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Call for Papers
Theme: Legacies of Pan-Africanism and African Nationalism
Type: International Conference
Institution: University of Fort Hare
Location: Alice, Eastern Cape (South Africa)
Date: 26.–28.9.2016
Deadline: 15.5.2016
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The Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA), in collaboration
with the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), the Steve
Biko Foundation (SBF), the Robert Sobukwe Trust and the African
Leadership Centre (ALC), Nairobi, are hosting a conference, on the
“Legacies of Pan Africanism and African Nationalism”, to contribute
to the 2016 Centenary Celebrations of the University of Fort Hare.
Background
The conference theme recognises the University of Fort Hare’s Pan
African and African Nationalist intellectual legacy. The University
of Fort Hare (then, the South African Native College) was established
exactly one hundred years ago, on the demand from black Africans (who
recognised the opportunities that western education afforded them)
and white settlers, who recognised, as CT Loram explained, that
The best hope for the solution of the problem of race
adjustment in South Africa, the so-called Native Question,
lies in the education by the dominant whites of the black
race.
Fearing radical Pan-African or secessionist “Ethiopianist” ideas that
Africans may bring back from education abroad, authorities sought to
establish a moderate institution at home, whose curriculum would be
based,
Upon the peculiar instincts, capacities, interests, past and
present experiences, and probable future of the pupils for
whom they are intended.
This intention was subverted by African students and parents. The
lecturer, ZK Matthews, explained,
Their view has been that they will not tolerate any course
which purports to prepare their children for a purely African
environment when they know that such a thing no longer exists.
When Fort Hare’s Pan-African identity was threatened by incorporation
in the segregated Department of Bantu Education, the Fort Hare
alumnus, Govan Mbeki, likewise, called for a boycott, arguing that
“Native education” […] and half-hearted measures to improve
the Africans’ living conditions are all instruments and tools
with which the path to African extermination is being paved.
Through such contradictions, the university flourished as a centre
for African intellectual endeavour, influencing the African
Nationalist turn by ANC Youth League alumni, such as Oliver Tambo and
Nelson Mandela, and the thinking of the later Pan-Africanist leader,
Robert Sobukwe, which, in turn, influenced the Azanian and Black
Consciousness movements of the 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the
struggle against apartheid.
Despite their close correspondence, these ideas parted on the borders
that Africa inherits from Europe.
African Nationalism represents a political movement for African
national self-determination. Influenced by the rise of European
nationalism, it stands for the struggle against colonial rule in
Africa, which gained strength with decolonisation. On the conflict,
for African upliftment, between national sovereignty and
international solidarity, the Pan-Africanist Julius Nyerere united
African Nationalism with Pan-Africanism, arguing that the former is,
Meaningless, dangerous, anachronistic if it is not at the
same time Pan-Africanism.
Pan Africanism encourages the solidarity of all people of African
descent, on the belief that such unity is vital to Africans’
upliftment in the collective struggles against slavery, racism,
colonialism and neo-imperialism. Formed in reaction to Europe’s
partition of Africa after the Berlin Congress of 1884/5, the African
Association in Britain issued a CFA in 1898 for the first Pan-African
conference, which this call for abstracts renews, seeking, with the
critical weight of historical perspective:
In view of the widespread ignorance which is prevalent about
the treatment of native races […] to influence public opinion
on existing proceedings and conditions affecting the welfare
of the natives in various parts of Africa, the West Indies
and the United States.
One hundred years on, with the considerable progress made by the
struggle for decolonisation, we ask, what is the legacy of these
competing ideas today? Are these concerns still relevant for African
emancipation and development?
Despite the transformation of the OAU into the AU, attesting to
renewed commitment of African states to Pan-African unity, it cannot
be denied that Pan- Africanism is, in the words of Kwasi Kwaa Prah,
currently,
Philosophically adrift, fairly depleted of substantial
content and is in dire need of fresh ideas to drive the
project forward, without jeopardizing its primordial
leitmotif.
We therefore seek, with this conference, to reassess the relevance of
Pan-Africanism and African Nationalism today.
Themes
We welcome papers dealing inter alia with the following, which are
grouped into three main pillars, as follows:
I.
- Challenge of national sovereignty for Pan-African integration
(who/what to unite, for what purpose?)
- Pan-African/African Nationalist intellectual Legacy of UFH alumni
- Pan-African/African Nationalist Leaders and Leadership
(e.g. Sobukwe and Lembede)
II.
- Assessing the anti-Imperialist struggle legacy of Pan Africanism &
African Nationalism
- Identity/Difference between African Nationalism & Pan Africanism
- African cultural identity in the West & Western cultural identity
in Africa
- Black Consciousness, Afrocentricity, Négritude, Black Power, Black
nationalism and related progenies
III.
- Relevance of African Nationalism/Pan-Africanism for contemporary
African challenges: Postcolonial Imperialism, Transformative
Education, Multicultural Citizenship, Governance, Nationalisation.
Privatisation, Inequality, Migration, Race Prejudice, Xenophobia,
etc.
- Pan-African knowledge systems: epistemological, methodological,
spiritual/theological foundations
- Pan-Africanism, African Nationalism and African Renaissance
Guidelines for submission
As different views on Pan Africanism and African Nationalism are
especially significant in the context of African regional integration
and cultural solidarity, special attention is given to papers dealing
with the challenge of achieving such solidarity in the context of
national state sovereignty.
Selected papers will be published in a peer-reviewed, edited volume
with an international publisher.
Abstracts (+-500 words)/enquiries before 15 May 2016; full papers by
19 August 2016 to:
[email protected]
Notification of acceptance will be sent by 15 June 2016.
For further information contact Ms Nobulali Tokwe:
(+27) 40 602 2687
[email protected]
Conference Venue and Date:
26 - 28 September, University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa
Keynote Speakers include:
- Vusi Gumede (Director, Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute,
UNISA)
- Godwin Murunga (Director, African Leadership Centre, Nairobi)
- Obenewa Amponsah (Director, Steve Biko Foundation)
- Peter Vale (Director, Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies)
- Mogobe Ramose (Emeritus Professor, Philosophy, UNISA)
Organizing committee:
Christopher Allsobrook, Valery Ferim, Olusegun Morakinyo (CLEA and
Department of Politics, UFH), Vusi Gumede, Serges Kamga, Victoria
Qhobosheane (TMALI, UNISA), Dini Sobukwe (Robert Sobukwe Trust),
Mwelela Cele (Steve Biko Centre), Godwin Murunga (ALC, University
Nairobi & King’s College, London).
Contact:
Ms Nobulali Tokwe
Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa
University of Fort Hare
Private Bag X1314
King William's Town Road
Alice 5700
South Africa
Phone: +27 40 6022687
Email: [email protected]
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