SRDC/PADU GROUNDINGS WITH THE PAN AFRICAN COMMUNITY:

THE PAN AFRICAN SUMMIT IN  JOHANNESBURG,

SOUTH AFRICA, MAY 17-25, 2012

David L. Horne, Ph.D ~

  WHAT: The activities surrounding the Global African Diaspora Summit in South Africa. Actually, there was not one conference, but five, with four of them occurring simultaneously. On May 17-18, for the first conference (called a prep com workshop), 30-35 members of the Diaspora were invited to meet in Pretoria to re-visit the draft of the AU’s Programme of Action and Consolidated Outcomes for the Diaspora, a document that began in 2007, and which had been finally agreed upon by a contingent of 80 members of the Diaspora and the AU in February, 2011 at a Technical Workshop in South Africa, and by a meeting of African foreign ministers in New York in September, 2011. This May 17-18^th prep com was to further tweak and finesse the document, then turn it over to the Executive Council of the AU (the decision-making body of African foreign ministers) for further action. On May 19^th, half of the Diasporans invited to the prep com were sent back home, and the other half were given invitations to stay throughout the events of the following week.

How the decisions were arrived at of who to send home, and who to allow to stay over, is still a mystery.  There were several very important contingents of Diasporans who should have been invited, and weren’t, like the Middle East’s Afro Bedouins, Afro Palestinians, and Afro Jordanians. There were also several delegates who were invited but who had no clue what was going on and never got it throughout the 2 weeks of activities. Several delegates sent home should have stayed, based on their expertise, and several who stayed just enjoyed a vacation outing. They made little to no positive contribution to the forward progress of the AU project.

The next week, beginning on Tuesday, May 22^nd through the 23^rd, an African Science and Engineering Conference occurred in Pretoria, and several of the Diasporan guests attended. By Wednesday, May 23-24^th, another contingent of Diasporans invited to the festivities arrived at the Johannesburg airport, and the Pan African Parliament, in Midrand, a suburb of Johannesburg, discussed and debated the issue of strengthening the relationship between the African Union and the African Diaspora. A large contingent of Diasporans attended the sessions during those two days and at least 7 spoke to the gathering of 54 African countries, each with 2 representatives. The PAP was very enthusiastic about future Diasporan membership and passed a resolution and recommendation to that effect.

Also on May 23-24, the AU’s Executive Council met in Pretoria and in Sandton for those two days (along with invited Diasporans) to accept the recommendations made the previous week by the prep com attendees, and to add some of their own. At the end of the session on Thursday, May 24^th, the foreign ministers had approved the document and sent it to the South African Ministry of International Relations for preparation for the ceremonies on May 25^th.  President Zuma gave a big dinner party on May 24^th  for all the guests, and the Minister of International Relations gave one on Wednesday evening.

 In addition, during those same 2 days, the African Institute of South Africa (AISA) held an international academic conference on the topic, ‘Assessing the AU After 10 Years.’ It included a number of heavyweights, like Professor Kwesi Prah and Dr. Mammo Muchie, and the Thabo Mbeki lecture series (held on the same night as President Zuma’s dignitary party) which this year brought in 4 former African heads of state to converse with the audience—Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo, Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano, Cape Verde’s Pedro V. Pires, and Mr. Mbeki himself (with Namibia’s Sam Nujoma in the wings), who was treated like a rock star by the 5,000 plus in attendance at the University of South Africa. The event was priceless.

Then, of course, there was the splendiferous arrangement of the Global African Diaspora Summit itself on Friday, May 25^th. There were at least 1200 attendees, 12 African heads of state, 28 foreign ministers, and presidents, vice presidents or other high officials from 15 Caribbean, South American and Central American countries, including Cuba. The latter’s presence and re-inclusion in the process of Africa’s future was a very welcome highlight for a great number of us, and the Cuban Vice President gave a truly excellent speech. Some delegates had only come for just this one day.

All in all, very few of the invited African Diasporans attended events at all 4 of the simultaneous conferences. Their reports, if any, would generally reflect which one they paid attention to and whose folds they moved within. For those who did try to get to everything, they exhausted themselves and barely made their plane flights back home.

WHEN:  May 17-18^th, May 22-25^th, 2012

WHERE: Various venues in South Africa, including Pretoria, the country’s capital, Rietondale, Tshwane (Gauteng), Johannesburg, Sandton (a suburb), and Midrand (another J’burg suburb and the regular headquarters of the Pan African Parliament). Specific facilities included the Pan African Parliament Building, the Oliver R. Tambo International Conference Center, the Sammy Marks Square Conference Center, the ZK Mathews Great Hall at the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History,  the National Zoological Gardens in Tshwane, and the Sandton International Conference Center in the glittery part of Johannesburg.

WHY: To complete the AU mandate given to South Africa in 2006-2007 to host and organize events in several locations within the African Diaspora, to create a guideline document to make functional the operational relationship between the AU and the African Diaspora, and to host a Global Diaspora Summit to culminate all these activities. South Africa hosted Diaspora events in Brazil, Barbados, New York, Paris, etc. Initially scheduled for November, 2008, the postponed Global Diaspora Summit was re-scheduled for May 25, 2012. The public announcement about the AU’s overall agreement on the Programme of Action and Consolidated Outcomes document, with members of CARICOM and other Diasporans in attendance, was the reason for the May 25^th event.

SIGNIFICANCE: The ceremony on Friday was huge, and the culminating event was historic. It was one of those times you had to be there. The surrounding activities leading up to Friday’s spectacular were indeed stimulating, provocative and well-worthwhile. The document approved and announced, however, is a guideline, not a strategic plan. It includes 5 “Legacy Projects” as starting point ‘bankable’ coordinations, but those are not the first or the only viable Diasporan projects on-going or just starting in Africa—just the newest amid some fanfare.  They also require the continued large involvement of the EU, China, the IMF and the World Bank and have the feel of ‘business as usual’ loan investments and tax subsidies rather than different Diasporan-centered business and capacity building. There are no viable timelines, no sense that anything has been learned from the experiences of the current African RECs, no assignment of responsibilities for most of the pleasant sounding recommendations for future action, and no system of accountability and assessment identified for any of it. The document also has zero inspirational value for Pan African youth, and for others looking to figure out why they should be bothered with any of this. The document is headed straight for the shelf and a quiet existence as a modest memory unless several champions arise to seize portions of the document into which they can breathe life. A huge part of the problem with the document is that it was publicly promulgated before African Diasporans have been accepted into the AU as voting members of ECOSOCC, as was assigned 9 years ago. There therefore does not yet exist that critical core of committed Diasporan insiders to take this document to higher ground. Time will quickly tell the future of the May 25^th Global African Diaspora Declaration. Movement forward must be immediate, or all momentum will disappear in the desert. Let’s see who’s really serious.

**For further information on the Global Summit, Chika Onyeani’s latest  African Sun Times did an impressive job of describing many important components of the activities. Meanwhile, for those really interested, look to the Internet for rapid-fire information coming out, including keeping up with the Black List for updates. For North Americans, you can also contact, naadunitycouncil@gmail.com  There will be a Unity Council website up within the next week.

Report Submitted by: David L. Horne for SRDC/PADU  See www.srdcinternational.org