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25 April 2008
Life of Nobel Laureate and Africanist Ralph Bunche Honored
U.S. Department of State’s Africa Bureau celebrates its 50th anniversary
Washington -- Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding, the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State recently honored Ralph Johnson Bunche, a scholar, Nobel laureate, career diplomat and Africanist who sought to study and understand Africa from the African point of view.
Pearl Robinson, associate professor of political science at Tufts University, gave a keynote address highlighting Bunche’s legacy as a diplomat, a peacekeeper and an academic whose work had an impact not only on African studies but also on U.S. foreign policy.
Speaking to an audience that included diplomats and Africanists during a ceremony in February at the State Department’s Ralph Bunche Library, Robinson focused on Bunche’s work as a U.S. diplomat and his dedication to U.S. relations with Africa during decolonization.
Bunche, who died in 1971, was a true pioneer, Robinson said. He was an African American who rose from working-class roots in Detroit to become under-secretary-general of the United Nations. In 1950, he became the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for his work mediating the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
“Bunche spent the formative years of his professional life as an academic who specialized in Africa,” Robinson said. In his 1934 doctoral dissertation, he wrote that “the dominant force in modern Africa is that of change.” His work “prefigured the ethos of what would come to be called, by the 1950s, the new field of African Studies,” she added.
“Bunche recognized the need to shed light on colonial administration, race relations and the responsibilities of the international community toward dependent peoples and nonself-governing territories,” Robinson said. This continues to be of academic and policy relevance even today, as Africa continues to overcome new challenges it faces related to political, economic and social change.
Known as one of the great internationalists of the 20th century, Bunche had to overcome many challenges. Despite being orphaned at an early age when his mother died of tuberculosis and his father abandoned him, Bunche graduated first in his class at secondary school. He attended the University of California at Los Angeles on a scholarship and graduated summa cum laude. Bunche was awarded a fellowship to study at Harvard University, where he earned a doctorate in government and international relations.
Throughout his academic life, Bunche studied Africa from the perspective of the African, Robinson said. “He sought to bring the latest theories to bear on African problems and insisted on the importance of understanding the African’s point of view.”
To gain this perspective, Bunche did fieldwork in Africa, wrote about the continent and introduced courses on African studies into the curriculum of Howard University in Washington, where he served as chairman of the political science department.
Bunche’s work continues to be carried out by others who have demonstrated their commitment to Africa, Robinson said. As an example, she highlighted the work Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer has done to shape U.S. policy toward Africa under the Bush administration to improve health and education infrastructure, support subregional peace and security in Africa and expand free-market trade and investment.
“Toward the end of his life, Bunche spent a good deal of time reflecting on what it means to be a policymaker with responsibility for decisions that have lasting implications for future generations and life-or-death consequences for large numbers of people,” Robinson said.
“Bunche had come to appreciate that knowledge per se is fleeting, and that what matters is less what you know, but rather how readily you are able to absorb new information, how effectively you can analyze problems and evaluate solutions and how much access you have to locally produced knowledge that comes from sources other than intelligence services,” she added.
In closing, Robinson said Bunche discovered early on that creating change takes more than one person -- it takes the commitment of many who are willing to invest time, energy and effort.
The ceremony honoring Bunche was part of a yearlong celebration of events commemorating U.S.-Africa ties and the establishment of the department’s Africa Bureau.
President Eisenhower established the Africa Bureau on September 2, 1958. It signaled the importance the United States placed on its relations with the growing number of independent African countries, and it also showed that the United States would have direct relations with Africa, no longer dealing with Africa through European allies. The establishment of embassies followed. There are currently 44 U.S. embassies in Africa and four consulates.
For information on a 2002 documentary about Bunche, see “William Greaves, Pioneering African-American Filmmaker.”
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