Gender and African Youth Leadership

The year 2006 has been monumental for African young people, for the fist time in its history has the African union convened a platform for National Youth Councils and Equivalents Structures (NYCES’s) with the view to include them in the process of the drafting of a Pan African protocol, most significantly the adoption of the African Youth Charter by the Assembly of Heads of State
And Goverment gave to young people a sense of achievement and regard for their interest by the leadership of the continent. This milestone follows on the heals of both the New Partnership for Africans Development specifically its Strategic framework for Youth and the Pan African Youth charter and are drown from the following principles and expectations(AU,2006).
Policy should take into account of the changing needs of new generations, does not assume knowledge about the needs of youth.
Youth development needs to be holistic and integrated, recognizing the different needs of young men and women – New trends in international and national human development recognize the need that development should be suited to the specific needs of its intended target.
Youth development is the responsibility of governments. African Government’s policies and interventions should seek to involve young people and have a genuine consideration of their needs to enhance policy and service delivery at all levels.
Young people's participation in African society, institutions and policy making is necessary and important and constitutes a real and significant center for the continents future development.
It acknowledges that African youths are not a homogenous group and that youth policy should acknowledge their diversity, and reinforce the need for unity amongst young themselves.
We should recognize that the above are constructs, influenced by amongst other the Braga Youth Action Plan of the World Youth Forum (1998), Dakar Youth Empowerment Strategy (2001) and the World Program of Action for Youth (1996) and is informed by the outcomes of the African Youth Forum (2005), African Union Youth forum 2006 and the World Youth Report of 2005.

It is important to understand the current focus on young people and their genuine empowerment cannot be tokenistic or temporary .The fact that young people make up 30% (African Union,2006) of the continents general population and constitutes the fastest growing segment thereof is a signifying indicator, emphasizing that politicians have to pay more attention to the needs of youth not only because they constitute a significant voting bloc but also to emphasize that government planning needs to take into consideration shifting demographics. Consider the following for such a justification. consider that while Africa has the worlds fastest rates of urbanization, such urbanization unlike in Europe or South east Asia is not driven by the creation of jobs but by hordes of youths fleeing rural poverty, war and a general lack of opportunities(AU,2003). In the last two years Africa has shown in some countries economic development growth rates of upto to 6.4 %, however much of the growth in African economies has been without the creation of new jobs (Commission for Africa,2005).Unemployment in some of Africa’s emerging liberal economies such as Namibia, Botswana, Uganda and even in one of the giants of the developing world South Africa all still hover around 30%. Africans remain pervasively poor with 50% of the population living on less than $1 a day(UN hahitat,2003) The African is characterized by their relative under par levels of educational attainment and poor health (commission for Africa,2005). In the 1970’s, 1980’s and most of the 1990’s, African economies where characterized by low levels of investment in heath care, primarily because of shrinking/stagnant economies (with high levels of inflation) and pervasive conflict (Commission for Africa, 2005), consider then that this was during this time that Africa was hit by the spread f the HIV/AIDS virus and consider further that the continent was grappling with the crisis of malaria, polio, maternal and infant mortality. Again the brunt of burden fell on the shoulder o the continents increasingly youthful population.
The last decade or so has presented Africa with numerous new challenges including Universal access to tertiary education, access to information and communications technology and new phenomena such as intergenerational relations (World Youth Report, 2005). It is however expected that Africa’s share of the worlds most a marginalized youth will rise from the current 19% to 26% in the next generation (African Union, 2006). Thus the fast tracking of Africa’s future development based on an outlook sensitive to young peoples need is justified.

To that end young people are challenged to provide leadership and take this new policy framework and create for themselves tangible benefits, this challenge in particular is more profound for young women. It is important to be mindful that even though Africa’s young people constitute a significant segment of the marginalized on the continent, that the situation and future outlook for young woman is even bleaker. Consider for example that in 2002 Africa recorded the highest infant mortality rate (86/1000) In the world and further that African women have the highest rates of fecundity (AU, 2006), the emotional and psychological burden this creates for young women. Likewise maternal mortality in Africa stands at 1/16 (AU/UNFPA, 2003),

By 2004 no country in SADC had achieved its target of achieving 30% gender representations in National parliaments, in fact some had lost ground in achieving that target (Namibian, 2005). By 2006 Africa has had only one female elected to the presidency of an Afrcan state, while by this time it had some 5 young men under 35 having attained the presidency. The leadership of most youth and other structures reflect the same culture. Clearly it is evident that young women as a social force are neglected and marginalized.

Aside from providing a genuine political framework for young women the further challenge of actual participation exist. Whether organic or by design the evident lack of women in the leadership of African Youth Institutions has to be questioned and addressed. Using the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action (1995) , The African Youth Charter (2006), The African Charter on the Rights of Woman, (2003) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)specifically goals 2-6 as a springboard for this praxis.

It stands then to reason that the key and often neglected processes that allows for the genuine empowerment of young women, are their involvement in both the conceptual and implementation processes of Africa’s development and their deliberate inclusion in all such mechanism, the empowerment of Africa’s youth is needs a multi-pronged, multifaceted approach and it needs at al times to consider the precious situation for woman

It follows that in the history of such initiates such as the charter on Youth, that woman are only involved in the end stages. It follows also that women particularly young women are seldom involved at decision making and strategy development stages but are often called upon to rally behind as foot soldiers of such mechanism. This platform strives to empower young women by exposing them to the gender challenges, creating a platform where they develop strategies and mechanism for action so that participants are then able to lead and implement the outcomes of this forum. The idea is that Participants should be exposed to the charter as early as possible so that they are able to organize themselves into an action platform. This will lead to a concurrent reaping of benefits for both the continents young men and women.

When we plan and implement policy, we should strive to do so in a deliberate and conscious gender sensitive setting. As we plan the ratification and implementation of the Youth charter we should remain mindful of the important role of young women.

A PAN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE...

Joseph Zobels’s 1955 stark portrayal in La Rue des cases-negre of rural Martinique, although fictional gives an accurate account of the life and times of the life of many blacks in Martinique. So powerful was this vivid portrayal that the book was banned for many years in mainland France. It described the absurd contrast in the lives of white minority Beke’s and the impoverished existence of the majority black.
It is said that that even today some 150 years after the end of slavery in Martinique unemployment amongst blacks can reach figure of up to 60% in certain areas.
The pathetic conditions of hardships described in Zobel’s classic French novel are of course prophetic and indicative of the conditions of many continental Africans, it is also telling of the conditions of Africans whether on the Motherland, Caribbean or the America’s, it further illustrates that regardless of colonial master, colony or time, Africans and their descendents were subject to the same conditions of exploitation and subjugation.

Consider further that even in the United States and South America HIV/AIDS, poverty and illiteracy are proportionally more present in Africans descendants than in any of the other ethnic formations in those parts of the world. Many of the condition faced by those on the motherland are replicated in the Islands and the America’s; certainly this should be reason for reflection! It could perhaps be argued that because of the similar conditions faced by Africans, Africans need to have a similar and united approach to eradicate and alleviate those conditions; perhaps one could go further and suggest that the cement for this Unity is Pan Africanism.

Early pioneers of the Pan African Movement such as W.E.B.Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkrumah have since the early half of the last decade advocated and advanced the cause of African Unity. Many of the development paradigms we see today on the continent are manifestations of Pan Africanism, NEPAD, the African Renaissance movement, the AU and it precursor organization the OAU, even the celbration of Africa day, all find themselves within the ambit of Pan Africanism. It in fact stands to reason that, had it not been for the wide scale African support to the cause of the Namibian independence the struggle would have been longer and perhaps manifold bitterer. In fact some of the more decisive legal blows dealt to the Occupationist regime have been as result of legal instruments used by Liberia and Ethiopia. Further our collective memory should serve us well and remind us that even though support for the struggle was largely international, those countries that carried the brunt of the racist wrath where frontline states. Despite that, they continued too train our students host our refugees and military machinery.
The truth of the matter is that the way to the unity of the Africans is via the lessons learned through Pan-Africanism. This is why it is important to disseminate Pan Africanism through deliberate learning, so that the youth imbibe of these ideas. It is indeed curious that there are so few Pan Afrikan Centres in Africa. In Namibia we find the Pan African Centre of Namibia (PACON), which has, as one of its objectives, to ensure Pan Africanism becomes widely known in the country.

Pan Africanism, amongst others, inspired the struggle of the South West Africa Peoples Organisation (SWAPO) for national independence. Tony Emmett in his “Popular Resistance in Namibia” informs us that a branch of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) opened in Luderitz in 1921. In January 1922 a branch opened in Windhoek. People such as Mungunda, Hoveka, and Hosea Kutako were connected to the Windhoek Branch. The ideas coming from the UNIA brought together the people of the area for the first time to fight German/Afrikaner colonialism. The birth of Namibian nationalism finds its roots in Garveyism.

The seeds of Pan Africanism originated in Africa. They then crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas where they germinated in the experience of Africans under slavery. In the Diaspora, the experience was refined into a modern philosophical idea, which came back to Africa by way of a set of ideas circulated at venues such as the 5th Pan African Congress of 1945 and via the Pan African Congress series convened by W.E.B. Du Bois. Subsequent Pan African congresses have been attendted by such personalities as Sam Nujoma founding President of Namibia Dr Sam Nujoma It is only fitting therefore that our International Relations policy in practice has reflected a Pan African dimension.

It has become evident in the recent past that two types of Pan Africanism have emerged. firstly there is the branch that addresses Pan Africanism as the Political Unity of states on the continent this definition of course includes Arab states, the second and perhaps more fitting branch views Pan Africanism as the Unity of the Black(some accounts use Ethiopian or Sudanese) Africans and their descendants in the Diaspora. Many view this type of Pan Africanism as the conduit through which indigenous Africans can seek to redress cross exploitation of black Africans and the continent. Many forget that the first mass capture and enslavement of Africans took place some 800 years ago and did not happen at the hands of European Christians but at the hands of Arab Muslims. Black Africans have to find closure to that aspect of African History before a credible political Union with North Africa can be considered; let us also not forget that the crises and chronic human rights abuses of Black Africans by Arabs are the root of the conflict in the Borderlands. The war in Sudan, the conflicts in Mauritania and the hot spots in many parts of the Borderlands stem from the insistence by Arab Muslim to spread their domination southwards, for some the existence of the Arab league and the 1989 Abuja declaration by Muslims show a greater disposition by some towards religious and ethnic Unity.

Certainly if we are to address the conditions described by Zobel in La Rue des cases-negre which blacks face the world over, then certainly Pan Africanism has for our sake, to be the union of blacks and their descendants for the purpose of the prosperity and restoration of black souls and material conditions.

The argument here is therefore that formations of Internationalism and continentalism are good and important, however Pan Africanism should be our natural predisposition, because of the unique yet common history faced by black African and their descendants the world over.

The last few years have seen a resurgence in Pan African dialogue and activism, Key event to that regard are the formation of the Global African Congress at the world racism conference, the momentum in the preparation towards the 8th Pan African Congress in Zimbabwe and increased dialogue at state level amongst Africa and the Caribbean. Areas that are going to be key for cooperation amongst these states would be trade and investment, education, culture and research and then perhaps just as in La Rue des cases-negre victims of history will triumph over their ill fated past.