POLITICS: Charting A New Future For The People Of African Descent

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, May 27 1999 (IPS) - So committed were some of the youth who attended the 3rd International African People’s Conference that several paid their own way.

Olalekan Rafiu Ayodele-Oja, a young Nigerian academic, for example, spent about 1,500 US Dollars, a fortune in Nigeria, on air ticket and other expenses to participate in the conference held in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Bulawayo on May 21-25.

His colleagues from Uganda, Botswana and the United States also paid their ways to the conference. So did the about 150 other delegates, mostly students, from around Zimbabwe.

“I had to fight hard in order to get to Bulawayo,” says Rosemary Kyarimpa from Uganda.

The conference was organised by the School of African Awareness (SAA), a non-governmental group which seeks to spread the philosophy of Pan-Africanism among Africa’s youth.

“The SAA takes pride in being African and in promoting self- esteem among people of African descent,” says Sabelo Sibanda, the founder and chairman of the Bulawayo-based organisation.

“Its ideology emphasises the concept of self-reliance as a means to uplift African people worldwide,” Sibanda adds.

Since the SAA’s first conference in 1997, delegates have been accommodated by “sympathetic and friendly” families in their homes in Bulawayo.

The fledgling organisation, with a membership of more than 1,000 in Africa and in the diaspora, has so far shunned donor funding in an attempt to stick to its own agenda.

“When you accept money from the donors, at the end of the day you find yourself running other people’s agenda,” Sibanda says.

“We don’t want money with strings attached,” he says, adding that nothing will sway him from not accepting donor funding, especially from the West.

SAA has managed to build up a network of supporters among businessmen and others in the Bulawayo community who eagerly lend the youth a hand.

“We got discount accommodation and discount transport services from sympathetic business people and friends,” says Samsom Mambazo, a member of SAA.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Consolidating What Unites – Overcoming What Divides’.

“Failure to work in unison will again see Africa being the hunting ground of the exploiters, with the African people themselves being used to assist the hunters with no benefits whatsoever for themselves and Africa,” Sibanda says.

This year’s conference discussed the achievements of African people and Africa’s position on the world stage. The continent’s achievements, SAA says, have continued to be eclipsed by the images of poverty, civil strife and diseases.

“Despite our contributions to human civilisation,” Sibanda says, “Africans have sadly been wiped out of the history books.”

“We have become beggars and begging has become synonymous with Africa and its people,” he laments.

During the conference, school children recited poems, read essays and performed plays urging Black people to come together and face the challenges of the 21 century.

SAA, which seeks to forge unity among Black people in Africa and in the diaspora, is demanding that African leaders adopt a school curriculum based on Black culture, tradition and history.

The SAA spends most of its time raising funds for AIDs orphans and old people’s homes, and also holding lectures and organising debates on the revival of African culture and history.

It is currently engaged in establishing branches around Africa, the United States, the Carribean, Europe and the Middle East to continue with its crusade.

In 2000, the organisations plans to hold a Global African People’s Convention (GAPC), which will include a book launch where African authors will be encouraged to market their works, says Sibanda.

“There will also be a colloquium, bringing together African academics to discuss subjects on Africa and Africans. Also planned are live performances, a march, art exhibitions, a film festival and a bazaar,” he adds.

To ensure the smooth running of next year’s conference, Ayodele-oja urged the SAA to re-think its donor policy. “It’s almost impossible to do anything without donor funds,” he says, adding that, “I don’t know how I am going to raise that kind of money to enable me to come to Zimbabwe again next year.”

But Sibanda says the organisation will find its own means to raise the “right” type of funding. “If it becomes necessary that we should accept a donation, we should do it in such a way that it will not compromise out work,” he says.