The Mpambo Afrikan Multiversity with support from the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, Inclusion Publishing (Toronto) and the Victoria International Development Educational Agency (VIDEA, Victoria, Canada) will convene an historic event at the source of the Nile River in the great lakes basin of Africa where all human life began. Titled as ‘Confluence 2017’, the event will be held in Jinja, Uganda, from May 18-21, 2017. The founder of Mpambo and the Convenor of Confluence 2017, Paulo Wangoola, expresses the vision for the event best,
At this time of deep troubles, profound threat, uncertainty and even confusion, together with all the attendant opportunities in even greater measure, the Source of the Nile is the place to go! Indeed, since the 1970s the Source of the Nile, where all started, has been awaiting her children to return for substantive consultations. Mother Afrika being the oldest continent, she has the longest and most complete memory of human habitation on earth; and probably within her is locked the secret to survive the current crisis.
Background to the Confluence 2017
The only way the peoples of the world can live in peaceful co-existence is when their spiritualties, philosophy, cultures, values and lifestyle accommodate one another, so as to share a minimum creative base of compatibility. The abandonment by all, of the philosophy and practice of hegemonism, in all its forms, is the necessary first step towards such new global world order.
The Great Turning (MulembeMutinziCuusa-Nsi)
MulembeMutinzi, a prophecy that was received by African spiritual leaders 50 years ago has emerged in the face of a world depleting to perilously low levels, the material basis for its continued existence; that is the natural resources of the world: land, water, fresh air, mineralsand much more. We have also seen a decline in the following: the humility to recognize and celebrate the right to the self-determination of all the peoples, nations and countries of the world, love, peace, balance, harmony and reciprocity. For all intents and purposes, the domination of Western knowledge has not shown itself to be able to prevent growing inquality, injustice and risk to the sustainable survival of our planet. MulembeMutinzi signals an opening for the revitalization and reemergence of the knowledge of Indigenous people everywhere.
In 2017 those of us associated with Mpambo will have been building MulembeMutinzi for 50 years. Yet we are as well aware that we have not been the only ones in this effort, as MulembeMutinzi was the energy of awareness which the Creator bestowed on all countries, nations and peoples of the world, in their respective lands and spaces. All received the Creator’s energy and message, each in their respective cultures and languages; and it is the energy and message thatall have put to good use, each in their own time and space, and in their own ways.
A Worldwide Awakening
The peoples of the world have variously awakened to the deepening global crisis, each in their own time and in their own way, but all in search of Another World Paradigm. Examples are; the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous People, the Indigenous peoples of North America, whose recent expression of their awakening is the Idle no more Movement; the Environmental Movement whose high points have been the Earth Summit of 1992 and the Climate Change Movement; Carbon Trade; the Afrikan Movement for Reparations for Slavery; the Occupy Movement; the Post-Cold war Afrikan Renaissance; the Arab Spring; the Spirit Matters Gatherings of the Transformative Learning Centre of the University of Toronto; the Global Alliance for Community-Engaged Research; the Rastafarian Movement; theScience Shops of Europe; Inclusion Press International; the Africentric Scholarship Movementof North America andthe millions of others.
The Goals of the Confluence
1. To bring together Indigenous keepers of wisdom from Africa and other parts of the world to share vision, insight, ceremony and hope in the face of a troubled world
2. To put in full focus the awareness that for many people around the world the old world order long ago started its irreversible decline and assured end; and that what still keeps it around is not its internal strength or inherent viability, but the transformative energies and praxis around the world which are yet to coalesce and to mature.
3. To provide space for building networks of Indigenous thinkers and their allies to face contemporary issues.
4. To contribute to implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and UNESCO’s Convention on Intangible Cultural Rights and their work in supporting Indigenous Language retention and Indigenous Culture
- Celebration of the 50th anniversary of MulembeMutinzi (on the MulembeMutinzi calendar).
- A show-case of presentations, creative productions, displays, posters, brochures, ceremonies, rituals, poems, music, dance and drama, videography and photography.
- Book Launch by MpamboAfrikan Multiversity of the publications of foundation and basic books and texts on the theory, content, nature and practice of MulembeMutinziCuusa-Nsi at the Source of the Nile.
- Community visits with people in their communities and villages at the Source of the Nile who already live in MulembeMutinzi, and are busy extending its frontiers and foundations.
Please visit the conference website (https://mulembemutinzi.org/) for more information.