File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2000/postcolonial.0006, message 98


Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 13:53:54 -0500
From: Oyekan Owomoyela <owomoyel-AT-ghana.com>
Subject: Re: Soyinka Says Millennium For Africa Project Be People-Driven


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It is somewhat wearying, certainly tiresome, to keep hearing (or reading) the
wisdom that Africans must start taking responsibility for their condition
instead of blaming others. The charge would make far more sense than it does if
"others" have ceased manipulating Africa's and Africans' fate with disastrous
effects. One wonders, also, what the complaint that the rest of the world (alias
First World) does not regard us as human beings amounts to, and what the
implications of its refusal to accord us the recognition amount to.

In my view, saying we must not complain about external manipulations but blame
ourselves smacks of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Oyekan Owomoyela

Muhammad Deeb wrote:

> Soyinka Says Millennium For Africa Project Be People-Driven
> June 20, 2000
>
> DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - Any effort to develop Africa must take the realities
> of the continent into consideration, Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka
> has said.
>
> Observing that most of the Pan-African movements and action plans conceived
> by governments over the years failed to produce results, he said they were
> not people-driven.
>
> Soyinka was speaking Monday at a news conference in Dakar ahead of the
> second meeting of the Commission of the Millennium for Africa Project, which
> opens in the Senegalese capital Tuesday.
>
> He said the ideology of the new initiative must be based on the material,
> cultural and ethnic realities of the continent.
>
> "It requires reinventing previous initiatives with greater emphasis on the
> people," he added, stressing that part of the problems facing African today
> arise from the wide gap between its leaders and the genuine aspirations of
> their people.
>
> Africans, Soyinka said, must accept responsibility for their condition and
> try to improve their lot instead of perpetually pointing accusing fingers on
> external factors.
>
> >From the philosophical perspective, Soyinka said, "the rest of the world
> refuses to make reparations for the wrongs done to Africa simply because
> they do not accept us as a part of the human race."
>
> The Millennium for Africa project was initiated by Albert Tevoedjre of
> Benin, who chairs the commission, with the support of UN Secretary General
> Kofi Annan in 1988.
>
> It aims at getting eminent Africans in all walks of life to reflect on the
> major economic, social, cultural, scientific and political challenges facing
> the continent.
>
> This would be factored into a general mobilisation of all segments of the
> society, and the implementation of programmes that would pull the continent
> out of the morass in which it finds itself presently.
>
> Tevoedjre said the 28 independent personalities on the commission would make
> proposals based on their findings to the OAU summit in Lome, Togo, in July
> as well as to the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
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