Reflexions and Analysis
Broadcasted on June,15th 2004
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CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFRICA AFTER INDEPENDENCE
The second phase in the history of the notion of civil society in Africa, which dates from independence in Africa, implies the birth of the deracialised state and the establishment of universal rights. The social group which was in the forefront of the pressing for these changes were the new black African middle classes, and what they demanded was entry to both the civil society and the state. And in the new African countries the state became the centre of social relations.
In the post-independence period the problem around state-civil society relationships in most African countries have been centred to a large degree around the role of the rural majority. They have in most societies been ruled according to colonial structures and systems, also after independence, which implies that their political and legal relations have been decided by local authorities acting directly at the instructions of the urban state structures. This has often taken the form of local societies being organised through the establishment of either state or party organisations. This means that social institutions in the rural areas, with the possible exception of churches, are either of a "pre-modern" type or a direct inheritance from and prolongation of the colonial state, which did not extend the principle of civil society to the colonised.
In this context the struggle between civil society organisations and the state often take the form of an attempt by the state to overpower non-governmental organisations [NGOs] by bringing them under government control. The pretext for the attempt to bringing NGOs into sphere of the state is often given as their financial mismanagement, the lack of control with their funds. But the reality behind the attempts are linked to a fear by government of the potential NGOs have for organising people outside the state structures, and secondly that NGOs with the change in donor policies with emphasis on building civil society institutions now receive funds which earlier would go to government projects. Thus NGOs can be seen to be in direct competetion with government over donor funds. And the rural projects of the NGOs may undermine the control which government has established in the rural areas. An example of this struggle between the state and NGOs as institutions in an embryonic civil society is The Private Voluntary Organisations Act which the Zimbabwean Parliament passed in March 1995, which has the potential of stifling the development of NGOs and turning them into a form of parastatals. The Secretary -- General of the Zimbabwean Human Rights organisation Zim Rights -- Osiah Tungwara -- characterised the law in this way:
... it is unfortunate that the government is introducing autocratic measures to restrict the activities of civil society when the global trend is to give it more freedom in recognition of the people's right to organise themselves for their own development and to participate in civic matters.
The concept of civil society in Africa may consequently be used in a meaningful way when it is seen as being in embryo in a rural situation, and as a struggling entity consisting partly of a variety of NGOs and more or less sponteaneous social movements and relatively weak permanent institutions and organisations in urban areas.
Broadcasted on April,26th 2004
KWAME NKRUMAH (1909 - 1972)
Kwame Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana in West Africa. Assuming the position in 1957, Nkrumah began to construct a theoretical guide for the liberation of African people. Placing his theory into action, Nkrumah through the Convention Peoples Party proceeded to build a Socialist United States of Africa. Frightened by the real probability of the defeat of capitalism and the worldwide implications of that defeat, the U.S. through its' "Central Intelligence Agency" (C.I.A.) and in collaboration with "neo-colonial" puppets in Ghana, overthrew Nkrumah's government in 1966.
PAN-AFRICANISM AND THE PRSP
Depending on different interpretations, the Pan-African movement, which sprang out of the struggle of the African masses for survival, has been the political umbrella over the different organizations manifesting different aspirations against all odds. The present state of the African world, that is the extreme economic deprivation of African people, is a clear manifestation of the need for Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism is now an economic necessity if Africa is going to survive. Today, none of The PRSP, as a Pan-African organization, has been enriched with the qualitative contributions from the long history of struggles of African people all over the world. The conferences organized by DuBois in the 1900's, the work of the Garvey's, Malcolm X, Lumumba, Toure, and Nkrumah are all qualitative expressions of the struggles of African people which combine to give the PRSP a sense of history, and above all, a sense of organization and a need for revolutionary practice.
Our present interpretation of the direction of our people in Pan-Africanism is guided by a clear class analysis that understands the aspects of gender and race oppression as outgrowths of our class exploitation. The African community is a nation of classes that Sekou Toure generally identified as the "peoples" and the "anti-peoples" classes. The anti-peoples' class serves the capitalists interests. No longer are we screaming for independence from colonialism (national oppression) alone. The struggle is now against the forces of neo-colonialism as the capitalists manifest themselves through agents who look African, speak like Africans, and act like Africans but whose aims are the same as their masters - the exploitation of the people.
Our Party has dismissed the charges of emotionalism wrongly associated with Pan-Africanism over the years. For us, Pan-Africanism realizes the limitations of micro-nationalism, the bogus philosophy of classless society, and the so-called notion of "African Socialism." Pan-Africanism is the qualitative expression of all of our previous experiences. The African nation must be redeemed from the "neo-colonial" leadership in Africa who link themselves with international reaction and backwardness. To accomplish this end we must have Pan - Africanism, the total liberation and unification of Africa under a scientific socialist government.
THE HISTORY OF THE PRSP
The PRSP was born out of principled contradictions within the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, (A-APRP). Some of the members of the A-APRP left in 1983 and began to build a new organization. The PRSP was founded by dedicated militants born in different parts of the world. The PRSP held its Founding Congress November 25-27, 1983. The PRSP recognized international capitalism as the primary contradiction facing the oppressed and exploited people of the world. Capitalism forced Africans to become victims of the vicious slave trade and all its consequences. European capitalism balkanized Africa in 1884-5, and carved it into nonviable, dependent and undeveloped states. These divisions have fragmented and distorted the African personality and culture by means of violence, foreign domination, class exploitation, unequal trade and ideological confusion. Today, the dominant form of imperialism is neocolonialism.
The PRSP understands that the basic problem facing Africans is economic and cultural deprivation and that the only solution is political Pan-Africanism - the total liberation and unification of Africa under an all African scientific socialist government.
THE IDEOLOGY OF THE PRSP
The ideology of the PRSP is NKRUMAISM. It is an ideology which has evolved out of centuries of struggle by African people against class and national and gender exploitation. An ideology can not be imported from outside of a peoples' reality.
An ideology must be derived from a peoples cultural and historical experience. A people exploited and oppressed must delve deep into their culture and try to identify the positive forces that existed in their development. Then they must synthesize all the positive elements in order to form a body of thought that would guide the positive forces towards positive action for cultural liberation.
This intellectual exercise is what Kwame Nkrumah attempted to do for the African revolution, thus the name NKRUMAISM. Oppressed people will, at some point, become interested in ideas that will and can contribute to their liberation. In our struggle for the intellectual maturity to guide our action, concrete ideas originating from any source must be respectfully embraced if they aid in the revolutionary process.
"This space is reserved to all members who wish to discuss or bring their own points of view on the various questions that we are used to in our daily life".
