ABSTRACT
Africa as a continent finds itself increasingly left behind as globalization takes center stage. The world’s developed economies are becoming unwilling to pull Africa out of its strife and underdevelopment, and they will not continue to support it unconditionally. The time has come for Africa to take responsibility for its own development and for the contribution that it can make on the global stage and to international bodies of knowledge. There are challenges, but there are also opportunities-in all areas of research, but particularly in the social sciences, of which public relations as a discipline forms a part. While exploring the challenges of renewal that confront the African continent, scholars in Africa should take full cognizance of the changing contexts, conditions, and forces shaping Africa today (see Yieke, 2005). Issues such as African nationalism; the role of intellectuals in the African quest for renewal; ethnicity and citizenship; movementocracy and democracy; transient mobile “nations” and nationhood; the challenges of nationalism, regionalism, and the promotion of pan-African ideals as well as questions of language-all this must be addressed, also by public relations scholars.
