The African Renaissance is a concept popularized by South African President Thabo Mbeki in which the African people and nations are called upon to solve the many problems troubling the African continent. It reached its height in the late 1990s but continues to be a key part of the post-apartheid intellectual agenda. The President of South Africa, in full, the President of the Republic of South Africa is the head of state and head of government under South Africas Constitution. ... Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (born June 18, 1942) is the current President of the Republic of South Africa. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ...

The phrase was first used in 1994 in South Africa following the first democratic election after the end of apartheid, and was clarified with then-Deputy President Mbeki's famous "I am an African" speech in May 1996 following the adoption of a new constitution:

I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines [...] Patient because history is on their side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun shines. [...] Whatever the circumstances they have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be.^[1]

In April 1997, Mbeki listed the elements that would eventually be seen to comprise the African Renaissance: social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth, and the establishment of Africa as a significant player in geo-political affairs.

In June 1997 an advisor to Mbeki, Vusi Maviembela, wrote that the African Renaissance was the "third moment" in post-colonial Africa, following decolonization and the outbreak of democracy across the continent during the early 1990s. Deputy President Mbeki himself melded the various reforms he had discussed to a tone of optimism under the rubric "African Renaissance" in a speech in August 1998^[2] Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...

On September 28-29th, 1998 there was a conference on this theme in Johannesburg. This was attended by some 470 participants. A book was published in 1999 with this title. Thabo Mbeki, keynote speaker at the opening plenary session, wrote the book's prologue. The volume's thirty essays are arranged under general topics largely corresponding to those of the conference's breakaway sessions: "culture and education, economic transformation, science and technology, transport and energy, moral renewal and African values, and media and telecommunications." (p. ii)

Among other things the African Renaissance is a philosophical and political movement to end the violence, elitism, corruption and poverty that seem to plague the African continent, and replace them with a more just and equitable order. Mbeki proposes doing this by, among other things, encouraging education and the reversal of the "brain drain" of African intellectuals. He also urges Africans (led by African intellectuals) to take pride in their heritage, and to take charge of their lives. For other uses, see Violence (disambiguation). ... Elitism is the belief or attitude that the people who are considered to be the elite — a selected group of persons with outstanding personal abilities, wealth, specialised training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are the people whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously, or... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ... This article is about the emigration term. ... An intellectual is one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. ...

Other individuals seen as being the "new generation of African leaders" that would accomplish the goals of the African Renaissance were President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: little more than a dictionary definition If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (born c. ... Paul Kagame (born October 23, 1957) is the current President of Rwanda and the founder of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. ...

However it has drawn criticism ^{[citation needed]} as a form of Africanist utopianism, especially given the various armed conflicts that continue in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere. Others have viewed it as an attempt by South Africa to foist a new form of colonialism, nicknamed Pax Praetoriana (after Pax Romana), upon the continent.^{[citation needed]} It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into utopia. ... Pax Praetoriana (or Pax Pretoriana) refers to the relative stability of modern South Africa and the foreign policy of the modern Republic of South Africa at dominating in the African continent (economically and politically) and attempting to make other countries to adopt the South African style of government, which is... Roman Empire at its greatest extent with the conquests of Trajan Pax Romana (27 BCE-180 CE), Latin for the Roman peace, was the long period of relative peace experienced by the Roman Empire. ...

Others argue that the analogy between the Renaissance and the "African Renaissance" is tenuous for a number of reasons, among them that the Renaissance existed in the context of the fall of a great empire, and the subsequent descent into the Dark Ages. They lend weight to claims that the term is anachronistic and misconceived (Farred 2003). These historical misconceptions, in turn, undermine the intellectual connotations. They further state that "African Renaissance" is a misnomer and should be seen as no more than rhetoric, and that the continued upheaval and disunity in Africa do not bode well for the aspirations of the "African Renaissance". Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rhetoric (from Greek , rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of spoken language; however, this definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in universities. ...

If the term "African Renaissance" appears to have lost some of its credibility, it remains in frequent use. This is the case especially in South Africa, where the African National Congress has adopted it as part of its ideology and where the phrase is sometimes used in advertising. For political parties with similar names in other countries, see Northern Rhodesian African National Congress and Zambian African National Congress. ...

One direct response (a mirror response in a sense) to Mbeki's call on artists and thinkers to take up his utopian vision, was offered by Andre Venter who published I Ching for the 'African Renaissance' in 2006. Before its publication a proof of concept work for the artists' book was exhibited at the Aardklop cultural festival and later at the University of Johannesburg. The exhibition curated by David Paton was entitled Navigating the Book Scape. The work's position takes "renaissance" to mean: a radical change in "systems of thinking". Venter's comment through the "I Ching for the 'African Renaissance'" was complex (both aimed at material and symbolic practices), but it illustrated (in an empirical sense) how unlikely it was that radical change could occur in our "systems of thinking" in South Africa at the time of its publication. Venter showed - through this "limit-experience" - that to allow chance to play a role in the transformation of "govern-mentality" in South Africa was near impossible. The work posits chance as the only escape from a "system of thinking" which limits our ability to imagine alternatives to how we have come to think of ourselves as Africans. He did so by presenting President Mbeki's office with a leather bound, hand made copy of the artists' book - "I Ching for the 'African Renaissance' - and waits for a response. The soft cover (first edition) is out of print, but a digital version is available through the Internet Archive. An uncommon attribute of the publication is that it makes no claim to an Author. This strategy led both Wits University and the University of Johannesburg libraries to use derivatives of the publisher's name, as the author name, in order to classify the book.

Bibliography

• Malegapuru William Makgoba, ed., African Renaissance, Mafube and Tafelberg, Sandton and Cape Town, 1999
• ---, I Ching for the 'African Renaissance', Nomadic Exploration Press, Johannesburg, 2006

See also

• African Century

The African Century is a term that has a variety of meanings. ...

References

1. ^ Thabo Mbeki. (08-05-1996) Statement on behalf of the African National Congress, on the occasion of the adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of "The Republic of South Africa Constitutional Bill 1996" Office of the President.
2. ^ Thabo Mbeki. (08-13-1998) The African Renaissance Statement Office of the Executive Deputy President.

External links

• Thabo Mbeki's I am an African speech
• Mbeki's 1998 speech outlining the African Renaissance
• AfricAvenir's collection of African Renaissance materials
• The "African Renaissance" at The Crossroads of Postcoloniality and Postmodernity
• I Ching for the 'African Renaissance' direct response to Mbeki's 1998 speech