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Africa in search of deeper dialogue beyond Addis and Bamako - February 2004
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9. Unfinished Debates
It should be recalled that in 2003, Mondli Hlatshwayo circulated his reflections on ASF in a piece entitled "The African Social Forum-A tale of two forces" wherein he concluded that:
"…The ASF has two distinct forces. There are those forces that are radical in character. These forces are largely from Southern Africa. They have attracted very few individuals and organizations in Kenya and Ethiopia. It has to be said that these progressive forces were the minority in the ASF.
"Therefore there is a need to strengthen these forces in other regions of Africa particularly in Francophone countries. The other forces are led by NGOs that are not articulating the interests of the toiling masses. These forces were in the majority in the ASF and they often used undemocratic maneuvers to influence the political direction of the ASF. They want to orientate the ASF towards the AU and other government type structures."
Guess who dared to challenge this?
It was Oupa Lehulere.
And it is instructive to note that he is the one who was perceived to be "pelting" Taoufik Ben Abdallah in Mumbai and very few people knew that he had issues with the ASF Secretariat arising from the way the Addis discourse was handled.
He had sounded the warning shots long back, but unfortunately, his sentiments were wished away and it never occurred to many that he would live to resume the dialogue.
Oupa had this to say early last year,
"Let us not label each other and call each other names. Our mission is clear. It is for the development of African peoples. There are many ways of doing that and so there will always be people from different perspectives.
"To believe that the African Social Forum will be full of grassroots people, only anti-globalization people, only anti-capitalists is to misunderstand the complexity of Africa. So, Let us focus on ideas and how we can move the ideas forward. Yes, of course it is a tale of two forces. Who will win and why? Let us sharpen the discussions from each side and move towards a consensus as in the Calabash African style and not in the roman winner take all!
Let us plan well for the next regional ASF focusing on ideas, issues and consensus on discussions between the different forces (or whatever you want to call them)."
It is clear that he and other like-minded activists would be aggrieved parties if Africans fail to hold the ASF as this is the Forum where they had mobilized their forces to use as a battle ground for winning hearts and minds around political choices and action they are articulating.
As Southern Africans prepared for the Zambia-hosted regional Social Forum which was subsequently held in November 2003, they found themselves confronting the politics of organizing the ASF and indirectly reviving the unfinished business from ASF 2003.
Davie Malungisa from the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development cautioned stakeholders to plan within the context of WSF principles and noted what he thought was wrong with ASF.
"We need to give due attention to the issue of defining the agenda. It is my belief that the Zambian team only constitute the hosting country and there is need for their decisions to be take in the context of policy definition through the team that was chosen in Addis and ensure that we are not starting an entirely new process divorced from the World and Africa Social Forums.
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I also hope that the Southern Africa Social Forum is not a proposal about hosting a Conference, like what the Africa Social Forum has been doing in the past two years.
Let's have a real PEOPLE-BASED regional Social Forum that might one day form the basis of a World Social Forum hosting."
He argued further that "The Forum, of necessity, must be openly planned for and avoid the cheap and narrow politicking that we are seeing at the Africa Social Forum; we need a sound process that will address our agenda for the NEPAD/AU debate and how we inform and engage our solidarity partners on the way forward. The counting that we need to do is; how many thousands will attend the Forum; mass mobilization, creativity and ideological clarity must define the nature of our forum and its uniqueness will be defined by how we make it a truly Southern Africa Social Forum with some clear messages to the SADC leaders and tell them that never again are we going to sleep whilst they peer review each other and legitimizing human butchery in the region. I will throw in some issues and contradictions in the movement. Solidarity, mobilization and principles is our only way forward. Thanks to Thomas and EPP for introducing this debate, it is better to debate and fail to resolve an issue than resolving an issue without debate; we leave the latter to Mafia and Bushmasters.
"Comrades, let us be brutally honest to offer clear class issues so that we polish contentious points, avoid experimenting while the people we purport to represent are dying from preventable diseases!" concluded Malungisa.
These are very tough and mean words, but ironically coming from people and forces that were to drive serious processes that saw Southern Africa becoming the only region which hosted a regional forum in Africa. It is also interesting to note that their forum broadly identified the Addis Ababa recommended governance structures as inadequate when it comes to responding to the need to build another Africa within another world order. Hence the deviation from "Another Africa is possible" to "This is our time. Another Africa is in the making!!! in their Forum communiquй.
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