Locating the African Renaissance in development discourse : a critical study.

Abstract

The concern of this study is "locating the African Renaissance in development discourse: a critical study" and aims to investigate how the South African President Thabo Mbeki has conceptualized the African Renaissance. Through this the author has discovered the meaning of Mbeki's African Renaissance discourse with regard to its context in African development and how it is located in historical conceptions of development in Africa. Through this what innovation to development in Africa is presented by the discourse of the African Renaissance has been identified. Therefore this study is based primarily on an extensive literature research on conception of development and the African Renaissance. In comparison with other discourses on development, the study finds that Mbeki's African Renaissance discourse has been inspired by Pan-Africanist discourses such as self-reliance and African regeneration combined with dominant political and economic discourses such as globalization, good governance, structural adjustment and democracy. The study finds that the great contribution of Mbeki's African Renaissance is to call again on the Africans to realize their self-rediscovery and to restore the African's self esteem without which Africans will never become equipped for African development. However Mbeki stops short of attempting to suggest practical strategies to do so. The study finds that Mbeki' s Arican Renaissance discourse is moralistic and can no longer challenge global economic inequalities.