African Renaissance

A ChickenBones Review

London based, African Renaissance is a highly welcomed and necessary journal on African affairs (history, culture, politics, and economics). Its editor Dr. Jideofor Adibe has done an extraordinary job in pulling together the resources and writers to produce excellent and informed writing of interest to Africanists the world wide. According to Adibe, African Renaissance was inspired by Thabo Mbeki's speech "I Am an African" (1996), in which Mbeki raised questions on African identity, history, culture, and politics and spoke of a vision of an African Renaissance.

In his introductory essay "Enter the African Renaissance," Adibe further explains the impact of Mbeki's speech: "Our interest in the theme led to the setting up of Adonis & Abbey publishers in 2003."

A keen interest in African development, stability, and the obstacles that thwart African economic and social progress, Adibe and colleagues (in Africa and abroad) are developing mechanisms to heighten quality discussions on these vital topics : "Our aim was to build a credible global book publishing outfit, which would help to ensure that no voice is muffled in the development debate on Africa, and that different cadences. storylines, and narrative forms are properly represented in the debate."

They have now added three journals: African Journal of Political and Social Research (AJPSR), African Journal of Economic and Business Research (AJEBR), and African Renaissance. the former two will make their entrance sometime in 2004. With the difficulties of publishing, such an adventure is indeed an extraordinary enterprise. For success, Adibe and his colleagues will need support of university libraries and individual support by Africans at home and abroad.

The first issue of African Renaissance (June/July) has already made its debut and it is indeed highly informative and exceedingly useful for high school and university libraries. Personal libraries on Africa will also benefit from this journal's broad and in-depth view of current African affairs.

There are two other aspects of African Renaissance I like and will stand out for the average educated reader. Though these are scholars and professionals, the writing is "a cross between academic research . . . and higher-end magazine or newspaper."

Two, African Renaissance aims "to create a non-ideological and non-sectarian platform, where serious exchanges can take place among Africanists." It is the hope that the journal becomes "one of the most credible reference sources for policymakers, policy professionals, and stakeholders in Africa."

African Renaissance bi-monthly issues each will have a separate theme. The first issue deals with the theme "Africa and Arabia: Cooperation or Conflict." There are seven essays on the topic, including the opening background piece "The Golden Age of Africa-Arab Relations" by Gamal Nkrumah, the son of Kwame Nkrumah. If one is interested in understanding the Sudan/ Darfur Conflict and the current deteriorating relations of Africans and Arabs, these seven essays are crucial.

Below are a few insightful comments by African Renaissance writers:

Gamal Nkrumah

"The Israeli and far right bodies in the United States and the West have been fanning anti-Arab and anti-Muslim resentment among African Americans and the predominantly Christian and non-Muslims parts of Africa. Africa may have its own grievances with the Arab world. But these grievances are not medieval, and certainly not atavistic."

"Nkrumah . . . had a . . . vision of the African world. In his Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization, Nkrumah says that the African personality draws upon three major elements: The African, the Western Christian, and the Arab Islamic. Nasser's the Philosophy of the Revolution, echoes the same sentiment."

Akram Hawas

"The revolutionary Nasser of Egypt considered his country's identity as partly African. In the so-called circles of belonging, Nasser saw African culture as the next source after the Arabic, and then followed by the Islamic. Nasser and other Arabic leaders supported many African countries in their struggles against direct colonialism. the campaign against the apartheid system in Rhodesia (Zimbawe) and South Africa was at that time led from Cairo. Nasser worked together with may African leaders -- Nkrumah, Admed Sekou Toure, and Lumumba to stand up against imperialism. But Nasser's main concern was Israel. he wanted African help against Israeli occupation of Palestine and Arab land. Nasser considered Arab Nationalism as the core in combating imperialism as well as he considered Israel as the frontier between the imperialist powers and the imperialised peoples. In this way, one may say that he was trying to Arabise the African concerns and attitudes."

Helmy Sharawy

"The Pan-African movement was conceived in the Diaspora, and the 'other' in its view was not colonialism in particular, but the oppressor, which gave rise to various tendencies within the movement that were not directly related to liberation from colonialism. Such tendencies appeared with Garvey, or Blyden, or the leaders of the Negritude or francophone movements, who did not take a clear anti-colonial attitude except after the development of the National Liberation Movements after the Second World War. Although Du Bois and R. James were clearly anti-colonial, unfortunately they were not the most vocal within the movement, and this condition still persists till today. This may partly explain its weak influence among the peoples of the Continent. we may even contend that weak anti-colonial stand at the inception of the African movement led to its weak relation with the Arab movement, which was openly anti-colonial from the start."

Mammo Muchie

"Gamal Abdel Nasser was attacked for wishing to pursue an Arab national agenda which was neither pro-USSR nor pro-USA. Similarly Kwame Nkrumah got overthrown for trying to pursue an African national agenda. The US ruling circles will fight any attempt by any state or political figure of any repute who tries to be out of reach and control in assisting them to implement their exclusive agenda, such as, for example, the war on Iraq. Such a narrowing of perspective is too self-serving and does not do justice tot he aspirations of some 80 per cent of the world population who are primarily interested in their work and their families."

"The message is loud and clear from Washington DC and London. If the ex-colonised peoples will not do what the Washington-London axis wants them to do, they run the risk that the might of the US military will rain its B-52 bombs, cruise missiles, oxygen-depleting weapons, cluster bombs, daisy bombs, microwave bombs, bunker-buster bombs, and uranium-depleting weapons on their largely undefended populations. Iraq is the guinea pig -- the showcase for others to learn the lesson and change their conduct if they had aspirations to do things differently from those assigned by the chief cop of the western empire."

Zola Zonkosi

"The conflict in Sudan started at independence when the British colonial power handed power tot he minority Arab elite -- a step in line with the British policy of divide and rule. People from the Middle East who had settled in Sudan from the seventh century aligned themselves with the British colonialists against the the indigenous African inhabitants. The Arab minority constitutes less than 39% of the estimated populations of more than 37 million inhabitants."

"Similar tot he situation in southern Sudan before the peace talks, the Darfur people have accused the military regime of marginalising them politically and economically and using the blockade to force them into either submission or death from hunger and disease. The Sudan regime has not honoured the various peace agreements it signed with the SLM/A last year. The Darfur people want a free and democratic Sudan with guaranteed rights of self-determination for all and respect for human dignity."

Bankie Forster Bankie

"Adwok notes that the slavery of black people in the Nile Basin began in earnest with the defeat of the Mamelukes of Egypt by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and that the commodification and merchandisation of the slaves' route down the Nile to Southern Europe, Arabia, Persia, and China is traced to the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

"Under Arab slavery, men were castrated and women used as sex-machines so that over generations, the offsprings of the enslaved women merged into general Arab society, albeit into an inferior caste-type class of sub-species. Today we have slave descendants across the Sahara such as the Harantines in Mauratania. . . . This is because the slaves were so many that the slavers could not ethnically dilute them into café au lait. Castration and male culling was practised."

"Arab slavery is still going on-going in Africa in the Afro-Arab Borderlands. Much of the attention to contemporary Arab slavery of Africans focuses on Sudan and Mauritania but from Mali, Algeria, Niger, Libya, and Chad filter through reports about slave practices."

"In the Sudan, more than anywhere else, profession of Islam and speaking the Arabic language made one an Arab. Many African ethnic communities in Sudan, such as Borgo, Berti and Maali fell victim to this deception. In the 1960s these zealous African Muslims were used to fight the Southern Sudanese. The relentless struggle of the Southern Sudanese against oppression, including enslavement by northerners, has spread to other marginalised and peripheral peoples in the West, centre, and east of Sudan."

M.O. Ené

"Ignorance can be bliss, but it is also the common cause of chauvinism. It is ironic that a country of Black people is experiencing excruciating events precipitated by the "Arab" section of the population. (Sudan is from bilad al-Sudan -- Arabic for "land of the blacks".) . . . . It should therefore be inculcated in all Sudanese that they are all descended from noble Nubians and Kushites before them, regardless of the injection of the genes of recent immigration."

"The Darfur debacle [by the military regime of lt. General Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir] shows how easily the demons of ethnicity can be awakened from the wrongly wired network of artificial geopolitical regions despite the supposedly binding influence of revealed religions. muslims descending on each other because of ethnic dissimilarities and slight skin contrast shows that the seeds that sprout senseless slaughters in Africa are soil deep. The seeds cannot be extracted by long speeches, documentaries, memorials, and momentary reflections. The only language evil understands is the force of law. Darfur is just one more atrocity too many."

But African Renaissance contains more. There is an interactive section in which the writers on the particular theme can comment on each other's positions or statements. This is a novel turn that breaks down the isolation among the writers and should be helpful in the long run of establishing intellectual relationships and vigorous and honest debates in other sectors.

A book-size journal of over 200 pages, African Renaissance has other sections that deals with vital issues in other regions of Africa. There are sections on South Africa, Nigeria, the Mano River Basin (primarily Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, but also the Ivory Coast), Zimbawe, the francophone countries, the topic of AIDs. The journal concludes with a Philosophy section.

I'm looking forward to the second issue of African Renaissance, which has the theme of African Identity. Dr. Adibe discovered my essay In Search of an African Identity on ChickenBones: A Journal and requested permission to use it -- which I gave immediately. This issue will also contain commentary by Mammo Muchie, Garbo Diallo, and Steven Friedman; as well as comments by me on the writings of several Africans including Thabo Mbeki. It should be out sometime this September. I also understand the third issue is already in the planning and deal with wars and conflicts in Africa.

African Renaissance is changing the method and approach to our discussion of Africa -- post-USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall, post-ANC ascendancy in South Africa; post-Rwanda and the dismantling of Zaire; post-Liberian civil war; post-Libya-USA-London agreements; post Nasser. Its writers are mature, highly educated, engaged in work to reshape Africa and historical, cultural, and political thoughts on Africa. This journal is a necessity for all Africanists who want to carry on informed and insightful discussions on current events in contemporary Africa.

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African Renaisance per copy (retail price) is £19.99 (+p&p) -- The American edition is:US$14.90 and Can$19.35 -- Subscription: for companies/organisations etc: £250 PA (6 issues) -- Individuals (UK and Europe £120; Rest of the world £150).

The next edition is for September/October. The change in format was distributors' preference.

The European edition of September/October edition will be out about 15 September, and about 20 Sept for the American edition.

Editor:

Jideofor (Patrick) Adibe, Ph.D

Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.

SouthBank House

Black Prince Road

London SEI 7SJ

UK-Europe

jideofor.Adibe@adonis-abbey.com

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Table of Contents

From the Publisher:	10
Enter the African Renaissance
Jideofor Adibe

Africa and Arabia:
Cooperation or Conflict	12

The Golden Age of
Arab-African Relations	15
Gamal Nkrumah

Pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism
Back to the Future?	27
Akram Hawas

Arab-African Relations
From Liberation to Globalisation	45
Helmy Sharawy

Africa and Arabia in the
post-September 11 World Order	57
Mammo Muchie

Sudan: Caught Between Colonial
Remnants and Oil Revenues	76
Zola Zonkosi

Arab Slavery of Africans in
the Afro-Arab Borderlands	80
Bankie Forster Bankie

When Enough is Enough	84
M.O. Ené

Comments on:
B.F. Bankie's "Arab Slavery of
Africans in the Afro-Arab Borderlands	89
Commentator: Professor Helmi Sharawi

Comments on:
Helmi Sharawi's "Arab-African
Relations from Liberation to
Globalisation" and B.F. Bankie's:
"Arab Slavery of Africns in the Afro-Arab
Borderlands"	93

Comments on:
Mammo Muchie's: "Africa and Arabia in the
post-September 11 World Order"	98
Akram Hawas's "Pan-Africanism and
Pan-Arabism Back to the Future?"
M.O. ENE's "When Enough is Enough"
Commentator: Garba Diallo

South Africa

Finding Future Foundations?
South African Democracy after the 2004
Elections	106
Steven Friedman

Nigeria

State Failure and Growing Insecurity in	116
the Nigerian Oil Industry
Kenneth Omeje

Development Securitisation in Nigeria's
Niger Delta: An Appraisal of the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC)	126
Kenneth Omeje

If I Were an Igbo Man	136
Zulfikar Aliyu Adamu

Mano River Basin

Regionalisation of Domestic
Conflicts in the Mano River Basin	143
Christiana Solomon

Human Rights and Conflict
Resolution in West Africa:
The Case of Charles Taylor	154
Issaka K. Souare

France and Africa

Franco-Africa Relations: Half a Century of
an Ambiguous "Partnership"	162
Issaka K. Souare

Zimbawe

The 24th Anniversary of
Zimbawe's Independence	170
Zola Zonkosi

AIDS

Aids in Africa: Darwin's Gambit or an
African Challenge	174
Pusch Commey

Philosophy

The Relevance of Values to
African Renaissance	181
Jacob Kofi Hevi

New Humanism for a New
Renaissance in Africa	188
Silvia Bercu and Tony Robinson

Beads on a String	194
Jide Adefope

Economicism and the Reality of
Human Happiness in the 21st Century	205
Ibraheem A. Waziri

Contributors

Gamal Nkrumah -- Foreign News Desk Editor, Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt's leading English language publication). Son of the late Kwame Nkrumah (former Ghana's president and foremost proponent of African unity in his generation). Director, Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Cultural Centre, Cairo. Contributing Editor, African Renaissance.

Akram Hawas, Ph.D. -- Research Fellow, Centre for Oriental Studies, Copenhagen University, Denmark.

Helmy Sharawy, Professor -- Director, The Arab & African Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt. Has published profusely on African political sociology and Arab-African relations.

Mammo Muchie, Professor -- Director, Research Programme on Civil Society and African Integration, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. Contributing Editor, African Renaissance.

Zola Zonkosi, Ph.D. -- Facilitator of Dialogues and workshops on Peace and Reconciliation in Angola. DRC, Lesotho, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Zimbawe (Sept. 2001 - Dec. 2003). Member of the team charged with drafting the Constitutive Acts of the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament in 2001. Manager, African Programme, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa (2001-2003).

Bankie Forster Bankie -- Lawyer. Member of the General Council, Sudan Commission for Human rights (SCHR).

M.O. Ené -- Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA.

Steven Friedman -- Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, Johannesburg, South Africa. Editor, African Journal of Political and social Research (AJPSR).

Kenneth Omeje -- Research Fellow, African Centre, Department of Peace Studies, University of Brandford, West Yorkshire.

Zulfikar Aliyu Adamu -- Research Assistant, Department of Architectural Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia.

Christiana Solomon -- Research Assistant, Africa Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Issaka K. Souare -- International Secretariat, Amnesty International, London. Contributing Editor: African Renaissance.

Pusch Commey -- South Africa-based Lawyer. Correspondent, New African Magazine. Contributing Editor, African Renaissance.

Jacob Kofi Hevi, Ph.D. -- Holds two Ph.D.s -- in moral theology and in European Ethnology. Chairman of Faith and Culture Commission in Ho Diocese, Ghana. Contributing Editor, African Renaissance.

Silvia Bercu -- Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in a London hospital (UK). Co-author of the Course on Education for Non-Violence, developed by New Humanism, and travels around Europe, Africa, and the Americas delivering training to educators and community leaders.

Tony Robinson -- IT Consultant and trustee of relayNET, a UK based charity that organises a network of community development projects in Africa. Traveled in Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania in lat four years.

Jide Adefope -- Medical Doctor. Studied at the University of minnesota and New York University. Qualified in medicine at University of Dublin, Ireland. Editor, New Thinking (monthly magazine)

Ibraheem A. Waziri -- System Network Administrator, Iyn Abubakar Computer Centre, ABU, Zaria. First Prize Winner, First Annual kanoonline.com Poetry Contest, 2003

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The next edition is for September/October. The change in format was distributors' preference.

The European edition of September/October edition will be out about 15 September, and about 20 Sept for the American edition.

Editor:

Jideofor (Patrick) Adibe, Ph.D

Publisher

Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.

SouthBank House

Black Prince Road

London SEI 7SJ

UK-Europe

jideofor.Adibe@adonis-abbey.com

www.adonis-abbey.com / Tel: (+44) 0207 463 2288 / Fax: (+44) 0207 793 4056

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updated 19 October 2007