Dr. Eze on Africa day

While the Dutch government is discussing huge cuts in development aid, hopefully the ruling parties don’t ignore this interesting discussion. It was during the Africa day in Amsterdam that scholar in African Philosophy Michael Eze, Dr.Phil, Ph.D. and the Secretary General of Foreign Affairs Christiaan Rebergen had a conversation about the Africa strategy. According to Dr. Eze, dialogue and collaboration, mutual learning and relationship building all take place at civil society level, not between multilateral governments. Civil society connections are extremely important for people in this world to understand each other.

Dr. Melle Leenstra, Chief knowledge and inspiration Officer Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shares some of his take aways on LinkedIn:

“One of those conversations worth having…

During the annual Foundation Max van der Stoel (FMS) Africa day, Michael Eze, Dr.Phil, Ph.D. a scholar in African philosophy and political history shared his thoughts with Secretary General Christiaan Rebergen of Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken on our Africa Strategy.

African philosophy: ‘Ubuntu’ teaches us, in the words of professor Michael: I am, because you are. This puts human relations central to our existence. To extrapolate: the Netherlands is because Africa is. Our existence depends on them.
Relations between Africa and the Netherlands have not always been based on equality. To change that we have to search for a shared future based on shared aspirations, shared interests and shared solutions for shared problems. But this is not easy as the Netherlands and Africa numerically are not equal: 18 million versus 1.2 billion people and economically…

African states as prison yards
Professor Eze noted that our Africa Strategy focused much on Europe-Africa multilateral relations, while the African nation state itself is problematic. From an African popular perspective African states can be seen as prison yards to keep people in and hamper their mobility-based aspirations. Multilateral fora for such states are mere talking shops distant from peoples’ realities. Michael urged us not to hide behind multilateralism, but to show who we are as the Netherlands, for instance by cooperating in the field of agriculture.
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Permanent dialogue
The conclusion for me was that continued, even permanent dialogue is essential for us to realize our shared humanity. As the professor told his students, ‘drink a coffee with someone you don’t like’. To formulate and implement our Africa Strategy we have drunk and served a lot of coffee. Perhaps we have not heard everyone, as Paul Mbikayi reminded us. We have time, suberi kidogo, bwana. Nitalete kahawa!”