Mr. Chairman, H. E. Mr. Thabo Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa, H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, H.E. Marko Mausiku, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Namibia, H.E. Professor Oumar Konare, Chairman of the African Union Commission, Ambassador Dudley Thompson, Renowned Caribbean Pan-Africanist, Distinguished Ministers of the African Union and the Caribbean Community, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Media,

Good Afternoon.

It is a great honour and a distinct pleasure for me to participate in this Opening Session of the African Union – African Diaspora Ministerial Conference here in Johannesburg this afternoon. On behalf of the Caribbean Community I extend to you our warmest fraternal greetings. Though our sojourn in South Africa has only been of very a short duration we have been struck by the warmth and friendliness of the people of South Africa with whom we have had an interface. I would like to thank the Government and People of South Africa for the excellent arrangements and generous hospitality provided in hosting this important meeting that brings together representatives of the African Union and of the African Diaspora. I also wish to express thanks to the African Union Secretariat which has played a critical role in conducting the Conference.

Mr. Chairman, in an address to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica in July 2003, His Excellency Thabo Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa , conceptualized the approach that underpins this initiative to bring together the African Union and the African Diaspora. I quote him: “Over the past few years, we have made bold to speak about an African Renaissance. We have also spoken of the need for us as Africans to ensure that the 21st Century becomes an African Century. In reality, we stand here today to talk about what we might do together to accomplish these goals, understanding when we speak of an African Renaissance, we speak of a rebirth that must encompass all Africans, both in Africa and the African Diaspora”.

Mr. Chairman, over the intervening years since that statement, a tremendous effort has been undertaken to turn this vision into reality. In this regard, as concerns closer collaboration between Africa and the African Diaspora, a three-phased consultative approach has been adopted. In the course of the first phase, a number of Regional Consultative Conferences (RCCs) have taken place between the African Union and the African Diaspora, facilitated in great part by South Africa.

For its part, the Caribbean Diaspora has not shirked its organizational and participatory responsibilities. These meetings, bringing together officials as well as civil society representatives, have achieved a number of worthy results. They have initiated dialogue on common challenges and helped to develop a common agenda. They have also served to deepen linkages between Africa and the African Diaspora and to strengthen partnerships. Last but not least, these meetings have identified new opportunities and mechanisms for building stronger political, social, cultural and economic relations between Africa and the Diaspora. Detailed drafts of Plans of Action based on the themes discussed have been elaborated. We have now arrived at the second phase, the Ministerial Conference, which will prepare the third and culminating phase, the Summit.

Mr. Chairman, the importance of this initiative cannot be overestimated. It was underlined by the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. The Honorable Ralph Gonsalves, in his keynote address to the South Africa-African Union-Caribbean Regional Consultative Conference in Kingston, Jamaica, in March 2005. He also highlighted the critical importance of going beyond rhetoric and taking the necessary action to implement the agreed upon policies: “This is an event of huge significance, but its lasting, and historic, impact would be realized only if we take practical, decisive steps to create the political mechanisms, with the requisite civil society supports, to effect the agreed agenda for collaboration”.

Mr. Chairman, the notion of Africanness is at the core of the African Civilisation. It is also the umbilical cord that links the African Diaspora to Africa despite the peculiar origin and history of the various components of the African Diaspora. As you know, the 200th anniversary of the end of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was commemorated this year. Though our forbears were violently uprooted from their ancestral homes and dispatched to unknown parts of the globe centuries ago and every effort made to stifle their culture, their spiritual, cultural and emotional bonds with the homeland were never lost. These bonds were passed on down through the generations to us their children of today. In Haiti , at death the spirit is said to return to Guinea, the ancestral homeland to which one cannot return physically. The original manifestations of our ancestral cultures were inevitably diluted, but leavened through contact with other cultures which they enriched to form the Afro-Creole cultures in the New World. But the notion of Africanness remained intact.

Mr. Chairman, it is therefore not surprising that Africanness gave birth to concepts such as Pan-Africanism and Negritude. Each in its own way has, ideologically and philosophically, strengthened the bonds between the African Diaspora and Africa . They are both rooted in a shared consciousness as one people with a common destiny. This is underlined in the preparatory document of the South Africa-Africa Union-Caribbean Conference held in Jamaica in 2005. It points out that Pan-Africanism rests on four pillars:

- a sense of common historical experience;

- a sense of common descent, identity and destiny;

- opposition to racial discrimination and colonialism; and

- a determination to create a “new” Africa , including its Diaspora.

Mr. Chairman, the Caribbean Community, like the African Union, has recognized the importance of forging links with its own Caribbean Diaspora. Caribbean Member States have been paying increasing attention to the importance of its far-flung sons and daughters who have retained that innate connection with the lands of their birth. Some of our countries like Haiti have a Minister responsible for their Diaspora. During the “Conference on the Caribbean” which took place in Washington D.C. in June of this year, the Diaspora Forum, preceded by a series of town-hall meetings throughout the United States, comprised a critical dimension of the undertaking.

The Caribbean Diaspora is a source of skills, expertise, resources and, not to be under-estimated, reverse cultural and political colonization in their countries of adoption. Street festivals based on the Trinidad and Caribbean Carnival are, by far, the largest of such gatherings in England and North America making appreciated contributions to the economies of their cities. Our concentrations of newly domiciled citizens can exercise political and lobbying power. We need to learn quickly how best to operate these new economic and political levers to our advantage.

Mr. Chairman, it is quite clear from the above that the conceptual basis of Pan-Africanism, despite its century-old origins and its historic contribution to the independence of our countries from colonialism, has retained its relevance. Collaboration between Africa and the African Diaspora is all the more important in the present era. The twin current processes of globalisation and economic liberalisation have led to the emergence of significant power asymmetries and economic inequalities between the countries of the North and those of the South. Indeed, the inequalities that have traditionally governed relations between the two groups have been reinforced. The assumptions that underpin what has been called “the calculus of inequality” [1]cannot, must not, remain unchallenged. To do so we will have to mobilize the collective intellectual, economic, political and cultural resources of the African Union and of the African Diaspora.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, this Ministerial Conference has a critical role to play. The rich vein of ideas and proposals emanating from the series of Regional Consultative and this Conference needs to be distilled and shaped into a Programme of Action. As its name indicates, this document must be actionable and prioritized. Implementation will be of utmost importance and urgency and will call for new instruments and mechanisms.

Account must also be taken of the special circumstances and priorities of the various branches of the African Diaspora. For example, the Caribbean Diaspora has highlighted the importance it attaches to issues such as reparations, repatriation and the deleterious impact of climate change. The European Diaspora groupings have underlined their concerns re migration, racism and xenophobia. A well-structured and incisive outcome document forwarded to the attention of our Heads of State and Government will ensure that the 2008 Summit fulfils its thematic intention, “Towards a United and Integrated Africa and its Diaspora”.

Thank you.

Contact: piu@caricom.org