dinner hosted by the Government of KwaZulu-Natal for African Union (AU)
Ministers, Durban
9 May 2007
His Excellency, Professor Alpha-Ouma Konare
Chairperson of the AU Commission, His Excellency Mr. Nana-Akufo Addo
Chairperson of the Executive Council of the AU His Excellency, Mr Patrick
Mazimhaka
Deputy Chair of the AU Commission Her Excellency, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma:
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Ministers of the AU
Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad
Members of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Provincial Executive Council
Ladies and gentlemen
When the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity
issued a Declaration in 1999, calling for the establishment of the African
Union, it was with a view to accelerating the process of integrating Africa.
This was so we could play our rightful role in the global economy while at the
same time addressing the challenges posed by the reality of globalisation.
The adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in Rome seven
years ago and the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development in
2001 remain among the highlights on the road towards a truly free Africa. We
are pleased as the people of KwaZulu-Natal that you have yet again chosen our
province as the place in which you will take decisive steps in the long journey
that will see African countries take their place among the nations and regional
blocks of the world.
This is because the launch of the AU in 2002 and the convening of the 1st
Assembly of the Heads of States of the African Union took place right here in
Durban. The Debate on the Political and Economic Integration of Africa
represents one of the most important steps towards the conclusion of the
decolonisation process. We are pleased that you are holding this historic great
debate yet again in our city. We believe it is important that as we create a
new environment for Africa's revival we must constantly and consciously look
back into our past. Each time we look back we will find an Africa whose climate
and geography were conducive to the birth of some of the world's earlier
civilisations and knowledge systems.
When we look back we will see an Africa that has contributed immensely to
the advancement of mathematics, physics and writing systems. Each time we do
this, we are reminding ourselves of how it is possible that a continent so
great could descend to the levels that we did over the last 100 years, but we
must always look back because from the past we can draw inspiration from the
obvious reality that our fate is in our hands.
In 1906, Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, an African scholar and one of the founder
members of the African National Congress (ANC) waxed lyrical about the Africa
we are seeking when he said, "A brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I
seem to see her chains dissolved her desert plain 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 stories of
peace, greater and more abiding than the spoils of war."
We seek our place among the nations of the world aware as the African
National Congress (ANC) pointed out in its Strategy and Tactics Document of
2002 that our place in the world often relates to the question of the
sovereignty of states in a globalising world. "Some lessons have emerged from
various experiences about the kind of overt and covert subversion that
developing countries can be subjected to. Not least of these are the concrete
expression of the clamour for Africa's resources and the power of transnational
corporations in global economics and politics. How do we protect the integrity
of our democratic state under such conditions?" ANC Strategy and Tactics
Document (2002).
We would argue that it is incumbent upon all of Africa to define our re
emerging centres of global power such as the European Union, the United States,
Japan and China. This we can only do if we recognise and properly analyse the
contradictions in and among these centres. We must do so aware of our own
differences and challenges, but cognisant of our collective strengths. As one
of Africa's greatest commentators once wrote, "One thing so far we have been
guilty of is neglecting our cultural men and women." They write and write, but
very little is written about them. "We need more books by Africans on
Africa"
Another book we need is on the New African. "Let us forget our lamentations
for once and tell of our achievements'" - HIE Dhlomo, Ilanga laseNatal, 25
October 1947. We are on the verge of a break up with our colonial past that is
of historic proportion. I suspect that while we are carrying out the great
debate we may be too close as Africans to see the size of our intervention. We
have no doubt that in 100 years' time generations to come will look at this
movement towards the political and economic integration of Africa as one of the
greatest contributions to the continent in many years.
Never in the history of colonial Africa have the prospects for the political
and economic ascendancy of Africa been as bright as they are today. Never in
the history of humanity have the odds been stacked so favourably for the
African continent to rise from the periphery of the international agenda and to
take centre stage in the affairs of the world. We wish you well in your
deliberations and the forthcoming AU Summit of Heads of State and Government in
Ghana in July. The time for Africa is now. We can rise again, we can run again,
we can be drivers of our own destiny yet again.
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
9 May 2007
Source: SAPA
