Click here to Join the Cause: Demand to dedicating MAY as the month for African Unity

Inspiration

"Having served as a prime example of human despair, Africa is certain to emerge as a place of hope." Thabo Mbeki, the current prime advocate of the African Renaissance vision for Africa

THE DEMAND TO DECLARE AND COMMIT THE MONTH OF MAY FOR AFRICAN UNITY

It is nearly 50 years since the African Liberation Day was launched on May 25,1963 at the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The unity of Africa has remained a big challenge. Disunity prevails. Unity for full liberation is yet to be made.

On May 27, May 2011 in South Africa, the Tshawne Declaration for African Unity and Liberation was adopted by the participants of the First African Liberation Day conference.

The Tshawne Declaration strongly recommended that the Africa Liberation Day should continue to be celebrated with both intellectual and popular education and other exhibitions in order to concentrate resources, energy and spirit to make Africans learn to engage with one another, network and build trust and spread African unity for full liberation. (see http://www.nesglobal.org/symp125/node/5)

We demand as a cause for all of us to unite: just as May 25 every year has been recognised as Africa liberation day, the whole month of May must be dedicated by all the African states as Africa Unity for full Liberation Month, turning the whole month for spreading pan-African education to find various ways of making Africans engage with other Africans a number one priority.

The cause for all of us is to demand that Ten years after the Africa Union, and over 50 years that most African governments came into being: We demand that Governments and the AU dedicate, declare and enforce the whole of May across the African world to be a month for the education of African unity for liberation and comprehensive and deep integration.

-Next year of May 2013 will be 50 years of OAU
-The liberation month must reach the African street
-Openly engage, involve from the bottom and up
-Sign, comment, unite and persevere!
- Continue to celebrate African unity to overcome the prevailing disunity now!
-It is getting late, if not unity now, then when?

INTRODUCING THE MAY 25-27, 2012 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

INSPIRATION

"“Putting Africa First” challenges the world not to see Africa as a victim, but to recognize that what was done to Africa cannot be repeated to any human community. Putting Africa first can only mean putting humanity first. Imagining a future with values that put Afropolitianism first is crucial for moving in the direction of creating a worthy cosmopolitian community free from the varied historical inequities bequeathed from the past and still continues to the present threatening to shape tomorrow with the tyranny of univerally spreading unending bestial injustice and moral failure." Mammo Muchie

INTRODUCTION

The Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA) in collaboration with the Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) Institute of Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) and the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), DST, NRF, DITSONG and will host an international conference from 25- 27 May 2012 in Pretoria at the TUT Pretoria Campus. There will be an exhibition during the day on 25 May 2012 at the DITSONG followed by the annual Thabo Mbeki Africa Day Lecture at UNISA in the evening at UNISA Campus. The next two days will be devoted entirely in presenting scientific works to explore in depth the African Union and the way it succeeded or failed to carry out the functions it mandated itself to do.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE CONFERENCE

The launch of the African Union (AU) in Durban, South Africa in July, 2002 heralded significant advances in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid. The AU symbolized the opening of the construction phase of African political, economic, social, science, engineering and technological unity. Whilst the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established mainly for ending colonialism and apartheid, the AU explicitly sought the building of full African integration. AU affirmed the logo, the spirit, hope, and the imagination that Pan- African integration is possible, desirable and necessary after the formal ending of the phase of colonialism and apartheid. The AU represents Africa's freedom and happiness to take independent action in pursuit of the opportunities emergent in completing Africa's integrated economy. It affirms the willingness of African States to join a unity project identity first to be able to know how, together united rather than fragmented, they can deal with and respond to the challenges Africa faced from the relics of the colonial legacy and the current processes of globalization.

This conference is a follow up initiative from the 25 – 27 May 2010 international Symposium. The conference will be held annually and sustainably to continue the production of refined high scholarship, broad, deep and continuous Africa-wide education and the promotion of grassroots and bottom up citizen expressing and citizen organizing activism. The focus in 2011 is on the AU, which was created by Africans to reverse the damage created by the Scramble for Africa and actualize the full integration of Africa. Why does the African Union fail to take united action in the face of an attempt to ‘re-colonize Africa’? Africa is able to make declarations and adopt good and relevant policies, but implementation of such policies in a united manner remains a goal to be realised. The recent vivid case is the failure to act with unity with the recent NATO interventions in Libya. It is thus relevant to ask the question: Ten years after its establishment, has the AU lived up to its expectations and aspirations of Africans? Has Africa managed to solve Africa’s problems free from the manipulation of others that often do not have Africa’s interests or values at heart? Has the AU delivered in the peer review, peace keeping, security, development, infrastructure, economic areas related to promoting Africa’s overall standing in the world? Or was the expectation on AU too much and hence misplaced?

THE PILLARS AND SUB THEMES OF THE CONFERENCE

The overall theme of the conference is ‘the African Union after a Decade: Putting African Unity First Means Putting Humanity First! The pillars and sub-themes of the conference are as follows:

Pillar 1: From the OAU to the African Union: State nation, Society and the Good Governance in Africa
1.1 AU proclamations on Africa’s democracy
1.2 The architecture of peace and security in Africa
1.3 Regional Economic Groupings and the AU
1.4 Clash of values and interests in the AU
1.5 Role of pivotal States in the AU
1.6 State Pan Africanism vs African Nation Pan Africanism, the African nation and
enaissance
1.7 Does the Sahara divide or Unite Africa?
1.8 The role of African Diaspora to ensure the renaissance of the continent

Pillar 2: Peace and Security Architecture and its impact on Africa

2.1 The role of AU Peace and Security Council
2.2 UN Security Council – Capacity development to AU
2.3 The World Court of Justice
2.4 The International Criminal Court (ICC)
2.4 UN Human Rights Commission
2.5 The ‘Arab Spring’ and its wider impact in Africa
2.4 The challenges of Arab – African Unity
2.5 Interventions of African Union in Peace and Security on the continent
2.6 Governance and management of national resources in conflict resolution

Pillar 3: Africa in the World Economy/Africa in the World Trading System

3.1 Multilateral governance of world trade and its effects on Africa/Africa in the WTO: pros and cons for Africa.
3.2 The impact of the international financial institutions in the economies of Africa during the post-colonial era and first decade of the AU.
3.3 Managing abundant African mineral resources for the advancement of the continent.
3.4 Trade integration in Africa for Africa’s advancement.
3.5 International trade and investment during the first decade of the AU
3.6 The implications of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) for Africa
3.7 Can Africa meet the MDGs as it is or through an integrated African national economy?

Pillar 4: Afropolitianism, Afro-centricity, Pan-Africanism and Negritude

4.1 Putting Africa first for building cosmopolitan humanity
4.2 From Lusophone, Anglophone and Afrophone to Africaphone
4.3 African science, technology, engineering, knowledge and innovation for Africa’s advancement
4.4 Drought, famine and food security
4.5 Elite corruption and the impact on African economic growth and human wellbeing
4.6 South Africa’s relations with the rest of Africa
4.7 Role of Africa in international relations
4.8. Combining tradition and modernity for African Transformation
4.9. African Humanism: Ubuntu
4.10: Building an African Centred Language systems for African education.

The Steering Committee for the conference local organising:
1. Dr. Matlotleng Matlou, CEO at AISA, Pretoria
2. Ms Siphokazi Ndudane ,Director at SIGLA , Stellenboch University, Cape Town
3. Dr. Maureen Tong acting Head of the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute(TMALI ), UNISA, Pretoria
4. Prof. Mammo Muchie, SARChI-IERI at TUT, Pretoria & DIR, Aalborg University, Denmark

ORGANISERS:

AISA, SIGLA at Stellenbosch, SARChI-IERI- TUT, NRF, DST, DISONG, DTI and TMALI. And other partners who wish to join are welcome especially African embassies, RECs, women, civil society, youth, and so on

IMPORTANT DATES

International Symposium 25 -27 May,2012
Thabo Mbeki Annual Lecture May 25,2012
Date for abstract submission: October 31, 2011
Date for full paper submission: March 1, 2012
Participants: African policy makers, scholars and public intellectuals.

One of the Keynote Speakers: Nahas Angula, Prime Minister of Namibia.

Abstract and full papers should be emailed to AkporBO@tut.ac.za & nbohler-muller@ai.org.za