The true meaning of Renaissance

If the argument that globalistion is a deliberate policy by the Empire has credence, then it is obvious that there is no renaissance for Africa from within the capitalist system.

Those who seek a capitalist paradise live in an eternal false hope. Africa’s renaissance and capitalism are inherently contradictory. To be sure, capitalism has opened the door to a few thousand millionaires (even billionaires) in and from Africa, but for the vast majority of its population there is no pot of gold at the end the capitalist rainbow.

Such good luck, for the majority of Africa’s population, is ruled out historically. How is it possible for Africa to redeem itself within the capitalist nexus when the capitalists from the industrialised countries are themselves in crisis? How is it possible for Africa to win in a world where the downward pressure on profits compel corporate capital to seek its own delivery by broadening and deepening their control over Africa’s markets, resources and, indeed, even governments?

The alternative conception of Africa’s renaissance lies in Africa taking its own destiny in its own hands. Whether this will take the form of socialism or some other system, nobody knows. It is foolish to be dogmatic about this, for the first task of African leadership is to liberate the people from the forces of capital-led globalisation and oppression. This is the true meaning of renaissance. When Europe emerged out of a thousand years of darkness under the rule of a feudal system backed by the Church doctrine, its renaissance (beginning in the fifteenth century) was rooted in challenging the entire system of exploitation and oppression and exposing the Aristotelian systems of thought to the refreshing winds of science and reason. It is ironic that when NEPAD seeks "renaissance" for Africa, it is not on the basis of challenging the received body of thought or the system of the hegemonic Empire, but on the basis of integrating into that system even further. What kind of "renaissance" is that?