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Meeting
of African Parliaments, Cape Town, 27-28 June 2002: Welcome
remarks by Ms N Pandor, Speaker of the National
Council of Provinces
It is a pleasure and honour to welcome all
delegates to this meeting of African Parliaments, we
are aware that for many Parliaments our invitation was
too late to allow for change of existing plans.
Nevertheless, your response has been overwhelming and
signifies your commitment to our people and our
Continent. We are humbled by your commitment and your
support for this initiative. Clearly, African
Parliaments are on the path of march, joining leaders
of African states in giving concrete shape and effect
to the imperative of African unity.
Thus far and in all our history, no true African
democrat has ever rejected the ideal of African unity
and the desire for African development and progress.
Parliaments as the direct expression of the will of
the people, are best placed to take up tasks that
arise from the plans Africans have begun to shape.
Since the extraordinary Summit of Sirte we have
witnessed a renewed energy in Africans; a
determination that the hopes and aspirations of
historic leaders of Africans in Africa and in the
diaspora will be realised.
When historians reflect on these developments in
this new century, they will place them beside the
contributions of leaders and thinkers who are valued
as having consistently voiced their belief that Africa
can and should be great.
Among these Marcus Garvey and WEB Du Bois will
feature. It is worth reflecting on the contribution of
these thinkers to the ideal of Pan Africanism. They
will both always be associated with "Back to
Africa movement'. They were both activists and
organizers with the vision of removing European
domination in Africa.
Du Bois exercised his influence through the power,
of his pen. For over half a century he was in the
forefront of every campaign for the advancement of
African-Americans. But he also developed a dynamic
political philosophy and guide to action for Africans
in Africa who were laying the foundations of national
liberation organizations. Although Du Bois was not the
first to have a vision of a Pan-African movement, he
gave the dream shape and it became a theme I the basic
ideology of emergent African nationalism. It was Du
Bois who became associated with the founding notions
of 'father' of Pan-Africanism.
The Pan-African congresses were the seed from which
the Organisation of African Unity grew. And we are
here to replant that seed in the African Union and the
Pan-African Parliament. We are here to make history.
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