Pan African Youth Conference

03/22/2022

We are honoured and excited to have Dr. Lwazi Lushaba giving the keynote address this year.

Dr. Lushaba is a revolutionary intellectual. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa. Prior to obtaining a PhD, he was educated in various institutions including the then University of Transkei, South Africa where he obtained an Honors degree in Politics; Ibadan University, Nigeria where he obtained an M.A. in Philosophy; Center for Studies in Social Sciences and Culture, Kolkata, India where he successfully completed an MPhil.

Dr. Lushaba has been an illuminating presence at PAYC having expertly chaired the Culture and Identity Committee at PAYC 2021 as well as two Tangaaza sessions (on Nationalism and Modernity) this year.

His address will focus on the question of
modernity as a paradigm of social, political and economic development in Africa.

03/21/2022

Attempting to improve our condition in the world ought to start with an understanding of ourselves. Yet, African identity remains highly contested. But who are we, as Africans? What is essential to being ‘African’ that makes us African? How has being ‘African’ evolved through the years? How did ancient Africans understand themselves?

How did these understandings evolve with the advent of colonialism and now post-colonialism? How has this understanding evolved since?

This committee will explore the question of being ‘African’ from both historical and contemporary phenomenological perspectives, recognizing that understanding of who we are, our place in the world and how we relate to it as well as what being ‘African’ means to each of us and to all of us is critical to our efforts of self-emancipation.

03/21/2022

The topic of development is a typical feature in discussions of Africa’s future. However, no definitive consensus has been reached on what pathways to development should include, as yet. Thus, if we, as Africans, want to secure our socioeconomic future, we must first identify the scope of development we are working towards, and qualify the rationale behind our priorities. This committee will unpack the concept of development from a lens of political economy, incorporating critical reflection on the assumptions held in classic economics as well as the sociological frameworks that inform our views on the present realities of our continent and the future of the Africa we want.

03/21/2022

We must begin to reimagine our position within the gradual emergence of a global order that is not particularly different from what we have known but rather a new ordering/configuration of global coloniality. In the face of existing and emerging geopolitical contexts such as the consolidation of right-wing nationalism, neoliberal globalism, perennial austerity, wars-without-end and other “events”, there is an urgency/ need to rethink alternative modes of driving political development that simultaneously centers the domestic, transnational, inter-country and global.

Once previously received truths/existing narratives that serve certain ideological narratives have been interrogated and de-linked, we must ask ourselves; How does one reimagine Politics and Governance at this juncture?

The Politics and Governance Committee will study the political ways of life and modes of thinking, possible alternatives and imaginaries borrowing from various categories of thought as well as interrogating political ideas and concepts such as statehood, sovereignty, power, order and security which continue to (mis)inform current political aspirations.

03/21/2022

Introducing our committee session facilitators...

03/21/2022

Discussions at will take place in three topical committees. Here are our esteemed committee chairs this year.

03/16/2022

Africa is at a crossroads. Three decades of experimenting with liberalism have had the same fatal end as the dirigiste policy of the decades prior: elusive development. As last year’s keynote speaker, Achille Mbembe, acutely put it, “Old questions remain. They are still with us.”

However, the circumstances of our unique historical context have complicated the dimensions of these questions—questions of Africa’s development. In other words, as the world grapples with unprecedented technological and ecological change, as well as the transformational shift of global centers of power, Africa is at a critical juncture where her future will be determined by her response to these circumstances. Unfamiliar as they may be, the novelty of these circumstances provides us with an opportunity to revisit conceptions of development and strategies for its attainment in Africa. Both a challenge and an opportunity, this gives rise to the question and theme of this year’s conference: Which way, Africa?

Answering this question will require the disarticulation of ‘development’ and the assumptions embedded in it, and its rearticulation in service of Africa’s sociocultural, political, and economic liberation. A mammoth task, the conference will problematize modernity as a paradigm of development through the lens of a nation-state. If we are to rearticulate development in terms that center Africa’s needs, it is paramount that we undertake a concerted analysis of African nation-states as a window into the modernization project in Africa.

Both colonial constructions and the bedrock of independence movements, African nation-states persist into the present as contemporary sites of identity formation, individual geopolitical placement, and socioeconomic development where a “unifying” logic obtains alongside violence.

03/15/2022

We are excited to host you all on March 26th and 27th.

03/11/2022

Register today through the conference website.

01/25/2022

Register now on our website and notify a friend who is interested in Africa's future.

01/25/2022

We are excited to announce that registration for the second edition of the Pan-African Youth Conference, running from March 26 – 27, 2022 is now open. PAYC 2022 is organized by the African Students Association of the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with the Pan-African Students Union at Northwestern University. The Conference will bring together young people from across the world interested in Africa’s development. Prof. Lwazi Lushaba from the University of Cape Town will deliver the keynote address. Registration of the Conference is open at www.panafricanyouthconference.org.

Pan-African Youth Conference Which Way, Africa? Register Now  Participants  Nationalities  Institutions  Institutions Our Committees Politics & Governance In the face of existing and emerging geopolitical contexts such as the consolidation of right-wing nationalism, how does one reimagin...