As part of its commitment to the democratisation of knowledge, the Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC) is pleased to make available the full text of the lecture “The Faded Footprints of Utopia: A Southern Perspective”, delivered by Argentine philosopher and academic Ricardo Forster at Addis Ababa University, on the occasion of OSC Day.

The text, available in Spanish, Arabic, French and English, explores the transformative power of utopian traditions, historical memory, and political imagination as tools to build fair and collective futures from the South.

The lecture took place on 19 May 2025 at the Ashenafi Kebede Centre for the Performing Arts, Yared School of Music, Addis Ababa University. It formed part of a binational day of reflection linking Africa and Latin America through two lectures — one in Buenos Aires and the other in Addis Ababa — under the shared theme “Horizons of the South: Memory, Knowledges and Shared Futures”. The aim was to reflect on the traditions, resistances and transformative proposals emerging from the Greater South towards a more equitable and inclusive future.

In Argentina, the event was hosted by the National University of Avellaneda (UNDAV), where the lecture was given by Aziz Salmone Fall, a Senegalese-Egyptian political scientist and pan-Africanist activist. Watch his lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo_Z-EAxWzI

These activities were jointly organised with the Union of Latin American and Caribbean Universities (UDUALC) — an Associate Member of the OSC — along with UNDAV and Addis Ababa University (AAU).

Download the text now in Spanish, Arabic, French and English