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South Africa and the Global Africa

[ Posted On: 2007-01-14 ]

Post apartheid South Africa deals with the issue of the African Diaspora differently from the rest of the continent. This is because of its unique history.

At the state level, South Africa is actively involved in ideological pan-Africanism. State championed Diaspora sentiments are embedded among a substantial segment of the ruling elite, including the State President, Mr Thabo Mbeki. This is the category of ‘returned’ freedom fighters that went to exile to resist apartheid from outside the brutal system. In so doing, they experienced the fraternity of continental Africa and indeed the entire Global Africa.

To these people, the statement that Afrika is one is more than rhetoric. It means that across centuries, continents and national boundaries, there is something that binds Black people.

It only makes sense then that those Black people should acknowledge their kinship and face their challenges collectively. Hence, South Africa’s extensive involvement in various issues of Global Africana.

Lack of skills

There are also skills-driven Diaspora sentiments. South Africa is not cash-strapped to the degree that the rest of the continent is, most concur that what South Africa suffers from is lack of skills.

Analysts further agree that the country’s skills shortage was accentuated by the exodus of South African whites who left the country because they felt at risk because of political changes.

This aspect of the South African Diaspora targets primarily the departed white South Africans to urge them to return home to build the nation.

Ironically, many of the white emigrants have not found full satisfaction in the newly-found homes mainly in the West. While their material acquisitions may have improved, they suffer from homesickness and other aspects of their Diasporas such as overcrowding, high cost of living, and unpleasant weather.

The whites Emigres have the requisite skills, they know South Africa and no matter how distorted their view of country, they are sentimentally attached to it. Against this background, South Africa has set out to sell itself to this community through organisations such as Homecoming Revolution, South Africa the Good News and the International Marketing Council of South Africa. On the face of it, it appears like an easy case of willing buyer and willing seller.

Apartheid united Africans worldwide

What about South Africa and the historic Diaspora? This is the African Diaspora derived from the African ancestry of slavery. There is enhanced interaction between South Africa and the Caribbean and Brazilian Diaspora, but the African American community is the best known African Diaspora, largely because it is part of the world’s superpower.

Because apartheid was racially driven, it unwittingly managed to pull together Black people around the world in an alliance-in-adversity.

Regardless of wherever he lived, the Black person felt that apartheid was an affront to his humanity. Black South Africans and Black Americans were at the forefront of this global picture because of their shared experience of institutionalised racism. Unsurprisingly, South Africa is the most familiar part of Africa in the African American world.

Mandela a symbol of African destiny

Mr Nelson Mandela became a crucial figure in this scenario. To the Black American, the same ‘man’ that sat on his neck at home for centuries was the same man that had formed an international alliance to oppress Black South Africans in their homeland. The imprisonment of Mandela became the ultimate manifestation of that oppression. Mandela came to symbolise Black peoples’ destiny.

That African Americans have more than a passing interest in South Africa is exemplified by the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg last week.

The school is financed by the African American television superstar, Oprah Winfrey, to uplift previously disadvantaged children and prepare them for positions of leadership.

What is impressive is not so much that Oprah has spent nearly Rand 300 million to establish the academy. The true message is in the depth of the personal commitment that she has made. She is said to have built a home on the premises of her new school. That means she intends to remain involved in the management of the school.

Asked why she has done this in South Africa, she cites two reasons: her adoration for Mandela and consideration of her roots. South Africa ought to consider awarding Oprah Winfrey a symbolic South African citizenship.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: James Kariuki - is head of the African Diaspora Unit at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria.

| View Profile & All Articles By: James N. Kariuki |

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