Editing African Renaissance

{{Short description|African concept}}
The '''African Renaissance''' is the concept that the [[African People|African people]] shall overcome the current challenges confronting the [[continent]] and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. This concept was first articulated by [[Cheikh Anta Diop]] in a series of essays between 1946 and 1960, later collected in a book titled ''Towards the African Renaissance.'' Diop's ideas were further popularized by former [[President of South Africa]] [[Thabo Mbeki]] during his tenure as Deputy President, where the African Renaissance continues to play a key role in the post-[[apartheid]] intellectual agenda.

==Description==
The African Renaissance is a philosophical and political movement to end the violence, elitism, corruption, and poverty believed to plague the African continent, and to replace them with a more just and equitable order. For Noel Moukala, however, the African Renaissance cannot exist without first achieving [[Pan-Africanism|African Unity]].{{sfn|Okumu|2002|p=12}}

Okumu compiled a list of perceived African traits that he believes are worthy of preservation and continuation. These include aspects of interpersonal relations, such as "social inclusion, hospitality, and generous sharing," as well as attentive and perceptive listening. He additionally argues that social acceptance is not based on wealth, but on the basis of relationships to others.{{sfn|Okumu|2002|p=7-8}}

==Origins==
As a student in Paris between 1946 and 1960, [[Senegal]]ese [[historian]] [[Cheikh Anta Diop]] wrote a series of essays charting the development of Africa. Diop's work was later seen as a blueprint for former [[President of South Africa]] [[Thabo Mbeki]]. When giving his famous "[[I Am an African]]" speech at [[Cape Town]], celebrating the adoption of a new [[Constitution of South Africa]], Mbeki said:

<blockquote>
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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mbeki |first1=Thabo |title=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" |url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1996/sp960508.html |publisher=Office of the Deputy President |access-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615053925/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1996/sp960508.html |archive-date=June 15, 2006 |date=August 5, 1996}}</ref></blockquote>

In April 1997, Mbeki articulated the elements that comprise the African Renaissance: social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth, and the establishment of Africa as a significant player in geopolitical affairs.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} Two months later, Vusi Maviembela, an advisor to Mbeki, wrote that the African Renaissance was the "third moment" in post-[[Scramble for Africa|colonial Africa]], following [[decolonization]] and the spread of democracy across the continent in the early 1990s.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} Deputy President Mbeki codified his beliefs, and the reforms that would comprise them, in the "African Renaissance Statement" given August 13, 1998.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mbeki |first1=Thabo |title=The African Renaissance Statement of Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki |url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1998/tm0813.htm |publisher=Office of the Executive Deputy Vice President |access-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021020041906/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1998/tm0813.htm |archive-date=October 20, 2002 |date=August 13, 1998}}</ref>

In March 1998, [[United States]] President [[Bill Clinton]] visited [[Botswana]], [[Ghana]], [[Rwanda]], [[Senegal]], [[South Africa]], and [[Uganda]] in a 12-day tour, which he proclaimed as the "beginning of a new African renaissance" following apartheid, colonialism, and the [[Cold War]]. While Clinton praised the continent's increase in democratically elected governments, news outlets countered that many African leaders operated in [[One-party state|one-party states]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 March 1998 |title=Clinton Begins Tour, Predicts 'African Renaissance' |url=https://www.deseret.com/1998/3/23/19370429/clinton-begins-tour-predicts-african-renaissance/ |access-date=2024-08-03 |website=[[Deseret News]] |language=en}}</ref> The outbreak of the [[Eritrean–Ethiopian War]] in May 1998 and [[Second Congo War]] in August 1998 led to further doubts of a peaceful future.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ingham |first=Kenneth |date=25 March 2018 |title=March 23, 1998: US President Clinton Marks Historic Visit to Ghana |url=https://www.eaumf.org/ejm-blog/2018/3/25/march-23-1998-us-president-clinton-marks-historic-visit-to-ghana |access-date=3 August 2024 |website=Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation}}</ref> By August 2000, the United States' [[National Intelligence Estimate]] argued that the movement had failed due to [[democratic backsliding]], [[corruption]], and disease outbreaks.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wright |first=Robin |date=2000-08-25 |title='African Renaissance' Hailed by Clinton Now a Distant Memory |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-25-mn-10347-story.html |access-date=2024-08-03 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

The weekend of September 28, 1998, some 470 participants attended the African Renaissance Conference in [[Johannesburg]]. The next year, a book titled ''African Renaissance'' was released, with thirty essays arranged under topics corresponding to the conference's breakout sessions: "culture and education, economic transformation, science and technology, transport and energy, moral renewal and African values, and media and telecommunications."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44841893 |title=African renaissance : the new struggle |date=1999 |publisher=Mafube |isbn=0-624-03805-X |edition=First |location=Cape Town |oclc=44841893}}</ref> Mbeki, the keynote speaker at the opening plenary session of the conference, wrote the book's prologue.

Other figures associated with the African Renaissance and the new generation of African leaders are President [[Yoweri Museveni]] of [[Uganda]] and President [[Paul Kagame]] of [[Rwanda]].{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

==African Renaissance Institute==
On October 11, 1999, the African Renaissance Institute (ARI) was founded in [[Pretoria]].{{sfn|Okumu|2002|p=157}} Its initial focuses were on the development of African human resources, science and technology, agriculture, nutrition and health, culture, business, peace, and good governance.{{sfn|Okumu|2002|p=267}} In his book ''The African Renaissance'', [[Washington Aggrey Jalang'o Okumu]] wrote that,

<blockquote>"The most important and primary role of the African Renaissance Institute now and in the coming years is to gather a critical mass of first-class African scientists and to give them large enough grants on a continuing basis, as well as sufficient infrastructure, to enable them to undertake meaningful problem-solving R&D applied to industrial production that will lead to really important results of economic dimensions."{{sfn|Okumu|2002|p=170}}</blockquote>

== Revival ==
The African Renaissance has been taken up as part of the [[International Decade for People of African Descent]] from 2015 to 2024, in which the [[Door of Return]] Initiative seeks to bring members of the [[African diaspora]] back to the continent. The initiative is spearheaded by the historical [[Maroon community]] of [[Accompong]], [[Jamaica]], in cooperation with [[Nigeria]], [[Ghana]], and [[Zimbabwe]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 31, 2017 |title=AFRICA: 4 Nations sign up On Door of Return with Accompong, Jamaica to drive Tourism with Diaspora |language=en-US |url=https://atqnews.com/4-nations-door-drive-tourism-diaspora/ |access-date=February 14, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/africa/africans-doors-of-return/index.html|title=Why the 'door of return' is open for people of African descent|first=Kamil |last=Olufowobi|website=cnn.com|date=25 May 2017 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[African Century]]
*[[Philosophers Legacy (Heirloom)]], painting 
*[[African Renaissance Monument]], [[Dakar]], [[Senegal]]
*[[New Partnership for Africa's Development]]
*[[Pan-Africanism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
*Malegapuru William Makgoba, ed., ''African Renaissance'', Mafube and Tafelberg, Sandton and Cape Town, 1999
*{{cite book|last=Okumu|first=Washington A. J.|title=The African Renaissance|publisher=Africa World Press|date=2002|location=Trenton, NJ and Asmara, Eritrea|isbn=1-59221-012-0}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060615053925/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1996/sp960508.html Thabo Mbeki's "I am an African" speech]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20021020041906/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1998/tm0813.htm Mbeki's 1998 speech outlining the African Renaissance]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060812111300/http://www.africavenir.com/elibrary/african-renaissance/index.php AfricAvenir's collection of African Renaissance materials]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050308194540/http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/contours/1.1/farred.html The "African Renaissance" at The Crossroads of Postcoloniality and Postmodernity]

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