The Schiller Institute chorus performed a spirited and lovely four-part arrangement of Nkosi Sikelel’ Afrika (God Bless Africa), which is the Republic of South Africa’s national anthem, to open the second panel of “The Emancipation of Africa and the Global Majority, a Challenge for Europe” two-day Paris conference of the French Solidarité et Progrès party.
The panel was moderated by Sébastien Perimony.
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche commenced the panel with a powerful keynote address on the “New World Economic Order Based on the Principle of the Coincidentia Oppositorum” (presented in a separate slug).
The rest of the panel’s 8 speakers, with one exception, are young Africans, drawn from South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of theCongo, Niger, and Equatorial Guinea, representing nuclear specialists, educators, historians, peace activists, etc., who spoke on how they are organizing to transform and develop Africa.
Princy Mthombeni, a citizen of South Africa, and founder of the Africa4Nuclear organization, entitled her speech, “Africa Must Go Critical,” and stated, “In the nuclear world, when a reactor goes critical, it means it has reached a self-sustaining chain reaction—power is flowing, the system is alive.… And that’s exactly what I want for Africa—for our nations to go critical. To reach that self-sustaining point where our growth, our innovation and our progress are powered by our own capacity, not by external permission or borrowed energy” She asked “What does the emancipation of Africa mean for Europe?... It means moving from aid to alliance—from seeing Africa as a beneficiary, to Africa as a co-architect of the future.”
N’godo Filomene Ebi, a doctor in Contemporary International Relations in the History Department of Alassane Ouattara University, Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), noted that until the start of the 20th Century, major projects in Côte d’Ivoire were in the hands of Western powers, mostly France, but from 1994 until 2024, increasingly, 30 major development projects were led by China, such as the Abidjian-Bassam highway, and the Soubre hydroelectric dam, a 275 MW hydroelectric power station, which opened in 2017. At that time, the dam was Côte d’Ivoire largest source of hydroelectricity. China is also working on planned and ongoing projects, such as the Gribo-Popoli hydroelectric dam, a project to improve the drinking water supply to 12 cities, and the construction of Abidjan’s fourth bridge, which has been completed. These projects indicate the large role in Côte d’Ivoire, as in many African nations, that China plays in assisting and co-directing their development.
