Greetings from RepAfrika, the youth and student auxiliary fellowship of the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR). RepAfrika emerged from the initial meeting of the INOSAAR on 21 October 2017 in Brixton and held its first official meeting at Birmingham City University on 16 March 2018. Below are summary notes of that meeting including:
For more information, please contact Aissata Dhiakite (aissata.repafrika@gmail.com) or Fe Haslam (fe.repafrika@gmail.com).
Notes from Presentations
Presentation:‘RepAfrika: Development from Silos of Unconnected Groupings and Individuals into an Integrated Harmonious Auxiliary Fellowship of the INOSAAR’
Current issues:
- At the time of the meeting (16 March 2018), RepAfrika represents an amorphous and diverse assortment of individuals, some of whom are associated with certain groups, whose primary method of communication is WhatsApp.
- The existing WhatsApp group not in line with the INOSAAR, its Principles of Participation and its work; rather, it is a diverse chat group, suggesting that we have yet to achieve a true RepAfrika Youth and Student Auxiliary Fellowship of the INOSAAR.
Suggested solutions:
1. We need to start welding interested individuals into the RepAfrika structure. To facilitate this process, we need to look at different tools for integration, including:
- The INOSAAR Principles of Participation that outline the expectations, our scope and aims;
- Afrikan Reparatory Justice Action Learning that encourages project work;
- The harmonization of different projects into an Afrikan Reparatory Justice Framework to avoid problems of isolation;
- The coordination of leadership development so that each person can learn how to be a leader in their fields of endeavour and identify where their strengths lie. This avoids the problem of having an overall leader or groups of leaders (especially given that the field of Afrikan Reparatory Justice action is very wide...);
- Glocalisation of thinking and action that links the local to global in every thought and action
2. We need to explore concrete ways and means of using these tools for the organizational development of RepAfrika and its three main campaigning activities:
- Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign (SMWeCGEC);
- Global Citizenship Educational Campaign for Curricula of Pluriversality (GCECCOP), focusing on the decolonization of education and its processes and spaces, leading to educational repairs;
- OSIBISAFARI, including KENTEZURI, Movement for Afrikan Beauty, highlighting beauty in Afrikan things. The emphasis of the INOSAAR is on humanities, arts and culture.