Thabo Mbeki’s ‘AIDS Denialism’

Theoria ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (156) ◽  
pp. 27-51
Author(s):  
Simphiwe Sesanti
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Fatal Disease ◽  
International Media ◽  
Strong Force ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
Aids Denialism ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

In his nine years as South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki was known as a leading pan-Africanist and an advocate of the African Renaissance. Pan-Africanism is an ideology aimed at uniting Africans into a strong force for total liberation. The African Renaissance is a project aimed at restoring Africans’ self-esteem damaged by colonialism and slavery. During and after his presidency Mbeki was criticised by the local and international media for putting at risk hundreds of thousands of South African lives by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, and blocking drugs that could have saved many lives. If true, this would suggest that there is a contradiction between Mbeki’s pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance, which are supposed to be life-affirming on one hand, and exposing Africans to the perils of a fatal disease, on the other. This article examines Mbeki’s opponents’ arguments, and Mbeki’s stance in the context of pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance.

The Struggle for African Identity: Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-277
Author(s):  
PAL AHLUWALIA
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
African Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACT This paper examines South African President Thabo Mbeki's notion of the African Renaissance. Representations of Africa have been challenged in the past by movements such as negritude and pan-Africanism. Thabo Mbeki's proclamation of the African Renaissance can be seen as another attempt to fight and challenge prevailing representations of Africa. An African Renaissance that does not degenerate into essentialism (particularlism) has the potential to transform the lives of the many Africans who have been ravaged by the continuing legacy of colonialism. The author argues that if the call for an African Renaissance is to have any lasting impact on the African condition, it must be careful to avoid taking the essentialist positions advocated by earlier ideological movements such as negritude. The essay contends that the call for an African Renaissance is an important effort which needs to be adopted by Africans beyond the borders of South Africa.

Studying and teaching ethnic African languages for Pan-African consciousness, Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance: A Decolonising Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
Simphiwe Sesanti
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African Languages ◽  
European Languages ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
Pan African ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Ethnic Consciousness ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
African Community ◽  
European Colonialism

In order to conquer and subjugate Africans, at the 1884 Berlin Conference, European countries dismembered Africa by carving her up  into pieces and sharing her among themselves. European colonialists also antagonised Africans by setting up one ethnic African  community against the other, thus promoting ethnic consciousness to undermine Pan-African consciousness. European powers also imposed their own “ethnic” languages, making them not only “official”, but also “international”. Consequently, as the Kenyan  philosopher, Ngũgῖ wa Thiong’o, persuasively argues, through their ethnic languages, European colonialists planted their memory  wherever they went, while simultaneously uprooting the memory of the colonised. Cognisant of efforts in some South African institutions of higher learning to promote African languages for the purpose of promoting literacy in African languages, this article argues that while this exercise is commendable, ethnic African languages should be deliberately taught to “re-member” Africa and rediscover Pan-African consciousness. By doing this, African scholarship would be aiding Africans’ perennial and elusive quest for Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance. Keywords: African Renaissance, Ethnic African Languages, Ethnic European Languages, European Colonialism, Pan-African  Consciousness, Pan-Africanism

Policy Design for Non-anthropocentric Pathways to Protect Biodiversity and Re-generate the Land

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Judy McIntyre-Mills
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Suggestions ◽  
Sentient Beings ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
And Training

This article is a thinking exercise to re-imagine some of the principles of a transformational vocational education and training (VET) approach underpinned by participatory democracy and governance, and is drawn from a longer work on an ABC of the principles that could be considered when discussing ways to transform VET for South African learners and teachers. The purpose of this article is to scope out the social, cultural, political, economic and environmental context of VET and to suggest some of the possible ingredients to inspire co-created design. Thus the article is just a set of ideas for possible consideration and as such it makes policy suggestions based on many ways of knowing rooted in a respect for self, others (including sentient beings) and the environment on which we depend. The notion of African Renaissance characterises the mission of a VET approach in South Africa that is accountable to this generation of living systems and the next.

Blackism and Pan-Africanism in Post-Colonial African Literature: A Reading of Femi Osofisan’s Plays

Imbizo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement Olujide Ajidahun
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Black People ◽  
African Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
New Social Order

This article is a thematic study of Femi Osofisan’s plays that explicitly capture the essence of blackism, nationalism and pan-Africanism as a depiction of the playwright’s ideology and his total commitment to the evolution of a new social order for black people. The article critically discusses the concepts of blackism and pan-Africanism as impelling revolutionary tools that seek to re-establish and reaffirm the primacy, identity, and personality of black people in Africa and in the diaspora. It also discusses blackism as an African renaissance ideology that campaigns for the total emancipation of black people and a convulsive rejection of all forms of colonialism, neo-colonialism, Eurocentrism, nepotism and ethnic chauvinism, while advocating an acceptance of Afrocentrism, unity and oneness of blacks as indispensable tools needed for the dethronement of all forms of racism, discrimination, oppression and dehumanisation of black people. The article hinges the underdevelopment of the black continent on the deliberate attempt of the imperialists and their black cronies who rule with iron hands to keep blacks in perpetual slavery. It countenances Femi Osofisan’s call for unity and solidarity among all blacks as central to the upliftment of Africans. The article recognises Femi Osofisan as a strong, committed and formidable African playwright who utilises theatre as a veritable and radical platform to fight and advocate for the liberation of black people by arousing their revolutionary consciousness and by calling on them to hold their destinies in their hands if they are to be emancipated from the shackles of oppression.

‘Limping, Yet Made to Climb a Mountain!’ Re-Reading the Vashti Character in the Hiv And Aids South African Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’A Mphahlele)
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
External Factor ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
African Women ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Land Grabbing ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Context

The history of the Christian Bible’s reception in South Africa was part of a package that included among others, the importation of European patriarchy, land grabbing and its impoverishment of Africans and challenged masculinities of African men. The preceding factors, together with the history of the marginalization of African women in bible and theology, and how the Bible was and continues to be used in our HIV and AIDS contexts, have only made the proverbial limping animal to climb a mountain. Wa re o e bona a e hlotša, wa e nametša thaba (while limping, you still let it climb a mountain) simply means that a certain situation is being aggravated (by an external factor). In this chapter the preceding Northern Sotho proverb is used as a hermeneutical lens to present an HIV and AIDS gender sensitive re-reading of the Vashti character in the Hebrew Bible within the South African context.

Complementing the ICC Efforts to Curb the Impunity of International Crimes in Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pacifique Manirakiza
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

A matter raised consistently by eminent personalities asked to report on atrocities in Africa, such as former South African President Thabo Mbeki, is the utilization of traditional justice mechanisms known to Africans. Their use has been limited to Gacaca courts in Rwanda, set up in haste and subject to much criticism. However, there exist several types and models of traditional justice mechanisms at the African level. The contribution of these sui generis mechanisms towards accountability for heinous crimes is largely unaddressed in academic literature. This chapter intends to fill this gap by exploring their potential contribution towards accountability for heinous crimes, alongside the International Criminal Court (ICC). In short, the chapter explores how community-based judicial mechanisms and the ICC, two types of accountability mechanisms with different methodologies and approaches, can work side by side to eradicate impunity regarding, and also to prevent, mass atrocities on the African continent.

A Cognitive Consistency Approach to Job Satisfaction

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Orpen
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
South African ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Factory Workers ◽  
Perceived Need ◽  
Cognitive Consistency ◽  
Negative Results

Korman's (1970) argument that self-esteem moderates the relationships between job satisfaction and perceived need-fulfilment and between job satisfaction and the extent to which one's job meets with group approval was tested with 120 Coloured South African factory workers who were given the Porter need-fulfilment questionnaire, 2 measures of job satisfaction, and 3 measures of self-esteem, and for whom a measure of the extent to which their jobs were found desirable by others was available. The correlations between job satisfaction and need-fulfilment and between job satisfaction and group approval did not differ significantly between Ss who obtained high and low scores on each of the self-esteem measures. The negative results are explained in terms of weaknesses in the balance and dissonance models from which Korman's argument is derived.

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