African Renaissance: The Politics of Return

On 8 May 1996, Thabo Mbeki made what, within the context of the politics of identity in South Africa, was regarded as a ground breaking speech in which he boldly declared: "I am an African." This predated a call for the 'African renaissance' in an address to the United States Corporation Council on Africa in 1997. Since then, the concept of the African renaissance has assumed a life of its own, not only within the borders of South Africa but throughout the African continent. The term and the idea of an African ren aissance are not new. Neither is the pronouncement of an African identity an historic one since so many people have, over the centuries, publicly declared and identified themselves as Africans. This paper argues that the concept of the renaissance has since brought into sharp focus the post Apartheid notion of the 'return'. Two conceptions about 'the return' are identified. The first is an Afro-pessimistic conception that construes the return as a regression to something similar to the Hobbesian 'state of nature' and thus retrogressive and oppressive and, the second, and oppo site, conception interprets the return as necessary, and thus progressive, lib eratory politics. It is argued that the former view smacks of distorted (apartheid's) representations, symptomatic of most western images of Africa and the African, a view driven by ideological and political motives desirous of halting and obstructing transformatory praxis. In defense of the libratory interpretation, an attempt is made to show, contra current views, that this interpretation is not conservative, nativist or essentialist but that, in line with Aime Cesaire's Return to the Native Land and Amilca Cabral's Return to the Source projects, it is directed at reconstructing and rehabili tating the African while forging an identity and authenticity thought to be appropriate to the exigencies of 'modern' existence.