Rationale
Right Time for Paradigms Shifts
The virulence of the current crisis of the dominant model of development brings to fore the urgency of finally getting out of this coloniality, so much decried but still heavily present, which continues to shape our behaviour, our representations and our imaginaries. It invites us to a refoundation of the epistemes through the rehabilitation of philosophies and endogenous knowledge elaborated in Africa, that Old Continent where Humanity made its first steps, ordered its first thoughts and forged its first great civilizations. The moment is all the more propitious as researchers and thinkers from South America, Asia, Africa and the West have developed a critical reflection on the different dimensions of coloniality and on the processes that have led to "epistemicides" and "linguicides" in world history. They have introduced new concepts and paradigms to help revisit historical experiences, modes of thinking, endogenous knowhow and” know being”.
Global Africa: A New Concept to Sustain Thought
All the actions and thought carried out to highlight the African presence in the world and take stock of this universal experience have led to the definition of a new operational concept: that of “Global Africa”. This concept overrides the divisions and dichotomies imposed on Africa during enslavement and colonization, which on the one hand oppose the different regions of Africa - White North Africa; Black Sub-Saharan Africa; Brown Horn of Africa; etc) - and its diasporas on the other hand.
It also questions the “essentialization” of these differences viewed as irreducible particularisms that deny Africans the possibility and right to universalism, exclusive domain reserved to Westerners.
The concept of Global Africa Global Africanity allows for the conception of a common African and diasporic history and vision free of exogenous narratives and chronologies. It opens up the possibility to restore a transversal cultural continuum between Africa and its diasporas, emphasizing different circulations within the Afro-diasporic spaces (circulation of people, ideas, technologies, know-how, etc..). It proposes a dynamic and textured mapping of African contributions to diverse forms of modernity (cultural, political, intellectual, scientific…etc).
Beyond its analytic force, the concept of Global Africa provides the grounding for the construction of a new Pan-African perspective, able to re-mobilize and channel the energy of African and Afro-descendant Youth and serve as conceptual foundation for the African Renaissance project.
The Necessity of a Think-tank to Blend Intelligences
After centuries of slavery, conquest and colonization, but also decades of misguided independence, calamitous governance and appalling followership, which partly explain Africa's current situation, it has proved necessary to set up a Forum of Reflection to rethink, from a new angle, the African and Afro-descendant presence and contributions to the world,
This is the reason why, following numerous consultations between African and Afro-descendant researchers, intellectuals, artists and activists aware of all these challenges, we have decided to set up our Think Tank AFROSPECTIVES to pool our intellectual resources and take part in global debates.
AFROSPECTIVES will contribute to the global effort of reconceptualisation and paradigms change through the revaluation and/or invention of endogenous concepts capable of reflecting the plurality of worldviews. Intellectual independence, rigorous research approaches and freedom of expression in exchanges are the foundations of the credibility of this Think Tank, which is not affiliated with any political, economic or other interest group or school of thought.
