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Keynote Address by Mr. Joseph Chilengi, Presiding Officer of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (ECOSOCC) at the 1st Ordinary Session of the Standing Committee of the 2nd General Assembly of the Khartoum, Sudan, 26-28 May 2015

Keynote Address by Mr. Joseph Chilengi, Presiding Officer of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (ECOSOCC) at the 1st Ordinary Session of the Standing Committee of the 2nd General Assembly of the Khartoum, Sudan,
26-28 May 2015

Our Guest of Honor, Your Excellency, Mr. Kamal Ismail, State Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Sudan and Representative of our Host, the Sudanese Government, of the African and Other Diplomatic Corps Members,
The Director of CIDO and Head of the ECOSOCC Secretariat
Your Excellency, Amb. Ibrahim Kamara, Representative of the African Union Liaison Office in Sudan,
Honorable, Commissioner, Meddy Kaggwa, Representative of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights,
Honorable Colleagues and Members of the Bureau of ECOSOCC
Honarable Members of the Standing Committee of ECOSOCC,
Our Local Organizing Partner,
Distinguished Members of the Sudanese and African Civil Society,
Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the 1st Standing Committee of the 2nd Permanent General Assembly of ECOSOCC in Khartoum, Sudan, from 26-28 May 2015. The General Assembly of ECOSOCC in the exercise of its mandate under Article 10 of the ECOSOCC Statutes directed the Presiding Officer and the Secretariat to prepare a meeting of the Standing Committee to follow-up on ECOSOCC Work Program and the implementation of its decisions as the highest policy making body of the Organ in the course of its meeting in Cairo on 1st March 2015. In the aftermath of the meeting the Presiding Officer and the Secretariat were engaged in consultation with the Sudanese Government which graciously accepted to host the meeting.

The objective of this meeting is to review the current status of ECOSOCC, develop and adopt appropriate work plan, tools and instruments to fulfill the mission objectives in the current year and to plan ahead for 2016. The meeting will also report and appraise the framework of activities undertaken to implement the Cairo Decisions of the ECOSOCC General Assembly and the wider requirements of the Union including the directives of the Executive Organs, particularly the Executive Council and Assembly of the Union as well as the Constitutive Act which stresses the need for the continental integration process to be people-centred and people-driven.

Charity begins at home and the watchword of this ECOSOCC Assembly will be transparency. Transparency, as always, begins with auditing and finances. This meeting will receive a Secretariat Report on the State of ECOSOCC expenditure including what has been spent, on what and with whose authority. We will receive the balance sheet of expenditure and decide what to do with it in accordance with our mandate and statutory obligations. Alongside this, I will offer this Assembly a report on the outcome of AU budget session held in Mekelle, Ethiopia from 13-16 May 2015 and the accepted or projected budget estimates for 2016 so that we can align program and plans to maximize cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency.

Within this scope, we shall also discuss plans for transformation of the AU and proposed structural changes and the implications for the people-centred nexus of the African Union as mandated by the Constitutive Act. These plans were introduced surreptitiously in the course of the recent AU budget sessions in Mekelle where I took the floor to reflect upon it with due concern. It would appear that the Commission is making plans for changes without reference or discussion of the wider African Union family. It is incumbent upon ECOSOCC, other organs and the wider African civil society community to be vigilant on this score to ensure that the people-centred progressive development of the African Union system is as a public enterprise focused on public good rather than as a business enterprise driven by business models and reform agenda sponsored by external interests and financial institutions.

This ECOSOCC meeting that comes just ahead of the June Sessions of the AU Executive Council and Summit will also consider and approve the substance of ECOSOCC report to the Summit as mandated by Article 10 of the ECOSOCC Statutes so that what we present will be the authentic outcome of a constitutional process. Aside from this, we shall also begin the process of exploring guidelines for the operationalization of Sectoral Cluster Committees and National ECOSOCC Chapters as key operational mechanisms that will link ECOSOCC operations to the African grassroots as the fulcrum of a peopled-oriented African Union system.

In the course of this session also, we shall have a wider AU Sensitization program for the Sudanese civil society and collaborate with our local organizing partners and the wider Sudanese society by participating in symposia and seminar relating to issues of pressing concern in their Society which includes the use of sanctions among others. We shall engage in this outreach process to mark the commemoration of May 25 as Africa Day and to celebrate the institution of the African Union as a weeklong concern.

Sudan and its capital Khartoum, offers us a unique and pleasant venue for this deliberation and the choice of this venue reflects our wish to share the labours of love for the African Union. I wish to thank the Secretariat and CIDO and its Director, Dr. Adisa for working closely with the Bureau of ECOSOCC that I have the honor to lead in making adequate preparations for this meeting.

I call on Members of ECOSOCC invited guests and participants alike to savour the kindness and hospitality of our generous hosts in Sudan. We are indebted to the Government and People of Sudan for making us feel so much at home in this uniquely pleasant African environment. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the efforts of our local organizing partner and especially Mr. Ibrahim Abdulhalim and Ms. Hanadi Hussein for the assistance rendered to ECOSOCC and the African Union in the preparation of this meeting.

Al Salamu alaikum

I thank you all.

“Unity in Cultural Diversity for Africa’s Development.”

 
Programme Director,

Honourable Minister of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa, Mr. NathiMthethwa,

AUC Commissioner of Social Affairs, Dr. Mustapha Kaloko,

Representatives of the African Cultural and Arts Community

Esteemed guests, here gathered

Fellow Africans

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am honoured to address this Gala dinner on the occasion of the 4th Pan African Cultural Congress, which is hosted under the theme Unity in Cultural Diversity for Africa’s Development.

Tonight, we commemorate and celebrate the founding, 52 years ago, of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union. 32 Independent African states gathered to sign the Organisation’s founding Charter in Addis Ababa and accelerated actions to secure and safeguard the hard won independence and integrity of African States with a view of ridding our continent of all forms of racism, colonialism and discrimination. From the onset Africa’s leaders identified the need to coordinate and harmonize policies in several fields, including in education and cultural cooperation.

A great deal has been accomplished by Africa since then, often in the face of considerable challenges.

The arts have immensely contributed to these accomplishments, who can forget the seminal speech of Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba when she addressed the United Nations 52 years ago,

I quote:

“I ask you and all the leaders of the world, would you act differently, would you keep silent and do nothing if you were in our place? Would you not resist if you were allowed no rights in your own country because the color of your skin is different from that of the rulers, and if you were punished for even asking for equality? I appeal to you, and to all the countries of the world, to do everything you can to stop the coming tragedy. I appeal to you to save the lives of our leaders, to empty the prisons of all those who should never have been there.”

Indeed your capacities and talents as artists and cultural workers to create, helps give expression to our experiences and to our aspirations, in good and bad times.

It is our hope that this generation of artists and cultural workers will continue to inspire towards the realization of the goals and objectives of Agenda 2063. Through Agenda 2063, the Africa we Want, we aspire to address urgent priorities in education, skills development, especially in science technology, engineering and mathematics. Africa must have a skills revolution, since we intend to modernize agriculture, add value to our natural resources and minerals; and develop our infrastructure mainly in the energy, transport, and ICT sectors.

For these priorities to find expression they will require contributions from the arts, since the arts embody what our great African writer, Ben Okri meant when he said:

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and be greater than our suffering.

The arts are very important for our development, but equally important is our mindset, believing in ourselves and in our capacity to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. This is where culture and arts play such an important role. In readjusting our mindsets we must bare in mind the words of Ben Okri in his book Ways of Being Free where he says:

They tell me that nature is the survival of the fittest. And yet look at how wondrous gold and yellow fishes prosper amongst silent stones of the ocean beds, while sharks continuously prowl the waters in their impossible dreams of oceanic domination and while whales become extinct…how many butterflies and iguanas thrive, while elephants turn into endangered species, and while even lions growl in their dwindling solitude.
There is no such thing as a powerless people. There are only those who have not seen and have not used their power and will. It would seem a miraculous feat, but it is possible for the under-valued to help create a beautiful new era in human history. New vision should come from those who suffer most and who love life the most.

We therefore greatly appreciate the initiative taken by the cultural sector, as we were consulting on Agenda 2063, to insist that we help them to convene a meeting of the cultural and creative sector from across the continent.

The inputs from the African Re-imagined Creative Hub held at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa on 25 May 2014 helped to inform Aspiration 5, which is about An Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, shared values 
and ethics. Amongst many of its objectives the aspiration seeks to promote:
Pan-African ideals [so that they are] fully embedded in all school curricula and Pan-African cultural assets (heritage, folklore, languages, film, music, theatre, literature, festivals, religions and spirituality) will all be enhanced.

In re-crafting our Pan African ideals we must recall the words of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba who in 1960 said:“We all know, and the whole world knows it, that Algeria is not French, that Angola is not Portuguese, that Kenya is not English, that Ruanda-Urundi is not Belgian. We know that Africa is neither French, nor British, nor American, nor Russian, ... that it is African.”

Through the fulfillment of Aspiration 5 we aim that the African creative arts and industries be celebrated throughout the continent, as well as, in the diaspora so as to contribute significantly to self-awareness, well-being, peace and prosperity, and to world culture and heritage.

It is also our desire that African languages be the basis for administration and integration with special attention being paid to African shared values such as family, community, hard work, merit, mutual respect and social cohesion.

I am sure that your gathering this week, will come up with concrete recommendations of what, in the first Ten Year plan, we need to do to implement these ideas.

Since this is the Year of Women, the arts and cultural sector should also pay attention to the issues of women’s empowerment and building a non-sexist continent. The issues here range from how do we break the cycle of gender-based violence to ensuring effective economic participation of women.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The idea of unity in diversity is so critical to the tasks and mission that we set for ourselves in Agenda 2063. Africa is a diverse continent, in religion, cultures, languages, heritage and arts.

This diversity has co-existed and combined in a melting pot over the centuries. It forms the bedrock of our common destiny, expressed through Pan Africanism.

It is a unity in diversity that we must nurture. We must manage this diversity in an inclusive manner, so that no one feels left out.

It is no coincidence that the oldest political movement on the continent, the African National Congress, is named the AFRICAN and not just South African. The founding fathers of the ANC had a Pan African outlook because they understood that the destinies of all Africans are intertwined and that the liberation and development of South Africa required the contributions of Africa and vice-versa.

It is also no coincidence that the Anthem for the liberation movement and South Africa is NkosiSikelelaiAfrica, God Bless Africa!!! The song is not only sung and celebrated in South Africa it is also the national anthem for a number of African countries including Zambia and Tanzania.

It is also no coincidence that the Freedom Charter says, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white” and it envisages that “the doors of learning and culture shall be opened”.

Programme Director,

Allow me to conclude, with more wise words from Ben Okri:

When you can imagine, you begin to create, and when you begin to create you realize that you can create a world that you prefer to live in, rather than a world that you are suffering in.

We must therefore imagine and create the Africa we want.

I wish the 4th Pan African Cultural Congress all success and look forward to the outcomes of your deliberations. I would also like to wish all of you a happy Africa Day.

One People!!! One Destiny!!!

Asante Sane!!!