Promoting Progressive African Thought Leadership

The much-heralded economic benefits of the neo-liberal free market economy have not materialised. Instead we see across the world, among others, growing inequality in terms of the distribution of wealth and income, which has led to such popular responses as the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US and the antiausterity demonstrations in Europe. And indeed neo-liberal deregulation to create a ‘free market’ for the financial institutions led to the world financial and economic crisis which started in the US in 2008 – the worst global economic crisis since the 1929 Depression, again in the US. Given all the foregoing, what is called for are alternative and progressive voices which are able to offer different interpretations and readings of the fastunfolding events and processes, and are also capable of questioning the prevailing assumptions and underlying logic of the Western ‘liberal order’. This is the same order that must bear much of the responsibility for the current state of despair, hopelessness, and cynicism in international relations. These alternative and progressive voices are especially important for us as Africans, given the reality that Africa remains marginalised in terms of helping to fashion these relations, despite their direct impact on the lives and destiny of the one billion Africans. This is further compounded by the weakness of the African voice even about African developments.