By Sadique Bamwita
Kampala
Pan-Africanists from different Universities in Uganda and beyond who convened at Makerere University Main Hall, have called upon all African people to unite together in the fight against neocolonialism tendencies on African continent.
The scholars are confident that it’s now time for African people to decolonize their minds and develop indigenous knowledge that can help to solve African problems without depending on foreign influence from former colonial masters.
The call was sounded during the Inter University symposium organized under the theme:” Pan-Africanism Intellectualism. The Urgency to Defend Dignity and future of African people.”
Prof.George Godfrey Okiror from the Department of political science and public Administration at Makerere University, says though Pan-Africanism has resulted into liberation movements, political Independence of African countries and Organization of African Union (1963) among other things, the struggle is not yet done .
He has called on African people to unite as black people, decolonize their minds and begin to think as Africans.
However, Prof.George Okiror says it’s still far from achieving African Unity because of the indifferences among African people resulting from poverty.
Prof. Robert Ojambo, who heads the Department of History and Archeology at Kyambogo University, says in order to achieve lasting unity in Africa , there is need to value traditional leadership such as clan leaders saying they’re community bedrock for every society and help to create consensus.
He adds that many programs fail in Africa because of lack of consensus, emphasizing the need for clan leaders in helping to reach a consensus.
Prof. Ojambo argues that Africans have the capacity to heal all the diseases through using indigenous knowledge.
He, however says this maybe be hard to achieve due to the growing number of masqueraders on the African continent .
Prof.Ojambo recommends that for Africa to achieve African Unity, there is need to restore Africa’s best cultural practices, promote Africa’s identity and also develop indigenous knowledge that solve African problems.
Dr. Shadat Mutyaba Semakula , a Lawyer and the former Dean faculty of Law at Gulu University, believes that Africa countries can do away with neocolonialism if African regional orchestrators agree to share knowledge and learn from each other on top of promoting collaboration among African universities.
Students perspective on Achieving African Unity
Grace Mary Ampaire, the secretary for female affairs at the Uganda Students Association, called on fellow students and the youth to champion any initiatives aimed at achieving African Unity . She implored fellow students to engage actively in activities that can develop the African continent such as agriculture, technological development and formulation of good policies that can inform decision-making.
