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Date : 22/02/05
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mbeki: Conference of Association of African Universities, Cape Town

Address of the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, at the Conference of the Association of African Universities, Cape Town

22 February 2005


President of the AAU, Professor Lamine Ndiaye, Vice President of the AAU, Dr Dorothy Njeuma, Secretary-General of the AAU, Professor Akilagpa Sawyer, The South African Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Professor Njabulo Ndebele, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the UCT, Professor Martin West, Distinguished delegates, Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:


I thank you for the privilege you have given me to address this important gathering of the leaders of Africa’s continental academy, representing the African intelligentsia. On behalf of the government and people of South Africa, I extend a very warm and sincere welcome to all the delegates and participants at this important Conference.

You meet in our country at the beginning of the First Century of the Second Millennium. The way the human mind works dictates that we impose on you the obligation to consider yourselves as architects of a new African world that will be different from the African world of the last Century and the greater part of the last Millennium.

On the very eve of the last Century of the first Millennium, the outstanding African American scholar and combatant for African liberation, WEB du Bois, said that the problem of the 20th Century would be the problem of the colour line. History has proved him correct.

If he were still alive, perhaps WEB du Bois would make bold to say that 21st Century would be distinguished by the elimination of the colour line as a defining feature in the ordering of human relations.

The realisation of this objective is the central and historic task that confronts you as the African intelligentsia, acting together with the intelligentsia in the African Diaspora - we whom an earlier and extended historical period, dominated by others than ourselves, had defined us as belonging to the other and despised side of the colour line.

I trust that in your deliberations in the course of this week, you will find ways in which together as institutions of higher education, government and the rest of society, we will improve our collaboration as we implement practical programmes both to define the 21st Century in our interest, and to revive the vibrancy of many of our African universities, which in the past made these institutions some of the best in the world.

I also hope that you will reflect on the challenges facing African universities in the context of the unfolding renaissance on our continent and find ways of strengthening the links between your own programmes and those of the African Union and its development programme, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

This morning I would like to start by reflecting on an important phenomenon that characterises the African continent. We are each one of us consumed by the daily challenges we face. Because of this, we have perhaps not given sufficient attention to and taken the necessary advantage of this phenomenon. This is the phenomenon of change.

I hope that either at this conference or on other occasions, the leadership present here may want to look further at some of these changes that I will briefly talk about. In this context I would seek to answer the question how African universities could help to consolidate these positive changes, give them more impetus, and help our continent to address everything that has a negative impact on our peoples.

The first of these changes concerns African politics. I am sure that students of history will have already recorded the fact that African politics has undergone fundamental change in the last decade and half, with the majority of African countries abandoning the failed systems of one-party rule and military dictatorship, in favour of more open and inclusive democratic systems of government. As we know, in many of our countries, multi-party elections have become a regular feature of our national politics.

Clearly, we still face many challenges with regard to the task of deepening popular democracy and empowering state and civil society institutions so that they can serve our citizens better, to ensure that all our countries become, in a real sense, more democratic.

This challenge is directly relevant to our universities because we know that over the years, a good number of these universities have not performed well with regard to their vibrancy, efficiency and effectiveness, in part due to autocratic systems of government that characterised many of our countries in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Our universities had in the past played an important role in our democratic processes because these are institutions among whose defining features are free debate, as well as open and critical search for solutions. Accordingly, the political changes on the continent could never be complete without the full involvement of African universities.

Two of the key activities of higher education, namely research and teaching, in all their forms and functions, are perhaps the most powerful vehicles that we can and should use to deepen democracy. Research, in particular, engenders the values of inquiry, critical thinking, creativity and open-mindedness, which are fundamental to building a strong democratic ethos in society.

We need research and a curriculum that can contribute to the advancement of all forms of knowledge and scholarship. In particular these must address the diverse challenges and demands of the local, national, regional and African contexts, while simultaneously upholding rigorous standards of academic quality.

The second change affecting Africa concerns the issue of peace and stability. We will remember that in the past, the OAU had a policy of non-interference in the affairs of member-states. Today, the AU firmly asserts our common duty to intervene to prevent such horrors as the 1994 Rwanda genocide, as well as respond to the need to restore political order and maintain peace in our countries, in the interest of the African masses.

As we know, SADC intervened in Lesotho to defend democracy in that country. ECOWAS intervened in Sierra Leone and Liberia to advance the cause of peace and democracy. Furthermore, through the AU or regional bodies, Africa has intervened in the DRC, Burundi, Sudan, C

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