DIRECTRICES PARA LA AUDITORIA DE LOS SISTEMAS DE GESTIÓN DE LA CALIDAD Y/O AMBIENTAL

As a concept, African Renaissance is a vision that bears the hope that African people and nations shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. As a concept, African Renaissance was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a series of essays which he wrote as a student from 1949 to 1960, charting the development of Africa. These essays are collected in his book, Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in Culture and Development, 1946-1960.

However, the concept, African Renaissance, was made popular by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, during his term in office.⁶¹

African Renaissance, according to Oladipo, implies the socio-economic and cultural reinvention (or transformation) of Africa with a view to enhancing the capacity of our peoples for self-directed improvement in their material conditions and social relations.⁶² Oladipo emphasises a serious need for African renaissance in African countries. An example of African Renaissance that was widely proclaimed was the end of the unjust and repressive apartheid system in

South Africa. In this case, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki were seriously involved because, for them, there was an indication that the time for Africa’s social transformation has come. As a result, Mandela, Mbeki and their compatriots fought relentlessly for the transformation of South Africa from a segregated and repressive society to a multi-racial and democratic one.

The indication that the time has come for Africa’s social transformation has taken the form of a democratic wind which has been blowing across Africa from the early 1990s to the present times. Testifying to the inescapable reality of African Renaissance, Mbeki said: “Those who have eyes to see let them see.

The African Renaissance is upon us. As we peer through the loving glass darkly this may not be obvious. But it is upon us.”⁶³

Thus, Mbeki calls for an African Renaissance as a general response to the crisis in Africa. Mbeki’s call is timely because he calls for the liberalisation of African states and their economies; the institution of values that must replace corruption and incompetence; as well as seeking the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and encouraging an Africa-centred engagement that will promote trade and sustainable development. In this guise, African Renaissance is a philosophical and political movement which seeks to end the violence, elitism, corruption and poverty that seem to plague the African continent, and replace them with a more just and equitable order.

Mbeki’s call for an African Renaissance often highlights his famous “I

am an African” speech of 8 May 1996 to the Constitutional Assembly of South Africa where he said:

I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines.... Patient because history is on our side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalists when, tomorrow, the sun shines.... Whatever the circumstances they have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be.⁶⁴

In this speech, Mbeki pointed out what the renaissance project symbolized. He said he was starting from the beginning, and that beginning was the affirmation ‘I am an African.’ Although Mbeki did not refer specifically to the African Renaissance in his speech, he did, however, make the emotional, ideological, and political connections necessary for his call for a renaissance.

However, in April 1997, Mbeki articulated the elements that comprise the African Renaissance as including social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth, and the establishment of Africa as a significant player in geo-political affairs.⁶⁵

Advancing the crusade for African Renaissance further, Oladipo argued that for there to be renaissance in Africa, African philosophers and scholars have a role to play and that is the task of putting their intellect to use. Oladipo insists that, as a matter of fact, it is the responsibility of African scholars to bring about renaissance in Africa.

Consequently, Oladipo outlined two routes or steps to the achievement of genuine renaissance in Africa. First, is to dispel our ambivalence to the

philosophical project of modernity.⁶⁶ Indeed, modernisation is not westernisation, as many would think. Rather, in simple terms, modernisation means “the advancement of a culture and civilisation in the competitive sector...which includes those aspects of a civilisation which people can compare, determining which is superior or inferior.”⁶⁷ The second step to the achievement of genuine African Renaissance is an unwavering commitment to the creation and maintenance of the conditions for free inquiry and creativity in African universities.⁶⁸ This is important in order to enhance the capacity of African universities for the generation of ideas and the making of discoveries.

Regarding the issue of African universities raised above, Oladipo laments that these universities are beset with a number of problems. Using the University of Ibadan as an example, he points out that African universities are faced with the problems of funding, over centralisation of university administration, the sub-human conditions under which students live, lack of a conducive working environment, including staff development, etc.⁶⁹ With the cumulative effects of the above problems, Oladipo described the University (and this is applicable to all African universities) as an intellectual environment with the following negative characteristics: “A loss of spirit and confidence which has been very disabling; an atmosphere of instability and indiscipline;

deep erosion of the foundation for intellectual excellence; and diminution of the culture of dialogue and debate without which no meaningful intellectual culture

can develop.”⁷⁰

However, for Oladipo, the vision that African universities should seek should be similar to the vision of Professor Omoniyi Adewoye, the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan in an interview published in The Guardian of October 1, 1998. He quoted the Vice-Chancellor as saying that he would want a university that would be:

A centre of excellence; an avenue for scholastic discourse; a place for research feats and a university that produces an enabling environment for pure, sound and quality academic activities...an institution whose programmes would promote development activities...an institution that would be capable of mobilising the students, preparing them as prospective responsible and productive citizens... and institution that would be at the cutting edge of technology as we move into the 21^st century....⁷¹

Considering the above submissions, Oladipo noted that the University of Ibadan (as applicable to all African universities) “requires much more than material resources – important as these are – but also a lot of reorientation, among staff and students, to achieve the lofty vision articulated by the Vice-Chancellor above.”⁷² He, however, listed some aspects of the reorientation which these changes in belief and attitude should affect to include the following things, among others:

The thinking that no gesture is significant unless it is grand; the belief that every order from above must be obeyed, however stupid and pernicious; intolerance of dissent and undue veneration of tradition, which discourages initiative and innovation; the disjunction between scholarship and social responsibility or social relevance, which has led to the development of the phenomenon of the scholar as a careerist or, at times sadly, as an opportunist; and related to the above, the disjunction between reason and conscience or between knowledge and moral integrity.⁷³

With such reorientations, Oladipo is convinced that the ideal of a university will be met, where high premium is placed on the cardinal values of truth, goodness and beauty, and products of such universities would be at the vanguard of change and progress in Africa especially in the 21^stcentury.⁷⁴

From the above, therefore, Oladipo is unequivocal about the role of knowledge in African Renaissance. He submits however that development in Africa will result from the ability of scholars to make inquiry into the reconstruction of Africa, and this will be achieved via African Renaissance.