African And Black Nationalists

"After Namibia’s independence was secured, we needed to develop a new narrative for an independent country that had been fractured by apartheid. We had to overcome the hatred of the past – hatred between blacks and whites, and between different linguistic and ethnic groups. We focused on reconciling Namibia to ensure peace. We succeeded in building a reconciled society."

"We in independent Namibia have been very fortunate to have had steady hands at the helm for 25 years. With your support, I hope to continue this tradition. As we go forward, we will seek to be transactional in maintaining and strengthening the governance architecture, but we will also be transformational as we prepare the citizens for the new economy that requires the development of new parameters in education, innovation, and enterprise."

"All of us must play our part in the success of this beautiful house we call Namibia. We need to renew it from time to time by undergoing renovations and extensions. I therefore invite the youth of this country to bring their ingenuity, innovation and idealism to contribute to building a solid Namibian house. The journey ahead will be full of excitement. I am confident that Namibia will continue to pursue its developmental agenda and remain a haven of peace, stability and prosperity in a world full of turmoil."

"For the Namibian people and for myself, this day, March 21 1990, is the most memorable and indeed the most emotional moment in the annals of our history. This solemn hour is the moment, which our people have been waiting for, for more than a century. The is the day for which tens of thousands of Namibian patriots laid down their lives, shed their precious blood, suffered imprisonment and difficult life in exile. Today, our hearts are filled with great joy and jubilation because our deepest and longest yearning has been realized."

"For the Namibia people, the realization of our most cherished goal, namely the independence of our country and the freedom of our people, is fitting tribute to the heroism and tenacity with which our people fought for this long-awaited day. We have been sustained in our difficult struggle by the powerful force of conviction in the righteousness and justness of our cause."

"one of Africa's most profound revolutionaries...His occupation of so many subject positions - student, diplomat, organic intellectual, poet, agronomist, general secretary, revolutionary, and so forth - gave rise to a critical discourse and praxis that performatively puts into question the limits of white, armchair critical theory."

"We Africans, having rejected the idea of begging for freedom, which was contrary to our dignity and our sacred right to freedom and independence, reaffirmed our steadfast decision to end colonial domination of our country, no matter what the sacrifices involved, and to conquer for ourselves the opportunity to achieve in peace our own progress and happiness."

"In combating racism we do not make progress if we combat the people themselves. We have to combat the causes of racism. If a bandit comes to my house and I have a gun, I cannot shoot the shadow of the bandit; I have to shoot the bandit. Many people lose energy and effort, and make sacrifices combating shadows. We have to combat the material reality that produces the shadow. If we cannot change the light that is one cause of the shadow, we can at least change the body. It is important to avoid confusion between the shadow and the body that projects the shadow."

"At this very moment when, despite the contradictions which prevail in the world contradictions of ideology and of social and politica! systems --there are contacts between the most opposing poles, and these contacts are developing, at this very moment when certain nations are dreaming of conquering the cosmos, in a collective undertaking, to plant there the hopes of man, it is not really much to ask that before you le"ave for nebulous Andromeda or other far corners of the universe you should help us specifically and realistically to liberate our people from the scourge of Portuguesa colonialism, because, like you we should like to participate in the great human adventure either on this earth or across the universe."

"A people who free themselves from foreign domination will not be culturally free unless, without underestimating the importance of positive contributions from the oppressor’s culture and other cultures, they return to the upwards paths of their own culture. The latter is nourished by the living reality of the environment and rejects harmful influences as much as any kind of subjection to foreign cultures. We see therefore that, if imperialist domination has the vital need to practise cultural oppression, national liberation is necessarily an act of culture. "National Liberation and Culture""

"After the Second World War, imperialism entered on a new phase: on the one hand, it worked out the new policy of aid, ie granted independence to the occupied countries plus 'aid' and, on the other hand, concentrated on preferential investment in the European countries; this was, above all, an attempt at rationalising imperialism. Even if it has not yet provoked reactions of a nationalist kind in the European countries, we are convinced that it will soon do so. As we see it, neocolonialism (which we may call rationalised imperialism) is more a defeat for the international working class than for the colonised peoples. Neocolonialism is at work on two fronts – in Europe as well as in the underdeveloped countries. Its current framework in the underdeveloped countries is the policy of aid, and one of the essential aims of this policy is to create a false bourgeoisie to put brakes on the revolution and to enlarge the possibilities of the petty bourgeoisie as a neutraliser of the revolution; at the same time it invests capital in France, Italy, Belgium, England and so on."

"If we do not forget the historical perspectives of the major events in the life of humanity, if, while maintaining due respect for all philosophies, we do not forget that the world is the creation of man himself, then colonialism can be considered as the paralysis or deviation or even the halting of the history of one people in favour of the acceleration of the historical development of other peoples."

"In Africa, we are for an African policy which seeks to defend first and foremost the interests of African peoples, of each African country, but also for a policy which does not, at any time, forget the interests of the world, of all humanity."

"We of the CONCP are committed to our peoples, we are fighting for the complete liberation of our peoples, but we are not fighting simply in order to hoist a flag in our countries and to have a national anthem. We of the CONCP are fighting so that insults may no longer rule our countries, martyred and scorned for centuries, so that our peoples may never more be exploited by imperialists-not only by Europeans, not only by people with white skin, because we do not confuse exploitation or exploiters with the colour of men's skins; we do not want any exploitation in our countries, not even by black people."

"...one of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa, Comrade Amílcar Cabral, who instilled in us tremendous confidence in the future and the success of his struggle for liberation."

"He was a Cape Verdean agronomist, born in Guinea in 1924, and educated in Portugal where he had been a brilliant student. He was at the time regarded as a young and promising engineer. He had published widely in his field and was highly regarded by his Portuguese colleagues. Unknown to them, however, he had steeped himself into political and social literature while a student in Lisbon. He had become thoroughly acquainted with the cultural movements (most notably Negritude) which had led so many privileged and educated young Africans to 'return to their African roots'. Unlike many, however, he had become determined to go beyond this cultural revolt and to seek an end to colonialism by political means."

"I would like to suggest that it is the epistemic openness and consistently non-dogmatic radicalism and revolutionary praxis of Cabral's project, the richness and wide range and reach of his ideas, and the absence of any finished system or closed body of clearly defined truths that can be accepted or rejected at ease, which constitute both the contemporary philosophical fascination with, and continuing relevance of, Amílcar Cabral's radical politics, critical social theory, and revolutionary praxis."

"The white race is the most avaricious of races. Not content with Europe, they took part of Asia and Africa. They came over here and took America from the red man, and because they would not work for them, they brought members of our race from Africa."

"The outcomes of the workshop will be to help strengthen, improve and properly align the objectives of the Alliance with that of the Technical Cooperation Project document, which will be the guiding tool for the implementation"

"food insecurity and malnutrition is not only an ongoing African problem, it is a global issue that needs to be dealt with in an efficient, proactive manner."

"The Parliaments upcoming workshop will communicate and recognize the importance of the parliamentarians observations and conclusions on the future of food."

"Emphasis is placed on the strengthening of parliamentary institutions through proactive measures to endow the parliament with greater accountability and oversight powers."

"Men put roadblocks in front of women as a way of hiding their inefficiencies."

"Quality men are not afraid of quality women."

"Such sectoral coordination will help in addressing food security and nutrition in a holistic manner, which in turn, will help maximize limited resources and gains. Partnership with other institutions has also helped PAP access data, which is critical for inform decision-making, debate, advocacy, and lobbying."

"I believe the proposed workshop is exactly what they would deem an “effective response” and “proactive measure” in the strive for a food-secure world."

"The parliamentarians also underscored the importance of parliamentary dialogue in countries, regions and globally, in order to share good practice and experiences in ensuring food security and adequate nutrition."

"Small nations are like indecently dressed women. They tempt the evil-minded."

"Education is not a way to escape poverty, it is a way of fighting it."

"Yes, we have one party here. But so does America. Except, with typical extravagance, they have two of them!"

"I have read and re-read the Arusha Declaration and found nothing wrong with it except perhaps replacing a few commas here and there... it was clear for some of us that it would only be a mad man who would stand up and defend the Arusha Declaration."

"Democracy is not a bottle of Coca-Cola which you can import. Democracy should develop according to that particular country. I never went to a country, saw many parties and assumed that it is democratic. You cannot define democracy purely in terms of multi-partist parties."

"Those who receive this privilege therefore, have a duty to repay the sacrifice which others have made. They are like the man who has been given all the food available in a starving village in order that he might have strength to bring supplies back from a distant place. If he takes this food and does not bring help to his brothers, he is a traitor. Similarly, if any of the young men and women who are given an education by the people of this republic adopt attitudes of superiority, or fail to use their knowledge to help the development of this country, then they are betraying our union."

"Freedom to many means immediate betterment, as if by magic … Unless I can meet at least some of these aspirations, my support will wane and my head will roll just as surely as the tickbird follows the rhino."

"We in Africa have no more need of being "converted" to socialism than we have of being "taught" democracy. Both are rooted in our past—in the traditional society which produced us."

"Here is a man who retired as a head of state and went back to his small village house to live a pension like any other public servant."

"Many Indian leaders were educated at British universities where socialist – often Marxist – economics was in vogue. This applied to other leaders of the Third World who had been educated in Britain such as Julius Nyerere, president of Tanzania from 1964 to 1985, who also implemented Fabian and African socialist ideas. He had read economics and history at the University of Edinburgh. He enforced collectivisation, and when peasants resisted, he burnt down villages. The result was economic decline, corruption and food shortages. When Tanzania tried market economics, it recorded impressive growth: gross domestic product (GDP) rose 40 per cent between 1998 and 2007."

"Julius Nyerere...was the only head of state to offer his country an economic and political program for development that was anticapitalist, nonaligned, and based on grassroots self-activity...Anti-imperialists everywhere recognized the Arusha Declaration (1967) as a document relevant not only to Tanzania but to all newly independent African countries and some thought more generally: it was proposing development that avoided reenslavement via the capitalist market. It must be noted that not even the most astute and dedicated supporters of Nyerere's Declaration had as far as I know ever even mentioned what it says about Tanzanian women working much harder than men-and the profound implications of this for development."