{"id":11231,"date":"2024-06-10T23:37:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T20:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/2024\/06\/ps-africa-vipek\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T06:21:18","slug":"panorama-soruyor-happy-and-hopey-birthday-africa-volkan-ipek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalpanorama.org\/en\/2024\/06\/panorama-soruyor-happy-and-hopey-birthday-africa-volkan-ipek\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy and (Hope)y Birthday Africa – Volkan \u0130pek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Happy and (Hope)y Birthday Africa<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
  1. How do you evaluate postcolonial politics in Africa? Have there been any turning points since the beginning of decolonization?<\/strong> <\/li>
  2. What are today’s most significant political and economic issues\/problems in Africa?<\/strong> <\/li>
  3. What does the 30th <\/sup>anniversary of the end of apartheid in Southern Africa mean to you?<\/strong>
    <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \n

    \u201cThe end of the apartheid is our pride whereas the genocide in Rwanda is our shame,\u201d still say many Africans in the politically and economically burning Africa. Celebrations of Africa Day on May 25, the date the Organization of the African Union was founded in 1963, are far from exuberance but close to hope. Political issues such as jihadism, especially in the Sahel states of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad; the ongoing brutal civil war in Sudan; ethnic conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo, and serious democratic pains in Chad; environmental issues such as famine in Horn of African states of Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan; economic issues such as deepening unemployment in Southern African states of South Africa in addition to chronic hyperinflation in Zimbabwe make Africans celebrating the 61st anniversary of the unity of Africa in a pretty low mood. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Dr. Volkan \u0130pek
    Yeditepe \u00dcniversitesi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    The hopes for the termination of these issues as soon as possible are more dominant than enthusiasm for the current situation. The hopes are not rootless; however, they remind us that Africa survived almost 400 hundred years of slave trade on its Western and Eastern coasts and nearly 70 years of colonial rule that was applied by the European empires. To contribute to these hopes, we wanted those five distinct scholars to extinguish the candles on the African Union\u2019s 61st birthday cake (not the exact cake described by Leopold the Second) by responding to the three questions addressed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    \n
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    Walter Gam Nkwi, Institute of History
    University of Leiden<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    On Sunday, 24 March 2024, Senegal held its Presidential elections. The office holder, President Macky Sall, appeared ineligible to pursue a third term due to the term limits postulated by the Constitution of Senegal. These elections were initially scheduled for Sunday, 25 February 2024. They were postponed indefinitely by a Decree, unilaterally passed by Macky Sall on Saturday, 3 February 2024, and tactically paused by the National Assembly to take place on Sunday, 15 December 2024. However, on Thursday, 15 February, the Senegalese Constitutional Council overturned the postponement and ordered elections to proceed as soon as possible, with the government subsequently setting a new election date for Sunday, 24 March 2024. Bassirou Diomaye Faye ran in lieu of Ousmane Sonko and was elected president with 54% of the vote, while Amadou Ba peacefully \u201cthrew in the towel\u201d. In other words, he conceded defeat peacefully. The Supreme Court of Senegal later confirmed Faye’s victory. Thus, he became the youngest president in Senegal and Africa. He was inaugurated as president on Tuesday, 2 April 2024, amidst fanfare and pageantry. This was phenomenal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Postcolonial politics in Africa has witnessed twists and\nturns. Some countries have scored victories, while some have failed. The case\nof Senegal is remarkable. Much can be zoomed out from it, but not in this\nwrite-up. Although Africa has been painted for a long time as static and has\nmade no substantial developments in the political sphere since the era of\nre-democratization, the Senegalese election was a volte-face<\/em> in West\nAfrica. Since decolonization, Africa\u2019s politics have not operated on a level\nplaying ground. Africa is a heterogeneous continent with a multifarious mosaic\nof ethnic groups and different colonial historical backgrounds. The politics of\nthis continent has, to a very large extent, been an outcome of its colonial\nheritage. Thus, its politics after decolonization reflected what most of the\ncolonial powers had left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The period immediately after the political decolonization,\nin the 1960s and 1970s, witnessed a simmering of some Western-style democracy.\nWestern democratic structures operated in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and\nother British colonies. Six years into independence, coups d\u2019\u00e9tats became as\nfrequent as breakfast. Even Kwame Nkrumah, the architect and father of\nPan-Africanism, was consumed by a coup in 1966. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The one-party state also became a norm. Most post-French\ncolonies embraced one-party states by justifying that a multi-party system was\nanathema to growth and development. Cameroon took the lead, and so throughout\nthe independence stretching into the end of the Cold War, these post-colonial\nstates produced authoritarian leaders and military leaders; the poverty levels\nwere high, and unemployment figures were astronomical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The year 1990 saw the end of the Cold War. America and her\nEuropean powers came up with the doctrine of democratization in African\ncountries. Accordingly, African countries were asked to democratize their\ninstitutions and open political space before they could qualify for any\nfinancial aid. Africa then jumped onto the bandwagon of the neo-liberal period.\nCreating political parties and elections became fashionable as the incumbent\nleaders found ways to cling to power. Some were backed by the same Western powers\nto stay on. The opposition parties in some countries were very vibrant;\nmeanwhile, their wings were clipped in some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There have been some turning points worth noting. The case\nof Senegal at the beginning of this paper is just one. Botswana and the\nRepublic of South Africa have been success stories. On the other side of the\nspectrum, the post-colonial state in Africa has been a mirage. Irredentist\nclaims have pre-occupied the nation-state as well as artificial borders.\nFundamentalist movements have also become honeycombed all over the continent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Regarding the second question, the post-colonial state in\nAfrica has been bedeviled by political and economic challenges. Politically,\nterrorism has been at the forefront of the continent in the past decades or so.\nTerrorism\nis considered as the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of\nfear in the population and government and thereby achieve a particular\npolitical objective. In concrete terms, its definition has been wrapped in\nobscurity and debate, making it cumbersome for a universal definition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In\nthe Central Africa region, which consists of Cameroon, the Central\nAfrican Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo Kinshasa),\nthe Republic of the Congo<\/a> (Congo Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea<\/a>,\nGabon<\/a>,\nRwanda<\/a>,\nand S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe<\/a>, terrorist aggressions constitute another major to the security of\nstates and populations. It harbors one of the\nlargest countries in the entire continent, the Democratic Republic of Congo,\nwhich has also turned out to be the wealthiest country in terms of natural\nresources. Countries in Central Africa are members of the Economic<\/a> <\/a>Community of Central African States<\/a>\n(ECCAS). Six of those states (Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the\nRepublic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon) are also members of the Economic and Monetary Community of\nCentral Africa<\/a> (CEMAC), and share a common\ncurrency, the Central African CFA franc<\/a>. The power and influence of the terrorist\norganizations in Central Africa is remarkable. They have, in a way, mapped out\nthe continent into different provinces, such as the Islamic State of Central\nAfrican Province (ISCAP), the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This\nperiod starts with a melodramatic incident in the Kampala city center. On\nTuesday, 16 November 2021, three bombs were detonated in Kampala, the political\ncapital of Uganda. A terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Central\nAfrica Province (ISCAP) claimed to have been responsible for the two separate\nsuicide attacks that killed three people and injured thirty-six. The Islamic\nState of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) affiliated with Amaq News Agency confirmed the\nnews by reporting that three fighters set out with bags loaded with explosives.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ansaru\nal-Sunnah, formerly known as Ahlussunnah Wal Jama\u2019ah and locally as al-Shabab,\nis the official name of the Salafi-Jihadists in Mozambique\u2019s Delgado Province.\nIt is distinct from the Somali terrorist organization \u2013 al-Shabab. Like its\ncounterparts operating in the Sahelian region of West Africa, in its attempt to\nestablish an Islamic state, the terrorist group has employed a violent\ninterpretation of Sharia law to justify and carry out attacks on military and\ncivilian targets. Obviously, like anywhere else, the consequences have been\ndevastating, and they were able to control a swath of land and ports in\nMocimboa da Praia through religious propaganda and exploitation of local\ngrievances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Economically,\nthe continent is also burdened with profound challenges. Most states have their\nown currencies, making trade very difficult. The trade within the continent and\namongst African states is less than 1%. In terms of inflation, the continent is\nagain facing numerous challenges. In Eastern and Southern Africa, inflation\npeaked at 19.4% in November 2022 but decelerated in July 2023 when it fell to\n15.5%, after peaking again at 20.6%in June. In addition to inflation is\nunemployment. Unemployment statistics suggest that between 2022 and 2024,\nunemployment moved from 6.62% in 2012 to 7.03 in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Apartheid was a\nsystem of institutionalized and legitimized racial segregation that existed not\nonly in South Africa but Southwest Africa, which today is known as Namibia. Dr Daniel Francis Malan, the head of the\nNational Party, was much credited with such a system. It survived from 1948 to the early 1990s when the resilient,\nindefatigable, and dogged Madiba Nelson Mandela was released from prison in\nRobben Island, where he had spent more than a quarter of a Century (27 years).\nThe system of Apartheid was characterized by an authoritarian political culture\nbased on ‘boss-hood,’ which warranted that South Africa was dominated\npolitically, socially, and economically by the nation’s minority white\npopulation. In this minoritarian system, there was social stratification, where\nwhite citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and then Black\nAfricans. Paradoxically, Black Africans were in the majority. The 30th<\/sup>\nanniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa could mean many things to\nme. Some remarkable successes (democracy) and some dismal failures (Xenophobia)\nare just a few in the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From the beginning of the end of this\nobnoxious system, the country entered what was besprinkled as the \u201crainbow\nnation.\u201d This meant the combination of whites, Indians, coloreds, and blacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The thirtieth anniversary meant\nWestern-styled democracy, which became a standard practice as the liberal\nconstitution became the watchword. Freedom of speech and action was standard. General elections were held in South Africa between 26\nand 29 April 1994. The elections were the first in which citizens of all races\nwere allowed to take part and were, therefore, also the first held with\nuniversal suffrage. It was conducted under the direction of the Independent\nElectoral Commission (IEC) and marked the culmination of the four-year process\nthat ended apartheid. Mandela became the first black President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With liberal\ndemocracy and politics on a level playing ground, the role of South Africa in\nthe Southern African region and the continent and the formation of the African\nUnion saw the heydays of its achievements. The African Union (AU) is a\ncontinental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries\nof the African Continent. It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to\nthe Organization of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999) in Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Despite the 30th<\/sup> anniversary, all\nhave not just been \u201cbeer and Skittles. As a matter of fact, the official\nunemployment rate has been alarming, with a rate of 32%, making it the highest\nin the world. Besides, more than 60% of young people between 15 and 24 fall\nwithin this unemployment bracket. While more than 16 million South Africans,\nnearly 25% of the country relies on monthly welfare grants for survival. Above\nall, South Africa is still the most unequal country in the world in terms of\nwealth distribution, according to the World Bank, with race a key factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Meanwhile, its xenophobia is not parallel to\nthat of the continent. Thus, 30 years after the end of apartheid could be\nquipped as South Africa’s Exceptionalism. South Africa plays an instrumental\nrole positively in the continent. In South Africa itself, there is liberal\ndemocracy, yet at the same time, unemployment is very high, and xenophobia hitherto\nunseen in the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \n

    I am anything but an expert on African affairs. Instead, I am an evolutionary economist and psychologist, having worked for the past 30+ years in conflict, peace, and development studies, and the last decade mainly on Forced Migration and Mass Displacement. As a matter of fact, from there, I have established various connections with different regions in Africa. Moreover, and maybe even more critically, my great-grandfather was a Dutch Boer who went to South Africa at the end of the 19th century along with two cousins. There, they built up a large farm in Oranje Vrijstaat. That was a time of big migration waves \u2018out-of-Europe\u2019 when millions had been moving since the 17th century, and later to the US, Canada, and Australia\/NZ.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Prof. Dr. Hendrik Bullens
    Eurasian National University<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    I also have good connections with several universities in South\nAfrica, Nigeria, and Tanzania, where I have been lecturing and cooperating on\nresearch projects. Finally, I have been involved in evolution and human\ndevelopment issues for as long as I can remember. And as common knowledge has\nit today, \u201cit all began in Africa<\/em>.\u201d It was primarily the\npaleo-archeologist family, the Leaky\u2019s, who discovered our oldest known,\nalready bipedal predecessor, Anthropithicus, in the Olduvay gorge – today\u2019s\nNorthern Tanzania, aka the cradle of humankind.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Among my early teachers were Nobel laureates\npaleo-anthropologist Dutch Niko Tinbergen, German Konrad Lorenz, and later in\nLondon, Jerome S. Bruner, with whom I collaborated in Man a Course of Study\n(MACOS). That was an extensive cross-cultural and evolution-based introduction\nto Psychology. But because the course started with a teaching film about the\ncommon ancestors of the Big Apes, our closest cousins, and Homo sapiens\nsapiens, Bruner (also a convinced atheist) got into much serious trouble –\nparticularly from the side of fanatic Roman Catholic and Evangelical\nfundamentalists. They massively assaulted him, and the staff often blocked and\ndamaged his Center for Cognitive Studies at Oxford and Harvard. That forced him\nto migrate to the UK, where he started working with Niko Tinbergen and his wife\nElisabeth, particularly on learning, child, and language development. There, I\nhad the privilege to join the research group whose work became the topic of my\ndoctoral thesis in psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hence, I will focus on my first-mentioned connection to Africa\nbecause of limited space. Mainly since the Arab Spring, Mass Migration and\nForced Displacement have been on the political agenda, notably since 2015, when\nmillions of refugees were fleeing from war-torn countries in the Near East,\nNorthern Africa (NEMA), Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. Most hoped to find\nrefuge in European countries, which was mainly refused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Since the mid-17th<\/sup> century, that was very\ndifferent. First, the direction of mass Mmgration was utterly reversed. <\/em>In my case, it started\nwith 10,000 plus Dutch Boeren (NL farmers) moving to Zuid Afrika, which they\nconsidered to be their colony, material property with what they could do\nwhatever they liked – though they also were \u2018pious and God-fearing Calvinists\nat the same time!  One of the main\nimpacts was the use of large-scale slavery, servitude, and other forms of\nenforced work. However, slavery already widely existed and was conducted mainly\nby Arabic, often also Islamist tribes, in all of Africa long before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In Zuid Afrika<\/em>, whole black families\nwere coerced to do backbreaking work on the colonist\u2019s palm, coffee, cotton,\nand other farms – under temperatures up to almost 40 degrees Celsius in the\nsummertime, 365 days per year. It has been estimated that from the 17th century\non until the abolishment of slavery at the end of the 19th century, more than\n30 million Africans were kidnapped or sold and sent to America\u2019s, Europe\nincluding the UK\u2019s colony of India; and that around 1\/3 of them died or were\nmurdered. It was in this barbarian environment that my ancestors were living.\nHowever, and utterly contrary to their co-Boers<\/em>, they had several black\nfamilies living on their compound. Also, contrary to the standard Boers\n(un)culture, the personnel were not considered private property but hired and,\noften, <\/em>fairly paid workers. They had between 8 and\n10 working hours, schooling for the kids, medical service, and a free Sunday.\nNot surprisingly, this was a thorn in the side of the other Blankes<\/em> (White). Hence, my\nprevious kin was being mobbed, threatened, and isolated. Ultimately, they could\nnot bear this strife any longer and returned to Holland, where they set up a\nnew farm in Brabant, my home country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let me\nresume where I ended my comment on the first question. Although, at least\nofficially, slavery, defined as enforced work, coerced marriage, human\ntrafficking, debt bondage, and sexual exploitation, was abandoned in the late\n19th century with Mauretania as the last country in 1981, in reality, it has\nnever stopped to exist. In the past decades, modern slavery has even been\ndramatically on the rise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Of\ncourse, Africa has many more severe problems, so some have called it the\n\u2018forgotten continent.\u2019 Among them are the enormous discrepancies between the\nvast natural resources exploited by neo-imperialist Western nations and their\nfew domestic sycophants on the one hand, and the enormous\nsocio-economic-political inequalities without any benefit for the native\npeople, the ongoing lethal poverty, the highest number of young child\u2019s\nmortality in the world, AIDS and other pandemics, the unintended but devastating\nconsequences of UN financial support for African Union peace operations, and so\nforth. Given the extremely little space, I will limit my comments to the\nconnection of slavery with the other severe problem of terrorism.  I will also partly link this with already\napparent consequences of climate change, scarcity of water, food, and other\nresources, violent conflicts about borders, forced mass displacement, and the\nrelations between tribalist armed violence and religion in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According\nto recent reports from IOM, UNHCR, WALK FREE, CNN, University of Nottingham,\nACCORD, and the World Bank regarding the above-asked question, 50 million<\/em> people\naround the globe suffer from this atavistic form of barbarism. That is some 20 million<\/em> more than<\/em> the\ntotal count between the 17th and 19th century. Are we talking about progress in\nculture and society? It is estimated that of the above total, around 7 million\nmen, women, and children in Africa are kept in slavery today; Africa is the\ncontinent with the highest number of forced, unpaid labor, human trafficking,\nand enslavement in the world\u2014a high number of concerns refugees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Since\nEurope is still the main continent of destination, while EU and national\ngovernments have drastically aggravated their police and military measures to\nkeep refugees out, migrating-for-survival\nroutes<\/em> have also changed.\nDifferent trajectories from Western and Central Africa go to the North.\nParticularly in Libya, a chaotic, ungoverned, terrorist-directed lost state,\nhundreds of thousands of refugees, not only women, are sold to be kept for\nunpaid labor and sexual exploitation for private profit (e.g., IOM report\n2023-24). One appalling example is Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Burkina Faso.\nHere, terrorist and other jihadist groups are not only jeopardizing refugees’\nlives but also are the main drivers of armed group violence for which they even\nforcibly recruit young domestic fighters. Mainly, Ghana is still the largest\nhub for stolen or confiscated small arms and explosives and their illicit\ncirculation. Chieftaincy by numerous tribal warlords is another driver of armed\nconflict and fatalities. They have large families they \u2018request\u2019 to collect\nfunds to buy arms. Kin often obey because they fear being \u2018victimized\u2019 or even\npunished. In this way, they provoke different ethnic groups to fight one\nanother, which also leads to more arming for self-protection. In 2024, The\nSouth African NGO ACCORD dubbed them \u2018conflictpreneurs<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Along\nwith the prolonged responses of governmental armed forces, if at all, they thus\nprevent the setting up of non-violent, peaceful ways of safe co-existence,\nsocio-economic development, and education \u2013 the basics for any way out of the\nmisery. An accompanying, hopefully promising result is the \u2018Empowering Young\nVoices\u2019 campaign by ACCORD, as said, a South Africa-based peace and conflict\nresolution NGO. They try to combine action (field) research with children\u2019s and\nyouth initiatives to fight xenophobia and other forms of intergroup violence,\nas pointed out by Osman & Kruger in 2021 and by Nyamadzawo in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In\nresponding to the third question, my answer has very little to do with my\nopinion; it is all about the objective facts, trends, changes, and resulting challenges. Since space\nis scarce, I will focus on some of the expertise I have collected from my field\nresearch and practical work on the ground. Today, the outlook for Africa is not\nbright. A vast majority, if not all, researchers, politicians, and\npractitioners on site agree that Africa, on the whole, is experiencing a\ndramatic degression if not a vital relapse. That also begs whether it will ever\nbe possible to reverse this situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The situation was completely\ndifferent, even reversed after the end of WWI and notably after WWII. Those\nwere the times of national liberation upheavals and independence wars entailing\nhigh hopes and grounded expectations of a better and safer future. It was the\ntime of Franz Fanon\u2019s Les Damn\u00e9s de la Terre <\/em>on the revolutions in\nNorthernAfrica; <\/em>of S\u00e9kou Tour\u00e9\u2019, the <\/em>first postcolonial\npresident of Guinea who also was, along with Senegalese L\u00e9opold S\u00e9dar Senghor\nand Aim\u00e9e C\u00e9saire<\/em> from Martinique, a co-founder of N\u00e8gritude<\/em>.\nThat was a cultural-political movement to restore the identity of Black\nAfricans, of Congolese Joseph Kasa-Vubu and murdered Patrice Lumumba, of Kwame\nNkrumah, the first Pan-African Prime Minister of independent Ghana and\nnonviolence activist \u2013 to mention just a few. However, while 1960 was often\nreferred to as \u2018The Year of Africa\u201d, 60+ years later, we now see the opposite.\nApart from the fundamental problems analyzed mentioned in the previous two\nquestions, there are many more \u2013 perhaps too many to be addressed here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My namesake and countryman, Professor\nDr. Hendrik van der Merwe, better known as H.W., was a highly influential\npolitical intellectual and peace activist during and after the years of the\nApartheid regime in South Africa. He was born in a conservative Calvinist white\nBoer<\/em> family with kinship relations to the Netherlands and Germany, the\ncountry of origin of Hendrik\u2019s wife, Elsbeth Siglinde. In the foreword to his\nautobiography \u201cPeacemaking in South Africa: A Life in Conflict Resolution<\/em>,\u201d\nit was nobody less than his friend and brother-in-arms Nelson Mandela, who\ndescribed H.W.\u2019s path towards the anti-Apartheid movement and African National\nCongres (ANC), the United Democratic Front and Afrikaaner Vrijheid Fondasie (A,\nFreedom Foundation) which he joined at a very young age. He also converted to\nthe Quaker faith, which made him a peacemaking activist. In those functions, he\nalso set up the Centre for Intergroup Sites in Cape Town, where he introduced\nthe first training courses in non-violent peace management – not only for\ninterested academics but specifically for politicians, practitioners on site,\nmostly \u2018whites-only\u2019 military, police, and other security services. Since the\n1980s, H.W. managed to bring Boer governments to meet and negotiate with their\nBlack opponents, which was an unprecedented and courageous move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Van der Merwe organized conferences\nand seminars to prepare for the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in 1994.\nThese TRCs were meant to bring surviving victims and former perpetrators\ntogether and were led by independent judges, lawyers, and civilian assessors.\nProvided the latter admitted fully and truthfully to their crimes, they were\noffered the option of being repented. I attended several TRC sessions, mainly\nin Eastern Africa, KwaZulu Natal, and Northern Mpumalanga. During these few\nsessions, I heard the most horrifying stories and gruesome experiences in my\nlife. It was primarily elderly black women who had lost husbands, children,\nother kin, or close friends \u2013 and now had to go through the torture a second\ntime. Most of them were not able to undergo this repeated torture and were\nalmost paralyzed in crying tremors, while others lost their conscience and had\nto be soothed by relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Moreover, often, one could see that\nthe pundits were openly lying, keeping things secret, twisting the truth, or\ndid not show any sign of regret. However, the surviving victims did not have\nmuch of a chance to avoid this extreme strife. It had become Mandela\u2019s\npolitical slogan: \u201cWe have no time for revenge and retaliation. We must\nreconcile at all costs!\u201d On top of that, there was a discrepancy between the\nactual number of involved perpetrators during the whole era of Apartheid and\nthe number of accused, let alone sentenced pundits. First, only crimes since\n1960 were prosecuted \u2013 while apartheid, as everybody knows, lasted much longer,\nlong before the term was coined. Secondly, while some 5,000 plus were\nprosecuted, less than 1,500 were denied pardon \u2013a negligible quantity. I have\ncalled this performance \u201ca coup de farce.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Along with many colleagues, I think\nthat Mandela\u2019s true intention was not to achieve justice through truth for the\nblack population but to demonstrate particularly to the Western world that\nApartheid  ultimately had been\n\u201cterminated by all means!\u201d This also played a crucial role in his divorce from\nhis wife Winnie Madikizela, who had accused the ex-husband of having betrayed\nthe whole anti-Apartheid movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \n

    I will base my evaluation of African postcolonial politics on experiential living and empirical observations without going into the usual academic contestations around postcolonial theory. I want to attempt a holistic analysis by avoiding the pitfall of pessimism or the toxic positivity inherent in unquestioning optimism. Since independence, Africa has been cycloning in the hurricane of multigenerational and collective trauma, which are very telling in our political, cultural, relational, economic, and social structures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Dr. Toyin Bibitayo Ajao
    \u00ccm\u1ecd\u0301l\u1eb9\u0300 of Afrika Centre (\u00ecAfrika)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Africa has been grappling with\nneocolonialism, at best, since the mass decolonization in the 1960s. Colonial\nlegacy is still alive and well in our collective affairs and how we see\nourselves as a people. We haven\u2019t healed. We just got better at recycling our\ntrauma. To use Bell Hooks\u2019 rare insight, ‘imperialist\nwhite supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ is firmly rooted like oak trees in\nAfrica, with more intriguing superpowers such as China on the scene, not to\nmention the tenacity of Fran\u00e7afrique<\/em> on the continent. We have not been able to resist the\npathogenic seduction of African resource-takers, and we have thereby continued\nauto-piloting ourselves into survival mode by reinventing dysfunctional systems\nthat are antithetical to what we need to thrive in togetherness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In today\u2019s Africa, political violence,\nxenophobia, homophobia, tribalism, femicide, gender injustices, religious\nfundamentalism, environmental degradation, and absolute poverty flourish in\nmany countries. Our political system has not yet released itself from violent\noppression and chronic corruption to embrace Ubuntu leadership of fairness,\ncommunitarianism, and interdependence, where posthuman security, environment\nprotection, and gender justice thrive as we intentionally move towards\nsustainable sociopolitical transformation. In less than five years, we have had\nup to seven military coups in Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger. We\nhave life presidents in Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, the Republic of\nCongo, Uganda, and Eritrea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is a dire situation, and I have\nheard this excuse often, \u201cThe world isn\u2019t at peace, and Africa\u2019s problems are\nnot unique because there\u2019s much chaos going on globally. From the US’s current\nstate of democracy to the Russian-Ukrainian war and the genocidal Gaza-Israel\nconflict.\u201d Why are we not asking ourselves about taking responsibility as a\nbeacon of light in this fundamentally troubled world through Ubuntu leadership?\nUbuntu is in our DNA, but we fail to act decisively to save ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Africa must heal, body, mind, and\nheart to holistically transform our structural, cultural, and relational\nsystems by returning to the source of Ubuntu governance and leadership as\nproposed by Prof. Slyvia Tamale in \u201cDecolonisation and Afro-Feminism.<\/em>\u201d\nWe must be open to applying Sankofa’s wisdom by going back in history to\nunderstand why we disconnected from each other and nature to reclaim our\ninterconnectedness and move Africa forward holistically, inclusively, and\ninterdependently. By attuning to kujijua<\/em> or kwimenya<\/em>\n(self-knowledge), echoed by the late Peace Nobel Laureate and eco-feminist,\nProf. Wangari Maathai, in \u201cThe Challenge for Africa<\/em>,\u201d the strength in\nour diversity will shine through and reunite us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Responding to the second question, I\nbelieve the most significant political and economic issue in today\u2019s Africa is\ntapping into our collective human and natural resources to drive our ingenious\nand indigenous solutions. I cannot exemplify any country and say let\u2019s emulate\nMauritius, Rwanda, or Senegal, because we are talking about Africa, where\nprogress and transformation should be borderless and sustainable. It cannot be\none step forward and thirty backward. Take a look at a typical example: The\nGambia, which has been doing so well in its commitment to eradicating all forms\nof female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2030, is entertaining a repeal of the\nsame law protecting girls and women from genital mutilation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is a lot of leadership and human\nrights deficit to contend with across Africa. Sudan is burning, Sierra Leone is\nabout to set itself ablaze, and bigoted laws are swimming free in Uganda,\nGhana, and Nigeria’s oceans, where we are making life harder for our sexual\nminorities. Patriarchy is reinventing itself, and hardworking women have to do\na lot to prove their worth. Gender-based violence against womxn<\/em> (women)\nand sexual minorities is unabated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Our political economy has not yet left\nthe ICU because freedom is development, and colossal distrust remains among\nmany African nations. Our borders are still porous for small arms and weapons,\nyet unopened to free trade or genuinely supportive of free movement. Our\ntraumas are borderless, but our solutions are barricaded. The Bretton Woods\nInstitutions got us by the balls because we are still not free from dead aid\nthat Dr Dambisa Moyo called us to ditch. We are rich yet poor, and climate\nchange’s devastating effects are looming. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Worsening security, leadership\ndeficit, and questionable commitment to human rights are heightening the\nchallenges faced in Africa. Unlike popular opinion, which often defers to the\nWest coming to our rescue, I say we need to go to our rescue. When I take a\nlook at the Mo Ibrahim Index, I would like to see all African countries\nimproving upwardly and decisively, and not six bouncing back, 11 increasingly\nimproving, five slowly improving, and 23 increasingly deteriorating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Africa is highly resourced in natural\nand human capacities, yet we look outside for help. We need to rise and\ncollectively address the foundational flaws keeping us in this vicious cycle. A\ncritical consciousness approach to leadership and governance will allow us to\nembark on visceral healing and Ubuntu leadership to do right by ourselves. We\ncan\u2019t be starting over every few years to treat the symptoms of curable\ndiseases. We have to nip it in the bud once and for all through our collective\nactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Showing up in the world through\ncollaboration and partnership is far wiser than surrendering our agency to\nthose giving us crumbs. We are surrounded by untold and untapped abundance\nwithin, and to borrow a sage insight from the late African literary giant\nBiyanvanga Wainaina, we are failing to see that we are possible from the\nbeginning. We have to be ready to practice the Ubuntu economy and politics for\nour collective well-being. It is high time we did away with excuses and stepped\nfully into the required responsibility needed to transform our continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On the one hand, the 30th anniversary\nof the end of apartheid in South Africa means freedom, agency, and progress to\nme. On the other hand, it gets me to introspect about what has not changed\nbecause it seems the more things change, the more they remain the same. To\nquote the amazing Audre Lorde, \u201c\u2026the master’s tool will\nnever dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us\ntemporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring\nabout genuine change.\u201d The political psyche and structure in South Africa is an\napartheid tool. The anti-apartheid activists turned politicians in contemporary\nSouth Africa haven\u2019t healed, and they are themselves consciously or\nunconsciously perpetrating oppressiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It means that while institutionalized\napartheid might have been dismantled, there is still mental, emotional, and\nspiritual segregation to contend with. It speaks again to the healing justice\nthat is needed after years of traumatizing intergenerational and collective\nabuse because it is within the same dysfunctional system that Blackness<\/em>\nascended to power from Whiteness<\/em>. So, what is driving the black\nconsciousness that is trapped in self-hatred and transferred aggression? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Similar symptoms are observed in many\npostcolonial African countries that had become independent decades before South\nAfrica was free from apartheid. Intergenerational and collective traumas are\nthe big elephant in the brain. If otherwise, South Africa should exemplify a\nhappy country with the born-free generation thriving and enjoying all\npossibilities, with open arms extended to their siblings across Africa. It\nshould also translate to the older generations relaxing and reaping the fruits\nof their labor, but that is hardly the case. The post-apartheid South Africa\nhas had its share of sociopolitical, cultural, and economic problems. The\n#FeeMustFall, #RhodesMustFall, and #TheTotalShutdown protests and xenophobia\nincidents or Afrophobia, as provoked by Dr. Godwin Murungi, mean it is not yet\nUhuru (freedom).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This 30th anniversary, to me, is an\nopportunity for the collective renegotiation of the way forward for the healing\nreparation and justice that need to happen through Sankofa and kujijua <\/em>wisdom\nto usher in Ubuntu leadership in South Africa and, by extension, every African\ncountry. Many South Africans have expressed misgivings about Madiba\u2019s\nleadership style and stance on peace and forgiveness during the post-apartheid\ntruth and reconciliation. The restorative justice approach seemed to have\nmissed the vicarious trauma associated with what every citizen has witnessed,\nseen, heard, or endured. It also appears that constructive change processes for\nintergenerational and collective healing were not adequately planned or\nprioritized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With what went down in\nSouth Africa, collective and multigenerational healing has to be prioritized\nand institutionalized to holistically transform structural and social\nrelationships, especially the intra and interpersonal dynamics of apartheid\ntrauma on people’s psyche, body, and heart. There is no expiration date for the\nrestorative healing needed to transform intergenerational and collective\ntrauma, which are chronically manifesting in the political, economic, and\nsocial systems of contemporary South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What I am hoping for is\nthat this 30th anniversary becomes an opportunity for healing souldarity (this\nis a deliberate spelling) to collectively embrace restorative healing in every\nfacet of the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural structures through Ubuntu\nleadership that is attuned, compassionate, just, inclusive and interdependent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Professor Satang Nabaneh
    University of Dayton School of Law
    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    The rise of regional economic blocs, such as the African Union (AU) and various free trade agreements, has been a significant development, reflecting the continent\u2019s collective efforts to harness its economic potential and integrate more deeply into the global economy. For instance, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises to create the world\u2019s largest single market, potentially transforming the landscape of intra-African trade and investment. However, the postcolonial journey in Africa has been challenging. Political instability, ethnic tensions, corruption, and the uneven distribution of resources continue to plague many countries, hindering sustainable development and fully realizing the continent\u2019s aspirations. The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, underscoring the need for more resilient and responsive governance structures. Overall, postcolonial African politics have been complex and marked by progress and setbacks. While there have been significant turning points and achievements, the continent\u2019s journey toward inclusive development, democratic consolidation, and regional integration remains a work in progress, requiring continued commitment, innovation, and collaborative efforts from African leaders, civil society, and the international community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Africa\u2019s population is the youngest in the\nworld and growing. According to a recent New York Times article, \u201cThe World is\nBecoming More Africa,\u201d by 2050, one in four people on the planet will be\nAfrican. As I previously discussed, this era is transforming many African\ncountries and radically reshaping their relationship with the rest of the\nworld. Colonialism, slavery, and imperialism have deeply impacted Africa\nand its diaspora. Communities of African descent across the globe live under\nstructural discrimination and bear the scars of poverty, underdevelopment,\nsocial exclusion, and economic disparities. These historical processes have\ninfluenced how Africa and its people are perceived and positioned within\nracialized, capitalistic systems and structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The African\ncontinent faces many pressing political and economic issues that\nsignificantly affect its future development and prosperity. Some of the most\nsignificant challenges include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n