Who is an African? At face value, the answer seems obvious. Surely,
everyone knows who the African is, it would seem. But the answer
becomes less obvious once other probing qualifiers are added to the
question. How is the African identity constructed in the face of
the mosaic of identities that people of African ancestry living
within and beyond the continent bear? Do all categorised as
Africans or as having an African pedigree perceive themselves as
Africans? Are all who perceive themselves as Africans accepted as
such? Are there levels of "Africanness," and are some more African
than others? How does African identity interface with other levels
of identity and citizenship in Africa? And what are the
implications of the contentious nature of African identity and
citizenship for the projects of pan-Africanism, the making of the
Africa-nation, and Africa's development trajectories? Contributors
to the volume, including Ali Mazrui, Kwesi Prah, Gamal Nkrumah,
Helmi Sharawy and Marcel Kitissou, address these questions and
more. They examine the issues of African identity and citizenship,
the politics spurned by the co-existence of peoples of different
Africanities in the same country, and the prospects of constructing
an Africa-Nation in which Africans of all hues are as sentimentally
attached to, as say, the Europeans are attached to Europe. Though
the projects of pan-Africanism and the making of the Africa-nation
have not achieved the desired levels of success, some of the
contributors found sufficient grounds for optimism: These grounds
include the deepening democratic ethos in the continent, which is
believed will unleash a love of freedom that will supersede the
fissiparous tendencies that underlie the various notions of
Africanity; and the rise of new economic powers such as India and
China, which are increasingly looking towards Africa as the next
big destination. The emergence of Barrack Obama, whose father is
Kenyan, as the President of the United States of America, also
appears to be unleashing a new wave of can-do attitude. It is
argued that for many Africans, Obama is both an African name they
can relate to, and a metaphor expressing that anything is possible
if you strive hard for it with the 'right attitude.' This 'right
attitude' is an attitude that is post-chauvinism, for it is only by
being post-racial and a reconciler that a Blackman, with an African
Muslim father, who was not born into privilege, could emerge
president of the most powerful country in the world. This lesson is
not lost on Africans and it is a powerful boost to the African
unity project. _________________________________________________
Jideofor Adibe studied political science at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, and was the first to complete a doctorate degree
in International Development Studies at Roskilde University,
Denmark. He also studied the New Economic Powers at Oxford
University, United Kingdom, and equally holds an LLM degree in
Media Law from City University, London. He has been a guest
research fellow in a number of institutes, including the Centre for
Development Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, the Centre for
Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and
the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. He
is currently the editor of the multidisciplinary journal, African
Renaissance, and the publisher, Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.
His books include The Loneliness of Exile (in Danish translation,
1995), Broken Dreams (2003) and Free Speech v Reputation: Public
Interest Defence in American and English Law of Defamation (2009).
He also writes a weekly column for a major newspaper in Nigeria.
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