Jibrin Ibrahim
I spent the week in Rabat, Morocco participating in the huge celebration organised by CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.
It holds every three years and it’s always a great occasion for socialists and progressive intellectuals to debate current issues in the continent. This year was an occasion to celebrate four things.
The first was the contribution of left and progressive intellectuals to our understanding of African underdevelopment and the struggle for democracy over the last 38 years of CODESRIA.
The frontline celebration was that of Amadou Maktar Mbow who used his time as Director-General of UNESCO to get African historians to write an informed series on the history of Africa. The very strong and youthful 91 year-old Mbow gave the keynote address on the challenges facing contemporary Africa and what we must do to liberate Africa
Other intellectuals celebrated at the event include Samir Amin and Helmi Sharawy from Egypt, Mahmoud Mamdani and Issa Shivji from Uganda, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thandika Mkandawire from Malawi. Penda Mbow from Senegal and Adele Jinadu from Nigeria My own Zaria group of A.B.U. intellectuals present at the event included Bjorn Beckman, Yusuf Bangura, Gunilla Andrae, Raufu Mustapha and Toure Kazah.
The second celebration was the 50th Anniversary of the Casablanca Conference when the progressive King Mohammed V of Morocco convened committed leaders of independent Africa including Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Modibo Keita of Mali, Gamel Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sekou Toure of Guinea and the Algerian President to develop a progressive agenda for Africa’s future
The agenda included an immediate halt to French nuclear tests in the Sahara, the resolution of the crisis in the Congo, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, independence for all African countries and the necessity of forging an African Union. Reactionary countries like Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal were of course absent as they had constituted themselves into the Monrovia Group which was arguing that African unity was unrealistic
We are all inspired by a documentary of the Conference done by the Moroccan Film Archives. The tragedy however was that shortly after the Conference, Mohammed V and Nasser died in suspicious circumstances, Lumumba was assassinated and the reactionaries took over. King Mohammed V son, Hassan II became a turn coat and withdrew from the OAU and devoted his life to integrating into Europe, a line maintained by the current King Mohammed the VI. The reactionaries also took over in Egypt, the Congo and many other African countries paving the way for a conservative Organisation of African Unity to emerge and fail to achieve the progressive agenda of the Casablanca Conference.
The third celebration was the 50th anniversary of the death of Frantz Fanon. As a lot of the participants argued, our engagement with progressive politics is deeply rooted in our reading of his book, the “Wretched of the Earth.” Fanon’s perceptive analysis in the book demonstrated how the black ruling class betrayed the purpose of independence As he put it, the black national bourgeoisie saw its mission as the enactment of neo-colonialism rather than the total liberation of Africa from imperialist domination.
The fourth celebration was of course the Arab Spring that started in February this year. As the youth, the urban proletariat hit the streets in Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli, they succeeded in placing citizenship and rights back on the African agenda. Participants emphasised that it’s important to understand the reason why it started in Tunisia, a country whose economy was doing relatively well but a country where there was no future for the youth. The youth knew that they must redirect their countries or suffer for the rest of their lives. They decided to act.
The justification for action was four-fold. The authoritarian and decadent Arab regimes had deprived the people of social justice, human rights, human dignity and human freedom. All the core values of the people had been destroyed by successive regimes. These core values happen to be both human and Islamic values.
The Conference noted that it is not surprising the following the Arab Spring, there is a resurgence of Islamic parties because religion become the repository of these core values during the decades of human humiliation. Many of the speakers however emphasised that the Jasmine Revolution remains fragile because although people know what they do not like about their regimes, they are not sure how to provide what they want. The hope is that civic engagement is directed towards developing an open and democratic society.
The theme of the Conference was Africa and the Challenges of the 21st Century. A number of scenarios that could emerge in Africa’s future were deliberated upon. They include growth without development and employment for the youth; political and economic regression as the resource curse determines Africa’s future; the development of major growth centres in Africa similar to that of the Asian tigers and the desired scenario of people centred inclusive development and the deepening of democracy. The concussion is that Africa’s future is not a fatality. The future is open for democracy and development if we commit ourselves and do the rights things.
In looking into the future, the Conference stressed the necessity for anger and indeed rage, by Africans at the 50 years of terrible governance citizens have endured. We need to be audacious as we engage our governments and societies in thinking, planning and acting to produce democracy and development.
We need to imagine what could be and work towards it.
We need to turn our backs at the Africa of war, disease, hunger and death.
The era of Afro-pessimism is past but we must beware of Afro-euphoria. Africa’s future must be made bright by pursuing the objectives of social justice and people-cantered development.
