Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion: The Legacy of Mario de Andrade (Printed)
Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion: The Legacy of Mario de Andrade (Printed)
At the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in December 2005, Carlos Lopes presented the Cheikh Anta Diop Lecture on “Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion”, through the legacy of Mario de Andrade of Angola.
He discusses the life and times of Mário Andrade; African nationalism and its revolutionary proposals; and the triumphs and vicissitudes of Negritude and Pan-Africanism. He analyses the consequences for a country’s citizenry, inclusion and respect for identities, and concludes with implications for African intellectuals. Like Mário Andrade, who abhorred the rites associated with power and despaired at exclusionary notions of citizenship, Lopes is critical of narrow nationalism that jeopardises pan-Africanism, and calls on African intellectuals to denounce these practices in the interest of universal identity rights, based on the principle that development brings with it greater opportunities and freedom of choice.