Meeting summary for Cooperative Repair (01/20/2025)
Quick recap
The meeting focused on the importance of redefining narratives, promoting black perspectives in academia, and decolonizing knowledge. The discussion also highlighted the historical and current state of African unity and cooperation, the role of language in African and indigenous knowledge, and the need for cultural cooperatives in promoting and preserving African values and stories. The conversation ended with a call to remember that culture is the new currency and to continue the conversation started during the meeting.
Legacy of the Berlin Conference
In the meeting, Siphiwe shared his ancestral history and spoke about the ongoing legacy of the Berlin Conference that partitioned Africa among European colonial powers. He explained that he teaches New African diplomacy from a self-determined, non-colonial perspective through independent educational institutions. Siphiwe argued that to understand current events, one must examine the historical context like the "Scramble for Africa" that led to the Berlin Conference and its lasting impacts today.
African Unity and Neocolonialism Discussed
In the meeting, Oihaneamurrio and Siphiwe discussed the historical and current state of African unity and cooperation. Siphiwe clarified that prior to the Berlin Conference, there was no continental African unity, and the conference brought a level of cooperation but it was mandated and dictated by foreigners. He emphasized the need for African countries to unite and take control of their resources, rather than relying on foreign aid. Thabang added that neocolonialism is the new form of colonialism, happening through economics, and that African countries need to unite to take back what belongs to them. The conversation concluded with the importance of cultural cooperatives in promoting and preserving African values and stories
Language, Knowledge, and Pan-African Cooperation
In the meeting, Emmanuel, Oihan, and Siphiwe discussed the role of language in African and indigenous knowledge, particularly in the context of cooperative repair and reparatory justice. They emphasized the importance of preserving indigenous languages to access millennia of knowledge embedded in DNA. Siphiwe also highlighted the role of young people in creating dynamic content for social media to compete with established media and support pan-African organizations. The group also discussed the need for young people to take ownership of their time in history and enact cooperative repair.