HomeOld_PostsOf African think-tanks

Of African think-tanks

Published on

THERE is a universal belief that Africans are backward and as such do not use their brains.
The biggest problem is that some Africans think their knowledge has no legitimacy until it is referenced with the West.
Colonialism deprived Africans of the opportunity to ‘think’ and make independent decisions as they were over-regulated.
The colonial hangover remained in some Africans that when the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme of 2000 was initiated they did not fully appreciate it until it was endorsed by outsiders.
Many regarded it as a failure until people like Professor Ian Scoones, a research fellow with the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex in United Kingdom in 2010 ‘showed’ that the programme was a success.
Apparently for anything African to be legitimate, it has to be endorsed by Western think-tanks.
Hence without the West’s endorsement, information and knowledge is not legitimate.
As Zimbabwe hosts the Third Think-Tank Summit, such issues should be addressed and emphasis placed on the importance and value of African knowledge systems.
It must not only be emphasised but shown that African knowledge is equally good if not better than European knowledge.
The Third African Summit is running under the theme ‘Creating a Sustainable Future for African Think-Tanks in Support of SDGs and Agenda 2063’.
The summit is being organised in partnership with the African Union Commission, NEPAD Planning and Co-ordinating Agency and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
As participants share notes on how the bloc can achieve Agendas 2030 and 2063, think-tanks in Africa should adopt indigenous knowledge systems to achieve the desired goals.
These global and regional development agendas lay out an ambitious but achievable way forward for Africa; one that requires the focused effort of all of Africa’s intellectual resources to accomplish.
It is the duty of the continent’s think-tanks to map the way forward, guided by African knowledge systems.
Think-tanks are independent policy research institutions that seek to influence government policy and can play a vital role in the political and socio-economic life of a nation.
A think-tank safeguards national interests and promotes economic, social and cultural growth.
It is an institution that comprises a hybrid of professional experts who believe in upholding their country’s national interests and are guided by ethical behaviour which is governed by the State’s Constitution, national values and principles.
These individuals need to advance a national ideological philosophy, a philosophy characterised by a high sense of patriotism.
Europe and America’s imperial hegemony has survived this far because of the establishment of think-tanks such as National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and Chatham House, among others.
It is at Britain’s think-tank, the Chatham House in London that Zimbabwe’s regime change agenda was crafted.
On January 24 1999 Richard Dowden, director of Royal African Society, United Kingdom, chaired the meeting that mapped out strategy to destroy the ZANU PF Government and President Robert Mugabe.
The EU had in December 1998 resolved that President Mugabe must be removed from power.
The strategies included alternatives to using military force, forming an opposition party, inciting the masses to rise against President Mugabe and lastly dividing the party.
Since then they have already sponsored an opposition party, the MDC.
It was heavily backed financially by Western non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Much to the humiliation of the West, the MDC and other surrogates of the West were repeatedly walloped at successive polls.
As part of fulfilling the Dowden Plan, which included the psyching of people to rise against the ZANU PF Government, in 2005 the MDC organised what it called the ‘final push’.
It too failed.
At one point the Americans and the British thought a quicker way to bring about regime change was to plead with the United Nations Security Council for military force.
The strategy was shot down by Russia and China through a veto.
And the last one was to destroy ZANU PF and the legacy of President Mugabe from within.
Britain and America did not stop there but they have since then funded NGOs in the form of African think-tanks to effect the regime change agenda.
Most think-tanks operating in Africa, especially in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya are extensions of Western think-tanks.
Funders of economic and policy research in Africa are mostly international agencies – bilateral, multilateral and foundations.
How then do Africans expect Western think-tanks to safeguard African interests?
Just like Americans do not like it when Norwegians pay think-tanks to influence their government, Africans are no longer keen on the British or Americans doing the same on their continent.
It is time Africans take control of their own economic, political and social destinies.
British and American think-tanks’ extension in Africa have been dictating to governments of the day and pushing the regime change agenda.
As African think-tanks converge in the town of Victoria Falls, they should be reminded that the theory of one-development-size-fits-all applied and piloted from Europe has been debunked.
Therefore they should advocate the use of indigenous knowledge systems which offer African solutions to African problems.
History has shown that in fact Africans had their own knowledge systems in place before colonialism.
Be it medicines, education and socio-economic development, Africa had thriving political entities.
Of late, calls have been made for African universities and research institutions to take indigenous knowledge into account in their teaching and research and to view indigenous knowledge as valuable and as a way of addressing the view of Africa as an originator of knowledge rather than a consumer of knowledge.
Africans do not need the West in order to think.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

The contentious issue of race

 By Nthungo YaAfrika AS much as Africans would want to have closure to many of...

More like this

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

Discover more from Celebrating Being Zimbabwean

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading