Symposium on United States of Africa Opens

[Im The Truth]

Symposium on United States of Africa Opens
Posted by Yves Niyiragira on 07/28 at 12:15 PM

(PANA)--About 300 intellectuals and politicians from Africa and the Diaspora began a four-day symposium in Dakar on Monday on the United States of Africa with a reminder that the future of the continent lies in its political unity.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Jean Ping, said the holding of the symposium was a ‘strong signal for member states of the Pan-African organisation’. ‘Through it, I can see the will and determination showed by Senegal to help, in a constructive way, the efforts made by the Commission,’ said Mr Ping.

The chief education officer of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, Abdou Salam Sall, said it was up to the continent’s academics to be at the forefront of the fight for the United States of Africa. ‘We have to convince those who are sceptical, through a scientific line of argument,’ said Mr Sall, who added that ‘scientific rationality took root in Africa’ before it spread to the rest of the world. Mr Sall also urged African states to take practical measures that can give meaning to their obvious will to achieve unity through the lifting or reduction of obstacles linked to the movement of populations between countries.

A Senegalese historian, Iba Der Thiam, hailed the role played by ‘enlightened intellectuals for the development of Pan-Africanism’ and said he was persuaded that Africa was on the way to development. He paid tribute to the Diaspora and to some leaders in the continent as well who, at some time in their lives, backed the liberation strugg le of the continent. Mr Thiam urged the continent’s leaders to have ‘great ambition for Africa’, by achieving a political unity as wished by African populations who are the first supporters of integration.

The symposium, expected to end on Thursday in the Senegalese capital, focuses on federalism in Africa ‘in a multidisciplinary approach particularly about the constitutional, political, economic, social and cultural aspects of the federal state of the continent’.