Ladies and gentlemen, good day. I would like to talk about identity in Africa I know identity is a tricky subject - and without going into much conceptual debates and definitions, identity in general and in brief refers to some of attributes distinguishing a subject or an object from others. So from the beginning, then we have the concept of “the other”. With regards to physical objects, these attributes can be empirically verified and tested. While as for human subjects and societies, these attributes are either real or imagined, or can be both, combination of both defining human societies. So what is African identity? Is there one African identity, one or many African identities? What is the index of attributes from which we draw traits than define “African”? Is it race and color, as Aimé Césaire, Léopold Senghor told as in the Negritude? “Black is beautiful”? Is it multiracial as Nelson Mandela has worked hard to achieve it? Or should we go along the lines with Ali Mazrui, in calling of multiple marginality, taking Sudan as a case for Africa? The case of the Sudan is interesting in that Sudan really represents Africa, it is multi-ethnic, multi-tribal, multi-religious, multi-cultural and also is a test case showing us how identity is fluid, constructed, contested and shaped over history by political, religious, economic movement and factors. For years, Sudan received population movements, Arab tribes moving in, people migrating from West Africa, settling and mixing with the indigenous people. British colonial administrators adopted different administrative systems on the country, and after independence, political elites in Sudan vide/rival and struggled among themselves on the issue on how to define Sudanese? Should ethnicity be taken at the index for defining Sudanese and which kind of ethnicity? Is it Arabism or Africanism? Should religion be the basis for that? Should culture be the basis for that? Sudanese intellectuals and politicians came with a number of “solutions” for these chronic identity problems in the Sudan. For example, poets like Mohamed Ahmed al-Mahjoub, took the line of aligning the Sudanese identity with Arabism in his poems. On the other hand, Mohamed Muftah al-Fitouri thought of Sudan as part of Africa and he celebrated Africa in his poems: “Lover from Africa”, “Remember me Africa”, “The songs for Africa”, these are all indications for him. But in between them, we have also those who wanted to reconcile these various elements into one united harmonious whole. Mohamed AbdelHai a poet who also allowed “Al-Awada li Sennar” - The return to Sennar -. Sennar was the historical kingdom where Arabs, and Africans and other groups all coexisted together and lived in harmony. While poets use words, unfortunately politicians use weapons. And in this process, identity has become a matter for instrumentalization by competing political groups. Each vying rival for power, mobilizing his or her constituency on the basis for either ethnicity or religion or culture. It is the sad and long history that ended with the break-up of the Sudan in 2011. In its own right, globalization widened the scope for the interaction between different cultures and different identities: it enhanced the process of interaction to the extent that sometimes it leads to fear, tension and conflict, but at other times as well also it leads to understanding, accommodation and coexistence. So there is no clear cut in for the process of globalization in dealing with cultural and different identities. There is no blueprint, there is no template whereby globalization can handle these various contestations among identities, but certainly globalization provides tools, provides amenities for politicians, for intellectuals, for representatives of different cultures and different identities to meet and to interact. And in real world, sometimes, politicians and activists make use of these tools availed by globalization to mobilize their communities at their own basis, sectarian basis, religious basis, this instrumentalizing identity for short term gains. We have the example, in Africa and in the Middle East, of the mini tv satellites fanning certain ideologies and certain creeds. But again to be fair, these activists and politicians instrumentalizing identity for short term gains, they do not do that in a vacuum. There must be concrete cases of poverty, exclusion and fear that politicians and activists worked upon and use as raw material for mobilization in their tactics. So to undercut instrumentalization of identity by politicians and activists, we need to deal with the root causes that gave place in the first place for communities to attach themselves to such leaders and such activists. How is Africa fitting in this globalization debate on identity? Given the position of Africa among the other continents, some Africans are concerned that if Africa identity is not defined and maintained, African identity would be swept away and Africans would be reduced to nameless actors. I don’t agree with this believing that Africa has the richest stock of culture, of traditions, of symbols that can project and can portray an African identity. But the concern is there - given the interactions among identities and cultures engendered by the globalization processes - managing the process of identity interactions and complexity, is it or not a mutually exclusive process ? is either that ? one can keep his or her micro identity and at the same time reconcile it with a national identity; either or his or her nation or even with the worldwide. So one can have an African identity and at the same time a citizen of the world at large. Thank you.
