Ndebele, on the occasion of the celebrations of Africa Day at Durban City
Hall
25 May 2005
It is a singular pleasure to join the people of KwaZulu-Natal, our country,
the continent of Africa and the African diaspora to celebrate one of the most
important days in the African calendar.
We meet here today as Africans and people of African descent living
elsewhere in the world to unequivocally proclaim that: "The time for Africa's
regeneration has come and we Africans will lead and safeguard this
regeneration." We meet here today to re-commit ourselves to the building of an
Africa that is free of disease, poverty, famine, war and hopelessness. We meet
here today as Africans to re-affirm our commitment to be our own
liberators.
One of the world famous sons of the soil of our continent, author Ben Okri,
who hails from Nigeria speaks thus about a people's ability to turn their
fortunes around.
"The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore
our task as creative participants in the universe to re-dream our world. The
fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re-dreamed. Each
reality can have it."
In the year 1963, the African visionaries who come before us took it upon
themselves to re-dream the reality a continent that had been suffering under
the manufactured reality of colonialism.
They formed the predecessor to the African Union (AU), the Organisation of
African Unity (OAU). The OAU sought to re-dream Africa's reality through the
promotion of unity and development; the defence of the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of members; eradication of all forms of colonialism;
promotion of international co-operation and the co-ordination of members'
economic, diplomatic, educational, health, welfare, scientific and defence
policies.
Some of these tasks like colonialism have been accomplished but a majority
of them are still outstanding and the burden falls squarely on our shoulders to
continue the process of liberation of our continent.
It is a known fact that while colonialism has been eradicated, its effects
are still felt in many parts of our continent. History has therefore entrusted
the present day generation with the task of ensuring that we do not bequeath to
coming generations an Africa that is a basket case, an Africa that cannot stand
on its own.
From afar the task looks ominous. The questions become:
* Where do we start in liberating and developing 840 million people who
speak among themselves 800 languages and live in 30 244 050 square kilometres
of land?
* How do we undo centuries of systematic destruction of Africa's people's
values and dignity and the exploitation of African resources for the benefit of
colonial masters?
Yet, the examples of bravery, selflessness and astuteness of those who led
this struggle before us should give us hope that we can re-dream Africa's
reality.
At the forefront of the campaign to dream Africa's reality should be
daughters and sons of our continent and the diaspora bequeathed with the
expertise, the brains and the experience to turn things around. Ben Okri would
have referred to them as âcreative participants.â
From Monday up until yesterday we hosted a groundbreaking Intellectuality
Summit as part of the eighth African Renaissance Festival. Government, civil
society, development and leaders from all walks of life had the opportunity to
put their brains together with some of the greatest minds of our continent all
with the common objective of defining the role that intellectuals can play in
re-dreaming the reality of KwaZulu-Natal, our country, the continent of Africa
and the diaspora. From the two-day summit of these creative participants has
emerged new hope for the development of our province.
Now that we have issued a challenge to our intellectuals and they have
accepted it, we expect that the pace of Africa's rebirth will quicken for we
cannot afford to be lackadaisical while Africa stagnates. The measure of
intellectuality in an Africa that is re-defining itself will not be about how
many complex theories one can expound but how quickly we can better the lives
of the people of our continent.
Again while we lead the campaign to create a better Africa we should not
fall into a trap of undermining the ability of our continent to liberate
themselves from the shackles of poverty, disease, ignorance and instability.
Our duty particularly as government is to create conditions that are conducive
for development, to encourage innovation among our people, to initiate and lead
some of the development initiatives thereby ensuring that people become their
own liberators.
In this vein, we should pool our efforts as people of this continent to
better ourselves. This means that business should play an even bigger role in
the attainment of this goal. Our province is strategically located to be the
economic hub of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Yet,
we do not see businesses from our country falling over each other to take
advantage of the opportunities that exist while developing our communities. If
our business entrepreneurs do not take the opportunities that exist then
business from outside of the continent will usurp us.
However, the key to the total emancipation of Africans and the re-generation
lies with each one of us as individuals. We should by word and deed banish the
stereotype that Africans are lazy, violent and unimaginative. Every African
should understand that whatever they engage has bearing on how Africa is viewed
by the world. We should yield no quarter to those whose interests are best
served by an Africa at war with herself.
The time has come to re-dream Africa's reality. The time for Africa has
come!
I thank you!
Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
25 May 2006
