African Renaissance and the revitalization of the public sphere

Abstract

The ideas expressed in this review were triggered by the African Renaissance symposium hosted by Sankofa Centre for the African Renaissance 26-29 March 1999. The Symposium was aimed amongst other things, to foster a cross fertilisation of ideas involving artists, poets, dancers, community leaders, the business community and intellectuals. Build-up to the symposium The climate to the symposium was built by predominantly traditional Zulu dance at the Durban Playhouse. This endeavour set the tone for the renewal of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, in particular, and the recovery of lost traditions of the Zulu people. This was manifested by the speeches which alluded to Shaka's era. Introduction Since Thabo Mbeki's speech am an African, African renaissance has proved to be a bizarre word in South African circles. This was shown by various gatherings held to promote this idea. When Sankofa made calls for this gathering, one took it be the continuation of the Johannesburg 1998 event, perhaps more inclusive than the intellectual and academic nature of the one held in Johannesburg. The inclusivity of the Symposium was evidenced by the presence of traditional poets, and dancers from rural areas, active participation of women from various sectors of the community. This prompted one to perceive the whole notion of the African renaissance as another kind of public sphere where the community participates. My conception of the notion of public sphere is inherited from Jurgen Habermas, who viewed the public sphere as that realm of social life where the exchange of information and views on questions of common can take place so that public opinion can be formed. It takes place, continues Habermas, when citizens gather as public bodies to discuss issues of the day, especially those of political concern (quoted in Dahlgren 1995:7). This results in collective decision-making. The presence of astute political leaders such as Thabo Mbeki, S'bu Ndebele and Jacob Zuma as political leaders, and, the presence of women qualifies this symposium to be a real political gathering. Central to the public sphere is the essence of talk--a symbol of participation which the idea of African renaissance seems to be all about. In this brief essay, I want to create a relationship between African Renaissance idea and the public sphere from the ideas gathered at the Sankofa symposium. Two trajectories of African renaissance What emerged during the symposium was the two trajectories of the concept of African renaissance. Though my focus will be the second trajectory, a brief look will be made to the first one and how it implicates the public sphere as a forum of interaction. 1. The first one essentially traditional, emerges out of the tone set the by the cultural function. This was advocated by the organisers of the event namely, Prof. P. Ntuli and Sbu' Ndebele. Throughout the symposium Ntuli emphasised the importance of colour black. `The return to the black gods. He asked the question: what is valuable in Africa that needs rebirth. According to him, African tools (technology). In this regard, the case of the Japanese was used as an example. In my view, Prof. Ntuli seems to ignore one thing: South Africa like the rest of Africa has many nationalities and cultures. As a result, it becomes difficult for one to talk about a homogenous African culture.. This is of course different from the Japanese situation- Japanese culture. Further more, culture is not static, but keeps on changing as it comes into contact with foreign external forces. While advocating for a pan-Africanist approach to African renaissance, Ntuli kept on quoting from European scholars, an irony on the side of the aspirant scholar advocating Africanism. This of course indicates that the definition of African renaissance cannot be bottled up in traditions and boundaries, but have to be understood as an interactive process. Ntuli's essentialist approach was confirmed by one of the commissions on Core courses for the African renaissance. …