Renascent Africa

Many times I am asked how I came up with the concept of Reinventing Africa. Many people assume that my quest is to literally change the geographical make of the continent. However, when I use this term, I am communicating a desire to transform the misconceptions that foreigners have held about the continent, its people, and its capabilities. This term also refers to my desire to develop Africa. But no matter how much I try to explain the vision that I hold in the use of this term, I can not.
While reading Renascent Africa by Nnamdi Azikiwe, in his preface I came across a series of passages, that exemplified my vision and I think he is able to explain it better than I am. However, it is sad that though his book was published in 1968 at the brink of independence for most countries, almost 40 years later, the same vision is still applicable...

Today the continent of Africa is the focal point of European territorial ambitions.
France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain have colonial possessions in Africa. They are among the “have” nations.
There are other States which have no colonial possessions in Africa. They are among the “have not” nations.
A clash between the two groups is inevitable.
Amidst these conflicting ambitions of Europe for territorial expansion in Africa is the human factor- the fate of indigenous black Africans who dwell on this continent.
They constitute an extraneous element, so far as European imperialism is concerned. Their raw material mean more to Europe than their existence to enjoy the fullest of life, as do the Europeans, on their own continent, respectively. Their man-power seems only valuable for the machinery of European imperialism and militarism.
That the indigenous black Africans are not destined to accept the old idea of imperialism as revealed law handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai; that the twentieth-century African is bound to be renascent; and that this Renascent African must be reckoned with as a concrescent factor in the peace of the world, is the theme of this book.
In view of the revolutionary concept of Africa and Africans, some terminologies employed in this book deserve clarification:
Old Africa refers to the Africa of yesterday
Renascent Africa refers to the Africa of today
New Africa refers to the Africa of tomorrow
African refers to any indigenous black person
The Renascent African exists in a transitional stage between the Old and the New Africans. He refuses to view his future passively. He is articulate. He is destined to usher forth the New Africa.
To avoid ambiguity, it is necessary to explain what is meant by the New Africa.
Naturally, the continent of Africa cannot be reshaped. Geophysical phenomena were responsible for its fixity, etc. It is, therefore, beyond human power to change the physical map of Africa.
The term is used in a psycho-social sense. It is the renascence of Africans and the reformation of African society.
In Africa, outside of the immoral contributions made by the ancestors of the African, in antiquity- when Ethiopia was at the height of its majesty- and their forebears, during medieval times- when Songhay was in its splendour- African society has remained stagnant.
The slave trade and some of the evils of imperialism have helped to perpetuate the static condition of Africans. These offer a challenge- that the New Africa must come to pass.
The philosophy of the New Africa hinges itself on five bases. These are indispensable to its realization.
1. Spiritual Balance must be cultivated by Renascent African. This means respect for the views of others. Difference of opinion should not destroy friendship. In the Old Africa, difference of opinions intensified the wide gap between the various sections of the communities. Voltaire said that although he might disagree with his opponents, yet their right to state their opinion must be conceded, even if it cost his death in so doing. It means that the feelings of others must be taken into consideration, and that no ulterior motives should influence one’s criticism of others.
2. Social Regeneration must be experienced in African society. African conventions cannot be said to be consistent with what is ethical, just, and equitable. African society must be democratic. The ills of the present social order hinge on the continuation of the forces of man’s inhumanity to man. Let the Renascent African take upon himself the burden of looking at his fellow African as a man, nothing more, nothing less. Tribal appellations cause tribal idiosyncrasies; these lead ultimately to vanity and superciliousness and disharmony.
A regenerated social order must come. Fanti or Gar, Temne or Mende, Yoruba or Ibo, Bantu or Touareg, Bubi or Hausa, Jolloff or Kru- all are Africans- all are human beings.
3. Economic Determinism must be the basis of African economic thought. The quest for food, shelter, and clothing has been the primal motive in the establishment of society. It was responsible for the formulation of the social and political institutions of society. It is still the determinant factor in African contemporary history.
The Renascent African cannot create a new social order without an economic foundation. No longer must wealth be concentrated in the hands of the few. No longer must the profit motive guide and control the aims in life of the African. No longer must the wage-earners be told of dignity that does not seem to exist in labour.
Let the Renascent African make tomorrow secure for posterity, and a milestone is reached toward African economic interdependence with the rest of the world.
4. Mental Emancipation is necessary in order to crystallize the New Africa. This includes education of the sort which should teach African youth to have faith in his ability: to believe that he is the equal of the people of other races of mankind- mentally and physically; to look at no man as his superior simply because that man comes from the Antartic or Artic regions. It means that the Renascent African must be rid of the inferiority complex and all the trappings of hat-in-hand Uncle Tomism.
Educate the Renascent African to be a man. Tell him that he has made definite contributions to history. Educate him to appreciate the fact that iron was discovered by Africans; that the conception of one God was initiated by Africans; that Africans ruled the world from 763 to 713 BC; that while Europe slumbered during “the dark ages” a great civilization flourished on the banks of the Niger, extending from the salt mines of Terghazza in Morocco, to Lake Chad, right to the Atlantic. Narrate to him the lore of Ethiopia, of Ghana, Melle, Mellestine, Songhay.
Let him relish with the rest of the world that while Oxford and Cambridge were in their inchoate stages, the University of Sankore in Timbuctoo welcomed “Scholars and learned men from all over the Moslem world”, as Sir Percy puts it
The Renascent African will be better off with men and women who are trained to appreciate these facts of African history, than with those who spend a lifetime in Europe or America, for purposes of mis-education and devaluation of African culture and civilization
5. National Risorgimento is inevitable. When the Renascent African has cultivated spiritual balance, regenerated his society, planned his society economically, and has experienced mental emancipation, his political status cannot be in doubt. It is from within that the element of national greatness springs.
Let Renascent Africans usher in a New Africa, and Africans of tomorrow need not continue to be in political servitude. The forces of nationalism are automatic, especially when factors leading to them are intelligently directed. The right of self-determination is a phenomenon which defies human ingenuity.
Forces which were responsible for the birth, growth, and decay of Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylo-Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome will determine the fate of the West, the East, and Africa.