An Affectionate Bonne Chance

Remarks by the Hon. David Kilgour to

Canadian Heads of Mission in Africa and

African Ambassadors and High Commissioners to Canada

Lester B. Pearson Building

Ottawa

January 21, 2002

*Check Against Delivery

At the time this meeting was being organized, I assumed that I would be playing a very different role than I am now.

J’avais très hâte de vous revoir tous afin de réfléchir sur ce dont nous avons accompli pendant la dernière année et de discuter de nos priorités futures, telles le Sommet du G8 qui aura lieu dans ma province d’Alberta.

But I’m now pleased to have you all here together so that I can thank you and tell you what a pleasure it has been to work with you over the past five years.

I’ve been fortunate to get to know many of you both as respected colleagues and as trusted friends. There have been so many humourous experiences!

Une fois au Mali, le Président Konare m’a offert une chèvre. Nous n’étions pas certains de ce que nous devrions faire avec l’animal. Par contre, la chèvre a fini par s’installer sur le gazon de l’ambassadeur Boulanger et à moment donné, elle a essayé d’attaquer ce dernier. Mais hélas, son destin lui a confié à être mangée par des enfants de la rue. Malheur de la chèvre, bonheur des enfants!

At the inauguration of President Obasanjo, several of us were standing in a cordoned off area. At one point, Jesse Jackson realized that my wife Laura was the only one there with a camera and asked her to take a photo of himself with the new President. Being a modest Canadian however - as much as I wanted to be in them - I stayed out of all of the pictures! Ever the pragmatist, Rev. Jackson made sure to ask Laura how he was going to get his copies.

Experiences have been quite touching as well. On one of my two visits to Rwanda I remember seeing what I think was the volcano that has now affected so many people in Goma. We traveled into the mountains where we met a Hutu Sister who told us that her life was saved by a Canadian Priest (who was in fact from the Prime Minister’s riding). He had resisted attackers from the very church where he was later shot to death while giving communion. I will never forget the bullet holes in that wall.

So what are some of my conclusions after five years of working on African issues?

1. That anyone who is not fascinated by and deeply cares for Africans and their continent in all of its diversity, history, and beauty is missing something very important in life.

2. That Canada, Canadians generally and our values of equality, human dignity, and respect for differences have many friends from Algiers to Cairo to Cape Town. Canadians are brothers and sisters of Africans.

3. That the NePAD (New Economic Partnership for African Development), which came up a lot in Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli last week offers a good road map for making this the century of Africa. The challenge is implemention and history will judge whether we were talkers or doers on this matter.

I share fully much in the book African Renaissance (edited by M.W.Makgoba). For example:

"Beside being the cradle of mankind and the people of the earth, Africa gave birth to the first great civilizations, the first scripture of the century (hieroglyphics), the first scientists in mathematicians, architecture, and the first territorial state."
"As we approach the end of this century, mankind, having originated from Africa, is now turning its back to Africa for moral inspiration and renewal, for the solutions of man’s complex political issues, for principles of equality and non-racism, and in the construction of modern functioning democracies."
"Again, our continent and its peoples are the laboratory and model experiment of humanity in reconciling humanity, and humanity with history. Africans, wherever they are have been champions of this."

In short, we are all Africans - and I am one to my toenails!

Thank you.