6. Missing links in the African Seminar
In the presentation, "Overview and objectives of the African seminar", Taoufik Ben Abdallah rushed through his notes and missed the opportunity to present on behalf of the Secretariat "The state of the African Social Forum" and why it was not possible to hold a continental meeting as has been the case during the last two preparations for WSF.
The information was there. Some of the arguments were put in the document outlining the logic of the African seminar in Mumbai. In practical terms, this was what formed the basis for organising the seminar on the third day and explains to a large extent why the issues that were thrown out on the first day found their way back.
Unfortunately for day one of the African seminar, most of the "matters arising" were often sneaked into panel discussions as either "points of order" or "process issues". In the end, it appeared like most session chairs did not have the capacity to manage the divergences because they resorted to technicalities to dismiss "dissenting voices" when in fact this was a well orchestrated political programme as was demonstrated on day three.
This gave an initial impression that ASF was heavily divided and a certain group of people were in Mumbai to create chaos and confusion.
Subsequently, those who felt they were being shut out, sought to organise politically against the technical knockouts resulting in a more spirited engagement on day three.
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