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NorthAfricanStudiesinSouthAfrica:AResearchandPolicyAgenda 45 4 CHAPTER North African Studies in South Africa A Research and Policy Agenda Rawia M. Tawfik Introduction How is North Africa perceived in the South African research and academic institutions? What are the issues at the top of its research agenda? What approaches, methodologies and resources are used? This chapter analyses how North Africa is researched in Sub-Saharan Africa in general and South Africa in particular. It argues that by focusing on the Islamist movements and democratic shortfalls, the South African research enterprise stereotypes North Africa as a region of authoritarian states and extremist movements. Also pertinent, by depending on secondary, and mostly western, sources, South African scholars and researchers see North Africa through western lenses. This chapter suggests new topics and research areas to complement the current research agenda and ways to promote research co-operation between North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Regional integration and the role of academia in addressing knowledge gaps A profound process of regional integration should not be based solely on economic mercantilist or political symbolic aspects. It has to include building a social constituency that supports and pushes forward the integration process. Academics and intellectuals are an important part of this constituency. The importance of building cross-regional intellectual and research networks and the role of intellectuals in shaping the integration agenda have, however, been under-researched. Although the post-cold war wave of regionalism, which is referred to as ‘neo-regionalism,’ is meant to be multi-dimensional,1 integration endeavours still overwhelmingly focus on economic aspects.2 Few studies and research assemblies discuss the role of intellectuals in regional integration in different parts of the world. On the top of the roles of intelligentsia, as reflected in these discussions, is theorising on the approach and pace of integration. After designing a blueprint for regional integration, the responsibility of the intellectuals, research communities and think tanks is to convince the political actors of the benefits of this blueprint. Through their knowledge, these actors impact how decision-makers perceive the integration process and bring politicians to accept its requirements, including giving-up part of their power to a regional supra-national body, if required.3 On the African continent, intellectuals have engaged since the beginning of the 20th century and increasingly in the post-independence era in discussions about the thrust and future of regional integration. In the 1950s and 1960s, African intellectuals debated the pan-African proposals put forward by the three groups of states (the Monrovia, Brazaville and Casablanca 46 RegionalIntegrationinAfrica:BridgingtheNorth-Sub-SaharanDivide groups). By the end of the century, Qaddafi’s ‘United States of Africa’ and Mbeki’s ‘African Renaissance’ and its programme of action, Nepad, revived research on African integration. The new structures and initiatives of continental governance in Africa do not ignore the role of the intelligentsia in the integration process. The African Union (AU) convened its first conference of intellectuals of Africa in 2004 to discuss Africa’s integration and renaissance. The conference discussed the reasons that contributed to the failure of pan-Africanism in the past and the bases of its renewal.4 Champions of African renaissance have often referred to the role of intellectuals in finding African solutions to African problems.5 But what is expected from the African intellectuals is much more than theorising on regional integration and marketing its benefits. Developing the knowledge on different regions and countries of the continent and encouraging interactions between research communities from these regions are part and parcel of the process of continental integration . Given the rich diversity of social, political and economic systems in different African countries, this is an important and often negligible aspect as far as regional integration in Africa is concerned. Particularly interesting, there is a need to look into the trans-Saharan intellectual exchanges that have been taking place for several decades. Few studies have focused on documenting and examining the impact of these exchanges. There has been a particular interest in investigating the influence of the North African Islamic movements on Sub-Saharan Africa. In their search for an alternative to the western model and an answer to challenges to democracy , development and nation-building in their countries, a number of intellectuals have looked into how Islamic thought can be relevant to Africa. Some studies have also referred to the impact of the thought of the extremist movements in North Africa, especially in Algeria and Sudan, on some movements in Sub-Saharan Africa.6 Other trans-Saharan intellectual...

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