George Ngwane

Mandela South Africa

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Today, July 18, 2011 marks the ninety-third birthday of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Happy birthday Madiba. Clearly the Mandela moment is still to fizzle out. 
 
Frail, fragile and discreet, Nelson Mandela's towering presence and aura still invade the privacy of South Africa's life and, by extension, the corridors of global attention.

Election-related Conflicts in Africa

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Conflicts during elections, especially at the Presidential level in Africa, have become a special trademark. 
 

Because of the centralized systems of governance where power, perks and prestige are accumulated at the helm of state, conflicts may occur before, during and after elections depending on the content and context against which they are held.

The Liberation of Libya

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

The magnitude of mayhem meted out on Libya by the Western Allied Forces under the mask of an emasculated United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for the last three months has been unprecedented in recent times. 
 

Pulling the wool over the eyes of the world into believing that Libya is undergoing a homegrown liberation catharsis akin to the genuine pro-democracy revolution in Tunisia and Egypt, NATO has succeeded in massacring innocent civilians and in shelling the towers of Tripoli into ruin and rubble. 

From Positive War to Positive Peace: Africa’s Independence Journey

Mwalimu George Ngwane

Positive War
A war of Independence was fought by 17 sub-Saharan African countries in 1960 ostensibly with the flagship objective of overthrowing the colonial yoke that was foisted on them during the 1884-1885 Berlinisation.  It was a war that culminated in 1994 in South Africa with the symbolic erosion of the institutional structures of apartheid.  Any war that goes against the grain of structural prebendalism, any war that resonates with the legitimate aspiration of the oppressed, any war that buys into the liberation theology of self-governance and people-driven ownership is positive.

The ethnicisation of the Oil conflict in the Niger Delta

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Introduction
Most scholarly publications on the Niger Delta conflict in Nigeria attest to the fact that the proximate and structural factors are related to natural resources (oil), environmental degradation and political governance.

Yet since 1900 what is now known as the Niger Delta and which is today home to thirty-one million people, 70.000 square kms and more than forty ethnic groups presents a case on how the major conflict factors can be ethnicised hence the term ‘extra-oil’ conflict.
This essay seeks to provide the historical background of the inter-ethnic conflict, the conflict stages, the challenges faced in resolving this conflict in tandem with other conflicts and the recommendations for identity-based conflicts in the Niger Delta region.

The Panel of the Wise and Early Warning Systems in Africa

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

The concept of “Wise” in the traditional African point of view is linked to how age and experience relate to the ingredients of wisdom and counselling.  Equipped with foresight, moral authority, respect, self discipline and moderation, wise connotes a high sense of maturity often attributed to the Elderly and a high flavour of human glue needed to bond conflicting parties. The concept dates back to the village male chauvinist tradition whereby old men were required to sit under a tree during moonlight to take decisions on the village often by consensus in what is now called “the palaver theory”. The proverb ‘what an old man can see seated, a young man cannot see standing’ lends credence to the confidence bestowed on the elderly in Africa hence the motivation of the African Union to establish an institution known as The Panel of  the Wise (The Panel) within the Peace and Security Council and the fundamental urge to solve African problems through African solutions.

Beyond the Mandela Moment

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Clearly the Mandela moment is still to fizzle out.  Twenty years after his release from prison (1990) and eleven years after his brief stint as President of South Africa (1994-1999), Nelson Mandela’s towering presence and aura still invade the privacy of South Africa’s life and by extension the corridors of global attention.


A statue of Nelson Mandela stands outside the gates of Drakenstein Correctional Centre (formerly Victor Verster Prison), near Paarl in Western Cape province, February 10, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
 

Yet South Africa has to be robust enough in forging a tapestry of a post-Mandela nation at a time when the ninety-one year old icon has legitimately withdrawn to the confines of family life.

Walls Without Borders (Notes to the African Powercrat)

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

The collapse of the Berlin wall in Germany and before it the Apartheid wall in South Africa and the Iron Curtain in Russia must have shaken the foundation of the neo-liberal wall in Obama’s America today.

The flurry of appointments by President Barack Obama across party ideological divide would have to inspire powercrats in Africa to rethink the rationale of unchecked party bigotry that has given birth to powercracy, leadership tenacity syndrome and state atrophy in our continent.

Qadhafi’s New Garb

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Loathe him or love him, Muammar Qadhafi is the Chairman of the African Union Commission for the year 2009.  Qadhafi must be lucky with the number 9.  Oil was discovered in Libya in 1959; he took power as Guide of the Revolution in 1969, convened a historical pan African summit bringing together more than forty Heads of State to Libya where the idea of changing the name of the Organisation of African Unity to an African Union was discussed on 9/9/99 and in 2009 he has become the Chairman of the African Union Commission.  One of his first battles together with Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal in the just ended African Union Summit in Addis Ababa was to change the name of the African Union Commission to the African Union Authority and the name of the Commissioners to American-style Secretaries of State.   We still need to see what is in a name and in a number.

Between a State-centric and a Citizen-led PanAfricanism: A Conflict of Ownership

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

25th May 2008 would have marked 45 years of state-centric PanAfricanism within the continent.

The historiography of PanAfricanism has been one of dialectically opposing ideologies and procedural battles on the methodology and ownership of its dividends.

The Diasporan divergence on PanAfricanism from 1900-1945  epitomized by W.E.B Dubois’ integrative approach of African citizenship  contrasted to Marcus Garvey’s exclusionist “Back to Africa “ declaration.