Throwback to one of the greatest speeches by President Thabo Mbeki, “I Am an African” (8 May 1996), delivered on the occasion of the adoption of South Africa's new Constitution, Thabo Mbeki defines African identity not by race, but by a shared commitment to the continent's future. Mbeki acknowledges the deep scars of the continent. He declares that to be African is to share in the pain of conflicts in Liberia, Somalia, and Sudan, and to bear the "dismal shame" of poverty and the world's neglect.