Thabo Mbeki
12 December 2008
Esteemed President of the All Africa Conference of Churches,
Esteemed General Secretary of the AACC,
Distinguished delegates and friends:
I would like to thank you most sincerely for giving me the opportunity to attend and speak at this important Assembly of the Christians of Africa.
Millions across our Continent look forward to the outcome of your deliberations.
This is because for many decades, the AACC has stood out as a Messenger of Hope even during times when developments on our Continent suggested that these millions had no choice but to surrender to Despair.
The distinguished delegates will remember better than I, the message issued by the First General Assembly of the AACC in 1963, which included the prophetic observation:
"The continent of Africa will see unparalleled events and changes during the rest of the century, welcomed by some, feared by others. We pray that the Christian Church of Africa will play its role as champion, teacher, counsellor and shepherd during the crucial years."
Accordingly, as you gathered in this great African city at the beginning of this week, the millions of Africans I spoke about were confident that you would emerge from here having taken the decisions that would further empower the AACC and the African Church to discharge their obligation to act as our champion, teacher, counsellor and shepherd during the challenging years ahead.
As I began writing this Address, I noticed that to inspire and guide your important work, you had chosen the text in the Gospel According to St John
11:43: "Then Jesus shouted, 'Lazarus, come forth!'"
I must confess that I suffer from the great deficiency that I am neither a biblical scholar nor a theologian. However the question kept recurring - why would the 9th Assembly want to recall this particular passage in the Holy Scriptures!
I therefore decided that the only way to answer this question was for me study John, Chapter 11, which, I am glad to say, I have done.
Therefore, thanks to this Assembly, now I know the story of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, and that of Lazarus who was dead, Jesus Christ
said:
"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep."
(John 11:11.)
Thus educated, I came to the conclusion that the 9th Assembly of the AACC did very well to choose the Biblical text as its guide - "Then Jesus shouted, 'Lazarus, come forth!'"
I told myself that you sought to communicate the message to all Africa that though Africa might have died a little, she would, by God's Grace, come forth in an act of resurrection, disrobe herself of the garments of death and Step Forth in Faith, to continue her march towards her renaissance.
In the Foreword to the important document prepared for this Assembly, "Sub-themes in the Theological Imperatives of the AACC's Ninth General Assembly", edited by our brother, Nicholas Otieno, the outgoing General Secretary of the AACC, the Rev Dr Mvume Dandala, makes the important
statement:
"As we approach the Ninth Assembly of the AACC, we must struggle with the notion of nationhood. We must find a spirituality that will bring people closer together. We are very passionate about the need for Africa to be set free from poverty and thus transforming the begging bowl to a renewed capacity to generate our own resources. We have to be passionate to talk spiritually about the exploitation of our resources. We have to ask serious questions about our own internal inhibitions."
And so it seemed to me, as I considered this important reflection, that the Rev Mvume Dandala was:
* renewing the commitment made in Kampala, Uganda in 1963, that the
AACC and the Church in Africa would be to the African masses our champion, teacher, counsellor and shepherd;
* confirming the Covenant into which the AACC entered in Yaoundé,
Cameroon in 2003, which includes the undertakings that the AACC remains loyal to the objectives to further the liberation of Africa, to find African solutions to African problems, and to ensure that the Church shall allow no abuses or misuses of African diversities by those within or without the continent; and,
* sought to help define what we meant to convey to the African people
when we cited the Biblical text - "Then Jesus shouted, 'Lazarus, come forth!'"
With your permission, let me introduce myself. I have for some decades served within the ranks of the fighters and patriots who engaged in struggle to end the apartheid crime against humanity, and thus bring to its close the long period of white minority rule on our Continent.
I have introduced myself in this manner to say that as the liberation fighters, we have counted and relied on the AACC throughout the decades of its existence, as well as the African Church, to stand side by side with us until we had won our freedom.
Perhaps belatedly, I would like to take this opportunity to convey our humble thanks and gratitude to the AACC that through long and difficult years, it stood fast as a steadfast and principled comrade-in-arms, a fellow architect of the non-racial and non-sexist South African democracy we now celebrate as our inalienable matrimony.
It is said that you cannot bend an old tree. I am convinced that, despite the temptation of vanity, which the son of David denounced in the Book of Ecclesiastes, in terms of which I might describe myself as a young sapling, I am indeed an old tree which can no longer bend without breaking.
I would also like to believe that similarly, the AACC too, is an old African tree. I am convinced that 45 years after its First Assembly, it cannot be bent away from its historic mission, without breaking and therefore destroying it.
The distinguished delegates will of course recognise the fact that as I make this statement, I must also bear in mind what the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes, that "That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." (Ecclesiastes 1:15).
Taking advantage of this august occasion, I will attach myself to the AACC like a flea. I know that nobody could ever describe the AACC as a crooked tree that cannot be made straight, or as an entity that is wanting, and therefore cannot be numbered.
Having attached myself to the AACC, I trust that I will escape the danger of being denounced as being either crooked, or altogether wanting. The distinguished delegates will therefore see the advantage of attachment to the All Africa Conference of Churches, even as a flea!
You will have guessed that I have spoken as I have about the AACC to make a simple and straight forward statement about the AACC, speaking as an old foot soldier for the liberation and renaissance of Africa, who will not bend.
I, like hundreds of millions of Africans, am confident that the message that will come out of Maputo, at the conclusion of this 9th General Assembly, is that the AACC reaffirms that it too will not bend with regard to the imperatives of the struggle to achieve the all-round liberation and renaissance of Africa!
To confirm this confidence, the 9th General Assembly identified and has discussed important sub-themes. With your permission, I will mention these, perhaps merely for the record. As you know, these sub-themes were:
* entrenching human rights in Africa;
* from political liberation to economic liberation;
* spirituality and environmental conservation;
* global Pan African solidarity;
* the church responding to HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
* women as agents of reconciliation and peace;
* the youth responding to the challenges for the renewal of Africa;
* the challenge for moral regeneration in the Continent; and,
* the challenge of urban mission.
I also mention these sub-themes because I believe that they correctly focus not only the AACC and the African Church, but also our Continent as a whole, exactly on the matters that Africa must address to achieve its renewal.
As thinking Africans, including, and perhaps particularly the distinguished delegates convened as this 9th Assembly, we know what is wrong on our Continent, in our countries and our societies.
I also believe that to a significant degree, as Africans, and perhaps particularly the distinguished delegates convened as this 9th Assembly, we know what must be done to put right what is wrong.
Together, as Africans, we must therefore ask ourselves the critically important question - since we know what is wrong, and know what needs to be done to put it right - why then are we still obliged, as we are, loudly to proclaim, "Then Jesus shouted, 'Lazarus, come forth!'"
One possible answer to this question is that we need to do a great deal more to strengthen the African agents of change, the legitimate and credible African institutions without which Africa cannot achieve its renaissance. I am proud to say that these include the AACC and its member Churches.
As a revolutionary, I know that revolutions are not possible without revolutionaries.
I am certain that you too, committed members of the African Church, know that the Christian Church in Africa cannot survive and grow unless it lets loose its barefoot adherents, the ordinary African men and women who constitute the millions of African congregations which constitute an important part of the African heritage, to spread the message of the Church throughout Africa.
I am saying that for us to achieve our most fundamental goals, as Africans, among other things we need a strong and vibrant All Africa Conference of Churches.
I am happy to say that the work done by AACC in the last five years, signified in your journey from the Yaoundé to the Maputo General Assemblies, has effectively addressed this challenge, among other things reaffirming the original mission of the AACC, centred on the call that the spiritual, social and political unity of the continent is not only possible but is also necessary.
In this regard, as you know, the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Rev Dr Sam Kobia, has said: "(The AACC has) regained its place as the pre-eminent ecumenical organisation on the continent."
During your deliberations you have endeavoured to awaken in our hearts and minds the coherent vision on which the AACC was founded. In this regard, we can never forget that the Churches in Africa and the ecumenical movement in particular have always provided moral shelter to the people in the depth of suffering, as well as those who were engaged in the struggles for liberation and the affirmation of the dignity of the African masses.
The theological and moral imperative has always been to stand up for the dignity of the people trapped by the oppressive forces of this World. But your role has not just been that of providing solace to the poor but also creating alternative mechanisms by which to transform the conditions that beget poverty!
Our Continent needs to advance towards its renaissance. The hundreds of millions of Africans demand this, conscious of the fact that we have it in our power to do more in this regard, resulting in changing the lives of the people for the better.
In this regard, I would like to believe that all of us here have a clear idea about what needs to be done to accelerate the advance towards the renaissance of our Continent.
We know that we still face the challenge of liberating Africa from the scourge of war and violence. We must together treat the question of peace on our Continent as a fundamental human right, precisely to emphasise and underline the sanctity of human life.
It is also a matter of common cause among us that war is an enemy of development. Thus if we fail in the struggle to secure peace, we will fail in the struggle to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment on our Continent.
It seems very clear that we have to strengthen our collective capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts. Among other things, this means that we will rely to an increased degree on the AACC and the Church, which must enhance their capacity to play their role as peacemakers.
In this regard I would like to congratulate the AACC for taking the initiative to establish the Great Lakes Region Ecumenical Forum. We hope that this important body will actively engage the challenge of war and peace in this highly volatile region of Africa, including and specifically the current conflict in the Eastern DRC.
In addition, of course, everything must be done to the increase the capacity of the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities to discharge their responsibilities to bring peace to all corners of our Continent.
Similarly, it is a matter of common cause among us that the central challenge we face is the eradication of the poverty and underdevelopment which continue to impose lives of misery on millions of Africans.
When we developed NEPAD, as the development programme of the AU, we had hoped that it would inspire the entirety of our Continent to do much more to accelerate the process of economic development, emphasising self-reliance, partnership within and between our countries, regional and African integration, popular participation and equal relations with the rest of the world.
I am afraid that we have not made the progress we had hoped for. Indeed, and regrettably, I believe that we have lost some of the momentum which attended the launch and detailed elaboration of the NEPAD programmes.
We must once again turn to the AACC and the African Church to assist our Continent to reverse this negative development. Specifically I would like to suggest that the AACC and the African Church should engage the AU Commission, the NEPAD Secretariat and Steering Committee, the Regional Economic Communities and our individual governments to help reinvigorate the process of the implementation of the NEPAD programmes.
In this regard, I welcome the initiative of the AACC to create a formal link with the African Union which, among other things, would bring the Union closer to the people. The formal relationship with the AU should also lead to a more intense interaction of the AACC and the Churches with the important African Peer Review Mechanism, the APRM.
Earlier I quoted a statement made by the outgoing Secretary General, Rev Dandala, in which, among other things, he said, "we must struggle with the notion of nationhood. We must find a spirituality that will bring people closer together."
This, indeed, is one of the great challenges we face. Today our Continent is faced with the shame and tragedy of a failed state, Somalia. At the centre of what went wrong, was the failure to do what Rev Dandala has advised.
To struggle with the notion of nationhood is to confront such critical matters as:
* uniting our diverse populations across ethnic, religious and other
divides, building a common patriotism;
* entrenching democratic systems that truly empower the people, and
mobilising the people to act as their own liberators;
* implementing development programmes that ensure equitable
distribution of the national wealth;
* achieving the emancipation of women and the empowerment of the
youth; and,
* entrenching a value system throughout society based on the principle
that we are one another's brother's and sister's keeper, and the "spirituality that will bring people closer together", of which Rev Dandala spoke.
In reality, what we need is a veritable People's Movement for the Renaissance of Africa, whose common platform would be based on the three focal points we have mentioned - peace on our Continent, the eradication of poverty and development, and attending to the challenge of nationhood in all its elements.
If I may leave you with yet another major task, I request that the AACC and the African Church should take the lead in mobilising for what I have called a People's Movement for the Renaissance of Africa. I am confident that both the AACC and the African Church have the necessary prestige and credibility among the African masses to play this role, to achieve the strategic and urgent objective of the acceleration of Africa's advance towards her renaissance.
Sometimes it may seem that we are surrounded by nothing but darkness.
However, at many points on the African map the light of African upliftment shines brightly. Our task is to ensure that that light of hope envelops the entirety of our Continent.
We dare not lose the possibilities we have today to realise this objective.
The conditions we have today to assist us to achieve our objectives may not exist tomorrow. If we do not act now, it may take us a long time to have the space to take the initiatives for which the African masses are crying out.
I am honoured to extend my congratulations to you, distinguished delegates, for holding this highly successful 9th General Assembly of the AACC. You have taken the necessary decisions defining the way forward. I am certain you will now act to help Africa to realise her dreams.
I wish you a safe journey home, a Merry Christmas and a successful New Year that will bring renewed hope to the African masses.
Thank you.
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