N Dlamini Zuma: African Union Caribbean Diaspora Conference

Honourable Chairperson, Your Excellency Christopher Kolade, the High
Commissioner of Nigeria,
The Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jamaica Anthony Hylton
Your Excellency The Dean of African Missions in London Mr Samuel Libock
Mbei
Your Excellency The Dean of the Caribbean Missions in London Mr Laleshwar KN
Singh
Your Excellencies Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished guests
Delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
Comrades and friends

First, let me express our gratitude to all of you for having heeded the call
to this Conference. Your presence here today, answers why the need for this
Conference.

In his book entitled 'In Arcadia,' Ben Okri tells us the following
story:

"You die, and find yourself, like Daphnis, at Heaven's Gate. A mysterious
person meets you at the entrance. You ask to be admitted. The mysterious person
insists first on a conversation about the life you have lived. You complain
that you had no breaks, that things didn't work out for you, that you weren't
helped, that people brought you down, blocked your way, that your father didn't
love you, that your mother didn't care, that economic times were bad, that you
didn't have the right qualifications, that you didn't belong to the right
circle, that you weren't lucky, in short you pour out a veritable torrent of
excuses.

But for every excuse you bring forth the infinitely patient mysterious
person points to little things here and there that you could have done, little
mental adjustments that you could have made. He gently offers you examples of
where, instead of giving up, you could have been more patient. Tenderly, he
shows you all the little things you could have done, within the range of your
ability, your will that would have made a difference. And as he offers these
alternatives you see how perfectly they make sense, how perfectly possible the
solutions were, how manageable. You see how, by being more alive to your life,
and not panicky and afraid, things could have been so much more livable, indeed
quite wonderful.

You suddenly see that you could have been perfectly happy during all the
time that you were perfectly miserable. That you could have been free instead
of being a prisoner. That you could have been one of the radiant ones of the
earth. That living could have been fun. It could have been worthwhile. That
life could have been a playground of possibilities. It could have been a
laboratory of intelligence and freedom. And living could have been composed of
experiments in surprise, in immortality. Experiments in the art of
astonishment. Fascinating time - games. Space -games. Dimension- games.

You suddenly see that living is the place where gods play within mortal
flesh. An open-ended play in which dying is the most open-ended ending of them
all, opening out into the infinity of nothingness, or into the infinity of
absolute being.

Therefore, living is the place of secular miracles. It is where amazing
things can be done in consciousness and in history. Living ought to be the
unfolding masterpiece of the loving spirit. And dying ought to set this
masterpiece free. Set it free to enrich the world. A good life is the
masterwork of magic intelligence that dwells in us. Faced with the enormity of
this thought, of the Damascene perception, failure, despair, unhappiness,
seemed a small thing, a gross missing of the point of it all."

But, I'm happy that since the beginning of time, Africans wherever they have
been, whatever the circumstances, have ensured that they do not find themselves
at the Heaven's Gates, unable to account for the lives they had lived.

The Africans had always taken for granted the necessity to advance
development and contribute to the greater wellbeing of self, society and the
environment. The civilisation that Africans collectively produced were to be
reflected in the architecture of the city of One Hundred Gates, the Pyramids of
Egypt, the Temples of Ethiopia, the City of Carthage in Tunisia and the many
prehistoric ruins in other parts of Africa. The Sculptures of Benin, Ancient
Kingdoms of Ghana and Mali, the Makhondis of Mozambique and the rich Paintings
of Kgalagadi. The African participated in the human development for the greater
good of Humanity and deliberate subordination of the individual.

We state it as a matter of historical fact and not an act of self praise
that Africa enjoyed a Golden Age of trade, commerce, education, flourishing of
the arts and craftsmanship. These contributions were made because - We always
understood that "life was a playground of possibilities, a laboratory of
intelligence and freedom and that living is a place of secular miracles."

We carried this belief even when our cities were destroyed as evidenced when
Rome ordered the destruction of Carthage, turned such a beautiful city into
ruins and cursing the strong men and women of Africa were condemned into
slavery in the most cruel and inhumane manner in order to build their
capitalist economies in the name of trade.

In the words of Guyanese scholar, Walter Rodney, in "How Europe
underdeveloped Africa," he asserts that:

"The process by which captives were obtained on African soil was not trade
at all. It was through warfare, trickery, banditry and kidnapping." It was
social violence and destruction, many died on the route and "the massive loss
of the African labour force was made more critical because it was composed of
the most able-bodied young men and young women."

Africans on the continent and the Diaspora shared a common bond of
suffering; they also together celebrated the victories against their enslavers
and oppressors - albeit short-lived. They inspired each other in mind in the
celebrated victory in Haiti in 1804 with the establishment of the first Black
Republic; the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879, that saw the mighty army of the
British empire vanquished; the battle of Adwa in 1896 where the Italians
suffered a humiliating defeat by the Ethiopians. These are some of the
instances that inspired Africans towards their liberation and led to powerful
cultural movements and bonds such as Ethiopianism and later Rastafarianism.

Africans always lived their lives in a way that made it possible to face
that mysterious man at the gates of heaven with their heads high.

The 200th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery

We join forces around the world in marking the struggle for the abolition of
the slave trade, of the trans-Atlantic slavery of Africans to the Americas and
the Caribbean with the passing of the Abolition Act 200 years ago.

We fully support the commemoration of this, as a special year in honour of
those who suffered, as indeed we celebrate the lives of those who fought
bravely against slavery.

* And again it was here in London in 1900 that the early stirrings of
Pan-African Unity took place when the Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester
Williams organised the first meeting of the Pan-African Congress. The legendary
W E B Du Bois in his address "To the Nations of the World" made his famous
statement, and I quote:

"In the metropolis of the modern world, in this the closing year of the
nineteenth century, there has been assembled a congress of men and women of
African blood, to deliberate solemnly upon the present situation and outlook of
the darker races of mankind. The problem of the twentieth century is the
problem of the colour line, the question as to how far differences of race -
which show themselves chiefly in the colour of the skin and the texture of the
hair - will thereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the
right of sharing to utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern
civilisation."

People like Marcus Garvey were committed to celebration of black historical
achievements, but were also very concerned about linking the Diaspora to the
Continent. Writers such as George Padmore, later CLR James and even later
Frantz Fanon contributed immensely to the analysis of the African condition and
outlining the circumstances for liberation. Of course, there were also South
African intellectuals like Sol Plaatjie, Pixley ka Seme and John Mafukuzela
Dube, founders of the African National Congress (ANC), who were inspired by
these developments.

Pixley ka Seme wrote in 1906 in an essay entitled 'the Regeneration of
Africa,' I quote:

"The African already recognises his anomalous position and desires a change.
The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already, I seem to see her chains
dissolved her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand
the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from
the spires of their churches and universities. Her Congo and her Gambia
whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business,
and all her sons employed in advancing the victories of peace- greater and more
abiding than the spoils of war.

The ancestral greatness, the unimpaired genius, and the recuperative power
of the race, its irrepressibility, which assures its permanence, constitute the
African's greatest source of inspiration. He has refused to camp forever on the
borders of the industrial world; having learned that knowledge is power, he is
educating his children. You find them in Edinburgh, in Cambridge, and in the
great schools of Germany and so on. These return to their countries armed with
their industrial and educational initiative, and untiring devotion to these
activities, must be regarded as positive evidences of this process of
regeneration."

Indeed, although this was said in 1906, it still has resonance today.
Africans "have always understood life as a playground of possibilities." They
have always been able to manage difficulties and found solutions to seemingly
intractable problems. They have always been able to account - how they lived
their lives to "the mysterious man at the gate of heaven."

This historical antecedent set in motion heroic struggles whose legacy we
now have the privilege to celebrate and honour.

Of course, Africa and the African Diaspora are celebrating this year, the
year of the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

We pay tribute to the heroes of this country and to the legacy especially of
Kwame Nkrumah who believed that only a united Africa could achieve economic
independence, that only African countries acting in unity could give support to
those who were still fighting for liberation in Southern Africa, especially
South Africa.

The 40th anniversary of the death of Albert Luthuli

This year we are also commemorating the 40th anniversary of the death of
South Africa's First Nobel Peace Laureate and President of the African National
Congress (ANC), Dr Albert Luthuli.

In his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech, he (Chief Luthuli) spoke about the
goal of a united Africa "in which the standards of life and liberty are
constantly expanding" and "in which the dignity of man is rescued from beneath
the heels of colonialism which have trampled it." He called for Africa to free
itself from past woes and tribulations; and "to see herself as an emerging
continent" whose fight is for "noble values and worthy ends" and "not for land
and enslavement of man."

We are here to attest and celebrate the leadership of the torchbearers that
gave birth to this historic moment.

Of course in Africa, we celebrate the lives of many leaders who through
their vision formed the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

They demonstrated that solidarity and unity were crucial for strengthening
the struggle for independence especially the countries of the South like
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola and South Africa and for the fight
against underdevelopment and hence the birth of the OAU including those here in
London who formed the Anti-Apartheid Movement probably the largest global
solidarity movement the world has seen founded here in London by Archbishop
Trevor Huddleston spread all over the world and all peace-loving people.

It was therefore not surprising that the first country to impose sanctions
against Apartheid South Africa was Jamaica because they had accepted that the
African and the African Diaspora needed to act in unison and in solidarity for
the freedom of Africans wherever they are.

After the liberation of South Africa, President Nelson Mandela said the
following in his address to the OAU, "The titanic effort that has brought
liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa
constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world. It is a
gift of emancipation also to those who, because they were white, imposed on
themselves the heavy burden of assuming the mantle of rulers of all humanity.
It says to all who will listen and understand that, by ending the apartheid
barbarity that was the offspring of European colonisation, Africa has, once
more, contributed to the advance of human civilisation and further expanded the
frontiers of liberty everywhere.

Of course the Africans in the continent and in the Diaspora were
strengthened by the tireless efforts by persons like Michael Manley, Sir John
Compton, lots of personalities and many ordinary people in the Caribbean and
the Diaspora.

Finally at this meeting in Tunis, President Nelson Mandela stated that "We
shall remove from our agenda the consideration of the question of Apartheid
South Africa."

"Where South Africa appears on the agenda again, let it be because we want
to discuss what its contribution shall be to the making of the new African
Renaissance. Let it be because we want to discuss what materials it will supply
for the rebuilding of the African city, Cartage."

Of course, I would like us to go back to what President Thabo Mbeki
delivered in his speech 'The Historical Injustice" said in 1978 in Ottawa,
Canada:

"Modern political science recognises the fact that social systems are
founded on definite historical origins. If the saying 'out of nothing comes' is
true, then it must follow that the future is formed and derives its first
impulse in the womb of the present. All societies therefore necessarily bear
the imprint, the birth-marks of their own past and whether to a greater or
lesser extent must depend on a whole constellation of factors both internal and
external to each particular society.

Those of us, who claim to be revolutionaries, must resist all attempts to
persuade us that our future lies in the hands of an ungovernable fate. For the
imperative of our epoch has charged us with the task of transforming ourselves
from the status of objects of history to that of masters of history."

I am quoting all these people to say that what we are doing today has its
first impulse in history.

The African leadership having arrived at the conclusion that the OAU was no
longer adequate to deal with the challenges of today, in the year 2002,
requested South Africa to host the launch of the African Union. After the it's
launch, the continental body decided to recognise the Diaspora as the sixth
Region of the African Union.

Thereafter a number of Conferences of Africa and the Diaspora intellectuals
took place in Trinidad, Senegal, Brazil etc.

These gatherings were an effort to consolidate what was started by the
Africans in the Diaspora in 1900. Putting the signposts of the journey ahead
that we are collectively undertaking to take in our hands, understanding that
our future is bound together.

South Africa in 2005 had a meeting in Jamaica primarily to express our
appreciation, support and to celebrate our 10th anniversary with the
Caribbean.

Programme Director,

The AU in 2006 decided that South Africa should host the first Summit of
Africa and the African Diaspora. This was accepted with humility recalling the
sentiment expressed by President Mandela that when South Africa appears on the
Agenda it should be to discuss what South Africa's contribution should be to
the rebirth of the continent.

Challenges of the 21st century

Of course, having declared the 21st century, as the African century, it is
clear that we have to mobilise all people on the continent and the Diaspora
because we have to wage a titanic battle. a titanic battle of ideas, battle
against poverty and underdevelopment ,a battle for the emancipation of women
and empowerment of our youth.

It has to be a battle for ending the marginalisation of lots of Africans in
the Diaspora.

It has to be a titanic battle to reclaim our cultural heritage. The fact
that it is easier to buy CDs of an African artist in Europe and America than in
Africa must come to an end.

The implementation of the programme of action of the World Conference
Against Racism (WCAR) will need to marshal all our forces in Africa and in the
Diaspora. The question of reparations which should be measures aimed at
reversing the devastating consequences of racism and slavery in history must
necessarily extend beyond the narrow understanding of reparations as individual
financial compensation of victims.

"There is no doubt that slavery; colonialism and apartheid were crimes
against humanity. The nature of the damage caused by slavery and colonialism is
complex and manifold: it involves the wholesale destruction of peoples and
groups, the erosion and in some cases theft of social, economic and human
capital and the destruction of the social fabric of entire people." (WCAR
Document 2001)

A further challenge for us is the closure of the digital divide. Africa and
the Diaspora has to come together to share their scientific advances from
biotechnology, nanotechnology to space technology for peaceful use.

Mobilisation of the great battle against HIV and AIDS and other infectious
diseases. The battle for the development of Africa and the Diaspora has to be
seen to be as inclusive as possible.

Human Trafficking

The scourge of human trafficking should more accurately be described as a
modern form of slavery.

The term human trafficking obscures the evil practice that involves the
buying and selling of human beings in order to exploit them economically, and
force them into domestic and sexual servitude. We also have to address the
continued skills drain of Africa's best talent to the West; is a new and
insidious form of an old practice - the practice of taking the skills of the
best from Africa for the advancement of Western economies

Programme Director,

This conference is part of the preparations in Europe, America, Caribbean
and Africa for the Ministerial and civil society conferences in October 2007
and eventually the African and African Diaspora Summit in 2008.

Thus, to answer again the question posed at the beginning, this conference
is necessary to revive and strengthen the spirit of Pan Africanism and to
strengthen and profile the African Diaspora wherever they are.

* To act in unison in order to deal with the challenges of
globalisation.

* To challenge the imbalance of power.

* To ensure the rebirth of the continent.

Africans against all odds have always scored victories; they have always
turned "life into a playground of possibilities". The African rebirth will be
moral, peaceful and will lead to a better world.

The Conference will have to focus on an action plan that will both
accelerate socio-economic development and increase our access to markets, both
regionally and internationally.

The people of African descent have to show the world a new world order where
diversity is celebrated and harnessed as a collective strength rather than a
cause for discrimination.

Finally, I would like to quote from an unlikely source, a Bahai scholar who
wrote: (Baha'u'allah) about diversity:

"Consider the flowers of a garden, it would be said that though different in
kind, colour, form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters
of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of
one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their
beauty.

How unpleasing to the eye if all flowers and plants, the leaves and
blossoms, the fruits, the branches and the trees were all the same shape and
colour. Diversity of hues, form and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden and
heighten the effect thereof."

I do believe that indeed those who have suffered and who have been
undervalued can create a new beautiful world for all humanity.

Ben Okri, in his book, 'Way of Being Free,' writes,

"They tell me that nature is the survival of the fittest. And yet look at
how wondrous gold and yellow fishes prosper amongst silent stones of the ocean
beds, while sharks continuously prowl the waters in their impossible dreams of
oceanic domination and while whales become extinct...how many butterflies and
iguanas thrive, while elephants turn into endangered species, and while even
the lions growl in their dwindling solitude.

There is no such thing as a powerless people. There are only those who have
not seen and have not used their power and will. It would seem a miraculous
feat, but it is possible for the undervalued ones to help create a beautiful
new era in human history. New vision should come from those who suffer most and
who love life the most."

Therefore, I wish to conclude by stating that "At heaven's Gate when we meet
the mysterious person we shall not pour out a veritable lament of excuses but
be able to show that life was a playground of possibilities, a laboratory of
intelligence and freedom and that living was a space of secular miracles, where
amazing things were done in consciousness and in history."

I thank you.

For more information, contact
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853

Nomfanelo Kota
Cell: 082 459 3787
E-mail: kotan@foreign.gov.za /
nomfanelok@yahoo.com

Issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs (C/O South African High
Commission in London, United Kingdom)
24 April 2007
Source: SAPA