Humanist Visions for Africa

Inaugural Conference of the African Humanist Alliance
Kampala, Uganda May 25-28 2004

Opening address

AFRICAN HUMANISM: A VISION OF HOPE AND RENEWAL
By Leo Igwe

Fellow Humanists,

When our founders established the IHEU in 1952, they had in mind a vision and a mission. IHEU founders had in mind a vision to spread the message of Humanism to the ends of the earth. They had in mind a mission to make the Humanist alternative active and effective in all countries of the world.

By organizing this international conference, which is the first by IHEU in Africa, our Union is deepening this vision and extending its mission. IHEU is fulfilling one of the obligations that have sustained it for over half a century.

So, by the words we speak and the thoughts we express at this event, we herald a new future for IHEU and organized Humanism in Africa. We bring forth the courage, creativity and commitment to reinvent the Humanist outlook at the cradle of humanity.

This conference is coming up at a critical time in the history of Africa. We are gathered here today at a time the black continent is plagued by so many problems and difficulties- poverty, hunger, economic decline, diseases, ignorance, superstition, political instability, unemployment, child labor, human trafficking, religious fundamentalism, ethnic bigotry, wars and conflicts.

We are meeting here today at a time Africa finds itself at the beginning of a new century with a lot of uncertainties and anxieties about its future and development. We are gathered here in Kampala in a year that marks the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide -an act of ethnic cleansing that claimed the lives of over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus"(Fellow Humanists, may we pause for a minute silence in honor of those who died during the Rwandan genocide). The Rwandan tragedy and other cases of human liquidation, destruction and bloodletting going on across the continent underscore the need for the enthronement of the Humanist outlook
So early in this 21st century, Africa is in search a philosophical paradigm to tackle its problems, renew its humanity and recreate its future.

The black continent is in need of a visionary framework to reclaim its Humanist promises and possibilities. And it is our great good fortune that history has trusted upon us the duty and responsibility to craft this vision of hope and renewal.

Humanist Visions for Africa

As individuals and as groups, we all have different thoughts and perspectives of a Humanized Africa. But essentially, the Humanist Vision for Africa is this:

- That the philosophy which has humanity not divinity, nature not the supernatural and its effluvia, science not superstition, free inquiry not dogma, reason not revelation as its center and sanction, will reign supreme in the continent of Africa.
- That Humanist values and principles, not ancient myths, magic and revealed dogmas, will guide the thoughts and actions of Africans and inform the people's political decisions, cultural perceptions, social organizations and ethics.

As the birthplace of humanity, Africa has a long history of Humanist struggle. Though Humanism finds wider and more articulate codifications in the modem era and in the developed nations, the Humanistic spirit has been struggling for expression and emancipation in Africa since Homo Sapiens first appeared here. The Humanist impulse is evident in several civilizations and "Ages" that flourished and foundered in the continent before the emergence of the Roman, Ottoman and later empires.

The famous schools and learning centers in ancient Egypt are eloquent testimonies of some Humanist awakening in pre-colonial Africa.

But over the centuries, the process of evolutionary Humanism suffered major set backs as Africa became the target of slave dealers, imperialists, colonialists, capitalists, communists, jihadists, crusaders, terrorists and other purveyors of alien alienating, corrupt and destructive ideologies and belief systems. Between the 7th and 11th centuries, Muslim jihadists from southwestern Asia swept across mainly northern Africa, killing, maiming, massacring and enslaving black Africans in pursuit of their agenda of Islamisation and Arabisation. This violent brand of Islam, which holds African humanity in deep contempt, still prevails in the continent today. From the 15th century, Africa suffered waves of invasion by Europeans who came under different guises as explorers, slave dealers, missionaries, "legitimate" traders and colonizers.

For several centuries, Africa boiled, bled and smothered due to human depletion, socio-cultural devastations, economic and political strangulation caused by colonialism, racism and apartheid. European slave dealers hunted and hounded young Africans into slave camps in the New World where they were made to labour for their white masters.

With the image of the African as half-devil, half-child, Christian evangelists from Europe embarked on their self-styled civilizing mission of African "natives" and "heathens". The colonialists scrambled, partitioned and forcefully appropriated African lands and resources, without any deference to natural justice and good conscience. The colonial experience left Africans in a state of alienation, depersonalization and dehumanization. Africans were suspended in a socio-political and psychological structure that was hostile to their humanity, dignity and identity. Africans were made to deny and demonize the colour of their skin, the shape of their nose, their accent, in fact, their entire being. Africans were made to undergo discoloration and de-Africanization as part of their own civilization and humanization.

After the Second World War, Humanism emerged as a force of change and transformation in Africa and the black world. Whether in the civil rights movement or in the anti-colonialist struggle, the Humanist outlook became a veritable tool for blacks throughout the world in their quest for freedom, dignity, emancipation and progress. African leaders and black intellectuals evoked the liberating values of Humanism in their struggle against racial segregation, foreign domination and oppression.

The Humanist temper heavily influenced the thoughts and activism of Nkwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Nnamdi Azikwe Julius Nyerere, Steve Biko, Patrice Lumumba, Franz Fanon, Kenneth Kaunda and of course Nelson Mandela. The end of colonialism ushered in an era of unparallel freedom, hope and optimism for Africa and its future. For the first time in centuries, Africans were in the position to shape their own destinies and determine their own future. But these hopes, opportunities and dreams were squandered by a post-independent African elite who plunged the continent into poverty, political instability, infrastructural decay and general under-development due to ill conceived, ill designed and ill-implemented policies and programs. Of course, the tendency is always to blame the Arab and - especially - European colonialists for the woes and problems of Africa. But going by what has transpired in the continent, since independence, one can authoritatively say that Africans have largely been the architects of their own misfortune. Post independence Africa has produced black colonialists, dictators, coupists, slave merchants, jihadists and warlords.

Post independence Africa produced Mobutu Sese Seko, Kamuzu Banda, Idi Amin Dada, Sani Abacha, Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh, Mohammed Aideed, Joseph Koni and other historical throwbacks, whose memes and memories insult, dent and diminish African humanity and Humanism. Since independence, Africans have orchestrated wars, carried out genocides, engaged in armed conflicts and rebellions which have claimed millions of lives and displaced many more. Generally, development has stagnated; life expectancy has dropped. Economies have progressively declined and means of livelihood have been shattered. The enthronement of democracy has not brought the expected dividends. Instead in most countries, the return to democratic rule has opened the political space for theocrats and ethnocracts to impose their parochial political views on others.

Politically, Humanists envision an Africa where the management and deployment of State power and authority will be informed by human rights, Humanist ethics and morality, and democratic values. This Africa of our dream will be an open secular society where individuals will be defined by their humanity not by their religious, ethnic or racial background. In this new Africa, there with be no place for God, Bible, Quran or Sharia law in its construction and constitution. Church, Mosque and State will be separate. Religion will recede and retire into minds of individual believers, while reason, Science, and secularism will take over the public center stage and form the basis of governance and statecraft.

One of the tragedies in African Humanist history is that at a point Africans abandoned the inventive, self-reliant and this-worldly spirit which brought them civilization and progress, and embraced a passive, God-dependent other-worldly mentality which brought them misery, slavery, stagnation and catastrophe. Religion preaches salvation and happiness in the hereafter. It therefore has no answers to Africa's problems in the here and now. Religion teaches that there is a God that created us, a God that loves us and cares for us. But Does this God love and care for Africans?

Where was this loving God during the eras of slavery and colonialism? Where is this caring God today millions of Africans are suffering, starving and dying. Is he sleeping? No, God is not sleeping. He cannot sleep because he is not. Instead, it is we Africans who are sleeping. Part of the Humanist vision for Africa is to awaken the people of this continent from the dogmatic slumber and stupidity caused by theism, supernaturalism and mysticism. What a sledge hammer! Humanists want to free the minds of Africans from the idea of God and religion that has caused darkness, laziness, resignation, apathy, poverty, helplessness, despair, racial inferiority, genocide, slavery, misery, fear, passivity and ignorance. Humanists want to enthrone an idea of the world that fosters peace, tolerance, compassion, cooperation, progress, enlightenment, sustainable development, and global interdependence.

Generally, organized religion has caused so much hatred, intolerance, division, destruction and degradation in the continent. Africans have become so religious that they have lost faith in humanity; too godly that they disdain and deprecate human ability and capability to achieve the good life in this world. Since independence, millions of Africans have lost their lives to religious wars and clashes. In Nigeria alone, at least 10 thousand people have been killed in ethno-religious clashes since the country returned to democratic rule five years ago. In Algeria, Islamic militants have massacred tens of thousands. And in Sudan, over 2 million people have died in what is now Africa's longest religious war. And I am certain of this: that the African crisis has its roots in religious irrationalism, mysticism and superstition.

The vision of Humanists in Africa is to provide a rational alternative to religious hatred, violence and fanaticism. In the years to come, African Humanists will work to promote religious reformation, African Enlightenment and rebirth.

Economically, Humanists want an Africa that is free from poverty, want, hunger, starvation and debt burden. Humanists believe there's a correlation between a vibrant economy and robust Humanism. We believe that a vibrant economy is critical to the realization of Humanist promises of happiness and the good life in the here and now.

African economies have retained their fringe colonial character and status as feeder economies and suppliers of raw materials to the industrialized developed economies of the West. African Humanists want this status changed, and the continent transformed into an industrialized economic power. Today we are being told about how globalization has brought economic prosperity to the world. But in Africa globalization has wrought ghettoization and pauperization. Globalization has a brutal face, African Humanists want globalization with a human face, a globalization process that globalizes our common humanity and common economic well being.

For as long as Africans continue to live and languish in poverty, hunger, misery and social insecurity; as long as Africa remains a dumping ground of out dated technologies and dangerous industrial products, as long as the African continent is burdened by huge external debt and insolvency, the vision of universal Humanism will not be realized. In the years to come, African Humanists will work to awaken the consciences of the leaders of Western economies to the human devastations and devaluations caused by their economic policies in the continent.

Fellow Humanists, these visions may sound like pipe dreams. They will not be realized in days, weeks, months or years. They may not even happen during the life time of many of us gathered here today. But they will eventually be realized. This is because as Humanists we are driven by the conviction that human beings have the ability to improve and make progress; that human beings have the capability to attain their highest goals, ideals and aspirations. I believe these visions will someday become commonplace realities for the people of this continent and the world. With this in mind, I invite you all who share in this vision with us to come forward and let's make Humanism happen in the cradle of Humanity. This is the time to recreate Africa. This is the time to recreate African humanity. This is the time to re-invent African Humanism.

Thank you.