Pan-Africanism
Projecting a future can provide agency to realise what is selected to be addressed or do the exact opposite. Instead of projecting a future, what may be more sensible is to create a future by making it change both the makers as well as the destination.
In this OAU/AU@50 Jubilee, the question of whether Africans know where they have been, where they are now and where they are able to go is critical to reflect upon and to chart a future that will close all varieties of coloniality for good and open a free, prosperous, spiritual, humane and free and independent future.
Africa's new relationship with the rest of the world will be born when Africans learn to neutralise the harm that the unholy trinity of loans, aid and debt has done to them. How can Africa construct a future by creating a Pan-African monetary union to forge an integrated relationship with each other in order to relate with the rest of the world on equitable, fair and just principles and values and not through dependence and subordination as it is broadly understood to be now?
Read the full feature article.
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Released in November 2013, The State of East Africa report 2013 quickly became a hit. Why? It relived information and raised so many questions. It gave answers to the theories that the East Africans had, that for a long time remained unanswered. The report has made stops in all of the East African cities, it has been handed over to the civil society, government and the general public.
The report talks about the present state of East Africa, why the region is as it is at the moment and more importantly what this means for the future. The report is published by the Society for International Development.
The report can be found online [ http://soea.sidint.net/] and is download-able if you would like a copy. I caught up with one of the authors Mr Aidan Ayekuze and we had a brief chat.
Read the full feature article.
The Youth Must Pay Attention to Their Social Perception and Environment
by Nkhensani Valoyi
So much is happening amongst the Youth of Africa, the high unemployment rate, the “poverty line” that we are living below, the conflicts in Africa and the hopeless Youth just to mention a few. The major stumbling block amongst the Youth though is the perception of the social environment that we are living in, the consequences of social imperialism and Low self esteem which hinders the ability to implement our dreams successfully.
It is not that the Youth of Africa can’t think but the symptoms of historic brain wash that make us to still doubt our abilities, be scared of implementing our dreams and even be comfortable in entertaining poverty. It is time to assess the self and its impact on the social environment that we are living in, time to murder the fear that is stealing from this continent’s future, time to believe that we can foster sustainable transformation. Failure to do this will result in more consequences for the future generation. The social environment that we create today and amuse is what the children will learn from us and carry it through to the next generations BUT if we change it; our continent will change as well.
Read the full feature article. 
Futurist profiles of the month
 Professor Mammo Muchie is a SARChI Research Professor at Tshwane University of Technology, Adjunct Prof at the Adama Science and Technology University and Senior Research Associate at TMDC, Oxford University. Prof Muchie answered a few questions about his perspective and on being a futures thinker.
Read more...
 Nkhensani Valoyi is a founding partner at UpRoot Development, procurement administrator at Mindset Network and blogs manager at Student Brands. Nkhensani answered a few questions about her perspective and on being a futures thinker.
Read more...
Interested in being profiled as a futures thinker on FFD? Submit your profile here.
Pan-Africanism Bibliozone
Featured in Bibliozone this month is a collection of publications related to Pan-Africanism, African Futures, African Union and Regional Integration. The selection of documents is partial and based on accessible material. Therefore, we would like to invite everyone to supplement our library with additional materials.
Publications from our FFD library: 
Various other publications are available in our FFD library on Pan-Africanism futures.
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The Future of Pan Africanism
Pan Africanism can be described as a movement of people on the continent looking to create a strong union based on passion for the continent. Well that is how I understand it.
Pan Africanism dates as far back as the year 1776. At the time, it was created or built to fight the slave trade and all other forms of colonialism. In 1945, a Pan African Congress was held in Manchester, England. That meeting advanced the issues of the Africans and also went ahead to help in the decolonization of the continent politically.
The majority of young people may not know or understand what ‘Pan Africanism’ is all about but they will be quick to know the champions of the cause. The icons of Africa, even after they are long gone, are still looked up to as the fathers of nations in Africa. They all left legacies that are yet to be equaled. They fought the good fight for the deliberation of the continent and made history. They include, amongst others: Kwame Nkuruma, Patrice Lumumba and Jomo Kenyatta. They advocated for, among other things and also most importantly, the continents collective self-reliance. Their ideals are what keep them alive in the history books and hearts of many up to this day. They were young and radical in their beliefs, they withstood a lot of critics, but still pushed on.
Read the full FFD blog.
Who will tell Africa's story?
Lessons from the All Africa Futures Forum
The All Africa Futures Forum was held at Wits University in South Africa on the 26th – 28th May 2014. It started with a rich discussion but also with a lot of questions being asked on what Africa has got to do and needs to do.
There are so many narratives about our dear and lovely continent. But we have no method of qualifying what goes out and what doesn’t. We have no common stand and no common voice to date. And as such, there are so many different point of views being expressed. We have let the elite lead because they have the power and the influence, and maybe so get the opportunity to tell ‘our’ story as a continent, as noted by Dr Rasigan Maharajh. So: who do we want to tell our story to and how do we want to tell it?
All our futures and Africa
by Nadia EL-Imam founding director and CEO of Edgeryders
As promised, here's a quick update from #AllAfricaFutures in South Africa. More than ever, being here in Jozi is reinforcing a feeling of the "rich present": Internet-supported state of being in several physical, time and perception zones simultaneously. A kind of split vision of the present and future unfolding in real time.
From the various presentations and discussion my understanding is that participants are here to sketch processes and concepts, and make sense of how to align their efforts for the work ahead. The goal is to develop a shared framework for figuring out how inhabitants of the hugely diverse countries on the African continent can be involved in, and go about, shaping their trajectories into a prosperous (as defined by their own value systems and priorities) and peaceful future. There are many different approaches towards thinking about the future and they serve different purposes. I will be going into them (and the related methodological issues) in more detail in the next post.
Read the full blog.
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Must Read
Dispatched From The Frontline: Using pro-poor foresight to influence decision-making
by Aidan Eyakuze & Arthur Muliro
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Talk-@-tive
A selection of quotes about Pan-Africanism.
“The day will come when History will speak... Africa will write its own history… It will be a history of glory and dignity."
Patrice Émery Lumumba
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Videophile
Our selection of videos on: Pan-Africanism
Including videos from The Oxford University African Society Conference: Pan-Africanism for a New Generation.
View the videos... |
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Noticeboard
5th International Conference on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA)
27 & 28 November 2014
Call for contributions is now open.
The focus of the conference is on the potential of Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA) to "Engage today to shape tomorrow".
Read more on our noticeboard
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Futures of Technology in Africa - Book Review - 1
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development Vol.3, No.2, 2011 pp.291-294
by Mammo Muchie and Angathevar Baskaran
Read the book review.
Read Jasper Grosskurth's book " Futures of Technology in Africa"
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East Africa’s Future
