SUSTAINING THE NEW WAVE OF PAN-AFRICANISM

CALL FOR PAPERS

THE PANAFSTRAG/NHC/PACON/NYCN WORKSHOP IN WINDHOEK,NAMIBIA, 7-9 DECEMBER 2010

The Pan-African idea and movement grew out of the desire of the Africans to rediscover and recover their identity and heritage and to fight for their liberation from colonialism and racism, thereby restoring their dignity as a people of equal standing with other people in the world. Pan-Africanism is part of a historical process, reflecting particular material conditions.

The Africans emerged into the modern era from African civilisations, through slavery to political emancipation, which provides a platform to address the outstanding issues of their dignity, one of which is cultural rediscovery. The other is the effective control of the economic destiny, by way of agriculture, technology, education, industrialisation and innovation, to create self-sustaining development within the framework of Pan-African unity.

In this trajectory the Pan-African Congress (PAC) series starting in 1900, lead to the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), bringing us to the 8^th PAC today. Resolutions and papers, representing benchmarks in this historical  process should be accessed from the website of the National Youth Council of Namibia (NYCN)  www.youthcouncil-namibia.org one of the partners in the convening of the Workshop 7 - 9 December 2010 in Windhoek, Namibia.

This Workshop convened by the Pan-African Strategic and Policy Research Group (PANAFSTRAG), Lagos, Nigeria, the Nigerian High Commission in Namibia (NHC) Windhoek, the Pan-Afrikan Centre of Namibia (PACON) and the National Youth Council of Namibia (NYCN), will focus on five programmatic themes :-

·         The Pan-Afrikan Centre of Namibia (PACON), as a role model for Africans ( see  NYCN website )

·         The Pan-African Congresses and their outcomes, their place in the Pan-African trajectory (see NYCN website )

·         The Second World Black and African Festival  of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77) and its outcomes, held Lagos and Kaduna, Nigeria In 1977 (see NYCN website )

·         ‘ Keeping our eyes on the ball (2)’, being a paper, towards the convening of the 8 the PAC (see NYCN website ) and

·         The attainment of economic self-sufficiency within the framework of Pan-African national  unity.

Apart from the resource materials available at the NYCN website all invited to present papers by the Convenors of this Workshop, may address  bfbankie@gmail.com  for any further information they might require.

Abstracts of no more than  200   words related to the five above-mentioned themes should be sent to   bfbankie@gmail.com  not later than the 21^st October 2010. The presenters of those Abstracts which are accepted should submit the first draft of their papers, being approximately  4000  words or more, by the 21^st November 2011. By the 26^th November those who have submitted papers will be informed if those papers are accepted and, where necessary, they should collect their return air tickets for Windhoek, Namibia.

THE PROCEEDINGS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN BOOK FORM

PACON

WHY

Africans have undergone many years of

underdevelopment and the need exists for

the restoration of our dignity, self-respect,

and humane-ness. Pan Afrikanism is one

of the ways to emphasize the role of

Africans as pre-eminent players in own and

global development, more so than is

presently the case. Empowerment in all

spheres and on all levels of human

development of Africans by themselves, and

in control of the process, is a sine qua

non for the attainment of freedom of the

African man, woman and child.

WHERE TO

PACON will engage in the building up of

organizational structures and activities in

order to ensure the socio-economic and

cultural development of Africans. The

process of empowerment is envisaged

through the harnessing of all our

intellectual, material, spiritual and

emotional resources.

WHAT

The main goals of PACON are:

• Research

• Information dissemination and

documentation

• Culture development

• Networking

HOW

• to research problems curtailing the

socio-economic and political

advancement of people in Namibia.

Africa and the Diaspora

• to determine and undertake the

supervision, coordination and

management of research work

• to provide scope for the acquisition of

research and project implimentation

skills for African academics and

experts

• to accord the status of Associates of

the Centre to selected researchers

involved in research projects

networked and coordinated by the

Centre

• to grant fellowships to individual

researchers when funds are available

and the Centre deems it fit to accord such status

• to avail scholarships to young and old

who are willing to do research at the

Centre as part of under and

postgraduate studies or for other

purposes

• to build up research  databases for

especially young people (unemployed

youth. learners from secondary schools as well

as students at other secondary and tertiary

institutions)

• to develop specialist resarch capacity, in areas

like oral. history, oral knowledge, literature,

languages, medicines, spirituality, tradition and

the like on audio --visual tapes

• to specialize in research on policies, education

 matters, socio-economic issues, political affairs

And cultural dimensions, history and to produce

knowledge on urgent issues as they may arise

Information, dissemination and documentation

To provide literature on African history, politics

philosophy, culture, etc,etc in the form of visual, audio

visual, material (eg printed )and other mediums

to develop bibliographies on African knowledge and to

provide study opportunities in African culture, orgology

(invention), economic, religion, politics and so forth

Cultural development

To promote and develop African spiritual culture,

inter alia in the areas of dance, music, theatre,

visual art, crafts, design and written and oral

literature

To preserve and enhance the cultural and natural

heritage, especially in the areas of archaeology,

paleontology,rock art, environment, cultural industries,

cultural tourism, customs, traditions and languages

to encourage a policy of unity in diversity, with special

emphasis on nation building and self reliance

to discourage the retrogressive aspects of African culture

to assist community upliftment projects like literacy, HIV/Aids,

music, cinema and public lectures...MORE

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