By Bhekisisa Mncube
Durban – Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has hailed the 15th African Renaissance Conference as a “historic event”, as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the African Union (AU).
The OAU was founded on 25 May 1963 by the post-colonial African nations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The aim of the OAU was to steamroll the total liberation of the African continent from colonialism and the forging of continental unity.
Motlanthe said he believed that during this anniversary of the OAU, the 15th African Renaissance Conference was an ideal platform for some reflection on the pros and cons of the African Renaissance in its right as a mobilising vision.
At the 2002 Durban Summit, the OAU was dissolved, marking the birth of a more coherent and modern African unity movement, which is today known as the AU.
The Deputy President said the continental body of governance, which seeks to take Africa to the next level of development, the AU “cannot afford to fail, for to do so would be to rob posterity of this heritage of dignity, self-respect and development that it deserves.”
Motlanthe was delivering the keynote address at the 15th African Renaissance Conference, held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban today.
“The ultimate goal should be to seek to build a fair world where the colonial legacy as the natural human experience is eliminated and replaced by shared norms deriving from the universality of human experience,” he said.
Motlanthe said elevating the African experience of renewing the continent was thus a challenge for the African thinkers, activists, politicians and all thought leaders who understand the project of African renewal as a duty to the history and a responsibility to the future to frame this process in subjective African terms.
However, in essence, Motlanthe continued, the AU and African Renaissance project primarily advanced issues of socio-economic progress such as development, good governance, democratisation, economic growth, and peace and security as the primary goals towards which Africa was striving.
At the same time, the Deputy President said the conscious ownership of African renewal must not render Africans resistant to useful lessons from other parts of the world, including Europe.
“We do not have to reinvent the wheel or repeat the errors of others. All we need is an open mind and attention to history,” he emphasised.
“What this means for the notion of African agency is that while we are essentially in the saddle in terms of our future, we also have to build on the best historical experience from around the world. After all, cross-pollination of ideas has always been the motor of human history.”
Speaking at the same conference, the Chairperson of African Renaissance and Minister of Correctional Services Sibusiso Ndebele said working together, Africans must “strive to promote an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”. – SAnews.gov.za
