Kemptonpark 7 April 2000
Chairperson
The Deputy President
Ntate Keitumile Masire
Ministers, Premiers and Ambassadors
Distinguished guests
This gathering is yet another important part of a journey to redefine ourselves and shape our future, taking into account our past as well as our present situation. The launch of the South African Chapter of the African Renaissance has already become a source of irritation to the super-ghosts of colonialism and invasion of the African soil. Those who thought that the process would be implemented by decree are somewhat disappointed that it is truly owned by the people. The presence of delegates from grassroots structures alongside Africa's intellectuals will go a long way towards ensuring that the African Renaissance takes root inside and outside of the boardrooms.
The book entitled 'The sixty Greatest conspiracies of All Time' refers to what was called the 'Race Betterment Conference' that took place in Michigan, initiated by Dr. John Harvey Kellog. Interestingly, he talks of plutocrats in cahoots with some scientists in efforts to 'prove' that "blacks were stupid, Jews were greedy, Mexicans were lazy, women were nutty and so on - as well as the corollary; rich, white people with good table manners and glowing report cards were genetically superior." The African renaissance initiative will succeed only if we successfully eradicate some of the profound prejudices manufactured to conquer the minds, souls and the self worth of African people. This conference takes place at a time when Africa is confronted with many other problems, highlighted by Aids taking over from the debt burden as a source of misery for the Continent and the continued domination by countries of the north, bent on defining the political and economic discourse for the rest of the World. Our times are difficult, yet interesting indeed. Authors like Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, Alvin Toffler, David Mercer and many more have attempted to predict the future. My view is that if we are to correctly define and predict the future we would have to look back where we come from and correct the wrong and denigrating definition the rest of the world had given us. Then, and only then, can we correctly say we are a people in control of our own destiny.
The African must take charge of his/her life and how the rest of the world sees the continent. We must redefine ourselves in order to prepare for our revived role in the development of society in general. This venture must prove wrong those who, driven by their selfish hegemonic control, have reduced us to just subjects and recipients of what they produce, be it thought, ideology or goods. We must revive the truths of our significant role in art, in political thought, in architecture, and many other things. We must use the conference to answer the burning question: What justifies the dogma and prejudices held against us? Our response must propel us to move beyond theory for its own sake towards combining theory and practice.
What should be the content of the African Renaissance? Understandably it will have to encompass the confirmed participation of all citizens in social, economic and political matters. It must be about the eradication of racism and gender inequalities in our society. Above all it will have to be about the participation of Africa in the globalisation of the economy, not as spectators, but as players capable of taking advantages of globalisation, while developing responses to the negative impacts of globalisation.
In South Africa, it will have to encompass the participation of white skilled workers, some of who are leaving our shores for Europe. Whatever their reasons for leaving, no one can take away the fact that our country has invested so much resources on them. They have a responsibility to plough back to what the country gave them to current and future generations.
As the President stated in his speech in Japan in 1998, (If he did not say this he should have) "an essential and necessary element of the African renaissance is that we all must take it as our task to encourage her, who carries this laden weight, to rebel, to assert the principality of her humanity - the fact that she, in the first instance, is not a beast of burden, but a human and African being".
I wish to welcome all of you to this Province and hope that your discussions will really find ways of shackling the chains that hold us down.
I hope the deliberations at this conference will not be about whether or not we should rebel in the cause of the African Renaissance but about what it is we must do to ensure Africa succeeds in the new century and millennium.
I wish this gathering all the best in its deliberations.
Thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier.
Gauteng Provincial Government.