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Introduction to Toyin Falola’s ‘African Continentalism: The Future of the Past’

25 May 2020 | Story Prof Danie Brand | Photo iStock

We are indeed privileged to have this paper from Prof Toyin Falola to include in our celebrations of Africa Day. Toyin Falola is a world-renowned African. A scholar of African history and African studies, he holds the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin. He has published, as author or editor, more than 100 scholarly books on topics ranging from diaspora, migration, empire and globalization to intellectual history, international relations, religion and culture. He has been awarded seven honorary doctorates and has received, among many other awards, the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association, the Ibadan Foundation Award for Professional Excellence in Scholarship and the Cheikh Anta Diop Award for Excellence in African Studies. He served as Vice President of UNESCO’s International Scientific Committee, Slave Route Project from 2011 – 2015 and currently is a member of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows Programme and the International Committee of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute at UNISA.

In this wide-ranging paper, originally presented as keynote address at the Visions of African Unity (1930s – 2018) conference at the University of the Free State, Prof Falola begins with a tour of the intellectual history of ideas of African Continentalism (Pan-Africanism / African Unity), from Henry Sylvester Williams, through WEB du Bois, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore and Julius Nyerere, to Kwame Nkrumah. He then describes the current institutional landscape of African unity and present-day intellectual versions of African Continentalism. Asking, and answering the question ‘Why must Africa unite?’, he then proceeds, on the basis of a consideration of more contemporary intellectual versions of African continentalism such as Black Consciousness, Black Nationalism, Afropolitanism, and now Afrofuturism (which he depicts as ‘ideological dispensations of true African cultural recovery and re-orientation’), to propose a disaggregated approach to contemporary African unity that is not fixated on global-Northern models. This means that unity should (re)start small, working territorially from regional units toward a continental unit, on the one hand; and on the other, seeking unity and cooperation around discrete substantive themes, from the more obvious and traditional, such as economic policy, global politics and a reformed unified political and military system, to the less, such as common educational policy, synergizing science and technology with African culture(s) and language, culture and literary exchange.

We thank him for the gift.

News Archive

Official opening of Faculty of Health Sciences Rural Community Initiative

2017-01-01

Description: Karla Mostert Tags: Mail & Guardian, 200 Young South Africans, Candice Thikeson, Karla Mostert, Lerato Machetela, Mandela Rhodes Scholar, Thapelo Mokoatsi

Ribbon cutting, Prof van Zyl and Ms du Plessis
Venter (community member)

The Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Free State (UFS) has, as part of its commitment to student and community development, established a student residence in the town of Trompsburg in the Kopanong Local municipality, Xhariep District municipality in the Southern Free State. The Faculty officially opened the Faculty of Health Sciences Rural Community Initiative on 14 and 15 June 2017. The memorial plaque was unveiled by Prof Gert van Zyl (Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences) and Prof Francis Petersen (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State)

The importance of the residence

The goal of the ‘Kopanang le fodise – Unite to heal’ programme is to develop a community-centered collaborative framework for sustainable, holistic healthcare and social development incorporated in the curricula of the Faculty.

Background of the project

During 2016 a total of 324 fourth-year students of the Faculty have each spend at least a week in interprofessional groups in primary healthcare facilities in the Kopanong municipality on a Community Based Education, Interprofessional Education (CBE-IPE) platform in Trompsburg and Springfontein.

To facilitate student rural placement the former Midway guesthouse currently includes seven (7) facilitator units with on suite bathrooms, two (2) fully equipped lecture facilities, a recreation room and a library with computers and internet access. The newly developed student residence has 10 apartments that can each accommodate six (6) individuals. A housemaster resides on the premises and acts as manager of the facility. All areas of the residence are Wifi covered and 24h security service is in place.

The ceremony was attend by the following partners

University of the Free State (UFS)

Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State, Prof Francis Petersen.
Members of the UFS council, Dr Vinger and Dr Swart
Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof van Zyl.
The Head of the School of Allied Health Professions, Dr van Vuuren.
The Head of the School of Medicine, Prof Kruger.
Faculty from the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Members from UFS institutional support department: ICT, Finance, Facilities management

Kopanong local municipality

Councilor Basholo, representing the Kopanong local municipality.
Kopanong local community members
Free State Department of Education (DoE)
Free State Department of Health (DoH)

Private sector partners

Mr Burgess, CEO of MDG Heath Solutions
The Mother And Child Academic Hospital (MACAH) represented by Prof Venter, head of department of Paediatrics, donated two (2) state of the art baby scales to the rural health programme.

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