THE spirit of the World Social Forum 2007 rose up in defiance of the logistical hitches as a result of the sheer numbers of delegates converging on Nairobi from every continent in the world.

The irony expressed by Nairobians, many of them residents of the informal settlements that ring the WSF venue in Kasarani  — because they cannot afford the Sh500 registration fee —  is that another world is indeed possible.

They include peasant communities, slum dwellers, factory workers, youth from diverse backgrounds, activists, feminists, radical intellectuals and militants, all impatient to find the instruments of meaningful change.

Ever since its inception in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil the WSF has come to represent an organised form of popular resistance to globalisation in its neo-liberal form.

However, those who are seeking direction by way of specific policy pronouncements from the Forum will be disappointed because the WSF does not exist to produce agreements or positions, but to offer a free space for dialogue and engagement.

According to Ms Fatma Alloo, a council member of the African Social Forum and the vice chair of the Zanzibar International Film Festival, the concept of social movements has not taken root despite the great potential for organising.

Alloo sees the significance of WSF 2007 representing a grassroots version of pan-Africanism.

“We are still stuck in the NGO-mentality, but with the WSF taking place on African soil, it brings home the concept of pan-Africanism that begun with post independence African leaders among them Kwame Nkurumah and Julius Nyerere,” she says. 

Another milestone for Africa and East Africa in particular is the sensitivity to engendering the WSF process in 2007.

 “Gender is at the heart of the organising process and we adopted a policy for 50:50 inclusion of women and men in the list of speakers, movements and attendance to the WSF,” says Alloo who is also a member of the WSF Organising Committee.

The organizers were particularly sensitive to have the inclusion of women at all levels of the conference especially in the area of service delivery.

This has resulted in the highly visible presence of local female entrepreneurs providing catering services. 

“Even the choice of Kasarani as a venue was a conscious decision to be in solidarity with Nairobi’s slum dwellers,” says Alloo.

However, the WSF Organising Committee has been accused by angry Nairobians of promoting exclusion by charging individual participants KSh500 (US$8).

According to Tawfiq ben Abdulla, the Chair of the African Social Forum, only 50 million of Africa’s 500 million people are actual citizens of the continent because they are born, live and die in obscurity and exclusion.

“Yet in the same breath these are the true citizens of this continent and our movements must wake up to the fact that we will not change our condition by building more houses, schools and hospitals,” Abdulla argues. “We must be able to have an impact on the policies and politics that affect us.”

The National Coordinator of the Kenya Social Forum, Onyango Oloo made the observation that the WSF 2007 was an opportunity to give an African perspective to global issues.

“We have said all along that the WSF is guided by principles but it is also an open space for all participants to exercise their freedoms of assembly and expression,” Oloo explained. “The Forum provides space for zones of controversy.”

In as much as the WSF is the antithesis to the annual World Economic Forum that gathers the world’s richest countries in Davos, Switzerland two days after the close of the Nairobi Forum, it does offer a larger than life experience for all who participate in it. The organisers are quick to make the distinction that it is not a conference, nor a network or movement but an open space for everybody.

In the briefing document to media houses two days to the start of the Forum, journalists were literally cautioned against “getting lost” in the maze of activities being showcased. During the Forum there are at least 200 activities happening at the same time.

“This is more about the spirit of the Forum rather than the format it will take,” said the Chair of the WSF Nairobi Organising Committee, Prof Edward Oyugi. 

The convener for mobilisation, Ms Wahu Kaara aptly summed up the description of WSF 2007 as the manifestation of people who have refused to die.

“The social movements participating have refused exclusion, dislocation and instead choose a live economy, a gift economy and solidarity economy over the current world economic order.”

Kaara calls for participants to make the links between their local experiences and the experiences of others from around the world.

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