Pixley kaIsaka Seme and the African Renaissance debate

Abstract

In 1906, Pixley kaIsaka Seme, a future president of the African National Congress, delivered an oration at New York's Columbia University, entitled ‘The regeneration of Africa’. This can be seen as an important contribution to discourse on the notion of an African Renaissance, the history of which discourse extends from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Analysis of the discursive strategies Seme employed in his oration reveals certain contradictions in the structure and development of his argument. These contradictions are also discernible in current contributions to the African Renaissance debate, for example in South Africa. A historical trend therefore emerges, in which central features of African Renaissance discourse — especially with regard to models for social and economic renewal — may be shown to be persistently problematic.