Firoze Manji will be speaking on Paulo Freire's concept of humanisation in relation to the African, and more specifically South African, context o the PMB campus next week.
PLEASE JOIN US FOR
WHAT IS SURE TO BE AN EXTREMELY INTERESTING AND LIVELY DISCUSSION.
When: Tuesday 27th March, 3.30 to 4.30.
The discussion will be followed by drinks and snacks!
Where: Hexagon Coffee Shop, Hexagon Theatre
Complex, Golf Road campus, Golf Road, Scottsville,
Pietermaritzburg.
ALL WELCOME!!
Born in Kenya,
Firoze Manji is publisher of Daraja Press, a not-for-profit publishing
collective that seeks to contribute to reclaiming the past, contesting the
present and inventing the future. He is a member of the Greenpeace Africa
board. In the past, he has worked as head of the documentation and information
centre of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
(CODESRIA), editor-in-chief of the prize-winning pan-African social justice
newsletter and website, Pambazuka News, commissioning editor of Pambazuka
Press, executive director (1997-2010) of Fahamu, Africa Programme Director for
Amnesty International, Chief Executive of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK), and
Regional Representative for Health Sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa for
the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Manji has
published widely on health, social policy, human rights and political science,
and authored and edited a wide range of books on social justice in Africa,
including on women’s rights, trade justice, on China’s role in Africa and on
the recent uprisings in Africa. He has also played a seminal role in publishing
works related to pan-Africanism, through his involvement in Pambazuka Press,
and Daraja Press. As part of this work, he has, for example, co-edited Claim no easy victories: The legacy of
Amilcar Cabral.
In 2015, Manji
presented a seminar entitled Pan-Africanism:
What it was, and what it could be, on the Pietermaritzburg campus. Manji
used Cabral’s statement that “before we were African, we were human” as the
basis for his discussion, arguing that on the continent there has been a long
process of dehumanisation through processes such as slavery and colonisation.
This was both violent and resisted. Manji proposed that as a result, Africans
have a profound understanding of what it means to be human, and thus carry the
historical task of the emancipation of humanity. However, the colonial and
post-colonial process has in many countries resulted in the creation of an
elite, and a ‘licensed freedom’, in which the struggle for humanisation has
been largely abandoned. This is reflected in the different emphases of the
Pan-African congresses over time; and requires us to think deeply about what we
mean by Pan-Africanism. Is it simply presenting a united front of countries on
the continent, or of a particular racial group? Or is a deeper struggle to
regain our humanity and the power to determine our own future? Manji’s
presentation was followed by a lively discussion.
Manji will be revisiting
the campus on 27th March 2018. He will take this discussion forward,
using the work of Paulo Freire, and his concepts of humanisation and
dehumanisation. Paulo Freire greatly admired Amilcar Cabral, and frequently
referred to struggles for liberation on the continent (including in South
Africa) in his writings. He also spoke about the post-liberation context;
including in South Africa. It is this that Manji will focus on.
PLEASE RSVP: Anne Harley - HarleyA@ukzn.ac.za
