Ebrahim Harvey
CROSSFIRE
Let us say that the African renaissance is not a grand diversion from the serious post-apartheid problems that the African National Congress-led government faces, as some argue, and that it is a genuine attempt to resolve the deepening crisis in Africa.
Because of this crisis – of which we are a part – our success, however we define it, is inextricably linked to the future and fate of the rest of the continent. The recent launch of the African Renaissance Institute in Pretoria shows the importance this theme is assuming.
But, ironically, the discourse on the “African renaissance” has lacked a coherent theoretical framework which gets to grips with the critical issues of imperialism, globalisation, development and economic growth from a grassroots African perspective.
It is the hellish experiences and desperate needs of Africans which must define the parameters, direction and tempo of the “African renaissance”. It is the common sights of mass hunger, starvation and gruelling poverty which must define both the objectives and programmes of the renaissance.
Yet while the major institutions of the world economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF ), World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), led by the United States, have tightened their controlling grip over Africa, the leading proponents of the renaissance have not given these facts due emphasis and provided a way forward for Africa.
Instead they have tended to subordinate or obscure the deeper causes of the current crisis behind relative abstractions, like calls for cultural renewal, moral rectitude and pride.
The only path to restoring the lost dignity and pride of Africa and Africans is through fundamental changes to the material conditions of people. This is only going to happen by drawing the teeming millions, who cannot take their condition any longer, into the mainstream of the renaissance.
The crisis in Africa requires radical solutions. Nowhere has colonialism and imperialism exacted a heavier toll on human life and been as brutal as it has been in Africa.
Unless we develop an approach and strategy which does not reactively and defensively lurch from one crisis to the next, but proactively unearths the fundamental causes of the crisis this will not happen and the renaissance will be disappointing.
The “African renaissance” must develop into a powerful mass movement which poses a concerted and fundamental challenge to the policies and programmes of the IMF, World Bank and WTO.
Central to the renaissance is the development of new macroeconomic frameworks and developmental models in which civil society are involved. For too long have the elites of the IMF and World Bank prescribed models and programmes which have led us into deeper poverty and debt.
At the recent Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Algiers, President Thabo Mbeki said that it is necessary for Africa to be integrated into the world economy in a beneficial manner. This is hard to understand. Africa has long been an integral part of the world economy but as the colonised and recolonised backyard niggers of that economy, an exploitable source of raw materials and cheap labour.
Mbeki has unfortunately stopped short of challenging the neo-liberal development models and programmes imposed by the IMF, World Bank and those responsible for the worsening crisis. Unless the renaissance can push back the frontiers of imperialist control in Africa its impact will be seriously limited.
The undemocratic, dictatorial and corrupt character of many African states, a product of many complex factors, has also exacerbated the crisis and poses a serious threat to the renaissance.
Despite all its difficulties, problems and weaknesses the OAU has to be harnessed for that purpose. Since the unity of African countries in transforming Africa and challenging the IMF and World Bank is so vital, this prospect must be explored. The OAU is the only continental organisation where there is a degree of unity, however tenuous.
Another serious obstacle that faces the renaissance is the domineering and chauvinistic attitude we have towards Africans from other countries, which is reminiscent of the old apartheid regime.
But the real problem is that this extends to trade and other economic relations in which we treat other, poorer, countries in Southern Africa like our colonies. Are we becoming an imperial power in the subcontinent? Is that perhaps why the government is going to spend over R20- billion on armaments when we are already the most powerful country in Africa and do not face a military threat from any African country?
South Africa must use its power for the benefit of the entire continent and not against countries which have suffered long under apartheid aggression.
Our president has his work cut out for him in the next five years. One thing is certain: Mbeki, who has worn the mantle of the renaissance, will be judged by its fate.
There is a prevailing sense that unless the African renaissance is championed in this country and elsewhere in Africa by the organisations of civil society, leading campaigns and programmes on some of the challenges already raised, it will largely remain an elitist project which soothes the conscience of our leaders.