According to Wikipedia AFRICAN RENAISSANCE is "a concept popularized by South African president Thabo Mbeki in which the African people and nations are called upon to solve the many problems troubling the African continent."
Two years ago I was in high school in Connecticut and I was one of about twenty black students out of six hundred, and the only African student at the school. So, you can imagine how excited I was when one of the teachers invited me to have dinner with his Ivorian friend who he was friends with. The excitement was out of the relief at the fact that I wouldn't have to explain every detail about myself such as how come I speak good English although I am a Motswana. Or so I thought.
Dinner time came and about five people were there altogether. Naturally, at some point the group conversation touched on Africa, and many questions were asked by the non-African people in the room. The questions ranged from what people do for Christmas to totems, in our respective countries. As I listened to the Ivorian girl speak I realized that she and I had different views of the continent and what it does and should stand for. She spoke of hopelessly inept youth who turn trigger-happy due to boredom, greedy leaders who embezzle government funds, the "uncivilized" nature of Africans responsible for AIDS spread. It was clear that she had decided to put the African part of her identity behind her. She looked down on everything African, she had given herself an American name and swore never to set foot on African soil.
She spoke of how Africans will never have appreciation for the beauty of their beaches, that Africans use them as dump sites. At that juncture I added that although I am not West African and have never been there, I don't think such a strong and negative generalization can be used to answer questions from people who know nothing about the continent of Africa. I was adamant that there are many positive things about Africa that don't get the airplay they deserve and used the richness of African cultures and excellent African literature as examples. She spoke of how African culture is barbarism and gave Rwandan genocide as an example. Everyone but I was amused. I realized that our accounts were bound to be different by virtue of where in Africa we had lived, and our individual experiences. I also realized she might have left Ivory Coast for reasons considerably different from the ones I left Botswana, and that there is usually an element of truth in stereotypes, this incident made me ask myself a lot of questions.
But considering how cross we get for Western media's portrayal of Africa (e.g. NY Times front pages), if we are to contribute to African Renaissance, how do we as Africans talk about Africa to people who know nothing of the continent? How do we avoid perpetuating stereotypes and still speak of the negatives that exist on the continent just like any other?
I began to wonder if there is any way we are to speak of the continent as Africans when trying to impart our cultures to other people. It is no use moping about the effects of colonization on our inferiority complex as Africans. Obviously I would realize that not all Ivorians would share that girl's sentiments, but would the rest of the non-African world? It seems to me that together with an economic revolution and such, Africa is desperate for a mind-revolution so that even when we speak of unflattering realities in Africa we do not shoot down our integrity and dignity as if to say that the like of Lumumba and Biko died in vain.
With this I wish everyone a happy 2007 and look forward to your responses.
