by Bengi Rwabuhemba, junior, Northwestern University
The Pan-African Youth Conference (PAYC) is a student-led initiative that was conceived by students at the University of Notre Dame three years ago with a vision of mobilizing a critical mass of socially and politically conscious young Africans from across the world committed to Africa’s liberation. This vision was informed by the understanding that African unity is vital for Africa’s political, economic, and social emancipation from the unequal global system that currently obtains. Through this system, the
continent has historically existed as an appendage; forcefully prevented to think, act, and be for herself and conscripted into a world order that has never been of her own choosing. Although independence was gained, the promise of decolonization – that is, the complete reconfiguration of the world order – still remains unattained. Therefore, PAYC was founded with the intention to have young people realize the historical obligation they have, like generations before them, to advance the struggle for decolonization.
In his keynote address at the inauguration of the PAYC last year, Dr. Achille Mbembe called on the ninety participants from all over the world to grapple with this historical calling, saying, “The old question remains: what would be an alternative model of “development” which would allow us to keep with us the best of our people, the best of what we produce, which would help to foster Africa’s rise, historical rise, its capacity to stand on its own two feet and to negotiate with the world as an equal power.
That question is still with us and we haven’t been able so far to solve it.” Responding to this clarion call, this year’s organizers of the PAYC sought to problematize modernity as a paradigm of development that has been imposed on post-colonial countries, negatively influencing their political, economic, and social trajectories. By asking, “Which Way, Africa?,” the theme of this year’s Conference, participants were forced to reckon with what it would mean to continue trudging forward with the current form of
development vis-à-vis modernity or to configure an alternative model premised on Africa’s emancipation.
Swahili for Enlightenment, Tangaaza embodied the creativity and courage required to respond to this question. Formed in the spirit of sustaining the connections and conversations that emerged during the inauguration of the PAYC, Tangaaza was designed as a five-part series of public lectures with the intention of bringing together prospective participants to analyze key aspects of the theme: modernity and nationalism. In order for the Conference to explore the state of contemporary Africa and possibilities for its futurity, we knew that it was essential for participants to understand how post-colonial Africa came to
be. The twin forces of modernity and nationalism were centered as critical factors that were operationalized by Africa’s independence leaders in the struggle for independence and that continue to contribute to the current configuration of the cultural, political, and economic terrain of Africa.
Nationalism was used as an ideological tool to mobilize Africans against the colonial state, whereas modernity was forwarded as the vision of development, the promise of independence. Working in unison to shape postcolonial Africa, these forces were therefore worth disentangling. Political scientist at the University of Cape Town, revolutionary thinker, and cherished interlocutor to PAYC organizers, Dr. Lwazi Lushaba inaugurated the Tangaaza series with introductory lectures on “Nationalism” and “Modernity” consecutively. These were designed to lay the foundation by orienting participants on the origins and implications of these political processes. On Saturday mornings, afternoons, and evenings in different parts of the world, young people gathered to hear Dr. Lushaba unpack these concepts with ingenuity and charisma. Introducing the Tangaaza series, he begun by posing the question, “What would it entail to train our intellectual senses as young people so that we are better
able to recognize the problems of the colonial present?” Repeated throughout his two lectures, this On Vigilance question figured as an incisive call to sharpen our sensibilities to better perceive the structured reproduction of coloniality in Africa that keeps the continent bound. As decolonial strategy, Dr. Lushaba’s continued call for vigilance is what I found most powerful in keeping us attuned to the emergent forces that seek to forestall true liberation.
Dissecting nationalism, Dr. Lushaba assigned the text, “Nationalism as a Problem in the History of Ideas,” by the Indian political theorist and post-colonial scholar, Partha Chatterjee. Valuably, Chatterjee’s perceptiveness to the contradictions of post-colonial nation-state building evidenced the vigilance Dr. Lushaba encouraged us to take up. The central thesis of Dr. Lushaba’s opening lecture was that the adoption of nationalism in post-colonial Africa enlisted the continent in a modern regime of political and economic organization that was not of its own making. Emerging in Europe during the modern age of industrialism, the nation became necessary as a form of socioeconomic, and only eventually, sociocultural organization. Therefore, in order to facilitate modern economic development, the resultant imagined community constitutive of the nation was carefully constructed, reproduced, and upheld by what came to be the sovereign state – also an idea. Consequently, Dr. Lushaba concluded, the implications of adopting nationalism were never questioned by Africa’s nationalist movements. Through it, they effectively accepted that modernity was the sole medium through which African countries could develop economically, politically and socially, implicating themselves in a worldview that was never designed for them. “It thus produced a discourse,” Dr. Lushaba read from Chatterjee, “in which even as it challenged the colonial claim to political domination, it also accepted the very intellectual premises of modernity on which colonial domination was based.” Therefore, per Dr. Lushaba, nationalism in post-colonial Africa obtains as a work of mimicry fraught with contradictions.
To explore modernity, Dr. Lushaba returned the following Saturday. Tracing its origin to the Enlightenment period, he explained that modernity, like nationalism, emerged during Europe’s transition to industrialism. As an idea, it was infused with characteristics that reshaped European societies and were transplanted to other parts of the world during colonialism, reconfiguring their societies as well. Dr. Lushaba outlined how the notion of reason materialized as characteristic of modernity, and was weaponized to delineate those who are reasonable versus unreasonable; rational versus irrational; civilized versus uncivilized. Imposed on the continent, African societies were consistently positioned as the latter, Europe’s foil, and thus modernity was engineered as an object of desire worth attaining in the colonial and post-colonial world. Noting its grave implications, why was modernity taken up by Africa’s independence leaders? Why did they capitulate to this idea? More importantly, what alternatives were there and why didn’t they materialize? were questions on my mind as the lecture concluded. Dr. Lushaba responded by re-emphasizing the role that nationalism played in implicating Africa in a model of
economic progress oriented around the nation-state. He also critiqued the consciousness of some of the national elite who had been effectively re-educated to embrace modernity and failed to recognize its inherent violence. This, he recognized, we know with hindsight. Dr. Lushaba concluded both of his talks by charging us young people to “think afresh,” to consider the possibilities of developing our own paradigms of political, economic, and cultural development, and to reclaim our right to think for ourselves.
Once this foundation had been laid, Tangaaza then focused more specifically on how the twin forces of nationalism and modernity had shaped Africa’s political, economic, and cultural trajectories On Vigilance respectively. Beginning with the post-colonial political experience, Dr. David Ngendo-Tshimba was invited to speak to this. Researcher at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Dr. Ngendo assigned his forthcoming article on the evolution of Patrice Lumumba’s nationalist political thought which was a helpful case study through which Dr. Lushaba’s critiques of nationalism and modernity could be evinced.
Dr. Ngendo explained that, despite his intentions, Lumumba failed to recognize how he furthered colonial rule by failing to look beyond the nation-state as a medium of self-determination in Congo. By embracing this idea, he bound the country to a system it was never designed to benefit from; the consequences of which we see today. What was fascinating about Dr. Ngendo’s analysis of Lumumba is the development of his consciousness as a young man which was cultivated by encounters with other youthful, Pan-Africanist leaders in various conferences and roundtable discussions. Per Dr. Ngendo, Lumumba’s thought evolved to become more alert to the colonial scheming taking place in his country. This embodied vigilance forced him to question before he declared, to critique before he imposed, and, especially, to think for himself.
The following weekend, participants gathered for the fourth Tangaaza session on how nationalism and modernity have shaped Africa’s post-colonial, economic trajectory. Led by the South African economic historian, Dr. Johan Fourie, this lecture focused on Africa’s experience with neoliberalism, the failure of industrialization and the promise of services as an opportunity to create jobs on the continent. Dr. Fourie started by tracing the major schools of thought in the discipline of Development Economics and African Economic History in particular. He then discussed the challenges and failures of the state-led industrialization programs in post-independence Africa, highlighting the limitations of small market size on the industrialization aspirations. This was followed by a discussion of the debt crisis that rocked the developing world in the 1980s and Africa’s experience of it. In particular, Dr. Fourie underscored the need for structural reforms that were necessary to fix the damage that the activist state had occasioned on economies in Africa. Against the wave of critical scholarship on the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), Dr. Fourie highlighted the revived growth rates in the aftermath of the SAPs, citing the examples of countries such as Ethiopia and Rwanda that have registered some of the highest rates of economic development in the world embracing the model of developmental states. Dr. Fourie advocated for a shift in focus away from industrialization because of Africa’s comparative disadvantage in labor costs and cost of doing business and an embrace of the service sector in order to create jobs for Africa’s burgeoning youthful population.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the final Tangaaza session which would have been an exploration of the effects of nationalism and modernity on Africa never took place. Still, the seeds of vigilance had been sown. As the four weeks of intense public lectures progressed, a veil was slowly lifted and participants began to ask what alternatives could be actualized to finally ensure Africa’s development. Indirectly, they were posing the question, “Which Way, Africa?”; the theme of the Conference which was three weeks away. Vigilant, we were ready to begin.
Eternal gratitude to the organizers of the Pan-African Youth Conference who worked tirelessly to ensure that both Tangaaza and the Conference were a success and the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University who sponsored Tangaaza (and PAYC) and provided opportunities for students to take initiative and lead the series. Financial sponsorship from The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Middle East and North African studies program at Northwestern University and the Kellogg Institute, Glynn Family Honors Program, and African Students Association at the University of Notre Dame also
made this possible and we are so thankful. Visit the Tangaaza series here on the PAS Youtube channel.