JUST over 60 years ago, between April 18-24, 1955, 29 countries from Africa and Asia held the Bandung Conference in Indonesia with the objective of building inter-Asian-African cooperation and promoting complete decolonization.

The Bandung Conference inspired the creation of the non-aligned movement and the Third World by deciding not to side with either the Western powers led by the United States or the Eastern bloc led by the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The conference also pledged not to rely on Western foreign aid but on building strong economic relations between Asia and Africa on the principles of mutual benefit and friendship.

One of the key outcomes of the Bandung Conference was the Afro-Asian hope to open opportunities for the Global South — representing largely Asian, African, Latin American and Oceanic countries — to have a voice in world affairs.

The creation of a non-aligned space to seek freedom from joining either the USA or the Soviet Union camp was a clear objective.

Though in many ways the Bandung Conference was a turning point in attempting to construct a post-colonial international political order, we still live in a world where imperialism, colonialism, war, exploitation, injustice and unfairness complicate the political and economic space.

New global re-order

What was voiced at Bandung as the anti-colonial spirit and the aspiration for building a world order that appreciates rather than ignores the Global South still remain largely unfulfilled.

We need a new and revitalized Bandung Conference spirit and a strong Global South to put on the agenda a total post-colonial reality to guide the architecture of a new global re-order.

The world is now a more unpredictable place. The Bandung Conference should be revisited to help efforts to promote and create a much-needed predictable, stable, secure, peaceful, fair, equitable and sustainable world re-order.

This would put first what was last in order to remove the cost to the disadvantaged and create the opportunity for an equal partnership on the principle of mutual benefit among all nations on earth.

Strong traditional values such as Ubuntu — the southern African concept of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity — should be promoted to create a new humane civilization that can anchor world diplomacy on deep principles that recognize and appreciate that to hurt any people and nation is tantamount to hurting all in the world.

The organized hypocrisy of world diplomacy should be replaced with Ubuntu world diplomacy.

A revitalized Bandung spirit is much needed. It would see all leading Global South members — such as China and India from Asia, Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria from Africa and Cuba and Brazil from Latin America — and all others from all parts of the world, come together on equal terms to share and care. It can inspire the world to move in the most civilized and cultured trajectory ever, offering everyone something to gain.

There is no doubt that the Bandung Conference attempted to put an alternative to Western- or former-Soviet Union dominated world order or disorder, but without succeeding to create a new world order founded on new principles and humane civilization.

But the Bandung spirit must live on and the challenge today is to construct a fully inclusive world order in which no one dominates, all are included; the weak supported, the strong restrained; and all participants have a voice.

Not end of history

There is a need to re-learn the significance of Bandung Conference in order to construct a new global architecture by creating a post-Western dominated world where all civilizations and identities converge. Reviving the Bandung spirit on its diamond jubilee will go a long way toward re-thinking and re-learning the ups and downs the world has been going through.

The world has not entered the end of history; it is in fact at the beginning of history. The world does not need to be and should not be a clash of civilizations. On the contrary it needs a new unified project to achieve a new world re-order.

Education that combines the Bandung spirit of 60 years ago with the African unity for renaissance project of more than 50 years is much needed to create a world re-order free from injustice.

We have had annual education conferences to remove the legacies of colonialism that dis-formed African-ness; to remove fragmentation and psychic dislocation by trying to promote the Pan-African unity for renaissance project identity.

The recent outbreak of Afrophobia is strange as support for the African unity for renaissance project from South Africa has been consistent and inspiring. We were very proud of raising funds entirely from South African partners. The output from the series of Africa unity for renaissance conferences should be shared so that awareness and education can reach all Africans who should not only work for a united and prosperous Africa, but also for a new world order inspired by the Bandung spirit and Africa’s own rich values of Ubuntu.

May 25 is Africa Liberation Day. We encourage all African states to make it an African education day by combining the Bandung spirit with the objective of realizing fully the African unity and renaissance project.

A world re-order is needed to save the planet. Epistemological disobedience to the current domination and a new epistemology for creating a new Bandung spirit to create a new world re-order is urgent. We conclude with a poem from Chairman Mao Zedong:

“So many deeds cry out to be done

And always urgently

The World rolls on

Ten thousand years are too long

Seize the day, seize the hour

The four seas are rising, clouds and water raging

The five continents are rocking, wind and thunder roaring

Our force is irresistible

Away with all pests!”

Mammo Muchie is DST/NRF Research Professor of Innovation and Development, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa; Senior Research Associate, Tongji University Sustainable Development and New-Type Urbanization Think-Tank; Senior Research Associate, TMDC, Oxford University,UK; Adjunct Professor in ASTU and University of Gondar, Ethiopia, and Visiting Professor Shanghai University, China.(www.sarchi-steid.org.za )

Yan Hui is Guest associate researcher, Tongji University Sustainable Development and New-Type Urbanization Think-Tank, and Lecturer of the School of Management, Shanghai University, hui.yan@shu.edu.cn

Shanghai Daily condensed the article.