Sustainability, Emerging Technologies, and Pan-Africanism Thierno Thiam • Gilbert Rochon Sustainability, Emerging Technologies, and Pan-Africanism Thierno Thiam Tuskegee University Tuskegee, AL, USA Gilbert Rochon Tulane University New Orleans, LA, USA ISBN 978-3-030-22179-9 ISBN 978-3-030-22180-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22180-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To the citizens of a future united Africa, both continental and in the African Diaspora v Preface In 2009, while at the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory at Purdue University, we embarked on a research project that would leverage our different experiences, backgrounds, expertise, and interests with Africa as the focal point We knew at the time that we wanted to lay out our vision for the continent and its people both at home and abroad along with its vast potential and limitless possibilities We also knew that such vision would be rooted in tradition both distant and recent Distant in the sense that we wanted the foundation of Africa’s new project to be informed by its own traditions of generating and sustaining significant integration frameworks as evidenced by its ancient empires as well as its recent integration frameworks as evidenced by Africa’s attempts to come together as one in the course of its recent past with its experiments with the Organization of African Unity and later the African Union, as well as its various other regional organizations including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Perhaps, even more importantly, we also knew that we wanted to conduct this study not simply through ideological lenses but through the pragmatic, data-driven, and developmental framework by examining the potential for new and emerging technologies to accelerate both the continent’s integration and developmental prospects Then, we had a moment of hiatus when our day-to-day multiple positions and deadlines interfered with the process I assumed a position with the Institute for State Effectiveness in Washington, DC, Howard University, and the University of Maryland, College Park And then, in vii viii PREFACE 2010, Rochon left Purdue University to assume the position of president at Tuskegee University I would join the institution in December of the same year In early 2011 we renewed of our commitment to this African project as we started assessing our progress relative to the work already done After months of additional background research, as the evidence kept pointing to the original proceedings of the six major Pan-African Congresses from 1900 to 1945 at the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) of the W. E B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, we decided that I would spend time in Amherst This would prove catalytic in the sense that these original proceedings shed a new light on an already rich and complex tradition These proceedings challenge, in fundamental ways, most of our assumptions about Pan- Africanism and the Pan-African Congresses—the signature events of the Pan-African movement Despite previous arguments on the inexistence of such proceedings, what was contained in these proceedings gave us a renewed impetus to contribute to a rich and impressive body of work Such proceedings have not only vindicated key actors—both individual and institutional—but perhaps most importantly they have confirmed, in unique ways, that the Pan-African project’s most important pillar was perhaps developmental This was the beginning of our inquiry, the result of which is what we think will be a modest contribution to an already esteemed body of work on Africa with a special focus on examining the facilitative role that new and emerging technologies could play in Africa’s sustainable development Although this book is written to contribute to the scholarship, we have also made special efforts to write it in a way to speak to those with an interest in Africa but remain unsteeped in the jargon and currently scholarly debates about Africa We hope that readers will conclude that we remained true to this mission Tuskegee, AL, USA New Orleans, LA, USA Thierno Thiam Gilbert Rochon Acknowledgments In the course of writing this book, we have accumulated a great amount of debt to a great number of individuals and institutions and would like to express our thanks to all Specifically, we would first like to thank our respective families, without whose patient support this book would not have been possible We would also like to thank: • The library staff at Tuskegee University and Archives, especially Ms Juanita Roberts, Ms Cheryl Ferguson, Mr Jonathan Underwood, and Mr Dana Chandler • My administrative assistant, Ms Dawn Calhoun, whose help in the daily management of the department has afforded valuable time to devote to this manuscript • My graduate research assistant Ms Merlin Hernandez for her assistance in editing sections of the manuscript • Our colleague, Dr Clyde Robertson, whose questions have inspired insights into this manuscript • Our colleagues, Dr John Tilghman and Dr Bill Ndi, for their assistance in editing sections of the manuscript as well as in indexing the manuscript ix x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS • The staff of the W. E B. Du Bois Library Special Collections at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Special thanks to Ms Danielle Kovacs and Ms Anne L. Moore • The Purdue Terrestrial Observatory, the Purdue University Library Systems and Special Collections Contents 1 Introduction 1 Part I The Idea of Pan-Africanism 15 2 The Essence of Pan-Africanism 17 3 The Pan-African Congresses: A Re-examination 39 Part II The Institutions of Pan-Africanism 67 4 The Black Church 69 5 The Black Press 79 6 Black Institutions of Higher Learning 89 7 The Infrastructure for African Unity107 xi xii CONTENTS Part III The Future of Pan-Africanism 131 8 Pan-Africanism, Emerging Technologies, and Sustainable Development133 9 Constraints, Benefits, and Opportunities151 10 The Future of African Unification: Vision and Path163 Index181 About the Authors Thierno Thiam is the chair of the Department of History and Political Science, co-director of the Integrative Public Policy and Development PhD program, and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Tuskegee University He joined Tuskegee University in December 2010 from the Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE) based in Washington, DC. The ISE blends conceptual thought, analysis, and direct experience to rethink relations between citizens, states, and markets in the globalized world At ISE, Thiam worked on the context and extent of institutional transformations in sub-Saharan Africa Thiam’s academic activities span across several major universities, including Howard University, where he taught the Graduate Seminar in Comparative Politics, the University of Maryland, College Park, where he taught the Politics of Africa, and Purdue University, where he taught courses in International Relations At Tuskegee University, his courses include International Relations, International Organizations, and Comparative Government at the undergraduate and graduate levels and he has served as special advisor to two Tuskegee University presidents Thiam has lectured extensively around the world on democracy and democratic transitions, sustainable development and foreign policy Gilbert Rochon is an adjunct professor of Tulane University’s Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; a research scientist with Xavier University of Louisiana’s Department of Public Health Sciences; and senior consultant with MSF Global Solutions, LLC, in New Orleans, LA. Rochon xiii xiv About the Authors serves as co-chair of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network’s (ARDN) Higher Education Initiative He has presented extensively both nationally and internationally at the UNDP sponsored Youth and Climate Change Forum: Toward a Greener Africa—a parallel event of the African Union (AU) Summit in Niamey, Niger, at the Public Diplomacy for African Migrations Symposium at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at the NSF sponsored Geospatial Software Institute Workshop in Annapolis, MD, and at the African Association for Remote Sensing of Environment (AARSE) conference in Kampala, Uganda, on “Pan-African Disaster Resilience.” Rochon was the sixth President and University Professor at Tuskegee University in Alabama His prior appointments include advocacy manager, under a National Academy of Sciences grant, for the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab); associate vice president for Collaborative Research and Engagement and director of the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory at Purdue University; director of the Urban Studies and Public Policy Institute and Conrad Hilton Endowed Professorship at Dillard University; as well as an array of successive joint appointments with NASA, USDA Forest Service, Naval Oceanographic Office, and the US EPA. Rochon served as the NATO country, Science for Peace, Project Director (NPD) for the Mediterranean Dialogue Earth Observatory, now based in Morocco He was a United Nations University (UNU) fellow in Sudan and a Fulbright senior specialist in Thailand Additionally, he served on the Technology Advisory Committee for South Africa’s Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Cape Town Rochon received a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Urban and Regional Planning, a master of Public Health degree from Yale University and a BA from Xavier University of LA List of Figures Fig 8.1 Fig 9.1 The Venn diagram of sustainable development (Source: Based on New World Encyclopedia, Organizing Knowledge for Happiness)136 Africa: Natural resources (Source: CSS Analyses in Security Policy No 38, July 2008 (Center for Security Studies, ETH Zürich))153 xv