President Abraham Lincoln, who was known as “The Great Emancipator” in large part because he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/02/14/frederick-douglass-needed-to-see-lincoln-would-the-president-meet-with-a-former-slave/">heeded the calls of Black abolitionists like ex-slave Frederick Douglass</a> and signed the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation#:%7E:text=President%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20issued%20the,and%20henceforward%20shall%20be%20free.%22">Emancipation Proclamation in 1863</a>, was also a key advocate for a form of reparations.</p>
<p>Under <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/the-truth-behind-40-acres-and-a-mule/">Special Field Order No. 15</a>, issued with Lincoln’s blessing in 1865, newly emancipated slaves were to receive “forty acres and a mule.” </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.nacsw.org/Convention/Proceedings2017/BridgemanPReparationsFINAL.pdf">freed slaves had already received their 40 acres</a> at the time Congress passed the bill.</p>
<p>But this promise was not kept. After Lincoln was assassinated, President Andrew Johnson <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-07-10-9707100158-story.html#:%7E:text=Sherman%20ordered%20that%20each%20former,vetoed%20by%20President%20Andrew%20Johnson">promptly vetoed the bill</a>. According to <a href="https://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/darity-jr-william">noted economist William Darity</a>, the cost of reneging on the promise to Black Americans was land worth more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00555.x">US$1.3 trillion in today’s dollars</a>. </p>
<p>While efforts to compensate Black former slaves were thwarted, remarkably, some white slave owners seeking compensation for the end of slavery were more successful. Through <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/civil_war/DCEmancipationAct_FeaturedDoc.htm#:%7E:text=On%20April%2016%2C%201862%2C%20the,to%20%24300%20for%20each%20freeperson.">1862’s District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act</a>, slave owners were paid for their lost “property.”</p>
<h2>Debt compounded</h2>
<p>After the reversal of early efforts to compensate people of African descent, Southern states continued to put in place policies to maintain white supremacy.</p>
<p>What followed were <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575769/stony-the-road-by-henry-louis-gates-jr/">decades of institutional marginalization</a> under <a href="https://onlinellm.usc.edu/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow-laws/">Jim Crow segregation</a> that further impeded Black progress. <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/housing-discrimination-in-the-jim-crow-us/">Racist housing policies</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/last-hired-first-fired-how-the-great-depression-affected-african-americans">employment practices</a> and <a href="https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/summer-2004/jim-crows-schools">inequitable education</a> made it harder for Black Americans to accrue wealth.</p>
<p>During this period, calls for reparations continued. Ex-slave <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/callie-house-c-1861-1928/">Callie House</a> of Nashville, Tennessee, launched an ambitious reparations campaign in the 1890s <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/12958/my-face-is-black-is-true-by-mary-frances-berry/">calling on the government to pay pensions to formerly enslaved people</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/summer/slave-pension.html">1915 lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury</a> calling for $68 million to be paid to former slaves for unpaid labor was dismissed on the grounds of “sovereign immunity,” under which a state is immune from civil action. And <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm">political activist Marcus Garvey</a> in the 1920s made <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591719897569">reparations central</a> to his Universal Negro Improvement Association movement.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387588/original/file-20210303-15-1poykqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marcus Garvey made reparations central to his campaigning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/garvey-marcus-politiker-schwarznationalistischer-prophet-news-photo/537147825?adppopup=true">Ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the debt to Black Americans for the uncompensated labor of their ancestors was not paid. Moreover, the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2741797">economic outcomes of sanctioned racism</a> under Jim Crow meant that this debt only increased.</p>
<p>The protests and advocacy of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s bore great fruits, but no reparations.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=97">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> and the <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=100">Voting Rights Act of 1965</a> were hard-fought milestones.</p>
<p>But inequities persisted, and, with them, the debt owed. Black and brown bodies were – and still are – <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2020/11/12/black-people-are-still-seeking-racial-justice-why-and-what-to-do-about-it/">disproportionately caught up in the criminal justice system</a>; <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/homeownership-rates-by-race/">Black families are less likely to own their own homes</a>; and <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/schools-are-still-segregated-and-black-children-are-paying-a-price/">public education has failed far too many Black youths</a> – all of which has far-reaching ramifications for employment, career success and accumulating wealth. Again, the original unpaid debt has been compounded. </p>
<p>But calls for reparations never went away. In October 1962, the pioneering civil rights activist <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/audley-moore-and-the-modern-reparations-movement/">Queen Mother Moore</a> helped draft a “<a href="https://www.forreparations.org/timeline/in-1962-queen-mother-audley-moores-reparations-committee-of-descendants-of-united-states-slaves-files-a-claim-in-california/">Resolution for Reparations</a>” that was promoted in the U.S. and around the world.</p>
<p>The organization <a href="https://www.ncobraonline.org/">N'COBRA</a> has, since the 1980s, been campaigning for reparations. More recently there has been author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 article “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">The Case for Reparations</a>” and calls from groups such as the <a href="https://reparationscomm.org/">National African American Reparations Commission</a> along with <a href="https://ibw21.org/reparations/black-christian-leaders-push-for-slavery-reparations/">some Black church leaders</a>. There has been <a href="https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/asheville-reparations-resolution-is-designed-to-help-black-community-access-to-the-opportunity-to-build-wealth/">some success on a local level</a>, but no action on a federal one.</p>
<h2>Not too late</h2>
<p>Another campaign for reparations has been successful – the one for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-japanese-americans-received-reparations-and-african-americans-are-still-waiting-119580">the Japanese American citizens</a> interned during World War II.</p>
<p>After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation">sent tens of thousands of Japanese Americans to internment camps</a>. In the years after the war, advocates, including the children and descendants of those interred, launched a lengthy campaign, ending with President Ronald Reagan’s making a formal apology and signing <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/100th-congress/house-bill/442">1988’s Civil Liberties Act</a>, through which each survivor was paid $20,000 each, around $44,000 in today’s money.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Congressmen surround President Ronald Reagan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387590/original/file-20210303-15-wkjcui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 could serve as an example.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/congressmen-surround-president-ronald-reagan-as-he-signs-news-photo/595717514?adppopup=true">Wally McNamee/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The campaign for reparations for people of African descent could proceed similarly: a bill, a formal apology and compensation, which could include measures aside from just payment checks – such as education and housing funds, or reforms in the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>The renewed focus on reparations comes at a pivotal time in recent U.S. history. Long considered, rightly or wrongly, as a beacon of democracy and freedom, the U.S. has in the past four years presented a different face to the world amid a retreat into “<a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-foreign-policy-is-still-america-first-what-does-that-mean-exactly-144841">America first</a>” policy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the recent <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol">attack on the Capitol</a>, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">killing of George Floyd</a> at the hands of police and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/01/919063734/senate-democrats-call-on-congress-to-fix-racial-disparities-in-health-care">racial disparities highlighted in the pandemic</a> have raised concerns about the fragility of American democracy and have put the lasting legacies of structural racism in the U.S. on full display.</p>
<p>Paying reparations to Americans of African descent could, I believe, help the U.S. reclaim some moral leadership on the global stage. The U.S. is not the only country in the world with human rights abuses then or now, but it can be one of the few countries in the world that truly addresses these wrongs.</p>
<p>In other words, the U.S. can lead by example.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand key political developments, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s politics newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to clarify that it was President Andrew Johnson who vetoed a bill handing land to former enslaved people.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne C. Bailey 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>Former enslaved persons never got ‘forty acres and a mule,’ and their descendants have been denied reparations for the legacy of slavery. Will Joe Biden be the president to change that?Anne C. Bailey, Professor of History, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1481212020-11-24T15:02:00Z2020-11-24T15:02:00ZMbeki and Obasanjo: case studies in the use of soft power in Africa’s interests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364785/original/file-20201021-23-7ijop4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki share a light moment at a meeting of the G8 and developing nations in Tokyo in 2000.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Michel Euler</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The concept of soft power has been part of the parlance of international relations for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1148580?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">three decades</a>. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358533.2020.1819629?journalCode=ctrt20">Soft power</a> actors use non-coercive and persuasive means to achieve their objectives. Attraction rather than force is their preferred language.</p>
<p>The application of soft power remains focused on states because of their primacy in international politics. But, the increasing influence of non-state actors dictates a need to review this approach. Non-state actors on the international stage include international organisations, NGOs, multinational corporations, terrorist groups and individuals. </p>
<p>It is against this backdrop that I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358533.2020.1819629?journalCode=ctrt20">studied</a> the power of attraction of non-state actors. I focused on the soft power credentials of former African presidents – <a href="https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/people/olusegun-obasanjo/">Olusegun Obasanjo</a> (Nigeria, 1999-2007) and <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/former-president-thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki">Thabo Mbeki</a> (South Africa, 1999-2008). </p>
<p>The two have made important contributions to the continent this century through promoting peace, democracy, pan-Africanism and regional integration.</p>
<p>The study captures the essence of their soft power. It also engages how it has rubbed off on their respective countries – during and after their presidencies. </p>
<p>I examined Obasanjo’s and Mbeki’s traits, ideas and policies. In particular I focused on their contribution to pan-Africanism and the idea of the <a href="http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/mbeki.html">African Renaissance</a>. I argue that they successfully used their soft power and international clout to make significant contributions in Africa and beyond.</p>
<h2>Obasanjo as a soft power president</h2>
<p>After Obasanjo’s civilian administration ended in 2007, he attracted widespread criticism within Nigeria. This is perhaps best captured by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s description of him as a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt81pgm">master of hypocrisy</a>”.</p>
<p>But, this underplays some of his accomplishments. The period between 1976 and 1979 when he was the military head of state is <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Nigeria_s_External_Relations_and_Foreign.html?id=ImN0AAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">lauded by some</a> as the most dynamic era of Nigeria’s foreign policy. And during his civilian administration (1999–2007) Nigeria was catapulted from a pariah state (due to gross human right abuses by successive military regimes) to a significant regional and, to a lesser extent, global player. </p>
<p>Thanks to Obasanjo’s idiosyncratic soft power, Nigeria, once neglected in global affairs, witnessed an influx of high profile visits, including US presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Its voice was better heard in such bodies as the <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/">Commonwealth</a>, <a href="https://www.g77.org/">Group of 77</a> and the <a href="http://www.dirco.gov.za/foreign/Multilateral/inter/nam.htm">Non-Aligned Movement</a>. </p>
<p>Obasanjo was notable for his courage and decisiveness, particularly when it came to colonialism and, later, apartheid. His toughness on these issues, and his promotion of regional integration, had remarkable success. </p>
<p>A foreign policy that embraces genuine promotion of democracy and peacemaking generates <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=x5Q5DgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=soft+power&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwje2-zgiLvsAhX_SxUIHZ7aBt4Q6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=soft%20power&f=false">soft power</a>. </p>
<p>Obasanjo enhanced his, and by extension Nigeria’s soft power through his successful peacemaking and promotion of democracy. The former, in places such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. The latter, in São Tomé and Príncipe, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire.</p>
<p>In Liberia, he was instrumental in ending the war. Obasanjo also facilitated the resignation of President Charles Taylor who was granted asylum in Nigeria. He played an active role in the transition to democratic rule that ushered in President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533952.2018.1492833?journalCode=rsdy20">in 2006</a>.</p>
<p>In São Tomé and Príncipe, Obasanjo ensured the reinstatement of President Fradique de Menezes following a military coup <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533952.2018.1492833?journalCode=rsdy20">in 2003</a>.</p>
<p>His reformist ideas, set out in the <a href="http://www.dirco.gov.za/foreign/Multilateral/africa/cssdca.htm">Memorandum of Understanding</a> of the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa, was adopted by the African Union summit in 2002. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589000600769926">memorandum</a> has four cornerstones. These are security, stability, development and cooperation as prerequisites for good governance on which African states would be measured. </p>
<p>It is thus clear that Obasanjo’s towering personality and international stature have enabled Nigeria to shape African institutions. He is thus a wielder of soft power.</p>
<p>Since leaving office, Obasanjo has continued to exhibit this soft power through conflict mediation and humanitarian interventions, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2008–2009) and Côte d'Ivoire (2011). </p>
<p>But, a number of shortfalls blot his soft power credentials. These include his unilateral decisions and apparent disdain for the rule of law <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/aa_afren/5/1/EJC10288">while in power</a>.</p>
<h2>Mbeki’s legacy</h2>
<p>Mbeki was influenced by some of Africa’s great political minds, as well as pan-African thinkers, during his years in exile in the UK. </p>
<p>For example, while studying at Sussex University in England in the mid-1960s, he engaged the ideas of pan-Africanist luminaries <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aime-Cesaire">Aimé Cesaire</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fanon-and-the-politics-of-truth-and-lying-in-a-colonial-society-102594">Frantz Fanon</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leopold-Senghor">Leopold Senghor</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/W-E-B-Du-Bois">W.E.B. Du Bois</a>. Arguably, all these individuals influenced Mbeki’s views as seen in his pursuit of pan-Africanism and African Renaissance. </p>
<p>Mbeki has often been labelled an “African intellectual” and “African <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17532523.2017.1414396">philosopher king</a>”. There is no gainsaying that his administration had the most impact of any post-apartheid government in international affairs – even more so than <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography">Nelson Mandela</a>. </p>
<p>This was evident in his push for South-South solidarity and reform of old international institutions such as the <a href="https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/">UN Security Council</a>. The African Union, despite its weaknesses, provided the platform for him to promote peace and security in Africa.</p>
<p>Exercising his soft power attribute (persuasion), Mbeki used shuttle diplomacy to garner the support of other African states, the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/group-eight-g8-industrialized-nations#:%7E:text=The%20Group%20of%20Eight%20(G8)%20refers%20to%20the%20group%20of,security%2C%20energy%2C%20and%20terrorism.">Group of Eight</a> and the <a href="https://asean.org/">Association of Southeast Asian States</a> to establish the <a href="https://www.nepad.org/">New Partnership for Africa’s Development</a> and the <a href="https://www.aprm-au.org/">African Peer Review Mechanism</a>. He was noted as a major peacemaker on the continent. This is best shown by his administration’s peacemaking and peacekeeping in Burundi, the DRC and Sudan.</p>
<p>Mbeki was often called upon to mediate and find lasting solutions to conflict in Africa. In 2004, the African Union asked that he proffer a political solution to the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire. He was actively involved in mediation to end conflicts in Comoros, Rwanda, Sudan, Eswatini and Zimbabwe. </p>
<p>Some of the interventions turned out to be a mere plastering of wounds as countries such as the DRC and Sudan remained fragile. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Mbeki facilitated the <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/drc-lusaka-agreement99">Lusaka ceasefire agreement</a> and the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/burundi_arusha-peace-and-reconciliation-agreement-for-burundi.pdf">Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement</a>. The accords aimed to end the DRC and Burundi’s conflicts, respectively.</p>
<p>Indeed, the calls for Mbeki’s mediation reflect recognition of his idiosyncratic soft power.</p>
<p>Mbeki’s administration demonstrated remarkable commitment to provide aid to Africa. The African Renaissance Fund was established in 2000 to disburse aid to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10220460802636158">fellow African states</a>. This offered an alternative to Western aid laced with debilitating conditions.</p>
<p>Mbeki continued to play a significant role after his presidency. He was appointed chair of the African Union’s efforts to bring peace to <a href="https://www.peaceau.org/en/article/progress-report-of-the-african-union-high-level-implementation-panel-for-sudan-and-south-sudan">Sudan and South Sudan</a> in 2009. This culminated in South Sudan’s independence in 2011.</p>
<p>The most significant factors that undermined his credibility were his <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175024?seq=1">quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8845/3094">HIV/AIDS denialism</a>. </p>
<p>Due to their soft power resources, Obasanjo and Mbeki made their mark on pan-Africanism and conflict resolution in Africa. Their ideas remain deeply ingrained in the African Union.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oluwaseun Tella 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>Former presidents Obasanjo and Mbeki have arguably made the most important contribution to Africa in the 21st Century by promoting peace, democracy, regional integration and pan-Africanism.Oluwaseun Tella, Director, The Future of Diplomacy at the Institute for the Future of Knowledge, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1164632019-05-09T13:07:47Z2019-05-09T13:07:47ZWhat the EFF’s self-styled militarism says about South Africa’s third largest party<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273098/original/file-20190507-103071-j2ne0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema at an election rally.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For weeks the red campaign posters of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party have been omnipresent in South Africa’s streetscape. Most feature its smiling leader, Julius Malema, wearing his trademark red beret. The image is accompanied by the slogan “Son of the Soil”. </p>
<p>In the 2014 general elections, the EFF became the third largest party in the country. It garnered just over 6% of the vote. The EFF’s approach certainly seems to have appealed to a segment of South Africa’s voters. <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-05-09-the-ff-and-eff-poles-apart-but-both-making-gains/">Early results</a> from the country’s 2019 national elections suggest that the party increased its overall share by a few percentage points.</p>
<p>Since 2014 its salient features – from its authoritarian organisation and challenges of democratic procedure in parliament, to ultra-nationalism, xenophobia and strong-arm tactics – have led commentators such as <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2018-07-02-effs-fascist-agenda--rapidly-clarifies-itself-through-malemas-racial-outbursts/?device=feature_phone">Prince Mashele</a>, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/gareth-van-onselen/why-the-eff-is-a-fascist-political-party_a_23391414/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAApQc2d-46Y0k4q0axMzPc3WtvCEjSqXtyM2dmDbHW3Al2erWGNjJ4W4JydemhGcwLG4OU_a_Wu1nRAGFbdYhykYOB6nC86eoFakHvOLdrudn7Vtmfvkmxux8qhBr8AM3wTrAXnWRJpbHp3YLdSloVycc2iB_ZuQ_rZQ5kt2FISU">Gareth van Onselen</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-02-23-its-difficult-but-not-impossible-to-see-creeping-fascism-in-the-eff/">Ismail Lagardien</a>, to characterise the EFF as a fascist, rather than democratic party.</p>
<p>An often mentioned feature of the EFF is its adoption of a quasi-military party aesthetics. Its dress code consists of red berets and other faux military gear. Its organisational names include “commander-in-chief”, “ground forces”, “military wing” and “student command”. </p>
<p>In addition, songs and dances from the days of the armed struggle against apartheid feature prominently in the party’s rallies. This is not uncommon for political parties previously involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. In rallies of the African National Congress (ANC), for instance, its Umkhonto weSizwe veterans often perform a few routines. However, it would be unimaginable for the ANC’s leaders, such as its president Cyril Ramaphosa, say, to fire machine guns at rallies – as Malema recently did.</p>
<p>In my view the EFF’s militarised aesthetic is more than a sideshow or blast from the past. It forms a key part of its highly performative, symbolic and spectacle-oriented brand of politics. </p>
<p>My current <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/Aesthetics-and-politics-in-the-South-African-post-colony">research</a> focuses on the entanglements of aesthetics and politics in the South African “postcolony”. It studies the prominent presence of politics in contemporary art practices. It also looks at the role of artistic and cultural contestation in movements such as #RhodesMustFall. </p>
<p>The EFF is a fascinating case because, of all political parties, its aesthetic dimension is most pronounced. It serves both key symbolic and instrumental purposes. In analysing and making sense of the EFF, I take its militarised aesthetic to be as important as its manifestos, speeches, press releases and policy proposals. It reveals both what the party stands for, as well as the reasons for its strong appeal to some, and its repulsiveness to others.</p>
<h2>Militarised aesthetic</h2>
<p>The EFF’s militarised aesthetics serve multiple purposes.</p>
<p>First off, its self-stylisation as a present-day liberation army enacts its core stance. This is that despite the end of the apartheid regime, the struggle for South Africa’s liberation is far from complete. </p>
<p>Second, it dramatises the EFF’s self-positioning as a breakaway party of the ANC. Its military antics serve as an indictment of the ANC’s alleged betrayal of the liberation struggle.</p>
<p>Third, its reenactment of the struggle days satisfies a longing for simpler times with a clearer enemy and more straightforward courses of action: to nationalise, to fight and “take back”.</p>
<p>Fourth, a militarised aesthetics aggrandises a party that, after all, represents only a minority of South Africans. The spectacle of 100 uniformly dressed EFF supporters marching with party flags creates the illusion of a vast army of freedom fighters across South Africa, ready to mobilise at a moment’s notice.</p>
<p>Fifth, a militarised party culture is an effective way to deal with the organisational challenges of a political start-up. It serves to quell internal dissent. It makes everyone tow the party line and maintains tight control over party structures.</p>
<p>Lastly, militarisation evokes an acute sense of being under siege by hostile forces out to destroy the party. </p>
<h2>Precedents</h2>
<p>The performance of militarisation has had many precedents in the history of black resistance movements. In the US, for instance, it was common in organisations ranging from Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Nation of Islam, to the Black Panthers and rap band Public Enemy. </p>
<p>A militarised aesthetic doesn’t in itself imply fascist leanings. It can signify different things. It can have different aims or effects. It can serve to demonstrate self-discipline and organisational capacity, or a readiness to defend oneself forcefully when unfairly attacked. </p>
<p>For example, the inclusion in the EFF’s logo of the raised fist as a symbol of the black power movement invites comparisons with the Black Panthers Party. Active in the 1960s and 1970s, the party’s paramilitary dress code of leather jackets and black berets as well as the demonstrative waving of rifles, were key to their campaign of <a href="https://www.socialistalternative.org/panther-black-rebellion/the-black-panther-party-for-self-defense/">armed self-defence</a> against routine police violence against African Americans. </p>
<p>Similarly, the EFF’s military aesthetic can be understood as a declaration of intended self-defence on behalf of South Africa’s workers and poor.</p>
<h2>Bling aesthetics</h2>
<p>One may question, however, whether the EFF’s military aesthetic is not merely cosmetic given the party leaders’ widely reported indulgence in <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/pics-malemas-millions-473967">luxury lifestyles</a>.</p>
<p>Rather than a blatant contradiction, the demonstrative display of material wealth can be seen as an enactment of the party’s central ideological argument. Namely, that only by acquiring economic independence will the impoverished black majority be able to attain true political freedom and social emancipation. </p>
<p>An aesthetic of conspicuous consumption can therefore be seen as equally essential to the EFF as its aesthetics of militant socialism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116463/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthias Pauwels 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 EFF’s militarised aesthetic is more than a sideshow. It forms a key part of its spectacle-oriented brand of politics.Matthias Pauwels, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Philosophy, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/935432018-03-28T22:56:08Z2018-03-28T22:56:08Z‘Black Panther’ villain can teach us about revolutionary history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212259/original/file-20180327-109204-1po0wbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Killmonger, the evil villain of 'Black Panther,' has plans of global insurgencies to liberate Black people. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Marvel/Disney)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Black Panther’s</em> Erik Killmonger is the quintessential super-villain. His character fulfils the requirements of the typical superhero movie with good guys versus bad ones and his demise at the end is inevitable.</p>
<p>How could we possibly find anything positive about him? Actually, there is much more to his character than just evil. In fact, I think his character has a lot to teach us.</p>
<p>Many critics have highlighted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/01/forget-the-abusive-killmonger-wakandas-women-are-black-panthers-true-black-liberators/?utm_term=.e892661f71dc">his killings</a>, <a href="https://lasentinel.net/wishing-for-wakanda-marooned-in-america-movies-and-matters-of-reflection-and-resistance.html">his CIA connection</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/black-panther-erik-killmonger/553805/">his imperialist power lust</a>. They focus on his bloody trail of slaughter and his destruction of the magical flowers that energize the spirit of Wakanda. </p>
<p>But consider his hate both for the oppressors of Black people and for the pretentious isolationism of Wakanda that cared nothing about Blacks elsewhere, and his plans of global insurgencies to liberate Black people.</p>
<p>While condemnation of Killmonger is to be expected, it’s unfortunate if it occludes his historical significance. Killmonger is larger, more complex, and deserving of more nuanced appraisal. His character reflects the anger, frustrations, hopes, yearnings and aspirations of young and old African-Americans today. </p>
<p>Killmonger’s character represents the dialectical struggles - the complex history of debates and raucous disagreements among African American leaders - over their conflicting strategies and methods to win freedom from slavery, colonialism, racism and oppression. </p>
<h2>Black liberation struggles</h2>
<p>Killmonger shares a central and enduring goal with many previous Black leaders; the dream of freedom for his people and of righting injustices against them. </p>
<p>Consider abolitionist <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931.html">David Walker</a>, who in 1830, against the prevailing gradualism of the abolitionist movement, <a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/walker.html">circulated an appeal</a> for Blacks to resist their oppressors with violence. He argued that kidnappers and murderers of Black people were enemies of God whose death when being resisted was justified. </p>
<p>In an argument similar to Walker’s, abolitionist and minister Henry Highland Garnet in 1843 informed his fellow Blacks how sinful it was for them to submit to degradation and oppression, to “<a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=etas">a state of slavery where you cannot obey the commandments of the Sovereign of the universe</a>.” Calling for a violent rebellion, he contended it was the Blacks’ “solemn and imperative duty to use every means both, moral, intellectual, and physical, that promises success.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212246/original/file-20180327-109196-1oh8wo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ida B. Wells was a journalist who lead the first anti-lynching campaign in the United States. In 1892, she advocated that Black families own rifles to defend themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-08637.xml">(University of Chicago Photographic Archive, (apf1-08637), Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Frederick Douglass opposed this view and at the <a href="http://coloredconventions.org/files/original/73369fab9bb261275b57276ccbdbded2.pdf">1843 National Convention of Colored Citizens narrowly won the majority vote against it</a>. Soon though, Douglass shifted his position to favour the use of direct action against slavery while maintaining his belief in the unity of the United States.</p>
<p>Frustrated by government abdication of its duty to protect Blacks from the Jim Crow lynchings, the famous Ida B. Wells urged that “…<a href="http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=3&psid=3614">a rifle should have a place of honour in every Black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give</a>.” </p>
<h2>Killmonger reflects his environment</h2>
<p>As a special op in the U.S. army, Killmonger, née N'Jadaka (but also known as Erik Stevens), mastered the use of the rifle. There is a significant revolutionary symbolism to all this. <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/ida-b-wells-9527635">Ida B. Wells</a> applauded Black men who avoided being lynched because they armed themselves with the Winchester rifle. </p>
<p>Killmonger’s adoption of the violent revolutionary method also parallels revolutionary philosopher and Pan-Africanist <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=BdVRpzeA47YC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Frantz Fanon.</a> Both of their experiences <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/fanon/#H1">participating as soldiers in violent national liberation struggles</a> shaped their dispositions to consider violence instrumental to physical and psychological liberation. </p>
<p>Erik Stevens grew up an orphan, experienced tough inner-city teen life and suffered racism and oppression. He was also roiled by what he felt was the needlessness of Blacks’ sufferings as he was aware of the technologically advanced Black Wakanda and their isolationist policy of not intervening to liberate other Blacks. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212262/original/file-20180327-109190-13jwx8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Killmonger’s ideas reflect historical debates around Black liberation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Marvel/Disney)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Killmonger responds to a history which tyrannized him and left him with no hope of remedy. His choice of method reflects his environment and his association with working class and unemployed Black people.</p>
<p>Like Marcus Garvey, the radical Black nationalist and pan-Africanist leader of UNIA, a back-to-Africa movement, Killmonger envisions an African empire led by technologically advanced Wakanda that straddles the Atlantic and that sends out liberation squads to turn the table of hegemony on the powers that oppress the Blacks. </p>
<p>Garvey, who pioneered this inverted hegemony idea, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=QmMIAzoVt80C&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=marcus+garvey+is,+without+doubt,+the+most+dangerous+enemy+of+the+Negro&source=bl&ots=sbQ5j-cHvA&sig=brp76N3OCz6D6_XQGp4VkN1rFPo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik2Znb7IzaAhXH6oMKHUtkAGIQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=marcus%20garvey%20is%2C%20without%20doubt%2C%20the%20most%20dangerous%20enemy%20of%20the%20Negro&f=false">was vilified as a lunatic and dangerous by the popular Black leader, W.E.B. Du Bois</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Garvey was ahead of other Black leaders of his time in rousing the popular masses, gaining their allegiance and devising cross-continental structures and ventures to help in his audacious plans to create an economically self-sufficient and militarily powerful Black empire to liberate all Blacks.</p>
<p>We should also note that Killmonger operated only within a delimited historical moment. He is not absolute. His choice of method cannot be the absolute solution either. </p>
<h2>Remember Malcolm X and MLK</h2>
<p>Neither Malcolm X nor Martin Luther King Jr. and their choices of method for liberation achieved that status either. Indeed, both contradictorily held aspects of the other’s strategy. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/14/martin-luther-king-jr-met-malcolm-x-just-once-the-photo-still-haunts-us-with-what-was-lost/?utm_term=.27873cb6c134">Malcolm X came around to modify his strategy. He eventually accepted the unity of all oppressed across colour lines. Before his death, he manifested the possibility that hate and love could follow each other serially as underpinnings for liberation</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212254/original/file-20180327-109193-s1iub9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During months of anti-segregation campaigns in Albany, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested by Albany’s chief of police, Laurie Pritchett, after praying at City Hall in July 1962.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rev. King, while maintaining his faith in “militant, powerful, massive, non-violence,” said that he would not condemn civil right riots. King said <a href="http://www.gphistorical.org/mlk/mlkspeech/mlk-gp-speech.pdf">“a riot is the language of the unheard” and that “America …has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met.</a>” Even Mohandas K. Gandhi was emphatic that those unable to protect themselves by facing death with non-violence “<a href="https://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/phil8.htm">may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor.</a>” </p>
<p>Douglass before them also changed his position from advocating moral suasion to a more robust political activism and violent resistance to preserve freedom won by fugitive enslaved.</p>
<p>Thus, Killmonger’s character addresses the problem of Black liberation. His presence challenges the power of popular media and the hegemonic ruling opinion to dictate the acceptable methods to obtain Black freedom. The idea of Killmonger highlights the power of a global ethos to legitimate or delegitimate these choices.</p>
<p>The shallow development of Killmonger’s character in the movie subverts the universal scope of his liberation plans as well as his character’s ability to bring conversations of historical Black liberation figures together.</p>
<p>Black leaders and their revolutionary strategies like those of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, South Africa’s ANC and PAC, Mandela’s <em>Mkhonto we Sizwe</em>, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. all accomplished transformations in their societies. Their methods, conflicting and sometimes contradictory, provided answers over a stretch of time to different aspects of the big problem of liberation. </p>
<p>Each method fulfilled its role at auspicious moments that supported its popularity among significant sections of the oppressed Blacks. The simultaneous relevance and application of these conflicting methods in those struggles is evidence that no single method was sufficient for the purpose. </p>
<p>There has always been a Killmonger in the history of Black liberation struggles, and while history may not repeat itself, history often rhymes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>History Department
University of Guelph, Guelph, On. Canada.
I have in the past received research funding from Canada's Social Science and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p>The lead villain of Black Panther is a complex character who represents years of conflicting debates among African American leaders about how to achieve Black liberation.Femi Kolapo, Associate Professor, African History, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/907132018-01-30T15:10:14Z2018-01-30T15:10:14ZAchille Mbembe on how to restore the humanity stolen by racism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203978/original/file-20180130-107694-1wr3y5q.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">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African philosopher, <a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/users/achille-mbembe">Achille Mbembe</a>, has gained an enviable reputation as a scholar that challenges the tenets of modernity. Some aspects of modernity Mbembe is known to challenge are characterised by the move towards more capitalistic economies, an increase in social stratifications and the universalisation of Western European thought. From <a href="http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/on-private-indirect-government">“On Private Indirect Government”</a> (2000) to his recent book, <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/critique-of-black-reason/">“Critique of Black Reason”</a> (2017), his interest has always been on how the world can account for the construction and consequences of race and racism. </p>
<p>In “Critique of Black Reason” Mbembe challenges us to rethink the present with the view of charting a future that, according to Mbembe, will differ from the past and the present.</p>
<p>A key interest of the book is on how race and racism have played a role in how the modern world is organised. However much the world might have benefited from modernity, what is unavoidable is the integral role of race and racism in the construction of modernity. This is why for Mbembe it is of utmost importance that we examine this aspect of modernity as it continues to exclude subjects and create new and old victims that are “the wretched of the earth”. </p>
<p>He writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>race, operating over the past centuries as a fundamental category that is at once material and phantasmic, has been at the root of catastrophe, the cause of extraordinary psychic destruction and of innumerable crimes and massacres.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Mbembe, the construction of race emanates from the symbolic. It accounts for the ways in which subjects live and where they live. It explains the kinds of debates that prohibit – or allow them – to lead meaningful lives.</p>
<h2>Age of Reason</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203766/original/file-20180129-100923-ni4qyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cover of ‘Critique of Black Reason’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book focuses more on how discourses of race and other differences emerged in the eighteenth century during what is popularly known as the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment">Age of Reason</a> or the Enlightenment. </p>
<p>This was a period in which science, philosophy and other disciplines, and social debates, constructed differences between people.This was driven by two factors: material interests and an unwillingness to live with the unfamiliar. Mbembe’s book takes to task this idea of Enlightenment to show how it is responsible for the construction of race and racism:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Black Man is the one (or the thing) that one sees when one sees nothing, when one understands nothing, and above all, when one wishes to understand nothing. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This, for Mbembe, is not coincidental. This is because,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the term ‘Black’ was the product of a social and technological machine tightly linked to the emergence and globalisation of capitalism. It was invented to signify exclusion, brutalisation, and degradation, to point to a limit constantly conjured and abhorred. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Capitalism, from this perspective, is only possible because it’s exclusionary. For much of our contemporary history, this has been through the discourse of race.</p>
<h2>History of Africa</h2>
<p>Africa is the continent where most “black” people live. Mbembe’s book therefore looks into the history of Africa and how it has been used, and abused, as the antithesis of Western modernity. Since the West depends on the “rest” in order to construct itself, it is not surprising, Mbembe writes, that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>when Africa comes up, correspondence between words, images, and the thing itself matters very little. It is not necessary for the name to correspond to the thing, or for the thing to respond to its name.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is because,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>when one says the word ‘Africa’ one generally abdicates all responsibility.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And it is in this abdication of responsibility that Mbembe argues for a different way of being in the world, and of living with others that are different from oneself. </p>
<p>While, then, the word Africa might speak to a historical and present suffering, there is also something in the word, Mbembe writes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>that judges the world and calls for reparation, restitution, and justice. Its spectral presence in the world can be understood only as part of a critique of race.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mbembe argues that while race and racism still play an important role in the present, it is also clear that there is a “Becoming Black of the world” that has to do with the numerous forms of exclusion and violence that haunt the contemporary.</p>
<p>For instance, Mbembe writes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If yesterday’s drama of the subject was exploitation by capital, the tragedy of the multitude today is that they are unable to be exploited at all. They are abandoned subjects relegated to the role of a ‘superfluous humanity.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>To be hopeful</h2>
<p>How, then, does one continue to live, and to be hopeful, when it seems as though the history of the world is a history of depredation and cruelty? To answer this question, Mbembe turns to philosopher <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-fanon-continues-to-resonate-more-than-half-a-century-after-algerias-independence-43508">Frantz Fanon</a> (as he does in much of the book) and writes that one of the important lessons that he taught us is,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the idea that in every human subject there is something indomitable and fundamentally intangible that no domination - no matter what form it takes - can eliminate, contain, or suppress, at least not completely.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is here that the possibility of a different future is possible.</p>
<p>This is because for Mbembe,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>until we have eliminated racism from our current lives and imagination, we will have to continue to struggle for the creation of a world beyond - race. But to achieve it, to sit down at a table to which everyone has been invited, we must undertake an exacting political and ethical critique of racism and of the ideologies of difference…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And that is precisely what this book does.</p>
<p>In bringing together thinkers us such as Fanon, <a href="http://science.jrank.org/pages/7919/Negritude.html">Aime Cesaire</a>, <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/the-philosophy-of-friedrich-nietzsche-explained-with-8-bit-video-games.html">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>, <a href="http://marcusgarvey.com/?p=225">Marcus Garvey</a>, <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography">Nelson Mandela</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q=Michel+Foucault+philosophy&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmsfS49vzYAhXKAsAKHUSPAwoQgQMIJDAA">Michel Foucault</a> and many others, “Critique of Black Reason” is an impressive book. It offers readers insight into how the construction of race and racism underpins our understanding of modernity and therefore of the world we inhabit. </p>
<p>More than this though, it challenges readers to undo forms of exclusionary thinking that still haunt the ways we live. It is only in doing this, according to Mbembe, that we can,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>restore the humanity stolen from those who have historically been subjected to processes of abstraction and objectification. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Critique of Black Reason” is an illuminating and brilliant addition to Mbembe’s corpus. It is the kind of book, I suspect, that will become compulsory reading for undergraduate and graduate classes worldwide.</p>
<p><em>“Critique of Black Reason” is published by Wits University Press</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manosa Nthunya 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>“Critique of Black Reason” offers readers insight into how the construction of race and racism underpins our understanding of modernity.Manosa Nthunya, PhD Candidate, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/812192017-07-25T15:14:57Z2017-07-25T15:14:57ZListen with ears and hearts wide open: lessons from Rastafarian multilingualism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179609/original/file-20170725-6656-b30t79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Language and herbs travel thanks to the Rastafarian community around Cape Town.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Harrison/Mail & Guardian</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The marketplace of Bellville in Cape Town is an unlikely place to find an example of everyday multilingual diversity applied in an ethical way. But you have to keep your ears peeled as you pass from stall to stall, move through the bus and taxi terminus, and then through the train station area. Otherwise you may miss the calls of this <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2017.1334383">Rastafarian multilingualism</a>.</p>
<p>Listen carefully:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fresh Herbs! Fresh Herbs! Zonke Amayeza (All the herbs)!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is Jeremy (not his real name), a Rastafarian pointing to a passerby as he is calling out the names of his herbal products in three distinct languages, English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, in the subway tunnel.</p>
<p>In my <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-5a5012523">research</a> I’ve found that Jeremy is not an isolated example – Rastafarian multilingualism is widespread across Cape Town. Rastafarians come from diverse cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds and are therefore more open to multilingualism. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kykie, Tjommie (look here, buddy)! Higher Grade? Hierso (right here)! Zuka gaba (Herbs for vomiting)! High blood pressure!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ethical multilingualism is about the mutual respect and about the acknowledgement of linguistic difference. More importantly, it’s about shaping a shared multilingual future through face-to-face communication.</p>
<p>In many respects, Rastafarian multilingualism is about achieving common ground in multilingual interactions, but shot through with the ethical principles of Rastafarianism. In communication with their customers and others, Rastafarians approach interaction with respect. They see their interlocutors as fully human rather than as socially flawed categories. They draw on the <a href="http://www.faith-theology.com/2009/12/reggae-as-ethics-rastafari-theology.html">theology of Rastafarianism</a> to demonstrate that they too are human. </p>
<p>They draw on the morals and virtues taught in the Rastafarian Bible, called the Holy Piby, that is transmitted through oral literacy, as well as draw on the belief system preached by Haile Selassie (the messiah of the Rasta).</p>
<h2>Travelling herbs</h2>
<p>On a daily basis, you’ll find Jeremy, seated on the floor beside a mat with an array of herbs. They’re for the stomach, hair, skin or recreation. He’s broadcasting information about the herbs: How much they cost, their purpose and where they come from.</p>
<p>Jeremy’s herbs have travelled far – from the coastal area of Knysna about 500 km away, or the mountains of Cape Town and surrounding farms. And much like the mobility of his herbal products Jeremy’s multilingualism is defined by learning the sounds, words and sentences of other languages to call out and sell his products. </p>
<p>His type of multilingualism is defined by his mobility. He moves around a lot and meets people from all walks of life and races. And he has honed his multilingualism to deal with multilingual diversity in everyday interactions.</p>
<p>Historically, the Rastafarian community in South Africa has been at the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-14-the-rise-and-of-rastafari">forefront</a> of engaging multilingual diversity in an ethical way. Rastafarian culture and religion is rooted in the principles and beliefs of the last Ethiopian Emperor, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/haile-selassie-i">Haile Selassie</a> and the pan-Africanist <a href="http://marcusgarvey.com/?p=225">philosophy of Marcus Garvey</a>. It is a belief system often viewed as religious as well as political, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-margins-reggae-in-south-africa-continues-to-struggle-for-human-dignity-80419">contributing</a>, for example, to South Africa’s liberation movements and the fight against apartheid. And all the principles and beliefs are found in the lyrics, rhythms and poetry of <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-margins-reggae-in-south-africa-continues-to-struggle-for-human-dignity-80419">reggae music</a>.</p>
<h2>Linguistically interesting</h2>
<p>Take this encounter: Jeremy is attempting to explain the meaning and purpose of a herb with an isiXhosa name to a black female customer. She clearly speaks isiXhosa and English and asks for a particular herb. Jeremy picks up a herb and draws a circle movement around his face. He explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yes, that one is good for the face: Nonqwe (an indigenous herb). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And then it gets interesting, linguistically.</p>
<p>He tells the customer that actually a different herb, pointing to it, is better for her. He picks up the herb, calls it by its isiXhosa name, “Xamangvela”. The confused look on the customer’s face lets him know he just mispronounced the lateral click, “x”, as his tongue gets stuck on the left side of his mouth. </p>
<p>He panics phonetically, and tries again. This time he pronounces the herb employing the dental click, “c”, saying “Camangvela”. But it sounds a bit too English and his tongue gets stuck onto his palate. His face says it all and the reply by the customer, “Sorry?”, as though he offended her linguistically, begins to injure the politeness of the interaction.</p>
<p>He tries again for the last time but spectacularly mispronounces the name of the herb in <a href="http://capeafrikaans.blogspot.co.za/p/what-is-kaaps.html">“Kaaps”</a> (Cape Afrikaans): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kamangvel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a slight pause and the customer decides to buy the Nonqwe. </p>
<p>This multilingualism is not a display of struggling to pronounce a particular word correctly. Rather it’s how to sustain multilingual interaction in a space filled with multilingual sounds and based on mutual linguistic respect. And of course, it’s based on the successful sale of a herb. For Jeremy, and others like him, those factors underline this definition of Rastafarian multilingualism.</p>
<p>Depending on the topic of conversation, Rastafarians will also add a localised version of Jamaican creole. They use words such as “Ihi yahnh Ihi” or “Ini” (meaning I and I, we, or you and I), “Jah” (God), “Iya” (my brother) and so on. And they will mix that creole with Kaaps, English, <a href="http://thenumbersgang.weebly.com/the-sabela.html">Sabela</a> (prison gang language), <a href="http://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/743">Tsotsi taal</a> (a mix of Afrikaans, English and other indigenous languages), isiZulu, and as Jeremy has shown, isiXhosa. </p>
<p>Jeremy’s multilingual practice is an example of this inclusive multilingual diversity where language and speech styles are shared. And, the multilingual calls of the Rastafarians come with an extra helping of ethics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin 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>Ethical engagement in multilingual communication is about mutual respect. More importantly, it’s about shaping a shared future through face-to-face communication.Quentin Williams, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635282016-08-09T07:13:57Z2016-08-09T07:13:57ZOf political hair, Jewish noses and South Africa’s failure to become a nation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133343/original/image-20160808-18043-u9lw9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Author Christine Qunta says forgiveness trumps justice in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elelwani Netshifhire</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Book Review: <a href="https://seritisasechaba.co.za/">Why we are not a nation</a>, by Christine Qunta.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>This readable book by Christine Qunta, free of any jargon, divides into three extended essays. The first, mostly historic and political, is titled Why we are not a nation? The second essay, sociological and psychological, is called Is hair political? – and should be a hot sell among African-Americans. The third is a 50-page part-autobiography called Law, national duty, and other hazards.</p>
<p>It is sad that half a century after <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Basil-Davidson/e/B001IXMLRI">Basil Davidson</a> and <a href="https://www.google.co.za/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Joseph+Needham%E2%80%99s+books">Joseph Needham’s</a> books popularised respectively African history and Chinese mechanical inventions, Qunta still finds it necessary to devote pages to an Afrocentric summary of history.</p>
<p>It is sad that half a century after the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/422977?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Oxford History of South Africa</a> and a steady stream of archaeological publications, Qunta still finds it necessary to debunk the colonial and apartheid the-whites-settled-in-empty-land dogma.</p>
<p>But just read the letters to the editors, and the websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter of 2016, where the <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/its-just-the-facts-penny-sparrow-breaks-her-silence-20160104">racist memes of apartheid</a> persist and reproduce themselves, and we immediately understand why. Qunta writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>White supremacy constituted part of the ideological arsenal developed and deployed by colonialism and imperialism, developing an autonomous existence that has survived long after its economic rationale ceased to exist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The core argument of the book is that South Africa has:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…. a type of post-traumatic stress disorder of a nation, one that cannot be treated because it has not yet been diagnosed. (We are a country) where forgiveness is overrated and justice is underrated.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133111/original/image-20160804-466-1y5wurx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&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>Qunta advocates a reparations fund; to accelerate corrective policies; that white businesses should learn to think strategically; that schools should be freed from colonial indoctrination; and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.</p>
<p>The author’s heroes include <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/marcus-garvey">Marcus Garvey</a>, <a href="http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humanities/Philosophy/Social%20%20political%20philosophy/Frantz%20Fanon%20The%20Militant%20Philosopher%20of%20Third%20World%20Liberation.aspx?menuitem=%7B65A3FB7C-5D2E-4158-BBA9-D7824186AD5B%7D">Franz Fanon</a>, <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/malcolm-x">Malcolm X</a> and <a href="http://azapo.org.za/azapohistory/bantu-stephen-biko/">Steve Biko</a>. She advocates that colonial symbols, including statues, should be removed from public places and sent to museums; the same with colonial names.</p>
<h2>Of black hair and Jewish noses</h2>
<p>The essay Is Hair political? starts by quoting <a href="http://www.ngugiwathiongo.com/bio/bio-home.htm">Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o</a> that a:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… multibillion industry in the world is built around the erasure of blackness – and its biggest clients are the affluent black middle classes in Africa and the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Qunta recalls her screaming in pain as a child when her granny tried to comb her hair straight and her mother burnt it straight, leaving her with marks on her forehead. She then summarises the fashion and beauty industries’ war against African hair. In a profoundly feminist statement, she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the fashion and beauty industries were states, they would undoubtedly be fascist.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The phenomenal proportion of black women still using hair-straightening and skin-lightening products decades after white racist laws have been revoked can be explained by a sociological comparison.</p>
<p>From at least the 1930s until the 1960s, many wealthy Jewish women went for “nose jobs” – for plastic surgeons to make their noses look “less Jewish” and more Aryan. During the 1950s and 1960s many Japanese women had surgeons reshape their eyes from almond to round. Even today, many Brazilian and Egyptian women feel pressured to get a gynaecologist to reconstruct their hymens before marriage.</p>
<p>Not those women, but respectively anti-Jewish racism, US hegemony and military occupation of Japan, and contemporary misogyny and double standards, should be blamed for pressuring persons until they felt the need for self-mutilation.</p>
<p>The third essay, Law, national duty, and other hazards, needs to be compulsory reading for all black women to motivate them to succeed in business. Her pages on the South African <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a>, after the end of apartheid, vividly remind us of the routine torture, perversion of justice, and perjuring of affidavits under the apartheid machine. She sketches how the apartheid security apparatus tried to turn <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/political-activist-and-advocate-dumisa-ntsebeza-born">Advocate Dumisa Ntsebenza</a>, one of the commissioners, into a second <a href="https://global.britannica.com/event/Dreyfus-affair">Dreyfus affair</a>.</p>
<h2>Egyptian civilisation</h2>
<p>This reviewer has quibbles with one or two claims in the text, but none of these affect the main points which the author makes. </p>
<p>Ancient Egyptian civilisation is probably best dated (page 3) as emerging not in 4000BC, but between 3400 and 3100 BC.</p>
<p>The claims about Dogon knowledge of astronomy lack independent substantiation. But this does not affect African contributions to historic astronomy, from the calendar to what is possibly the world’s oldest Stonehenge at <a href="http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/egyptnabta.htm">Nabta Playa</a>, dating before 4000 BC.</p>
<p>Shamil Jeppie and Souleymane Diagne’s magisterial <a href="http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2216">The Meanings of Timbuktu</a> points out that there was no institute such as a University of Sankoré. This was a metaphor that African authors used to interpret for western readers that Timbuktu was a centre of higher education, where students studied under individual leading scholars.</p>
<p>In the Cape, slaves were not randomly given the names of months (page 67); they were named after the month in which the slaver ship unloaded them in Cape Town.</p>
<p>Everyone should buy this book – it can be read over a weekend.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="http://wits.worldcat.org/title/why-we-are-not-a-nation/oclc/951524791">Why we are not a nation</a> is published by <a href="https://seritisasechaba.co.za/">Seriti sa Sechaba</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Gottschalk is affiliated with the ANC. He writes this review in his individual capacity.</span></em></p>Qunta advocates a reparations fund to accelerate corrective policies, that schools be freed from colonial indoctrination and that African culture should be mainstreamed, especially African languages.Keith Gottschalk, Political Scientist, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/585862016-05-06T21:43:52Z2016-05-06T21:43:52ZThe Easter Rising 100 years on: how the Irish revolution fired up American politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121583/original/image-20160506-32047-etdljp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dublin's General Post Office on fire after the 1916 Easter Rising. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kman999/159727615/in/photolist-bGM5fa-22j2ZU-f7Dsp-4rhbnF-edYKAK-ecDTJ9-o1CHuK-psS58u-dibRLV-Gmp1Cc-oqgJUU-otG2yb-9MYVE5-otFKRG-edYB94-FBsiRZ-5qjCvi-nUjqHP-nUfJyQ-edYyYV-5zt45o-edYyTc-4xQyP2-ee5g5W-5ogP5X-76xoxd-8NM9kq-FGMwyB-2jsj4v-psQ5Q2-pKgnXv-EK8anK-FJ6hP2-GwnTrB-gQrWg-gQrnX-6eCGo9-ee5e5y-7TvHBB-edYxxk-edYxAz-5zt4Yw-ee5mNq-edYziV-edYzyv-dodrLi-rn4kNK-ee5ebd-6fcVPd-ee5oNb">Kmann999</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On July 27, 1919, Marcus Garvey, the African-American nationalist then nearing the height of his influence, <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520044562">rose to address a crowd</a> of almost 6,000 people who had come to dedicate Liberty Hall, on Harlem’s 138th Street, as the new headquarters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). </p>
<p>The UNIA, which Garvey had originally founded five years earlier in his native Jamaica, had grown rapidly since its relocation to the United States. By the early 1920s, it had chapters in more than 30 American cities and African-American supporters that historians believe numbered in the millions. </p>
<p>Yet the major focus of Garvey’s speech on this particular occasion was not the African-American freedom struggle but the Irish one: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The time has come for the Negro race to offer up its martyrs upon the altar of liberty even as the Irish has given a long list from Robert Emmet to Roger Casement.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121584/original/image-20160506-32034-1j35zt5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marcus Garvey (1887-1940).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a03567/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, the very name of the building that Garvey dedicated, “Liberty Hall,” reflected his admiration of this struggle. It was named after Dublin’s Liberty Hall, the site from which the 1916 Easter Rising had been launched. </p>
<p>How did this veneration of Ireland’s revolution in the U.S. come about?</p>
<h2>The American connection</h2>
<p>Over the last few months, the United States has been marking its connection to the Easter Rising of 100 years ago. </p>
<p>In a series of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/25/nyregion/a-celebration-in-song-and-dance-of-irelands-independence-and-culture.html">public celebrations</a>, <a href="http://1916.nd.edu/1916-the-irish-rebellion/">film screenings</a> and <a href="http://irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/object/ne.independentspiritsymposium">academic symposia</a>, we have learned about the many ways in which America influenced <a href="https://theconversation.com/ireland-in-1916-the-rising-the-war-and-controversial-commemorations-58121">the events</a> that took place in Dublin in Easter Week 1916.</p>
<p>Irish immigrants and their descendants (our “exiled children in America,” in the words of the <a href="https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/20century/topic_3_05/easter1916.htm">Proclamation of the Irish Republic</a>) played a leading part. </p>
<p>They <a href="http://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/1916_the_long_revolution/">supported revolutionary organizations and sent money</a> back to those who were planning the rebellion. At a deeper level, the United States – with its own revolution against the British Empire and a Declaration of Independence that the Irish Proclamation resembled in striking ways – provided a source of inspiration for many of the Rising’s leaders. </p>
<p>“No America. No Easter Rising,” the distinguished Irish historian <a href="http://www.irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/object/americaandeaster1916.html">Joe Lee</a> has stated. “Simple as that.”</p>
<p>But the influences and inspiration worked in the other direction as well, especially in the tumultuous years following the Easter Rising.</p>
<h2>How Irish republicanism inspired Americans</h2>
<p>As I have documented in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/irish-nationalists-in-america-9780195331776?cc=us&lang=en&">a recent book</a>, in the five short years between 1916 and 1921, revolutionary Irish republicanism became a mass movement of breathtaking proportions in the United States. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/archives/irish-american-diaspora-nationalism/">Friends of Irish Freedom</a>, formed in 1916 with the composer <a href="http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/bio/C290">Victor Herbert</a> at its helm, claimed nearly 300,000 members by 1919. Its later rival, the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, counted 700,000 members and had raised over US$10 million for the Irish republican movement by 1921.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121585/original/image-20160506-32044-6jp3yc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leaders of the Friends of Irish Freedom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.29023/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <a href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umich-scl-finerty?subview=standard;view=reslist">one veteran of the cause recalled</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sentiment in favor of the Irish Republic swept over this country so strongly that it was felt in every city and town in the nation. It permeated all walks of life. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So what were these “walks of life”? </p>
<p>One was the world of labor. This was hardly surprising given the concentration of Irish-Americans in working-class occupations and their prominent place in the leadership of many US trade unions – in fact, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Biographical_Dictionary_of_American_Labo.html?id=2WZmAAAAMAAJ">no less than a quarter</a> of all prominent labor leaders between 1830 and 1970 were Irish immigrants or their descendants. </p>
<p>The Irish-American-dominated <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Labor-Democratic-Diplomacy-1914-1924/dp/0801429056">Chicago Federation of Labor</a> was typical in denouncing “the domination of the Celtic people of Ireland by alien people and powers.” </p>
<p>Labor leaders were already suspicious of the growing drumbeat of U.S. opinion favoring entry into World War I. </p>
<p>Many of them believed that the so-called preparedness campaign was a smokescreen for a campaign against unions. The Easter Rising and its suppression only intensified their opposition to military intervention in support of Britain. </p>
<p>More surprising was the Easter Rising’s impact on American feminism.</p>
<h2>Impact on suffragists and African-Americans</h2>
<p>Inspired by the Irish Proclamation’s call for “equal rights and equal opportunities” and its endorsement of the principle of women’s suffrage – a full four years before American women obtained the vote – American suffragists and feminists like <a href="http://www.alicepaul.org/who-was-alice-paul/">Alice Paul</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-facts.html">Jane Addams</a> rallied to the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/irish-nationalists-in-america-9780195331776?cc=us&lang=en&">Irish cause</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121586/original/image-20160506-32019-1guww6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pro-Irish independence demonstration in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b13575/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Irish-American women filled halls across the country for the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Irish_Republican_Women_in_America.html?id=ZLJnAAAAMAAJ">lecture tours</a> of high-profile Irish republican activists like <a href="http://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/hanna-sheehy-skeffington">Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington</a> and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/profiles/po10.shtml">Countess Constance Markievicz</a>. </p>
<p>Though the Irish Free State government that emerged in 1922 <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-women-got-involved-in-the-easter-rising-and-why-it-failed-them-55771">retreated</a> from the promise of gender equality announced in the Proclamation, that promise had a significant impact in encouraging American women’s support of the Irish revolution.</p>
<p>Most surprising of all in light of the deep currents of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Irish-History-Studies-Modern/dp/058227818X">anti-black racism</a> that ran through the history of the Irish in America was the enthusiasm of Marcus Garvey and other African-American protest leaders for the Irish cause. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121582/original/image-20160506-32040-150aduj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marcus Garvey commemorated in New Orleans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/howieluvzus/1599511297/in/photolist-3rkUYZ-5CT2Ki-8z6psq-ecdrGH-ecj64U-62ZWbd-ecdrE2-5YZiT8-n9WNJ-A4mQLY-n9Sn3-n9UNe-n9Tiz-n9U9V-n9VTA-n9WNB-oEfC1h-oG3bk2-oG3bua-oG3bJD-oE1DJK-onMKdk-onMSMh-oG3bqT-oG3bn6-onMRNJ-onMJN2-onNner-oE4H7d-oEhiZX-oG3bMp-oEhiiX-oEfCVJ-oG3byi-wiNBtG-oG3brK-oCfwLA-oE1DFD-onMKhD-oCfwHj-onMxmq-oG3aBD-onMSNu-oEhixK-oG3bti-onMKht-oCfwSY-onMxJj-oCfwy1-oEhipD">Mark Gsthohl</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.upne.com/0819564699.html">Hubert Harrison</a>, the intellectual and activist sometimes described as “the father of Harlem radicalism,” built on the work of the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, in his 1917 campaign to increase black electoral representation. </p>
<p>When he organized the secret African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption two years later, <a href="http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-8827.html">Cyril Briggs</a> drew explicitly on the model of the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood, which had been at the center of the Easter Rising. </p>
<p>In February 1921, Briggs hailed “the Irish fight for liberty” as “the greatest epic of modern times and a sight to inspire to emulation all oppressed groups.” </p>
<p>Briggs’ words, like those of Marcus Garvey, point to the most far-reaching significance of the Easter Rising. It provided a deep source of inspiration to a range of other “oppressed groups,” in America <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719081712/">and beyond</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Brundage has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Irish American Cultural Institute.</span></em></p>Irish immigrants and their descendants played a leading part in the Easter Rising of 1916 and Ireland’s subsequent rebellion. But the inspiration worked in the other direction as well.David Brundage, Professor and Graduate Program Director, History Department , University of California, Santa CruzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/526012016-02-16T04:21:47Z2016-02-16T04:21:47ZSobukwe’s pan-Africanist dream: an elusive idea that refuses to die<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111330/original/image-20160212-29214-1lp2idg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C671%2C4716%2C3507&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Foundation essay: Our foundation essays are longer than usual and take a wider look at key issues affecting society.</em></p>
<p>Is Africa really for Africans? American commissioner to Africa and abolitionist <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/delany-major-martin-robison-1812-1885">Martin Delany</a> asked this question a century and a half ago following his sojourn in Africa and Europe. </p>
<p>Attempts to answer it spawned pan-Africanism - an idea that refuses to die. This question is asked in memory of South African leader <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/robert-sobukwe-overview.htm#.Vr2c9fl97IU">Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe</a>, a doyen of pan-Africanism who died in February 1978. </p>
<p>What became of Sobukwe is a consequence of a myriad of factors, starting from his days at <a href="http://ectoday.co.za/business/a-legacy-of-black-excellence/">Healdtown Comprehensive School</a>. A speech he made as head boy at the school emphasised co-operation between blacks and whites, demonstrating his sense of awareness of the issue of race at a young age.</p>
<p>Such awareness evolved into an ideological posture, nurtured and refined by many factors that spawned his Africanist orientation. It was at Fort Hare, a university from which a great many African leaders graduated, where much of this happened. His study of Native Administration as a subject and interaction with a lecturer who taught it, <a href="http://www.jonathanball.co.za/index.php/component/virtuemart/robert-sobukwe-how-can-man-die-better-detail?Itemid=6">Cecil Ntloko</a>, sharpened his political consciousness. </p>
<p>To these add the pursuit to forge synergy of African people’s struggles against colonialism as institutionalised in the All-African Convention of 1935; his interest in African politics; and John Galsworthy’s play titled Strife - a story of <a href="http://www.jonathanball.co.za/index.php/component/virtuemart/robert-sobukwe-how-can-man-die-better-detail?Itemid=6">“a struggle between Labour and Capital”</a>.</p>
<p>While a member of the African National Congress (ANC), Sobukwe embraced its Youth League’s definition of African nationalism that emerged during the leadership of <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/anton-muziwakhe-lembede">Anton Lembede</a>. It was at odds with the mother body as it </p>
<blockquote>
<p>emphasized the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=YR9JUxYlJOkC&pg=PA225&lpg=PA225&dq=Leo+Kuper+emphasized+the+exclusive+basis+of+African+solidarity,+as+a+race+and+as+a+nation&source=bl&ots=_rsEb8So99&sig=uimfHaCfTMWd7s9rVCygNFF3pBU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii7sXB-vnKAhUGuRoKHQc-B98Q6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=Leo%20Kuper%20emphasized%20the%20exclusive%20basis%20of%20African%20solidarity%2C%20as%20a%20race%20and%20as%20a%20nation&f=false">exclusive basis of African solidarity</a>, as a race and as a nation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sobukwe developed the philosophy of African nationalism to even higher intellectual heights. He believed that African nationalism was</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a basis for the complete unity of the African people, and the basis for achievement of national freedom for the African people as a step towards a fully <a href="http://www.jonathanball.co.za/index.php/component/virtuemart/robert-sobukwe-how-can-man-die-better-detail?Itemid=6">fledged democratic order</a> in South Africa.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He dedicated his life selflessly to this cause. The lesson he left for humanity was his ideological stand that there is <a href="https://ilizwe.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/speeches-of-r-m-sobukhwe.pdf">only one race</a>, the human race. Perhaps if we had listened to Sobukwe’s teachings, the world would not be struggling today with blatant racism.</p>
<h2>The fathers of pan-Africanism</h2>
<p>Delany argued in his <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=9dBC2U-EgBsC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%E2%80%9CAfrica+for+the+African+race+and+black+men+to+rule+them%E2%80%9D,+Official+Report+of+The+Niger+Valley+Party,+Martin+Delany&source=bl&ots=cwzA3gCqKo&sig=h_tvXH6ZexCXeOBityvlH_FPR9A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPgvKBgvLKAhWJ0xoKHWOWAz8Q6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CAfrica%20for%20the%20African%20race%20and%20black%20men%20to%20rule%20them%E2%80%9D%2C%20Official%20Report%20of%20The%20Niger%20Valley%20Party%2C%20Martin%20Delany&f=false">1861 Report</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Africa for the African race and black men to rule them</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Attempts to achieve this date back to the struggles against slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and racism. </p>
<p>They became systematised into a pursuit called pan-Africanism. It aimed to elevate the human race of African origin from <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4029079?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">centuries of humiliation</a>. Pan-Africanism came to engender the spirit of African unity among the native Africans and those in the <a href="http://panafricanperspective.com/pheko.htm">diaspora</a>.</p>
<p>Following Edward Blyden’s theorisation of <a href="http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/73/292/277.full.pdf">African Personality</a>, a Trinidadian barrister, <a href="http://www.africanidea.org/pan-Africanism.html">Henry Sylvester-Williams</a>, coined Pan-Africanism. The concept came to frame efforts to </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Africa-Unity-The-Evolution-Pan-Africanism/dp/0582645220">re-establish the dignity</a> (of Africans) in a world that has hitherto conceded [them] none. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Blyden is considered the father of pan-Africanism. But, pan-African scholar <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pan-Africanism-Exploring-Contradictions-Development-Interdisciplinary/dp/1840143754">William Ackah</a> argued that pan-Africanism does not have “a single founder or particular tenets that can be used as a definition”. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois">WEB DuBois</a>, <a href="http://marcusgarvey.com/">Marcus Garvey</a>, <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/hayford-joseph-ephraim-casely-1866-1930">Joseph Casely-Hayford</a>, and <a href="http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/Who%20We%20Are/who-was-george-padmore">George Padmore</a>, among others, enhanced the profundity of the concept. It later evolved into an ideology, a philosophy, and a movement. It enthused the first generation of post-colonial African leadership, chief among them <a href="http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/pan-afrikanism-afrocentricity/37699-pan-africanism-imperialism-unity-struggle-towards-new-democratic-africa.html">Kwame Nkrumah</a>.</p>
<h2>So what is it?</h2>
<p>Pan-Africanism is a socio-political worldview. As an ideology, it represents integrative intent directed at fundamental change in society. In <a href="https://consciencism.wordpress.com/history/consciencism-philosophy-and-ideology-for-decolonisation/">Nkrumah’s words</a>, Pan-Africanism</p>
<blockquote>
<p>guides and seeks to connect the actions of millions of persons towards specific and definite goals. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is a philosophy “based on the belief that Africans share common bonds and objectives and … advocate[s] unity to <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1803448.Pan_Africanism_in_the_African_Diaspora">achieve these objectives</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111325/original/image-20160212-4413-xbsme6.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">Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Philosophy is the instrument of ideology for a desired social, economic and political order. According to <a href="https://consciencism.wordpress.com/history/consciencism-philosophy-and-ideology-for-decolonisation/">Nkrumah</a>, it “performs ideological function when it takes shape as political philosophy”, laying “down certain ideals for our pursuit and fortification”, and becoming “an instrument of unity by laying down the same ideals for all the members of a given society”.</p>
<p>After decades of decolonisation, an inevitable question is whether a desired social, economic and political order as envisaged in pan-Africanism has been realised.</p>
<h2>Is Africa really for Africans?</h2>
<p>Africa is a construct of colonial imagination, which the 1885 <a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195337709.001.0001/acref-9780195337709-e-0467">Berlin conference</a> perfected in the resolution to balkanise her for imperial ends. </p>
<p>This <a href="http://nobidadetv.com/archives/9690">destroyed</a> “the cultural and linguistic boundaries established by the indigenous African population”. Africans became estranged from one another, separating into different nationalities.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/Multilateral/africa/oau.htm">Organisation of African Unity</a> was established in 1963 to foster unity and solidarity. But it did not deconstruct the Berlin conference stratagem of continued domination of the continent. Its focus was on colonial freedom. It did not change the narrative of the scramble for Africa. This “showed the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/3677657/Nationalism_and_Pan_Africanism_revised_-_decisive_moments_in_Nyereres">limits</a> of the pan-Africanism of African states”. </p>
<p>The decolonisation project secured the independence of the African states, but their evolution followed the pattern of fragmentation determined in Berlin. Hence, Africans characterise each other as foreigners in their colonially determined boundaries.</p>
<p>Sometimes this assumes the form of hatred and violence - <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/05/xenophobia-south-africa-150501090636029.html">xenophobia</a>, <a href="https://writix.co.uk/blog/the-history-of-rwanda-genocide">ethnic</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">civil</a> wars. And African leaders jealously protect their sovereignty. These are the contradictions that drive Africa’s history.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://dilemma-x.net/2013/02/10/black-history-month-the-united-states-of-africa-the-diasporas-remittances-in-2012/">United States of Africa</a> remains an elusive ideal. This is a pity because an important lesson of geopolitics is that the world’s largest economies derive their strength from their unity.</p>
<p>Nkrumah was conscious of this. He was so committed to the pan-African ideal of a united Africa that he was even prepared to give up the sovereignty of Ghana. </p>
<p>He knew that for Africa to be for Africans it must unite. This requires, as Dialo Diop correctly <a href="http://bookze.xyz/pub/mafube-tafelberg">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>mutual and reciprocal surrender of sovereignty among states on the basis of common interest and free popular consent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the concept of <a href="http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/mbeki.html">African Renaissance</a> former South African president <a href="http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/1998/mbek0813.htm">Thabo Mbeki</a> articulated a pan-African agenda in the 21st century. He did so with profound clarity and a sense of mission, underscoring the significance of collective self-reliance of African countries. </p>
<h2>Securing African future a pan-African way</h2>
<p>Contemporary institutional arrangements to pursue the pan-African agenda in the <a href="http://www.au.int/">African Union</a> and <a href="http://www.au.int/en/organs/pap">African Parliament</a> are laudable. But, do these institutions really exemplify the Unity of Africa or that of her leadership? </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111284/original/image-20160212-29207-80aocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&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>I am asking this question because ugly scenes of violence against African foreign nationals dominate our space. Why is pan-Africanism not yet a fully lived experience? Some appear to ascribe a reason for this to <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=rZCPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Kwandiwe+Kondlo.+2009&source=bl&ots=DBMapBB540&sig=7QCMczbrM6OxQVlzoacW8nOMlbg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNx_iH9O_KAhXFvBoKHQitC2YQ6AEITzAJ#v=onepage&q=Kwandiwe%20Kondlo.%202009&f=false">continentalism</a>. This suggests that the African Union and African Parliament are used as a means to achieve this rather than pan-Africanism. </p>
<p>Most African leaders are stuck in the sovereignty of their nationalism. So are their followers. Burundi’s stand against the African Union’s decision to <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/burundi-african-union-wont-impose-peacekeepers-421557?rm=eu">deploy peacekeepers</a> is a case in point. Pan-Africanism is pitted against nationalism. This makes Africa weak and vulnerable. It gives way for <a href="http://www.postcolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/ashcroft3a.html">“a continuity of preoccupation”</a>. </p>
<p>As the decoloniality scholar <a href="http://www.thethinker.co.za/resources/48%20Thinker%20full%20mag.pdf">Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni</a> explains, the colonial matrices of power continue </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to exist in the minds, lives, languages, dreams, imagination, and epistemologies of modern subjects in Africa and the entire global South.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Africa to be for Africans, pan-Africanism should be a lived experience, not an ideological project for political rhetoric. </p>
<p>A body of pan-African thought exists. This has been developed by outstanding African scholars, political scientists, historians and philosophers living in Africa and the <a href="http://panafricanperspective.com/pheko.htm">diaspora</a>. It is the responsibility of African universities to accommodate it in their curricula to ensure that the future leaders of this continent have a pan-African orientation when they graduate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mashupye Herbert Maserumule received funding from National Research Foundation(NRF) for his post-graduate studies. He is affiliated to the South African Association of Public Administration and Management(SAAPAM)- an organisation that he served as its President from 2012-2015. He is the Chief-Editor of the Journal of Public Administration. </span></em></p>Robert Sobukwe developed the philosophy of African nationalism to even higher intellectual heights. The lesson for humanity was his ideological stand that there is only one race - the human race.Mashupye Herbert Maserumule, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.