IPS arranged a lecture of Professor Dr Yashpal Amarchand Tandon, a Ugandan-British author, intellectual and political activist of Indian descent, at the Area Study Centre (Africa, North and South America), Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad on November 29, 2019.
In his lecture titled ‘Transforming Africa in Emerging World Order’, the scholar presented a brief overview of the African region and shed light over where it stands today. The scholar told the audience – which comprised university students and faculty members of the Centre – that Africa is abundantly rich in mineral resources but it had to suffer a lot at the hands of colonial powers, which exploited its resources heartlessly to fulfil their own interests. As a result of this exploitation, majority of African states of today have not been able to develop properly. The younger generation of Africa however is energetic and progressive, and seeks to bring change in their societies.
The professor also talked at length about the importance of a developing country like Pakistan exploring opportunities for strengthening its bilateral and multilateral ties with African countries, maintaining that the African region offers multidimensional prospects of mutual growth and any such cooperation will have considerable potential to benefit all stakeholders.
The visiting scholar later also visited Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations at QAU, where the director of the Institute Dr Ghani Rahman briefed him about various past and present Asian cultures and societies while giving him a tour of a museum established within the vicinity.
It is pertinent to mention here that Dr Tandon was visiting Pakistan to participate in two international seminars on Kashmir which were organized by IPS in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, in preceding days.
