Reviving the Bandung spirit: A reflection on the platinum jubilee of the historic conference

TANZANIA: SEVENTY years ago, from April 18–24, 1955 to be precise, a landmark conference took place in a small Indonesian town of Bandung.

This conference, known as the Asia-Africa Conference, or more famously ‘The Bandung Conference,’ was organised by the then Indonesia’s President Soekarno.

It brought together nations from Africa and Asia, some newly independent, aiming to enhance not only political cooperation to combat colonialism elsewhere and other injustices, but also foster economic collaboration to support their fragile economies, many of which were just emerging from colonialism and found themselves embroiled in the intense Cold War rivalry as they attempt to assert their economic independence.

During this rare nonhegemonic constellation of states seeking to be part of international society but on their own terms, delegates explored common challenges they were facing and explored ways to achieve greater economic, cultural and political cooperation.

The conference culminated in the adoption of the 10-point ‘Declaration on the Promotion of World Peace and Cooperation,’ also known as “10 Principles of Peaceful Co-existence,” or more popularly, the ‘Bandung Spirit.’ The declaration outlined a range of objectives, including the promotion of economic and cultural cooperation, protection of human rights and the principle of self-determination.

It emphasised the importance of peaceful coexistence and sought to reinvigorate the focus on collaboration among nations of the Global South, with the objective of calibrating their reliance on the West.

There is hardly any equivocation among historians on the influence of the Bandung Conference in the rise and consolidation of political consciousness in Africa, particularly in the coalescence of collective efforts that heralded our irreversible march towards decolonisation.

The Conference also played an inspirational role to Africa in the sense that, it provided a self-confident image of post-colonial nations in a complex global context, by offering an alternative space unhinged from superpower rivalry.

It underscored the political possibility of nonalignment through what I would call the ‘Third world solidarity.’ Regrettably, the influence of the conference on Africa’s anti-colonial struggles has since faded, relegated to the distant past and often viewed only nostalgically.

Inspired by the Bandung Spirit and other egalitarian movements of the time, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere not only led the charge for Tanganyika’s independence, but together with his contemporaries, also played a pivotal role in the coordination of liberation struggles across the continent.

While the Bandung Conference addressed both political and socio-economic issues, its political impact was perhaps most ubiquitous. The establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961, the Group of 77 (G77) in 1964 and multilateral Southern institutions such as the South Centre (and its precursor, the South Commission), all trace their intellectual and political roots to the Bandung Conference and the South-South cooperation it inspired.

Although few African countries, namely Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana (formerly Gold Coast), Liberia, Libya, and Sudan were present at the conference, Tanganyika (Tanzania’s precursor) did not attend.

Our absence notwithstanding, the leadership role that we played in supporting liberation movements across Southern Africa attests to our unwavering commitment to the principles of the Bandung Conference. It can be meritoriously argued that, Tanzania became a torchbearer in the implementation of the political principles. This year, we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of this historic conference.

A Conference that was very instrumental in animating and shaping not only Tanzania’s, but also Africa’s political consciousness.

As we celebrate this platinum jubilee, I am struck by deep sense of déjà vu. Today, we in Africa and Asia, find ourselves in a situation not unlike that of the years leading up to the Bandung Conference caught between economic stagnation and geopolitical tension.

Coloniality remains embedded in post-coloniality. The colonial legacy and the Cold War rivalry that once defined global politics have been replaced by a new set of challenges, but the underlying issues remain remarkably similar. In post-coloniality’s collective memory, the promise of Bandung therefore remains unavoidable.

In his opening speech at the Bandung Conference, President Soekarno expressed the hopelessness felt by attendant countries, when he said: “We have been disregarded, and remained the peoples for whom decisions were made by others whose interests were paramount, the peoples who lived in poverty and humiliation.”

Perhaps the most relevant part of his remarks, when viewed through the lens of today’s world, was his observation that: “Colonialism has also its modern dress, in the form of economic control, intellectual control and actual physical control by small but alien communities within a nation. It is a skilful and determined enemy, and it appears in many guises. It does not give up its loot easily.”

The economic and political hopelessness that African and Asian countries felt then and that the Bandung Conference sought to address, mirrors the current struggles facing many nations in these regions. Despite being rich in natural resources, our efforts to utilise these Godgiven riches to our own sustenance have met with stiff resistance from hegemons.

This is not a self-exoneration for our culpability to the misery afflicting Africa, but with limited powers to withstand these overbearing geopolitical machinations, African economies continue to lag behind the rest of the world.

According to The Economist, in 1960, Africa’s GDP per capita (in PPP terms) was about half the global average. Today, it stands at roughly a quarter.

While Africa was once on par with East Asia, the latter has somehow found the silver bullet for rapid economic growth.

East Asians now earn on average seven times more than those in Sub-Saharan Africa. While, geopolitical tensions between great powers are at a post-Cold War high and Africa and many of Asian nations, because of our nagging failure to assert our agency in the current geopolitical tapestry, find ourselves relegated to the margins of the geopolitical calculus.

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It is against that backdrop; I feel that both Africa and Asia yearn for the reincarnation of the Bandung Spirit. Unlike its progenitor, the focus should squarely be placed on the economic emancipation through cooperation and experience sharing.

In this context, I exhort that Tanzania and Indonesia can yet again play viceroys of what I would call the ‘economic renaissance’ of the Bandung Spirit, very much like they did in the advancement of the political promulgations of the conference.

Indonesia, which played host then, is home to the largest in Southeast Asia, with a GDP of approximately 1.3 trillion US Dollar (2023), making it the 16th largest globally (In nominal terms and 8th in purchasing power parity terms surpassing UK and France according to IMF report in 2024). Its growth projection of 5.3 per cent, outperforms many regional peers like Malaysia and Thailand making it a significant emerging market in Asia.

Furthermore, its GDP per capita is surpassed only by advanced Asian nations of China, Japan and South Korea. These strides are outcomes of a painstaking, visionary and elaborate plan that ushered in various progrowth policies some of which were blamed by the West for purportedly promoting resources nationalism against the World Trade Organisation’s regulations.

Indonesia’s remarkable down streaming policy for example, has been the envy of many developing nations, for it has helped them to strengthen their position in the global value chain, expanded domestic employment and brought about sustained increase in their GDP.

This makes Indonesia a formidable and a natural partner to Tanzania which also boasts the 9th largest economy in Africa with a GDP of 79.1billion US Dollar, and currently walking a tightrope in balancing our domestic economic interests and international trade regimes’ regulatory compliance, especially when they are seemingly inimical to our economic aspirations.

The commonality of challenges we face today, present a unique opportunity to reaffirm our leadership in fostering not only bilateral cooperation but also strengthened ties with the broader Global South.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, recognising the Indonesia’s potential as a formidable partner for growth, continued the vision set forth by her predecessor by inaugurating the first Tanzania Embassy in Jakarta in August 2022, and immediately bestowed me with the honour of serving as my country’s first resident Ambassador.

She immediately went on diplomatic charm offensive by hosting the then Indonesian President, Mr Joko Widodo in August 2023— remarkably just one year after the Embassy’s establishment.

In turn, President Samia reciprocated the visit within a record six-month timeframe, travelling to Indonesia in February 2024 for a State Visit. In diplomatic terms, high-level visits are often regarded as the clearest of the indicators of strength and vitality of bilateral relations.

During these visits, as well as those of other key leaders, including President of Zanzibar Dr Hussein Mwinyi, in September 2024, a total of 56 Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed across a wide array of sectors, including energy, the blue economy, health, minerals, agriculture and more.

The recent intensification of economic engagement between Tanzania and Indonesia, coupled with the veritable leadership roles our two nations are playing in advancing South-South Cooperation, mirrors the instrumental roles played by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and President Soekarno in fostering deeper political relations between Africa and Asia, during the struggle against colonialism and oppression.

Even though it has become a much-hackneyed truism, but we cannot ignore this fact that Africa in many facets, is increasingly becoming more important globally than anytime in modern era.

Having abundant resources, a young population with its share of world’s population expecting to reach 21 per cent over the next decade and poised to contribute more than half of the young people entering the global work force in just 2030; economic independence is within reach, if only we will work together as we did during the struggle for political independence.

Dr Samia has demonstrated keenness on spurring the requisite economic dynamism and embarked on an unrelenting crusade to build an African consensus in favour of growth. Cognisant of the imperative necessity of energy in unleashing Africa’s growth, the just ended Africa Energy Summit in Dar es salaam with its Mission 300, is the clearest demonstration of not only her vision, but also her keenness and readiness to take Africa’s leadership mantle to address nagging impediments to Africa’s growth necessary for the continent’s economic emancipation.

With the Energy Summit’s Mission 300, President Samia in collaboration with the World Bank, African Development Bank, Rockefeller Foundation and other stakeholders, demonstrated remarkable “African-leadership-for-its-own-growth” trait by pulling off the largest Public Private Partnership (PPP) aimed at catalysing investment from private sector and other concessionary resources necessary in addressing Africa’s unremitting power woes.

This Platinum Jubilee of the Bandung Conference offers a unique opportunity for reflection on the key tenets underpinning its renaissance, as we both in Africa and Asia continue to grapple with the current wave of geopolitical tensions that not only threaten to frustrate any efforts that we embark on towards economic emancipation, but also risks upending the nascent collaborative frameworks that we have developed over time especially when they seem to contravene certain ‘geopolitical norms.’

With Asian countries making steady and remarkable growth recently, it is imperative that Africa borrows a leaf by mounting serious collaborative efforts to diversify our economic engagements outside the geopolitical rivalry to avoid overreliance on a particular block or a nation.

Bandung offers a possibility and a monumental opportunity for Tanzania and Indonesia to play a leadership role given their economic standing in their respective region.

Dr Samia has already demonstrated her readiness and capability to discharge that role and so is Mr Prabowo Subianto, the current Indonesian President, just as Mwalimu Nyerere and President Soekarno did during the struggle for political emancipation.

Indonesia demonstrated undoubted readiness to work with Africa as witnessed during the IndonesiaAfrica Forum held in Bali in September 2024.

Time is opportune to embark on the economic renaissance of the Bandung Spirit. Our leaders have demonstrated readiness and the Embassy of Tanzania in Indonesia as an interlocutor, is so ready to play its part.

● The writer is Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania to Indonesia