Speech by Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Sibusiso Ndebele at the opening of the conference of the 9th African Renaissance Festival, Inks Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, Durban

Thank you

Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa
Programme Director
Acting Director-General of the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal

The African Renaissance is about the re-birth of the Continent of Africa. Such a re-birth manifests itself in different ways, but these ways are born out of a desire by Africa and its people to claim their stake in the global affairs of mankind.

This is the 9th African Renaissance Festival to be held in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. It started as an idea, and today it is a movement. Every year in May, we assemble in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, with our brothers and sisters from the United States of America, under the leadership of Reverend James Orange. We do so, so that we can share views and plans about the essence of being an African.

The African Renaissance Movement is itself not new. In 1911 the founder member of the African National Congress, and intellectual Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, was already talking about the need for Africa's regeneration.

Over the years, the likes of W B du Bois, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, President Julius Nyerere, President Thabo Mbeki and many others have pursued the idea that Africa must rise up and re-claim its position in the common wealth of nations.

Over the years, the movement has been an intellectual one. However, this is not unique to the African Renaissance, because similar movements elsewhere have been triggered by the rise in intellectual discourse. A Renaissance happens when a people hitherto, under some untenable position characterised by lack of room for new ideas and growth, decide on their own to turn the situation around. A Renaissance often results in such people re-claiming their destiny.

The African Renaissance is about Africa. It is about Africa and the Africans realising that even though we live in villages, and have complete lives there, we are surrounded by cities, mountains, seas and vast lands over which those who went before us once presided. The African Renaissance movement provides Africa with an opportunity to indulge in an introspection, in order to find and re-discover itself in terms of its history, its identity, its cultures, and its character.

Africa was once a dominant player in world affairs; through trade, through scholarship and through political wisdom. It has been established, through palaeontology, that Africa is the cradle of mankind. In pursuance of modern civilisation, Africans in the world were already practicing farming, some 5 000 years BC.

Africa has nurtured some of the biggest kingdoms like the Kingdom of Kush, which came out of the South of Egypt around 2 000 BC, as well as such Kingdoms as Aksum which arose around 300 BC, when it, together with the Nubians 200 years later, became a Christian State. These were established Kingdoms with trade and diplomatic relations with other parts of the world.

When, between 639 AD and 710 AD the Arabs conquered Northern Africa, the history of this continent was to change drastically. The northern parts of this continent were occupied by Arabic people who assumed an African identity and brought with them the Islamic religion.

In the years immediately following the death of Christ in the Middle East Africans of Negro origins started moving southwards from the southern parts of Egypt and the Great Lakes. The massive movement of Bantu Speaking people to the South, West and East of Africa was yet another milestone in African history. As they migrated South, they established such large Kingdoms as Zimbabwe, Mapungubwe, Basonghai, Buganda, Congo and much later the Zulu Kingdom, to name but a few.

We are a people rooted in the history of Africa. We are united by our diverse cultures, languages, music, musical instruments, dances and most of all one history. The intervening period of slavery, colonialism and apartheid, spanning some 500 years did much harm. However, we cannot stand by in the fringes of life and mourn this unfortunate period.

Yes, our African brothers and sisters are now found all over the world. We should turn this into our competitive advantage. The African diaspora is our resource. It is our competitive advantage. Our challenges are the same.

We have a continent to re-engineer. We have villages and cities to re-build. While some of us may be fascinated by the ruins of Zimbabwe, Mapungubwe and Timbuktu, we should not lose sight of the fact that understanding the complex history of the ruins is the necessary first step.

The next, much bigger task is to turn the ruins into winning cities, and winning centres of African excellence. We have a history to re-construct and that task begins now.

The Independence of Ghana in 1957, and the subsequent formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, has seen African nations and people working more and more towards the unity of purpose. There has been even more determination with the formation of the African Union and its supporting structures in 2002. Through New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the African Parliament, Africa is now a continent-in-dialogue. This counts very positively for the Renaissance.

Today and tomorrow we are going to deliberate, mainly around the following three questions:

1. The economic development question
2. The culture, heritage and identity question
3. The governance question.

It is going to be important to deliberate and resolve these questions, bearing in mind that most of the issues around the African Renaissance consists of work-in-process. We will emerge out of this conference with resolutions which will add on to the knowledge base that already exists about Africa and the Africans. Some of these resolutions will feed to the African Diaspora Conference to be held in the future.

The Festival itself is bigger than the Summit with more events planned for Friday and Saturday. We stand on the verge of making history by deliberating on these issues and thus contributing to Africa's regeneration.

In conclusion, Programme Director, I wish to point out that as we seize this moment to contribute towards Africa's Regeneration, we must construct and realise a view of Africa characterised by peace, democracy and development through partnerships.

We must formulate and construct a view of Africa where thinkers and thinking flourish and exchange ideas at will; an Africa where the entrepreneurs are ever engaging in service, technology and innovation; an Africa where the universities are producers rather than mere consumers of knowledge; and an Africa where the natural resources are utilised to empower the continent and its people.

It is doable.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
23 May 2007