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Almost a hundred years ago, in the year 1900, the first Pan-African Congress was held in London, England.

One of the participants was the great African-American fighter for liberation, W.E.B. du Bois. In the closing speech of the congress, entitled "To the Nations of the World'. Du Bois said:

"In the metropolis of the modern world, in this closing year of the nineteenth century, there has been assembled a congress of men and women of Africa blood, to deliberate solemnly upon the present situation and outlook of the darker races of mankind... The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line, the question as to how far differences of race ... are going to be made, hereafter, the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilisation. To be sure the darker races are today the least advanced in culture according to European standards. This has not, however, always, been the case in the past, and certainly the world's history, both ancient and modern, has given many instances of no despicable ability and capacity among the blackest races of men. In any case, the modern world must needs remember that in this age...the millions of black men in Africa, America, and the Islands of the Sea, not to speak of the brown and yellow myriad elsewhere, are bound to have great influence upon the world in the future, by reason of sheer numbers and physical contact... If, by reason of carelessness, prejudice, greed and injustice, the black world is to be exploited and ravished and degraded, the results must be deplorable, if not fatal, not simply to them, but to the high ideals of justice, freedom, and culture which a thousands years of Christian civilisation have held before Europe."

Needless to say, this quotation of course carries the sexist language of its time, despite the fact that in reality, and even at this early stage, Du Bois fought consciously for the emancipation of women.

The twenty-first century is already upon us. Time will answer the query whether another Pan-African Congress will be held in the closing year of the twentieth century, the year 2000, and at which metropolis.

The question that will face all of us then is whether it will be necessary and correct to say: The problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of the colour line.

Much has changed since W.E.B. du Bois spoke in the metropolis of the modern world. The millions of black men and the brown and yellow myriads for whom and in whose name he spoke have since achieved their political emancipation and much else besides.

We meet to discuss Africa, quintessentially the home of the black men and women whose cause the first Fan-African Congress was convened to champion. I do not know how we will conclude our discussions.

But these things we can say because they are true:

* that the peoples of Africa have achieved their political emancipation from colonial and white minority domination;
* that, in the aftermath of this historic victory, and everywhere o the continent, serious efforts were made to eradicate the cumulative consequences of the slave trade, colonialism and imperialism;
* that a good amount of what we have tried our, in a determined and well-intentioned attempt to achieve this objective, has failed;
* that what we have tried out with limited success includes:
* the establishment of one-party states;
* the resort to military rule;
* the investiture of the state with the responsibility to be the principal owner of the means of production in the domestic economy; and
* the dependence for our development on the charity of others wealthier than ourselves, counting on their altruism;
* that the peoples of Africa remain among the least advanced, within the world community of nations, in terms of their standard of living and quality of life;
* that, in many instances, three decades of independence and self-rule have left behind a trail of despoliation and regression;
* that, in this period, the disparity in income and wealth has worsened not only between ourselves and the developed world, but also within many of our countries, between those who had the possibility to use access to power to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest, who are the wretched of the earth;
* that this parasitic growth on the African body-politic is driven by its own internal dynamic which aims at self-preservation, uninterrupted reproduction and continued domination;
* that in a world characterised, in part, by the universal impact of the continuing revolution in science and technology, the globalisation of all economic activity and the further strengthening of dominant positions of the dominant, the propulsion of much of Africa to the peripheral margin of the world community constitutes a present and imminent danger; and therefore,
* that the problem of the colour line will continue to pose itself as a problem of the twenty-first century.

However, the challenge we face cannot reside merely in the recognition and acknowledgement of what is wrong. Principally it consists in answering the question correctly: What must be done to ensure that the right thing is done?

I believe that, in this instance, our own experience is our most important teacher. That experience must say to us that we would be foolish to repeat our past mistakes. Accordingly, we must find within the contemporary African reality the inspiration, the forces, the means and the methods which will ensure that we do not act like fools, but that we build on the wisdom which we derive from our follies.

The first item that we must on that new agenda is the centrality of the concept of a people-centred society, the affirmation and entrenchment in our politics of the view that the purpose of politics and policy is the promotion of the genuine all-round interests of the people rather than the acquisition of power by a social elite.

This, of course, immediately raises the question of accountable government and, therefore, the critical importance of the need to entrench democracy and human rights throughout our continent.

The appreciation of the very concept of the eradication of poverty and its proper and real integration into government policies depends, in a real way, not on familiarity with modern theories of development, but on the political commitment to the point of view that all governance is legitimate only to the extent that it both enjoys a popular mandate and serves the interests of the people.

We believe that these matters are fundamental to the rebirth of the African continent, this being a perspective which is underwritten by the very history of many countries of Africa - the history of failed experiments with alternative political systems.

As everybody present at this important conference is aware, our own country, South Africa, has been characterised by deep divisions and conflict. And it seemed to many that inevitably the exercise of power by one group had to be at the expense of the other, reflecting a situation in which the interests of the various groups were mutually exclusive. In these conditions it would be unavoidable that each group would have to eliminate the other in order to advance its own interests.

In the South African instance, we are dealing with a society which is divided in terms of race and colour, with all the consequences that derive from a long period of white minority domination.

The apartheid regime also make determined efforts to separate the people one from the other by seeking to build socio-economic systems based on ethnicity. The recognition of the inherently peaceful transition of South Africa to a stable, non-racial democracy, constituted a miracle.

A critical contributory factor to the accomplishment of the miracle derived from the position sustained by the liberation movement over a long period of time that 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white'.

If this was the case, it was necessary that we all who live in it must find a mutually acceptable accommodation, without the domination of one group by another and without anyone feeling threatened by a social process which guaranteed the freed of each individual and equality among the people.

Then we can say, without fear of contraction, that in good measure we owe our miracle to an inclusive process which brought together the representatives of section and layers of our society to define and agree on the question of what we wanted South Africa to be.

Informed by the global principle of democracy and equality, this process of the common definition of common future was therefore characterised both by its inclusiveness and the willingness among all participants to enter into compromises, based on the understanding and acceptance of the reality that all of us shared a common destiny. It is true that all this did not come about as the result of some spectacularly inherent wisdom o the people of South Africa, but was the result of a set of historical circumstances which, in reality, left all of us with no choice but to find a commonly acceptable settlement.

Understanding the need continuously to sustain such a settlement, institutions have been or will be established further to make possible inclusive processes in the determination of national policy. I would like to mention only two institutions in this regard.

One of these, which is yet to be established, is provided for in our Constitution. This is the Commission for the Protection of Language Cultural and Religious Rights. This was born out of the recognition that, indeed, the South African populations made up of different language, cultural and religious groups, and that normal democratic practice may not be sufficient to address the tensions that may arise out of the fact of such composition.

The second institution I would like to mention, and which is functioning already, is called the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC). The council is made up of representatives of government, labour, business and non-governmental and community-based organisations. It therefore has a great possibility to ensure the accommodation of potentially conflicting interests within policies and programmes, which contribute to national cohesion and unity.

I have spoken of the South African experience because it I born of ht common African resolve to overcome the problems of the past and to achieve its rebirth. Clearly, each one of our countries has its specific features and must find its own path to that rebirth. Experiences, including our own, cannot simply be transposed from one country to another. Nevertheless, it is true that certain commonalties among ourselves, as African countries, enable us to draw lessons from what has happened to each one of us.

And to that extent, I believe that the South African experience, like that of other countries, has relevance to the solution of problems that continue to afflict many of our countries, even in the broadest possible terms.

In this regard, again I believe it to be true that the construction and sustenance of a just a stable society in South Africa must continue to be based on the thesis that 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it'.

Without arrogantly assuming the right to prescribe to any other, we also believe it to be true that the creation and sustenance of a just and stable society in other countries on our continent, including Rwanda, Burundi, the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and so on, must be informed by the same notion that each of these belongs to all the people who live in it.

This of course carries with it the implications we have sought to describe, including inclusive processes of change and the ability and willingness to enter into compromises in a situation in which all share a common destiny.

If we take this route, thus shall we emerge from many years of instability and a seeming inability to meet the challenges of development and nation-building without drifting into situations of destabilising conflict.

I believe that the new African generations have learnt and are learning from the experiences of the past. I further believe that they are unwilling to continue to repeat the wrongs that have occurred. I believe also that they know that the situation cannot be sustained where everywhere else on the globe the peoples are making progress in improving their conditions of life.

It gives us great encouragement that Sweden, which stood side by side with us as we fought to end colonisation and apartheid, is now engaged in a serious effort to define what it can do as a developed country, in the interests of the expansion of human dignity everywhere, to lend weight to the success of the African renaissance.

Together we will win.

<EOD>