As time goes by or how far till Banjul: African citizenship aspirations

Abstract

This essay aims to introduce the general framework of this special issue as well as the contributions here gathered. A comparative reading of these contributions allows us to emphasize the relationship between citizenship and freedom and the importance of anchoring any sort of understanding in historical processes. In brief, in contemporary African realities, citizenship cannot be thought of without its implications in terms of belonging and recognition and freedom. Active citizenship – a quite popular policy motto – is not one that arises from within power or formal political systems; it is one that currently challenges them from the outside. Thus, citizenship, as a belonging and recognition regime, is not to be dissociated from freedom. The right to be still stands.

Keywords:

• Africa
• citizenship
• rights

Notes

1. For an instructive reading, please see Branch and Mampilly 2015.

2. See Bhabha (2004), Eze (1997), Chambers and Lidia Curti (1996), Chakrabarty (2000), Chakravorty Spivak (1999), Lazarus (2004), Goldberg and Quayson (2002), Guha (1996), Parry (1995), amongst many others.

3. See, for instance, Césaire (1939), Senghor (1948), Fanon (1952), Diop (1954).

4. For more details, see Mudimbe (1997).

5. Mudimbe conceptualizes the colonial library as a multidisciplinary body of knowledge that conveys a political project of otherness’ conversion.

6. A reference to W. B. Yeats, ‘An acre of grass’:

(….) Grant me an old man’s frenzy,/Myself must I remake/Till I am Timon and Lear/Or that William Blake/Who beat upon the wall/Till Truth obeyed his call/A mind Michael Angelo knew/That can pierce the clouds,/Or inspired by frenzy/Shake the dead in their shrouds;/Forgotten else by mankind/An old man’s eagle mind

(See: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I: The Poems: Revised Second Edition. Richard Finneran (org.). 1996. NY: Simon & Schuster Inc.

7. Historically, regulation and emancipation took the form of constant negotiations in order to assure a degree of compatibility between capitalism and democracy and their antagonist principles. Models of social protection and their critical reviewing were linked to debates about the scope of a given social contract and citizenship regime.

8. The social contract collapse is produced and enhanced by two other collapses: the collapse of regulation and the collapse of emancipation. In fact, the retreat of state’s functions, the demise of democracy, the depoliticizing of politics and the prominence of financial/economic spheres over political/democratic rule, are factors conducting to the dissemination of what Mbembe designated as private indirect governments (2000).

9. Mamdani (1996).

10. Ekeh (1975).

11. It includes 68 articles and it is divided in 3 parts: I – Rights and Duties; II – MEDIDAS DE SALVAGUARDA; III – Diverse dispositions.

12. Chapter Two is devoted to the issue of duties:

Article 27.

(1)	Every individual shall have duties towards his family and society, the State and other legally recognized communities and the international community.
(2)	The rights and freedoms of each individual shall be exercised with due regard to the rights of others, collective security, morality and common interest.

Article 28.

(1)	Every individual shall have the duty to respect and consider his fellow beings without discrimination, and to maintain relations aimed at promoting, safeguarding and reinforcing mutual respect and tolerance.

Article 29.

(1)

The individual shall also have the duty: (a) To preserve the harmonious development of the family and to work for the cohesion and respect of the family; to respect his parents at all times, to maintain them in case of need. (b) To serve his national community by placing his physical and intellectual abilities at its service; (c) Not to compromise the security of the State whose national or resident he is; (d) To preserve and strengthen social and national solidarity, particularly when the latter is strengthened; (e) To preserve and strengthen the national independence and the territorial integrity of his country and to contribute to his defence in accordance with the law; (f) To work to the best of his abilities and competence, and to pay taxes imposed by law in the interest of the society; (g) To preserve and strengthen positive African cultural values in his relations with other members of the society, in the spirit of tolerance, dialogue and consultation and, in general, to contribute to the promotion of the moral well being of society; (h) To contribute to the best of his abilities, at all times and at all levels, to the promotion and achievement of African unity.

13. ‘Third generation rights’ or ‘solidarity rights’ represent a rupture from the classic juridical scheme. They emerge on the second half of the XXth century and refer not to individual rights, but to the rights of human groups or to the rights of humanity (Marshall [1950] 1967). See also: Theory of the generations of rights, Huaraka (1990), Östreich (1990), Mbaya (n.d.).

14. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child was adopted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 11 July 1990, and entered into force on 29 November 1999. As of 21 October 2011, 46 member states of the AU have ratified the Children Charter.

15. The Protocol on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights was adopted in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 9 June 1998 and entered into force on 25 January 2004. All member states of the AU except Eritrea and Cape Verde have signed the Protocol, but so far only 26 states have ratified it.

16. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Women’s Protocol) was adopted in Maputo, Mozambique, in July 2003 and entered into force in November 2005. Thirty countries have ratified the Women’s Protocol as of 21 October 2011.

17. The system includes the following documents and instruments: the Constitutive Act of the AU 2000, Protocol on the Pan-African Parliament 2001, Protocol on the Peace and Security Council 2002, Statute of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council 2004, Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism 1999, Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 2003, Convention on the Prevention and Combating Corruption 2003, African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance 2007, and the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons 2009.

18. Roadmap of the main National Conferences in the Continent.

Benin, February 1990: Conférence Nationale. Main objective: Political renewal and a pledge to implement IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program.

Zaíre/RDC, April 1990: Conférence Nationale Souveraine (CNS). 3 moments: 1st one from 90 to 97 under Mobutu Presidency; 2nd, The 2003 Dialogue Intercongolais, and 3rd from 2003 to 2006. Main issue: truth and reconciliation.

Congo Brazza, February–June 1991: Conférence Nationale Souveraine (CNS). Main objective: return to the multiparty system after 28 years of one-party regime.

Somalia, June and July 1991: in Djibouti, Somali National Reconciliation Conference; 1993 the Conference on National Reconciliation; 1977 – National Salvation Council, in Sodere, Ethiopia; 2000 Somalia National Peace Conference (SNPC), in Djibouti; 2002 Somali Reconciliation Conference, in Kenya; from 9–29 January 2004, Nairobi Conference led to the Transitional Federal Government.

Togo, July 1991: National Conference. The government army the initiative the following month.

Eritreia: since 1991 several attempts to set up the National Conference on Reconciliation, all of them sabotage by the elites in power.

Niger, 1991: National Conference. Enabled the establishment of the Transitional National Reconciliation Council, a new Constitution in 1999, Legislative and Presidential elections in October/November 1999 and Municipal elections in 2004.

Ethiopia, March 1993: Peace and Reconciliation Conference in Paris, France. Another conference was being planned in Addis Ababa, but its organizers were imprisoned.

South Africa, December 1995–March 2003: Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Rwanda, October 2000: 1st National Conference on Unity and Reconciliation. It was preceded by the Truth Commission in 1999. From the conference, 4 Summits ensued.

South Sudan, 31 August–2 September 2014: National Peace and Reconciliation Conference in Wau.

Mali, January 2015 and May 2016: 1st and 2nd National Conferences for Peace.

Guinea-Bissau, 20 May 2015: creation of the Commission for the National Conference on Reconciliation; several regional Conferences were held till the 1st of July 2016. The Commission is currently organizing another National Conference.

Mozambique, 26–27 May 2015: National Conference for Peace and Reconciliation.

19. Ki-Zerbo.

20. Decalo (1991), 21.