World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures
December 10 to 31, 2010
« The next festival should not be an accumulation of events. It should send out a message. What message is it? Sent out by whom? To who? [...] What does Africa want to say to the rest of the world? »
President Abdoulaye Wade --11 August 2009
Registration and further details at: www.blackworldfestival.com
Editorial by Professor Iba Der Thiam
General Coordinator of the Forum
The next World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures, which will be held in Dakar from 10 to 31 December 2010, while in remaining the tradition of the first World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures organised in Dakar in 1966, the Algiers Pan-African Festival and the Lagos Festival of 1977, will be marked by a fundamental change. Actually, organised on the theme of African Renaissance, it will introduce a major innovation consisting in organising a Forum during which 5 structuring conferences will be held:
1. The Contribution of Black Peoples to Science and Technology
2. Permanent resistance of Black People from the Slave Trade of the present day
3. The African Diaspora: Geography-Settlement-History-
4. The contribution of Black Peoples to the advent of a Free world and what place and role for Africa in global governance?
5. Were ancient Egyptians Black or not?
For each of these issues, the idea will be to look into subjects that will offer Africa the opportunity to send out an important message to the rest of the world. This is the meaning of the directive that President Abdoulaye WADE issued in the meeting of 11 August 2009 during which he said:
« The next festival should not be an accumulation of events. It should send out a message. What message is it? Sent out by whom? To who? [...] What does Africa want to say to the rest of the world? »
It is an inspiring mission that concerns each and every Black of Africa and its Diaspora, each researcher, each expert.
I call on all public and private universities, all historians, political scientists, economists, philosophers, artists, writers, intellectuals, irrespective of sex and nationality, to participate in this reflection by submitting papers, the best of which will be published in the Proceedings of the Forum, to ensure that conclusions are given wide publicity and made known to everyone. The Proceedings will present us with the opportunity to remain permanently in touch to exchange ideas, discuss and communicate in accordance with strict scientific rigour.
------------------------
1ST STRUCTURING CONFERENCE THE CONTRIBUTION OF BLACK PEOPLES TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
I. ARGUMENTS
The next World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures will be held on the theme of African Renaissance.
During a meeting he convened on Monday, 11 August 2009, the President of the Republic said: "The next Festival should not be an accumulation of events. It should send out a message. What message is it? Who will send it out? To who?" This is the question we must answer.
The cradle of Humanity, it was in Africa that the first social groups were formed, before spreading to the rest of the world. It was on its soil that the first manifestations of the human being's creative genius saw the light of day.
The Egyptian civilisation today dates back to 5,000 years, at least 2,000 years ahead of the rest of humanity
Traces of this remarkable civilisation, founded on four weapons, namely water, fire, the Nile and the sun are visible to this day. There has never been a break in this creation and improvement impulse.
It continued in various forms in the various countries of Africa and its Diaspora, to the extent of arousing the respect and, at times, even the lust of others. The result has been a proliferation of inventions in all areas of human existence.
Unfortunately, no comprehensive inventory has been undertaken to-date to accurately determine the extent and variety of the contribution of Black peoples of the continent and its Diaspora to all areas of Knowledge, Science, Technology and all the other human activities, in spite of isolated, significant and praiseworthy works realised since the XIXth century, notably by many researchers.
As part of the Festival, the time has come to fill this gap and meet a need that has become vital. By putting at the disposal of Africans of the continent and its Diaspora accurate information on the discoveries made by their ancestors, their brothers and sisters or their contemporaries, in the specific area of Science and Technology, the rest of humanity will be shown the fundamental role that Black peoples play in human progress.
We have here the first message that the Festival is duty-bound to send out to the planet. The idea is less about finding a reason to be proud and more about seeking to inform, by re-establishing the historical truth arising from authentic evidence, in order to awaken and stir consciences, arm the African masses with legitimate reasons to have faith and confidence in their race, establish them more in their continent, culture and dignity as men and women, whose creative genius enabled the current civilisation to be born, flourish and prosper. The exercise will train citizens that are more conscious about their history, more attached to their past and better motivated to put themselves into the effort, and take their turn to further Science and Progress.
The world, in its richness and diversity, having become better informed, will respect Africa and its Diaspora more. The image of the continent and its relation with others will be fundamentally changed by this. An African that is new, at ease, and confident in his abilities, will emerge, because he has become better situated and better equipped to engage in dialogue, exchange ideas, give and take.
In addition to this is the fact that by recognising that creation and the dissemination of knowledge are increasingly important drivers of innovation, sustainable economic growth and social wellbeing, the African Renaissance will be the opportunity for Africans and Black peoples in general to underscore the benefits that society can reap from progress in Science and Technology.
This could be the message that the Festival should send out to the rest of the world on this theme.
II. OBJECTIVES
- show, on the one hand, that the Black world of Africa and the Diaspora contributed significantly to the birth and to the development of Science and Technology, and on the other, that there has never been a break;
- list discoveries, inventions, patents and the applications of Science and Technology to the sustainable development of Africa;
- create a forum for the exchange of ideas on the impact of Science and Technology on the sustainable development of Africa;
- identify possibilities for cooperation between the Americas, Africa and the Diaspora, in the utilisation of Science and Technology for the sustainable development of Africa;
- identify resources necessary for increasing the participation of Africa in global forums dealing with the theme;
- identify a series of concrete actions and projects to be carried out
III. PROGRAMME
The conference will include a series of presentations on technological inventions and discoveries of Black peoples and on the actions carried out or to be carried out to make Science and Technology a lever capable of setting in motion the African Renaissance. The programme will revolve around two plenary sessions, including:
1. the contribution of Africa and the Diaspora to Science and Technology and their applications in the progress of humanity:
— the case of Africa;
— the case of the Americas;
— the case of the Diaspora;
2. Intergovernmental and nongovernmental activities in the areas of Science and Technology in Africa;
— their relationships and functions;
— the development of regional and interregional cooperation in favour of Africa; — conditions and resultant potentials and prospects.
December 10 to 31, 2010
« The next festival should not be an accumulation of events. It should send out a message. What message is it? Sent out by whom? To who? [...] What does Africa want to say to the rest of the world? »
President Abdoulaye Wade --11 August 2009
Registration and further details at: www.blackworldfestival.com
Editorial by Professor Iba Der Thiam
General Coordinator of the Forum
The next World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures, which will be held in Dakar from 10 to 31 December 2010, while in remaining the tradition of the first World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures organised in Dakar in 1966, the Algiers Pan-African Festival and the Lagos Festival of 1977, will be marked by a fundamental change. Actually, organised on the theme of African Renaissance, it will introduce a major innovation consisting in organising a Forum during which 5 structuring conferences will be held:
1. The Contribution of Black Peoples to Science and Technology
2. Permanent resistance of Black People from the Slave Trade of the present day
3. The African Diaspora: Geography-Settlement-History-
4. The contribution of Black Peoples to the advent of a Free world and what place and role for Africa in global governance?
5. Were ancient Egyptians Black or not?
For each of these issues, the idea will be to look into subjects that will offer Africa the opportunity to send out an important message to the rest of the world. This is the meaning of the directive that President Abdoulaye WADE issued in the meeting of 11 August 2009 during which he said:
« The next festival should not be an accumulation of events. It should send out a message. What message is it? Sent out by whom? To who? [...] What does Africa want to say to the rest of the world? »
It is an inspiring mission that concerns each and every Black of Africa and its Diaspora, each researcher, each expert.
I call on all public and private universities, all historians, political scientists, economists, philosophers, artists, writers, intellectuals, irrespective of sex and nationality, to participate in this reflection by submitting papers, the best of which will be published in the Proceedings of the Forum, to ensure that conclusions are given wide publicity and made known to everyone. The Proceedings will present us with the opportunity to remain permanently in touch to exchange ideas, discuss and communicate in accordance with strict scientific rigour.
------------------------
1ST STRUCTURING CONFERENCE THE CONTRIBUTION OF BLACK PEOPLES TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
I. ARGUMENTS
The next World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures will be held on the theme of African Renaissance.
During a meeting he convened on Monday, 11 August 2009, the President of the Republic said: "The next Festival should not be an accumulation of events. It should send out a message. What message is it? Who will send it out? To who?" This is the question we must answer.
The cradle of Humanity, it was in Africa that the first social groups were formed, before spreading to the rest of the world. It was on its soil that the first manifestations of the human being's creative genius saw the light of day.
The Egyptian civilisation today dates back to 5,000 years, at least 2,000 years ahead of the rest of humanity
Traces of this remarkable civilisation, founded on four weapons, namely water, fire, the Nile and the sun are visible to this day. There has never been a break in this creation and improvement impulse.
It continued in various forms in the various countries of Africa and its Diaspora, to the extent of arousing the respect and, at times, even the lust of others. The result has been a proliferation of inventions in all areas of human existence.
Unfortunately, no comprehensive inventory has been undertaken to-date to accurately determine the extent and variety of the contribution of Black peoples of the continent and its Diaspora to all areas of Knowledge, Science, Technology and all the other human activities, in spite of isolated, significant and praiseworthy works realised since the XIXth century, notably by many researchers.
As part of the Festival, the time has come to fill this gap and meet a need that has become vital. By putting at the disposal of Africans of the continent and its Diaspora accurate information on the discoveries made by their ancestors, their brothers and sisters or their contemporaries, in the specific area of Science and Technology, the rest of humanity will be shown the fundamental role that Black peoples play in human progress.
We have here the first message that the Festival is duty-bound to send out to the planet. The idea is less about finding a reason to be proud and more about seeking to inform, by re-establishing the historical truth arising from authentic evidence, in order to awaken and stir consciences, arm the African masses with legitimate reasons to have faith and confidence in their race, establish them more in their continent, culture and dignity as men and women, whose creative genius enabled the current civilisation to be born, flourish and prosper. The exercise will train citizens that are more conscious about their history, more attached to their past and better motivated to put themselves into the effort, and take their turn to further Science and Progress.
The world, in its richness and diversity, having become better informed, will respect Africa and its Diaspora more. The image of the continent and its relation with others will be fundamentally changed by this. An African that is new, at ease, and confident in his abilities, will emerge, because he has become better situated and better equipped to engage in dialogue, exchange ideas, give and take.
In addition to this is the fact that by recognising that creation and the dissemination of knowledge are increasingly important drivers of innovation, sustainable economic growth and social wellbeing, the African Renaissance will be the opportunity for Africans and Black peoples in general to underscore the benefits that society can reap from progress in Science and Technology.
This could be the message that the Festival should send out to the rest of the world on this theme.
II. OBJECTIVES
- show, on the one hand, that the Black world of Africa and the Diaspora contributed significantly to the birth and to the development of Science and Technology, and on the other, that there has never been a break;
- list discoveries, inventions, patents and the applications of Science and Technology to the sustainable development of Africa;
- create a forum for the exchange of ideas on the impact of Science and Technology on the sustainable development of Africa;
- identify possibilities for cooperation between the Americas, Africa and the Diaspora, in the utilisation of Science and Technology for the sustainable development of Africa;
- identify resources necessary for increasing the participation of Africa in global forums dealing with the theme;
- identify a series of concrete actions and projects to be carried out
III. PROGRAMME
The conference will include a series of presentations on technological inventions and discoveries of Black peoples and on the actions carried out or to be carried out to make Science and Technology a lever capable of setting in motion the African Renaissance. The programme will revolve around two plenary sessions, including:
1. the contribution of Africa and the Diaspora to Science and Technology and their applications in the progress of humanity:
— the case of Africa;
— the case of the Americas;
— the case of the Diaspora;
2. Intergovernmental and nongovernmental activities in the areas of Science and Technology in Africa;
— their relationships and functions;
— the development of regional and interregional cooperation in favour of Africa; — conditions and resultant potentials and prospects.
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2ND STRUCTURING CONFERENCE:
THE PERMANENT RESISTANCE OF BLACK PEOPLES
I. ARGUMENTS
The long saga of Black peoples of Africa and its Diaspora, throughout history, was, but for a few exceptions, an unbroken series of heroic acts and behaviours by the sons and daughters of Africa, every time their freedom and dignity were at issue. This permanent resistance is strewn with corpses and a high number of victims because each incursion to capture slaves and each invasion from outside generally came up against a people on their feet, i.e., against authorities bound to their subjects, who were ready to pay the price for their freedom. This notwithstanding, slave drivers, their accomplices and local tyrants, by means of disgraceful cunning, weapons that were more advanced for the era and the « divide and rule » strategy, succeeded in capturing and transplanting millions of Africans to the Americas and other continents.
Having been weakened by slavery that lasted for over four centuries, some Africans were temporarily dominated in the XIXth century; resulting in Africa being shared out amongst colonial powers. However, the struggle is yet to end. It continued in various forms during colonisation, so much so that in spite of appearances, right up to the years of independence towards the 1960, no one can cite a single period of tranquillity spanning 15 years during which colonialists were not denounced, contested, rejected, fought in various ways, sometimes by violent armed attack, somewhere on the African continent by Africans rejecting servitude.
The resistance of Black peoples in the face of the colonial system and all the other earlier forms of oppression is a permanent element in the history of relations between Western powers and African societies. The "Indocility" and "indiscipline" of Africans, to borrow from the Cameroonian historian Achille Mbembe, took shape and drew their motivity from various resources to the extent of forcing these powers to resort to various methods of subjugation. The methods, in spite of the subtleties that underpinned them, did not, as some seem to believe, meet with the conveniences of generous, child-like and submissive hospitality all over the continent. The majority of Africans stood up to the aggression and resisted the imposition of a new form of civility that was aimed at denying their existence, reorganising (disorganising) their modes of command, life, even their "psychic regime".
Everything that could be of use in the destruction of the African and his most immediate environment was the subject of "reflection", reports and "analyses" that resulted in the establishment of a so-called "pacification" and "development policy". The violence of colonialism did not give rise to frustration or resignation on the part of Africans; on the contrary, it was at the heart of a policy of confrontation between the protagonists, in spite of the military superiority of the "rulers".
This historical event has an unprecedented special feature because it is founded on the determination to establish traumatism as a mode of relation. As a result, it was impossible to imagine a relationship that was balanced and worthy of its name, whether it is at the time when colonialists were beginning to establish their system, during the delicate period of the triangular trade, during the process of colonisation or Apartheid. According to their tactics and various ways of negotiating and skirting around "triumphalist" colonialism, Africans continued to oppose the colonial system during all these periods.
This was done so much so that the struggle of Black peoples, which had been going on for several thousand years, actually started to manifest itself since the dawn of times. The struggle which regained impetus with the advent of the slave trade, colonial domination and Apartheid, unquestionably witnessed certain continuity in various forms. Unfortunately, enough light has not been shed on this because the history written by colonisers and taught in schools is alas reduced solely to the notions of "conquest" and "pacification". There even are some African historians, who, not having seen this trap, continued to write and teach a distorted version of history, which, actually, was aimed at forming the souls of the youth in order to get them used to servitude. What we must write for Africa is not an embellished history, but the true history, which, when examined over a long period, is without any hang-ups, more of a history of the resistance of Africa than that of the submission of a people.
The slave trade that went on for centuries was horrific. It deprived the continent of part of its economically active population and seriously ruined our economy, which was shamelessly plundered.
Colonisation, its successor, in turn disorganised and dislocated our kingdoms and empires, established a culture of violence, plundering, disintegration, exacerbated by tribal antagonism and instituted permanent conflicts that it skilfully used to set the populations against each other.
Post-colonial Africa that was established to preserve the interests of the former colonisers, tribal conflicts and economic ruin could witness nothing but coups d'état, ethnic conflicts over power or what looked like power, dictatorship and instability. Apartheid, though conquered by a coalition between the continent and the rest of the world, left behind the consequences of a policy based on inequality, injustice and dehumanization through a massive propaganda effort that was aimed, originally at spreading the idea of the superiority of Whites over Blacks.
One can today note that fifty years after the accession of our people to international sovereignty, we are still far from having eradicated most of the consequences of the many historical aggressions we suffered both physically and in our consciences.
Although indisputable progress has been made, the decolonisation of mentalities and behaviours, at the level of ideas, concepts, symbols, values and models, which Cheikh Anta Diop calls the intellectual paradigm, is far from being a reality.
The Diaspora is not to be outdone. From the very outset of the heroic resistance to the campaigns to get slaves, in slave boats crossing the Atlantic to places of transplantation, in the Caribbean, in Brazil and in the United States, by defying segregationist laws, by singing and dancing, by creating and inventing, as if in an effort to draw from their culture the resources of courage and dignity that are indispensable for the success of their struggle for dignity, equality and justice.
The history of the people of the continent and its Diaspora is, seen from this angle, full of exploits and consequently of lessons on the resistance capacity of Black people.
This is the history that we want to put at the disposal of Africans, that we want to breathe into the soul of our youth so that they should have no complexes with regard to any other peoples on earth, so that they can be proud of their ancestors, so that they commit resolutely to fighting to create for the continent's populations the conditions for a decent life made of dignity, and responsibility in freedom. This image of a fighting, stoic and heroic people, people on their feet, invincible, who have never given up, never gone down on their knees, surely constitutes the surest viaticum for creating awareness in the present and future generations and definitively liberating the African from fear and the lack of self confidence, and form his personality, in the face of present and future challenges.
A structuring conference devoted to Africa and its Diaspora on this theme will provide researchers of the Black world the opportunity to identify all the forms of resistance in the long history of our people, make an inventory thereof, locate them, study them with maximum accuracy in order to draw from them lessons and reasons to be proud, reasons for moral armament and lessons for the future.
The resistance capacity by African peoples in addition will be highlighted as an example to the rest of humanity, as one of the most accomplished models of dignity, pride, a sense of honour, patriotism and victory over suffering, the forces of oppression, domination and distortion of history, which have, for centuries, spread and sustained the completely false image of a Black man as dominated, consenting, submissive and incapable of standing up to his oppressors or raising himself to the noble ambitions to which Africa and its Diaspora aspire.
The Festival is inviting researchers from all continents to come and discover with us the true history of the resistance of the Black peoples of Africa and its Diaspora, that of "slaves that conquered slavery", and that of the colonised that conquered colonisation.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
II. OBJECTIVES
The objective of this conference is to:
— inform, based on scientific arguments, the permanence of this insubordination that was for a long time minimised, even obscured;
— analyse the confrontational relations that resulted in an intelligible explanation for the relations between Black peoples and their former rulers;
— produce a scientific discourse that is informed about the permanence, genius and the different tactics used by Africans confronted with the various forms of aggression from European powers;
— result in the writing and dissemination of didactic texts, in the form of manuals and other teaching materials.
It is this complex history that the structuring conference entitled Permanent resistance of Black peoples will try to question by analysing the concrete and/or concealed acts and the various positions held with regard to the refusal to submit to the colonial order that restricted and destroyed various forms of solidarity.
III. PROGRAMME
Texts submitted for examination by the scientific committee must drive home the fact that the acts of insubordination by Africans cannot be put down to fantasy or much less any determination to rewrite an embellished history. Contributions will revolve around the following paradigms:
— the composite interpretations of African resistance;
— forms of resistance according to African regions, their contexts and their modes of expression in order to interpret their impact on the shaping of an intelligence that eluded and/or was minimised by European or African researchers;
— the "invisible history", preserved in memories that consisted in opposing all forms of oppression and subjugation.
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3rd Structuring conference African Diasporas:
Geography-Settlement-History-
Since the appearance of Homo Sapiens, African peoples have been scattered over all continents. Recent works have recreated their history. Blacks from Africa have been in Asia for more than 1,000 years. Today, in India alone, there are some 350 million Dravidian Blacks. The number of Black Africans was so great on this continent that many foreign travellers and explorers that visited it from Antiquity right through to the XIXth century sincerely thought that Asia was the African continent par excellence of Blacks. There is hardly a country in the region where the presence of Blacks was not attested to in far off eras, including in Japan, China, etc.
The same can be said of the Americas, where Black communities established themselves since the expeditions of Bakari II (1300). The slave trade that went on for over 4 centuries, intensified this process. Works by Julio Cesar de Tavares and Januario Garcia have identified Black communities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela and elsewhere. They can also be found in all Latin American countries, based on evidence of research by Sheila Walker. The same holds all over the Caribbean islands, not to talk of the United States of America, Canada, Europe, countries of the Mediterranean basin and Western Asia. Recently, Black populations dating back to more than 60, 000 years were identified in the Andaman Islands, which belong to Archipelagos of the Bengal sea. If you add these Blacks of the Diaspora to the current population of Africa, which stands at one billion intra muros inhabitants, we can say the Black population is one of the largest on the planet.
The trans-Saharan slave trade and the Atlantic slave trade contributed strongly to the process of diasporisation. The trans-Saharan slave trade is very ancient; the Phoenician colony of Carthage (present-day Tunisia) received from "The countries of Blacks" gold, ivory, skins and slaves. The Garamantes and Nasamons, who had settled south of the Golf of Syrte, were their middlemen. The renaissance of the trans- Saharan trade in the Middle Age marked the start of the process of integration of sub- Saharan Africa in the Atlantic trade. Africa was better known in Europe thanks to the writings of Arab geographers, some of who lived in Spain. From the XVth century, European companies no longer contented themselves with drawing from a preexisting trade. They applied themselves to industrialising the slave trade in order to get from Africa the millions of slaves necessary for developing the tropical lands of the American continent. The African Diaspora thus was not limited to that of the New World. Although the Black Diaspora in America was relatively well-known, especially through its place in plantation economy, its musical production and its religious events such as voodoo, this was not the case with African slaves deported to other countries.
By organising this Diaspora, in order to make it the 6th region of the African continent, the Black world will be afforded an additional demographic potential that will be a source of inexhaustible production of wealth, knowledge, creations, and inventions, capable of fundamentally changing, the development of African countries and that of those of the Diaspora. To make this happen, it is necessary that populations of African Diasporas be, clearly identified, meticulously inventoried, that their history, culture, economic and political features be known and taught so as to forge between them and African people solidarity, brotherhood, mutual trust, a willingness to live together full of promises for the future.
The 6th Region of the African continent could be involved in the deliberations of the African Union, where it would take part in meetings of Heads of State, during which they would be involved in technical committees to provide their expertise to the resolution of the problems of Africa without in anyway calling into question their citizenship of countries that have hosted them for more than four centuries, countries to which they perfectly belong as all the other communities with whom they have always lived together, just like the relations that other countries have succeeded in fostering with their Diaspora.
A similar partnership could be forged with the Dravidian Blacks of India, the Black communities in the United States, Canada, and European countries, as well as in the Arab and Islamic world.
Humanity as a whole, after all is said and done, constitutes the African Diaspora. However, the fact remains that the one that still identifies itself by the African culture or by skin colour remains neglected or marginalised as to the future of the African continent as well as what Africa can give it. This conference on African Diasporas clearly leaves out any chromatic approach in the sense that it will make it possible to understand that humanity as a whole is of the same stock and that racist theories were constructed to serve basely materialistic interests.
In a world where unity is strength, this symbiosis between Africa and its Diaspora will make it possible to stem the dispersion of Black forces and hasten the process of establishing the United States of Africa as the matrix of a new political order from which the Black world and Africa can only emerged stronger, see its interests taken into consideration, while gaining recognition from all.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
Objectives
— identify and meticulously make an inventory of African Diasporas, their history, and culture in order to give a clearer outline and content to the sixth African region;
— come up with composite strategies towards the construction of African unity and clearly define the role of the Diaspora in the building of the United States of Africa and in the improvement of the conditions of Blacks in the countries where they currently live.
Programme
African Diasporas: geographical distribution, cultural identity and history; — relations between the Diasporas and Africa: what mutual contributions in protecting the interests of the 6th region of Africa and in building the United States of Africa;
— methods and strategies of approach of the populations of Africa and those of its Diaspora to own the development of the continent and the countries where African Diasporas live.
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4th Structuring Conference The contribution of Black peoples to the advent of the Free World and the resultant consequences, namely what place and role for Africa in global governance?
a) The contribution of Black peoples to the advent of the Free World I. Arguments
As far back as Antiquity, one finds in the black world testimonies drawn from the book of the dead of Pharaonic Egypt proving to what extent moral and political humanism was already accepted on our continent, at a time when most peoples were plunged in obscurantism. Works led by Cheikh Anta Diop and his successors, including Théophile Obenga, have highlighted the contribution, right from the Ancient Empire and Pharaonic Egypt to human civilisation in the scientific, economic, political, cultural, architectural and religious domains.
Taking over from Pharaonic Egypt, Meroe and Ethiopia succeeded to build the most brilliant civilisations. In the Middle Age, the Black Continent distinguished itself, in Western Sudan, more specifically around the Niger Loop, with the advent of empires (Ghana, Mali, Songhai), which put in place the most ingenious systems of political, economic and social governance that by the way continued to fill visitors , both Arab and European, with wonder.
These brilliant civilisations, as shown by the Charter of Mande hunters and the Charter of Kurukan Fuga sufficiently prove that the «Lights», most definitely, were not unknown on African soil. In the modern and contemporary era, African peoples have played a fundamental role in various theatres of war in the struggle against slavery and the Slave Trade, colonial domination, militarism, Nazism and Apartheid.
Without the Haitian revolution that knocked down slavery and colonisation, its role in the liberation of Latin America and in the independence of the United States of America, without the contribution of Black Forces in the Allied Forces, during the two wars, the fate of the planet would have been different. As a matter of fact, during the two global conflicts, the multifaceted contribution both economic (war effort, provision of fresh supplies, mobilisation of labour, tax, porterage, requisition) and military (mobilisation, recruitment, notable involvement of African soldiers) had a decisive impact on the outcome of the war and, as such, on the advent of the Free World. The role of Blacks was equally as decisive in the struggle against racial discrimination, anti-Semitism, exclusion, cultural contempt and the demand for equal dignity for all peoples and cultures.
As a result, Blacks played a very big role in the advent of the Free World, right up to the very reconfiguration of freedoms and new human rights, a role that has been unfortunately obscured because it has been interpreted from a pro-European perspective, which leaves out the contribution of Black forces. Consequently, it is imperative to deconstruct all tendencies towards distorting the history of the contribution of Black forces to the advent of a freer and more just World.
II Objectives
This Structuring Conference aims to:
Highlight the role of Blacks in the history of humanism from Antiquity;
Identify, by means of precise examples, the contribution of the Black world to the scientific, political, cultural and moral domains;
Analyse the role and impact of Black people on the building of the Free World; Deconstruct the theories that tend to obscure the contribution of Black peoples to the advent of the Free World
III Programme
Texts submitted for examination by the scientific committee must highlight the role of Blacks in the history of humanity from Antiquity by emphasizing the contribution of Black forces to the advent of the Free World.
Contributions will revolve around the following themes:
African antiquity: the role of Blacks in the history of humanity (Egypt, Meroe, Ethiopia)
Medieval African empires, "the golden age": (Ghana, Mali, Songhai): systems of political, economic and social governance (example of Kurukan Fugha);
Africa in the two wars, the impact and role of the continent in the victory of the Allies and the building of the Free World;
The walk towards independence: from decolonisation movements to the end of Apartheid: the Haitian revolution, struggle against racism (USA, etc.), decolonisation in Africa;
The post colony to the test of the building of the modern State, social movements, dictatorships, the "democratic revival", democratic advances and/or decline.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
b) What place and role for Africa in global governance?
However you look at the issue, Africa as a geographical and cultural unit, on the one hand, and on the other, Africans, in particular the Black man is showing the consequences of a tragic universal history, which forces them to re-examine, on pain of losing self-esteem and the esteem of others, the various relations that bind us to the world as they are at the start of the XXIst century.
Consequently, the idea in this conference is a lot more about re-owning the historicity of African societies and the Black man, a lot more than about scholarly or expert ranting on the academic, scientific or moral and political meaning of Global Governance. It is all about the historic action of Africa, Africans, Man and Diasporas, designed as as many breaks from the organisation of the world that we consider if not obsolete, at least not legitimate for what we represent and weigh from yesterday to this day, for whoever deigns to question History. However, it is also about the Free Will, which after examining successive globalisations from the 15th and 16th centuries, starting with the place and roles that were gradually given to Africa, Africans and the Black man, decide -1°to change through action, thought, arts and letters, science and technology, culture and industry, the products of the hand as well as those of the mind, the status given Africa by globalisations, i.e., the role and place of a negligible quantity in the world order, of an abandoned continent, without the will or courage and intelligence in the face of the hazards of ferocious globalisations; and -2° be among the main decision makers in Global Governance, at the levels of ideas, real economy and finance, science, politics, the environment, peace, etc.
This Structuring conference follows the "Symposium on the United States of Africa" followed by "Forum on the role and place of Africa in Global governance", organised in Dakar from 27 to 30 July 2009. It is "an act of faith in an Africa that changes and innovates" and "refutation of a certain Africa that has remained on the sidelines of socio-cultural progress and universal political civilisation"
It results in the obsolescence of the former non-egalitarian and racialist world, from the perspective of its functioning, methods, objectives of domination and its goals, not to mention the irrational and pseudo-humanist orientation stamped on the human, material and logistical resources of the contemporary world. Consequently, the future of our continent requires that we re-own our history; that future can also be guaranteed by a more sustained involvement by Africa, Africans and the Diasporas in the global decision-making process at all levels, a situation that will lead to the winning return of Africa to the international arena.
How can we achieve this without the programmatic Unity represented by the United States of Africa? The idea has been gaining ground for several centuries. However, the time has now come for action. The reflection has been carried out, but only actions will save this Africa that has been split up, weakened, whose cultural practices permanently overcome political and administrative borders, which have divided people that culture and history unite.
The production of knowledge will be one of the decisive weapons of an Africa that has gained awareness and taken control of its Destiny.
The Africa of geographical areas and not of States in their current configuration. In the face of the lack of knowledge or even of ignorance about this history by most Africans, not only is the writing of new history books indispensable to promote "the taking back by Africans" of their own History, but also to build the United States of Africa. "We cannot rely on outside help to develop". The recovery of the memory is a strategic act because you cannot develop with a borrowed memory or a memory structured by others.
. As a result, the Global Governance mentioned here is not an ideal to be conceived or a conservative order to mainstream, but rather a theoretical refutation and the practical condemnation of an international order that works against Africa and its Diasporas. It thus is not a theory of Global Governance, but a criticism of a system that leaves out Africa and to which the continent can only hope to accede by revisiting old attitudes, by changing old behaviours, in short, by changing awareness and position, philosophy and morality, direction and strategy, which in turn requires and involves a new prospective attitude on the course of universal history.
Prerequisite: Rethink relations between Africa and the World, according to, to borrow an expression from Professor Mamoussé Diagne, the logic of "African Cogito":
Africa can only occupy a place in Global Governance if it adopts on the operational plane an independent political approach, in all sovereignty, in order not to remain at the level of making demands without a future.
Taking back while rethinking the History of Africa, not that of victors and those that conquered Africa: E.g. the role of Africans and Blacks in the formation of the Free World does not appear in any metropolitan History book, far from it; the same goes for the Great Empires, Inventions, the role of Africa as the Cradle of Humanity, Ancient Egypt and Nubia, etc.:
Every time, says Professor Iba Der Thiam, that Africa and Africans moved, they changed the world order not to say moved lines. On the Continent or in the countries where African Diasporas live. One founding act, Two essential milestones (the IFRI conference and Wade's October 2008 call on Intellectuals from Africa to set up an African Forum) followed by the Arguments of Prof Iba Der Thiam on «The historical basis of President Wade's call to African Intellectuals »), and a theoretical and conceptual framing specifies the conditions for the Winning return of Africa to the international and universal arena: the passage from the image of Africa as an Object, which we no longer want to be to that of Africa as a Subject comes at a price, which Mamoussé Diagne examines under the concept of African Cogito, from which he draws implications used in situ by actors of the XXIth century.
The Historic Act: The IFRI Conference: October 2008 and Wade's call to Intellectuals from Africa and the African Disporas An awareness, an alert and a solemn call to Africa's elites. The conceptualisation by Professor Iba Der Thiam: «The historical basis of President Wade's call toIntellectuals from Africa and the African Diasporas».
Premisses: In Wade, A destiny for Africa
It is not a composition on the Role and Place of Africa in Global Governance, but a plea on specific conditions, in a singular historical context, for the reversal of global trends, which, if sustained, would result in the sidelining of the Continent, in the humiliation of its Diasporas, and probably – why doubt it – in the re-colonisation of the Continent. What practical steps are to be taken to ensure the Winning return of Africa to the international arena in view of the United States of Africa?
The idea is not to repeat the Symposium on the United States of Africa, followed by "the Role and Place of Africa in Global Governance (27 to 30 July 2009, Méridien Président Hotel, Dakar, Senegal), but to embark on the operational aspect of the issue hic et nunc.
In a nutshell, History has a date with itself, but via the detour of our peoples and our civilisations. Consequently, the right to write the curves and trace the lines requires neither the permission nor authorisation. The African Cogito that takes back its place in a world from which it was– or had excluded itself? – is a sovereign act, i.e., essential and founding, for which Africa owes an account only to itself, feeling by itself its own freedom that can only be restricted by the Responsibility and Awareness about the Responsibility to itself and to the Other which we fully accept of course (Cf. Final resolution of the Forum on the Role and Place of Africa in Global Governance – adopted on 30 July 2009 at the Méridien Président Hotel, and published in full in the Symposium's Daily).
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
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5th Structuring conference:
WERE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS BLACK OR NOT?
1. ARGUMENTS
Were the authors of ancient civilisations (Egypto-Koushite in particular) of the Nile Valley Blacks? The answer to this question is affirmative. The West knew it since ancient Greek authors (that was according to Frank SNOWDEN, Before Colour Prejudice1997) said it several times), but a deliberate choice was made to distort facts and consequently the History of Africa and Blacks by linking Ancient Egyptians and Nubio-Sudanese (the Nekhesiyou from hieroglyphical sources; Ethiopians from Greek sources) to the European and/or Semitic world.
This choice is only the expression of ideologies arising from the unequal nature of international relations since the start of modern times (XVIth century after Jesus Christ). This is one of the assets, within the overall framework of politico-cultural demands, of the accession of ancient colonies to international sovereignty and the irruption of Black intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora, in the areas of the elaboration of philosophical and scientific discourse.
Whereas distorting discourse had highlighted the current and temporary truth on the evolution of Black societies (deculturation, transportation and marginalisation), the deconstruction of the said discourse has given priority, following a reversal of prospects and paradigms, to the History of the truth (studies and analyses of processes and dynamics of processes). It turned out that in the capitalisation of experiences and the progress of humanity, Africa, in addition to being the cradle of humanity, is asserting itself as having been:
1- the land that, through the genius of Blacks, saw the birth of the most precocious and the longest cultural successes in historical eras.
In the lower Nile valley, the kingdom of Ancient Egypt, place of the development of Pharaonic civilisation, lasted more than three thousand years (3200 to 30 BC). In the Middle Valley, the Koushite State lasted over three thousand years (2500 BC to the fourth century AD;
2- the land where the Negro African genius was invented, according to the testimonies of Ounamon, Homer and Plato, arts, science and the first forms of elective monarchy;
3- the land where Negro-African societies initiated a process that made it possible for women to accede to supreme power as monarchs. In a nutshell, whatever the current Historical truth (Fernandez Armesto FELIPE, Truth. A History, 1997), Negro-African societies were, according to the words of the Greeks, systematized by Cheikh Anta DIOP, « Mutter und Modell der europaïschen Zivilisation (HARDING L. and RIENWALD B., 1990).
Let it be understood that although Blacks do not intend to promote a revanchist conception of history, they nevertheless want to have a fight with any revisionist conception, because dependent on this is their future, the place they define as theirs in the future of humanity, in what they consider as the foundations of the development of the human being, of any human being, of all human beings.
2. OBJECTIVES
This conference wants to call on Blacks of Africa and the Diaspora to own these truths that have become evident, these simple ideas and make them facts of universal awareness. In connection with this concern, they must:
— arm themselves with the sciences;
— go into all the fields where philosophical and scientific discourse is elaborated;
— disseminate the progress being built up in all areas of knowledge;
— continuously refine arguments;
— open new prospects;
— elaborate new paradigms and issues.
3. THEME
This conference will revolve around a certain number of points, including: — the evolution of Africa's historiography in antiquity;
— the evolution of the arguments forming the basis of the Negro-Africanity of Ancient Egyptians and Nubio-Sudanese;
— new trends and issues in the history of Africa and the Ancient World;
— the exploitation of current findings in the struggle that Blacks are leading (and the groups and categories quite recently dominated or still dominated) to occupy the place that they want, and not the one given to them, in the future of humanity.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
2ND STRUCTURING CONFERENCE:
THE PERMANENT RESISTANCE OF BLACK PEOPLES
I. ARGUMENTS
The long saga of Black peoples of Africa and its Diaspora, throughout history, was, but for a few exceptions, an unbroken series of heroic acts and behaviours by the sons and daughters of Africa, every time their freedom and dignity were at issue. This permanent resistance is strewn with corpses and a high number of victims because each incursion to capture slaves and each invasion from outside generally came up against a people on their feet, i.e., against authorities bound to their subjects, who were ready to pay the price for their freedom. This notwithstanding, slave drivers, their accomplices and local tyrants, by means of disgraceful cunning, weapons that were more advanced for the era and the « divide and rule » strategy, succeeded in capturing and transplanting millions of Africans to the Americas and other continents.
Having been weakened by slavery that lasted for over four centuries, some Africans were temporarily dominated in the XIXth century; resulting in Africa being shared out amongst colonial powers. However, the struggle is yet to end. It continued in various forms during colonisation, so much so that in spite of appearances, right up to the years of independence towards the 1960, no one can cite a single period of tranquillity spanning 15 years during which colonialists were not denounced, contested, rejected, fought in various ways, sometimes by violent armed attack, somewhere on the African continent by Africans rejecting servitude.
The resistance of Black peoples in the face of the colonial system and all the other earlier forms of oppression is a permanent element in the history of relations between Western powers and African societies. The "Indocility" and "indiscipline" of Africans, to borrow from the Cameroonian historian Achille Mbembe, took shape and drew their motivity from various resources to the extent of forcing these powers to resort to various methods of subjugation. The methods, in spite of the subtleties that underpinned them, did not, as some seem to believe, meet with the conveniences of generous, child-like and submissive hospitality all over the continent. The majority of Africans stood up to the aggression and resisted the imposition of a new form of civility that was aimed at denying their existence, reorganising (disorganising) their modes of command, life, even their "psychic regime".
Everything that could be of use in the destruction of the African and his most immediate environment was the subject of "reflection", reports and "analyses" that resulted in the establishment of a so-called "pacification" and "development policy". The violence of colonialism did not give rise to frustration or resignation on the part of Africans; on the contrary, it was at the heart of a policy of confrontation between the protagonists, in spite of the military superiority of the "rulers".
This historical event has an unprecedented special feature because it is founded on the determination to establish traumatism as a mode of relation. As a result, it was impossible to imagine a relationship that was balanced and worthy of its name, whether it is at the time when colonialists were beginning to establish their system, during the delicate period of the triangular trade, during the process of colonisation or Apartheid. According to their tactics and various ways of negotiating and skirting around "triumphalist" colonialism, Africans continued to oppose the colonial system during all these periods.
This was done so much so that the struggle of Black peoples, which had been going on for several thousand years, actually started to manifest itself since the dawn of times. The struggle which regained impetus with the advent of the slave trade, colonial domination and Apartheid, unquestionably witnessed certain continuity in various forms. Unfortunately, enough light has not been shed on this because the history written by colonisers and taught in schools is alas reduced solely to the notions of "conquest" and "pacification". There even are some African historians, who, not having seen this trap, continued to write and teach a distorted version of history, which, actually, was aimed at forming the souls of the youth in order to get them used to servitude. What we must write for Africa is not an embellished history, but the true history, which, when examined over a long period, is without any hang-ups, more of a history of the resistance of Africa than that of the submission of a people.
The slave trade that went on for centuries was horrific. It deprived the continent of part of its economically active population and seriously ruined our economy, which was shamelessly plundered.
Colonisation, its successor, in turn disorganised and dislocated our kingdoms and empires, established a culture of violence, plundering, disintegration, exacerbated by tribal antagonism and instituted permanent conflicts that it skilfully used to set the populations against each other.
Post-colonial Africa that was established to preserve the interests of the former colonisers, tribal conflicts and economic ruin could witness nothing but coups d'état, ethnic conflicts over power or what looked like power, dictatorship and instability. Apartheid, though conquered by a coalition between the continent and the rest of the world, left behind the consequences of a policy based on inequality, injustice and dehumanization through a massive propaganda effort that was aimed, originally at spreading the idea of the superiority of Whites over Blacks.
One can today note that fifty years after the accession of our people to international sovereignty, we are still far from having eradicated most of the consequences of the many historical aggressions we suffered both physically and in our consciences.
Although indisputable progress has been made, the decolonisation of mentalities and behaviours, at the level of ideas, concepts, symbols, values and models, which Cheikh Anta Diop calls the intellectual paradigm, is far from being a reality.
The Diaspora is not to be outdone. From the very outset of the heroic resistance to the campaigns to get slaves, in slave boats crossing the Atlantic to places of transplantation, in the Caribbean, in Brazil and in the United States, by defying segregationist laws, by singing and dancing, by creating and inventing, as if in an effort to draw from their culture the resources of courage and dignity that are indispensable for the success of their struggle for dignity, equality and justice.
The history of the people of the continent and its Diaspora is, seen from this angle, full of exploits and consequently of lessons on the resistance capacity of Black people.
This is the history that we want to put at the disposal of Africans, that we want to breathe into the soul of our youth so that they should have no complexes with regard to any other peoples on earth, so that they can be proud of their ancestors, so that they commit resolutely to fighting to create for the continent's populations the conditions for a decent life made of dignity, and responsibility in freedom. This image of a fighting, stoic and heroic people, people on their feet, invincible, who have never given up, never gone down on their knees, surely constitutes the surest viaticum for creating awareness in the present and future generations and definitively liberating the African from fear and the lack of self confidence, and form his personality, in the face of present and future challenges.
A structuring conference devoted to Africa and its Diaspora on this theme will provide researchers of the Black world the opportunity to identify all the forms of resistance in the long history of our people, make an inventory thereof, locate them, study them with maximum accuracy in order to draw from them lessons and reasons to be proud, reasons for moral armament and lessons for the future.
The resistance capacity by African peoples in addition will be highlighted as an example to the rest of humanity, as one of the most accomplished models of dignity, pride, a sense of honour, patriotism and victory over suffering, the forces of oppression, domination and distortion of history, which have, for centuries, spread and sustained the completely false image of a Black man as dominated, consenting, submissive and incapable of standing up to his oppressors or raising himself to the noble ambitions to which Africa and its Diaspora aspire.
The Festival is inviting researchers from all continents to come and discover with us the true history of the resistance of the Black peoples of Africa and its Diaspora, that of "slaves that conquered slavery", and that of the colonised that conquered colonisation.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
II. OBJECTIVES
The objective of this conference is to:
— inform, based on scientific arguments, the permanence of this insubordination that was for a long time minimised, even obscured;
— analyse the confrontational relations that resulted in an intelligible explanation for the relations between Black peoples and their former rulers;
— produce a scientific discourse that is informed about the permanence, genius and the different tactics used by Africans confronted with the various forms of aggression from European powers;
— result in the writing and dissemination of didactic texts, in the form of manuals and other teaching materials.
It is this complex history that the structuring conference entitled Permanent resistance of Black peoples will try to question by analysing the concrete and/or concealed acts and the various positions held with regard to the refusal to submit to the colonial order that restricted and destroyed various forms of solidarity.
III. PROGRAMME
Texts submitted for examination by the scientific committee must drive home the fact that the acts of insubordination by Africans cannot be put down to fantasy or much less any determination to rewrite an embellished history. Contributions will revolve around the following paradigms:
— the composite interpretations of African resistance;
— forms of resistance according to African regions, their contexts and their modes of expression in order to interpret their impact on the shaping of an intelligence that eluded and/or was minimised by European or African researchers;
— the "invisible history", preserved in memories that consisted in opposing all forms of oppression and subjugation.
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3rd Structuring conference African Diasporas:
Geography-Settlement-History-
Since the appearance of Homo Sapiens, African peoples have been scattered over all continents. Recent works have recreated their history. Blacks from Africa have been in Asia for more than 1,000 years. Today, in India alone, there are some 350 million Dravidian Blacks. The number of Black Africans was so great on this continent that many foreign travellers and explorers that visited it from Antiquity right through to the XIXth century sincerely thought that Asia was the African continent par excellence of Blacks. There is hardly a country in the region where the presence of Blacks was not attested to in far off eras, including in Japan, China, etc.
The same can be said of the Americas, where Black communities established themselves since the expeditions of Bakari II (1300). The slave trade that went on for over 4 centuries, intensified this process. Works by Julio Cesar de Tavares and Januario Garcia have identified Black communities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela and elsewhere. They can also be found in all Latin American countries, based on evidence of research by Sheila Walker. The same holds all over the Caribbean islands, not to talk of the United States of America, Canada, Europe, countries of the Mediterranean basin and Western Asia. Recently, Black populations dating back to more than 60, 000 years were identified in the Andaman Islands, which belong to Archipelagos of the Bengal sea. If you add these Blacks of the Diaspora to the current population of Africa, which stands at one billion intra muros inhabitants, we can say the Black population is one of the largest on the planet.
The trans-Saharan slave trade and the Atlantic slave trade contributed strongly to the process of diasporisation. The trans-Saharan slave trade is very ancient; the Phoenician colony of Carthage (present-day Tunisia) received from "The countries of Blacks" gold, ivory, skins and slaves. The Garamantes and Nasamons, who had settled south of the Golf of Syrte, were their middlemen. The renaissance of the trans- Saharan trade in the Middle Age marked the start of the process of integration of sub- Saharan Africa in the Atlantic trade. Africa was better known in Europe thanks to the writings of Arab geographers, some of who lived in Spain. From the XVth century, European companies no longer contented themselves with drawing from a preexisting trade. They applied themselves to industrialising the slave trade in order to get from Africa the millions of slaves necessary for developing the tropical lands of the American continent. The African Diaspora thus was not limited to that of the New World. Although the Black Diaspora in America was relatively well-known, especially through its place in plantation economy, its musical production and its religious events such as voodoo, this was not the case with African slaves deported to other countries.
By organising this Diaspora, in order to make it the 6th region of the African continent, the Black world will be afforded an additional demographic potential that will be a source of inexhaustible production of wealth, knowledge, creations, and inventions, capable of fundamentally changing, the development of African countries and that of those of the Diaspora. To make this happen, it is necessary that populations of African Diasporas be, clearly identified, meticulously inventoried, that their history, culture, economic and political features be known and taught so as to forge between them and African people solidarity, brotherhood, mutual trust, a willingness to live together full of promises for the future.
The 6th Region of the African continent could be involved in the deliberations of the African Union, where it would take part in meetings of Heads of State, during which they would be involved in technical committees to provide their expertise to the resolution of the problems of Africa without in anyway calling into question their citizenship of countries that have hosted them for more than four centuries, countries to which they perfectly belong as all the other communities with whom they have always lived together, just like the relations that other countries have succeeded in fostering with their Diaspora.
A similar partnership could be forged with the Dravidian Blacks of India, the Black communities in the United States, Canada, and European countries, as well as in the Arab and Islamic world.
Humanity as a whole, after all is said and done, constitutes the African Diaspora. However, the fact remains that the one that still identifies itself by the African culture or by skin colour remains neglected or marginalised as to the future of the African continent as well as what Africa can give it. This conference on African Diasporas clearly leaves out any chromatic approach in the sense that it will make it possible to understand that humanity as a whole is of the same stock and that racist theories were constructed to serve basely materialistic interests.
In a world where unity is strength, this symbiosis between Africa and its Diaspora will make it possible to stem the dispersion of Black forces and hasten the process of establishing the United States of Africa as the matrix of a new political order from which the Black world and Africa can only emerged stronger, see its interests taken into consideration, while gaining recognition from all.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
Objectives
— identify and meticulously make an inventory of African Diasporas, their history, and culture in order to give a clearer outline and content to the sixth African region;
— come up with composite strategies towards the construction of African unity and clearly define the role of the Diaspora in the building of the United States of Africa and in the improvement of the conditions of Blacks in the countries where they currently live.
Programme
African Diasporas: geographical distribution, cultural identity and history; — relations between the Diasporas and Africa: what mutual contributions in protecting the interests of the 6th region of Africa and in building the United States of Africa;
— methods and strategies of approach of the populations of Africa and those of its Diaspora to own the development of the continent and the countries where African Diasporas live.
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4th Structuring Conference The contribution of Black peoples to the advent of the Free World and the resultant consequences, namely what place and role for Africa in global governance?
a) The contribution of Black peoples to the advent of the Free World I. Arguments
As far back as Antiquity, one finds in the black world testimonies drawn from the book of the dead of Pharaonic Egypt proving to what extent moral and political humanism was already accepted on our continent, at a time when most peoples were plunged in obscurantism. Works led by Cheikh Anta Diop and his successors, including Théophile Obenga, have highlighted the contribution, right from the Ancient Empire and Pharaonic Egypt to human civilisation in the scientific, economic, political, cultural, architectural and religious domains.
Taking over from Pharaonic Egypt, Meroe and Ethiopia succeeded to build the most brilliant civilisations. In the Middle Age, the Black Continent distinguished itself, in Western Sudan, more specifically around the Niger Loop, with the advent of empires (Ghana, Mali, Songhai), which put in place the most ingenious systems of political, economic and social governance that by the way continued to fill visitors , both Arab and European, with wonder.
These brilliant civilisations, as shown by the Charter of Mande hunters and the Charter of Kurukan Fuga sufficiently prove that the «Lights», most definitely, were not unknown on African soil. In the modern and contemporary era, African peoples have played a fundamental role in various theatres of war in the struggle against slavery and the Slave Trade, colonial domination, militarism, Nazism and Apartheid.
Without the Haitian revolution that knocked down slavery and colonisation, its role in the liberation of Latin America and in the independence of the United States of America, without the contribution of Black Forces in the Allied Forces, during the two wars, the fate of the planet would have been different. As a matter of fact, during the two global conflicts, the multifaceted contribution both economic (war effort, provision of fresh supplies, mobilisation of labour, tax, porterage, requisition) and military (mobilisation, recruitment, notable involvement of African soldiers) had a decisive impact on the outcome of the war and, as such, on the advent of the Free World. The role of Blacks was equally as decisive in the struggle against racial discrimination, anti-Semitism, exclusion, cultural contempt and the demand for equal dignity for all peoples and cultures.
As a result, Blacks played a very big role in the advent of the Free World, right up to the very reconfiguration of freedoms and new human rights, a role that has been unfortunately obscured because it has been interpreted from a pro-European perspective, which leaves out the contribution of Black forces. Consequently, it is imperative to deconstruct all tendencies towards distorting the history of the contribution of Black forces to the advent of a freer and more just World.
II Objectives
This Structuring Conference aims to:
Highlight the role of Blacks in the history of humanism from Antiquity;
Identify, by means of precise examples, the contribution of the Black world to the scientific, political, cultural and moral domains;
Analyse the role and impact of Black people on the building of the Free World; Deconstruct the theories that tend to obscure the contribution of Black peoples to the advent of the Free World
III Programme
Texts submitted for examination by the scientific committee must highlight the role of Blacks in the history of humanity from Antiquity by emphasizing the contribution of Black forces to the advent of the Free World.
Contributions will revolve around the following themes:
African antiquity: the role of Blacks in the history of humanity (Egypt, Meroe, Ethiopia)
Medieval African empires, "the golden age": (Ghana, Mali, Songhai): systems of political, economic and social governance (example of Kurukan Fugha);
Africa in the two wars, the impact and role of the continent in the victory of the Allies and the building of the Free World;
The walk towards independence: from decolonisation movements to the end of Apartheid: the Haitian revolution, struggle against racism (USA, etc.), decolonisation in Africa;
The post colony to the test of the building of the modern State, social movements, dictatorships, the "democratic revival", democratic advances and/or decline.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
b) What place and role for Africa in global governance?
However you look at the issue, Africa as a geographical and cultural unit, on the one hand, and on the other, Africans, in particular the Black man is showing the consequences of a tragic universal history, which forces them to re-examine, on pain of losing self-esteem and the esteem of others, the various relations that bind us to the world as they are at the start of the XXIst century.
Consequently, the idea in this conference is a lot more about re-owning the historicity of African societies and the Black man, a lot more than about scholarly or expert ranting on the academic, scientific or moral and political meaning of Global Governance. It is all about the historic action of Africa, Africans, Man and Diasporas, designed as as many breaks from the organisation of the world that we consider if not obsolete, at least not legitimate for what we represent and weigh from yesterday to this day, for whoever deigns to question History. However, it is also about the Free Will, which after examining successive globalisations from the 15th and 16th centuries, starting with the place and roles that were gradually given to Africa, Africans and the Black man, decide -1°to change through action, thought, arts and letters, science and technology, culture and industry, the products of the hand as well as those of the mind, the status given Africa by globalisations, i.e., the role and place of a negligible quantity in the world order, of an abandoned continent, without the will or courage and intelligence in the face of the hazards of ferocious globalisations; and -2° be among the main decision makers in Global Governance, at the levels of ideas, real economy and finance, science, politics, the environment, peace, etc.
This Structuring conference follows the "Symposium on the United States of Africa" followed by "Forum on the role and place of Africa in Global governance", organised in Dakar from 27 to 30 July 2009. It is "an act of faith in an Africa that changes and innovates" and "refutation of a certain Africa that has remained on the sidelines of socio-cultural progress and universal political civilisation"
It results in the obsolescence of the former non-egalitarian and racialist world, from the perspective of its functioning, methods, objectives of domination and its goals, not to mention the irrational and pseudo-humanist orientation stamped on the human, material and logistical resources of the contemporary world. Consequently, the future of our continent requires that we re-own our history; that future can also be guaranteed by a more sustained involvement by Africa, Africans and the Diasporas in the global decision-making process at all levels, a situation that will lead to the winning return of Africa to the international arena.
How can we achieve this without the programmatic Unity represented by the United States of Africa? The idea has been gaining ground for several centuries. However, the time has now come for action. The reflection has been carried out, but only actions will save this Africa that has been split up, weakened, whose cultural practices permanently overcome political and administrative borders, which have divided people that culture and history unite.
The production of knowledge will be one of the decisive weapons of an Africa that has gained awareness and taken control of its Destiny.
The Africa of geographical areas and not of States in their current configuration. In the face of the lack of knowledge or even of ignorance about this history by most Africans, not only is the writing of new history books indispensable to promote "the taking back by Africans" of their own History, but also to build the United States of Africa. "We cannot rely on outside help to develop". The recovery of the memory is a strategic act because you cannot develop with a borrowed memory or a memory structured by others.
. As a result, the Global Governance mentioned here is not an ideal to be conceived or a conservative order to mainstream, but rather a theoretical refutation and the practical condemnation of an international order that works against Africa and its Diasporas. It thus is not a theory of Global Governance, but a criticism of a system that leaves out Africa and to which the continent can only hope to accede by revisiting old attitudes, by changing old behaviours, in short, by changing awareness and position, philosophy and morality, direction and strategy, which in turn requires and involves a new prospective attitude on the course of universal history.
Prerequisite: Rethink relations between Africa and the World, according to, to borrow an expression from Professor Mamoussé Diagne, the logic of "African Cogito":
Africa can only occupy a place in Global Governance if it adopts on the operational plane an independent political approach, in all sovereignty, in order not to remain at the level of making demands without a future.
Taking back while rethinking the History of Africa, not that of victors and those that conquered Africa: E.g. the role of Africans and Blacks in the formation of the Free World does not appear in any metropolitan History book, far from it; the same goes for the Great Empires, Inventions, the role of Africa as the Cradle of Humanity, Ancient Egypt and Nubia, etc.:
Every time, says Professor Iba Der Thiam, that Africa and Africans moved, they changed the world order not to say moved lines. On the Continent or in the countries where African Diasporas live. One founding act, Two essential milestones (the IFRI conference and Wade's October 2008 call on Intellectuals from Africa to set up an African Forum) followed by the Arguments of Prof Iba Der Thiam on «The historical basis of President Wade's call to African Intellectuals »), and a theoretical and conceptual framing specifies the conditions for the Winning return of Africa to the international and universal arena: the passage from the image of Africa as an Object, which we no longer want to be to that of Africa as a Subject comes at a price, which Mamoussé Diagne examines under the concept of African Cogito, from which he draws implications used in situ by actors of the XXIth century.
The Historic Act: The IFRI Conference: October 2008 and Wade's call to Intellectuals from Africa and the African Disporas An awareness, an alert and a solemn call to Africa's elites. The conceptualisation by Professor Iba Der Thiam: «The historical basis of President Wade's call toIntellectuals from Africa and the African Diasporas».
Premisses: In Wade, A destiny for Africa
It is not a composition on the Role and Place of Africa in Global Governance, but a plea on specific conditions, in a singular historical context, for the reversal of global trends, which, if sustained, would result in the sidelining of the Continent, in the humiliation of its Diasporas, and probably – why doubt it – in the re-colonisation of the Continent. What practical steps are to be taken to ensure the Winning return of Africa to the international arena in view of the United States of Africa?
The idea is not to repeat the Symposium on the United States of Africa, followed by "the Role and Place of Africa in Global Governance (27 to 30 July 2009, Méridien Président Hotel, Dakar, Senegal), but to embark on the operational aspect of the issue hic et nunc.
In a nutshell, History has a date with itself, but via the detour of our peoples and our civilisations. Consequently, the right to write the curves and trace the lines requires neither the permission nor authorisation. The African Cogito that takes back its place in a world from which it was– or had excluded itself? – is a sovereign act, i.e., essential and founding, for which Africa owes an account only to itself, feeling by itself its own freedom that can only be restricted by the Responsibility and Awareness about the Responsibility to itself and to the Other which we fully accept of course (Cf. Final resolution of the Forum on the Role and Place of Africa in Global Governance – adopted on 30 July 2009 at the Méridien Président Hotel, and published in full in the Symposium's Daily).
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
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5th Structuring conference:
WERE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS BLACK OR NOT?
1. ARGUMENTS
Were the authors of ancient civilisations (Egypto-Koushite in particular) of the Nile Valley Blacks? The answer to this question is affirmative. The West knew it since ancient Greek authors (that was according to Frank SNOWDEN, Before Colour Prejudice1997) said it several times), but a deliberate choice was made to distort facts and consequently the History of Africa and Blacks by linking Ancient Egyptians and Nubio-Sudanese (the Nekhesiyou from hieroglyphical sources; Ethiopians from Greek sources) to the European and/or Semitic world.
This choice is only the expression of ideologies arising from the unequal nature of international relations since the start of modern times (XVIth century after Jesus Christ). This is one of the assets, within the overall framework of politico-cultural demands, of the accession of ancient colonies to international sovereignty and the irruption of Black intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora, in the areas of the elaboration of philosophical and scientific discourse.
Whereas distorting discourse had highlighted the current and temporary truth on the evolution of Black societies (deculturation, transportation and marginalisation), the deconstruction of the said discourse has given priority, following a reversal of prospects and paradigms, to the History of the truth (studies and analyses of processes and dynamics of processes). It turned out that in the capitalisation of experiences and the progress of humanity, Africa, in addition to being the cradle of humanity, is asserting itself as having been:
1- the land that, through the genius of Blacks, saw the birth of the most precocious and the longest cultural successes in historical eras.
In the lower Nile valley, the kingdom of Ancient Egypt, place of the development of Pharaonic civilisation, lasted more than three thousand years (3200 to 30 BC). In the Middle Valley, the Koushite State lasted over three thousand years (2500 BC to the fourth century AD;
2- the land where the Negro African genius was invented, according to the testimonies of Ounamon, Homer and Plato, arts, science and the first forms of elective monarchy;
3- the land where Negro-African societies initiated a process that made it possible for women to accede to supreme power as monarchs. In a nutshell, whatever the current Historical truth (Fernandez Armesto FELIPE, Truth. A History, 1997), Negro-African societies were, according to the words of the Greeks, systematized by Cheikh Anta DIOP, « Mutter und Modell der europaïschen Zivilisation (HARDING L. and RIENWALD B., 1990).
Let it be understood that although Blacks do not intend to promote a revanchist conception of history, they nevertheless want to have a fight with any revisionist conception, because dependent on this is their future, the place they define as theirs in the future of humanity, in what they consider as the foundations of the development of the human being, of any human being, of all human beings.
2. OBJECTIVES
This conference wants to call on Blacks of Africa and the Diaspora to own these truths that have become evident, these simple ideas and make them facts of universal awareness. In connection with this concern, they must:
— arm themselves with the sciences;
— go into all the fields where philosophical and scientific discourse is elaborated;
— disseminate the progress being built up in all areas of knowledge;
— continuously refine arguments;
— open new prospects;
— elaborate new paradigms and issues.
3. THEME
This conference will revolve around a certain number of points, including: — the evolution of Africa's historiography in antiquity;
— the evolution of the arguments forming the basis of the Negro-Africanity of Ancient Egyptians and Nubio-Sudanese;
— new trends and issues in the history of Africa and the Ancient World;
— the exploitation of current findings in the struggle that Blacks are leading (and the groups and categories quite recently dominated or still dominated) to occupy the place that they want, and not the one given to them, in the future of humanity.
Such could be the message that the structuring conference has as mission to send out to the rest of the world.
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