Pan Africanism is a worldwide movement with the aim of encouraging and strengthening the bonds of solidarity among black people. It is believed that African people both on the continent and in the diaspora share a common history and a common destiny.
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The widely used flag of Pan Africanism. |
Pan Africanism can be traced back to Africa when small kingdoms united to form bigger empires. Remarkable examples of united African kingdoms were the Mossi Empire and the Kingdom of Kuba. The Mossi Empire or Mossi states was a union of 20 kingdoms in present-day Burkina Faso that began between the 11th and 15th centuries. Unity was the main pillar of the Kingdom, it kept the Kingdom in one piece until the 20th century when it was overrun by the French.
Now the Kingdom of Kuba was a unification of 18 and more tribes in Central Africa that flourished between the 17th and 19th Centuries. According to Chancellor Williams, the Kingdom of Kuba is an example of "how to deal with tribalism and turn it out to be a patriotic front". After their unity, the distinct tribes lost their individual identity and language and became one people.
Well, that was an overview of how Pan Africanism as a practice may be very old. As a term, it was first used in the mid-19th century by Africans in the Western Hemisphere. Notably of the great Africans were Martin Delany and Alexander Crummel, both African Americans, and Edward Blyden, a West Indian.
We can now say confidently that the movement has its roots in Africa and a significant support base in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States of America. Its main call is for the unity of Africans in building a free and promising future for their generations and to fight against the problems they currently face.
This struggle can also be traced back to the first resistance on slave ships; rebellions through the constant plantation and colonial uprisings and the back to Africa movement started by Marcus Garvey in the nineteenth century. Early pan-Africanism was based on a common identity and mainly sought to unite blacks across the world to fight slavery and colonialism. Later in the twentieth century, the movement emerged as a distinctly political one in the diaspora.
PAN AFRICAN CONFERENCES
In September 1897, Trinidadian Henry Sylvester Williams established the African Association (AA) to encourage a feeling of unity, facilitate friendly relations among Africans, and promote and protect the interests of people of African descent. Based in London, the AA published studies, news reports and appeals to imperial and local governments on Africa's behalf. In 1900, Williams called a conference at Westminster Hall in London to protest the grabbing of land in the colonies, and racial discrimination and to deal with other matters of black people's interest.
The London conference gave birth to the Pan African Association which replaced the AA. The aim of the PAA was to secure civil and political rights for African people; promote friendly relations between races; encourage African people in education, industry and business; lobby the governments on behalf of African people and improve the conditions of black people in Africa, America, the British Empire and other parts of the world.
Later in 1919, African American scholar and writer Dr WEB Dubois convened the second conference in Paris, France. The congress attracted delegates from throughout the African diaspora. The resolution adopted by that congress tended more toward moderation and gradual reform. It called on the proposed League of Nations to establish rules and codes for governing African colonies. Dubois seemed so much concerned about the liberation of African people and organized a series of other congresses. The second congress met in several sessions in 1921 in London, Brussels and Paris. This time the resolutions came out more forcefully for self-government in Africa and the return of expropriated lands. Further congresses essentially extended meetings of like-minded Africans searching for a way forward were held in 1923 in Lisbon and 1927 in New York City.
However, the most significant one was England’s Manchester Pan African Congress of 1945. Trinidadian George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah led by T. Ras Makonnen organized the congress and invited Dubois to Participate in planning and in the congress itself. This time a large number of Africans from the continent were present and the meeting provided a foundation and a course for the numerous independence movements.
The congress’ resolution condemned the economic exploitation of Africa n people and their resources. It ended by sending its participants to their respective countries to fight for independence. Among the Africans from the continent was Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya.
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Delegates in the Manchester conference of 1945. |
PAN AFRICANISM ON THE CONTINENT
In 1958, Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana, called for a meeting of all independent countries; Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Liberia, Morocco and Ethiopia in order to come up with a mechanism to support the liberation of the rest of the continent. By 1963, thirty-one countries were liberated. There emerged a need for the continental union to form a United States of Africa as envisioned by Kwame Nkrumah.
This new move divided the member states since some were agitating for the immediate continental political union while others favoured a slower step towards unity. They later come up with the idea of forming the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on 24th May 1963, whose duty was to prepare the continent for a future union. Pan African advocates in the continent were leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie, Julius Nyerere, Ahmed Sekou Toure and later Thomas Sankara and Muammar Gaddafi.
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Founding fathers of the Organization of African Union. |
Although today’s pan-Africanism contains diverse and sometimes opposing opinions about the way to fulfil the common objective of self-determination of Africa and African people around the world, it remains a vital force in the continental and diasporic culture and politics.
Rather than focusing only on identity, the new pan-Africanism is also a call for democracy, good governance and economic development. Today, African leaders such as Prof PLO Lumumba and Julius Malema are at the forefront leading with the message of Pan Africanism.
There has been also a scarcity of pan-African literature, thus delaying the full emancipation of the black people most importantly the mental battle our forefathers left behind for they had already done away with the physical battle and broke away the slave chains we were handcuffed. We are yet to break the invisible chains in our minds by reversing the brainwashing and going back to the past.
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