What is Pan-Africanism?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pan-Africanism is an ideology and movement that encourages the solidarity of Africans worldwide.[1] It is based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress and aims to "unify and uplift" people of African descent.[2] The ideology asserts that the fate of all African peoples and countries are intertwined. At its core Pan-Africanism is "a belief that African peoples, both on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny".[3]

The Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) was established in 1963 to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its Member States and to promote global relations within the framework of the United Nations.[4] The African Union Commission has its seat in Addis Ababa and the Pan-African Parliament has its seat in Johannesburg and Midrand.

 

Overview

   

 

 

        Kwame Nkrumah, an icon of Pan-Africanism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pan-Africanism stresses the need for "collective self-reliance".[5] Pan-Africanism exists as a governmental and grassroots objective. Pan-African advocates include leaders such as Haile Selassie, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gaddafi, grassroots organizers such as Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X, academics such as W. E. B. Du Bois, and others in the diaspora.[6][7][8]Solidarity will enable self-reliance, allowing the continent's potential to independently provide for its people to be fulfilled. Crucially, an all-African alliance would empower African people globally.

The realization of the Pan-African objective would lead to "power consolidation in Africa", which "would compel a reallocation of global resources, as well as unleashing a fiercer psychological energy and political assertion...that would unsettle social and political (power) structures...in the Americas".[9] United, African nations will have the economic, political and social clout to act and compete on the world stage as do other large entities, such as the European Union and the United States.

Advocates of Pan-Africanism – i.e. "Pan-Africans" or "Pan-Africanists" - often champion socialist principles and tend to be opposed to external political and economic involvement on the continent. Critics accuse the ideology of homogenizing the experience of people of African descent. They also point to the difficulties of reconciling current divisions within countries on the continent and within communities in the diaspora.[9]

 

Origins

As a philosophy, Pan-Africanism represents the aggregation of the historical, cultural, spiritual, artistic, scientific, and philosophical legacies of Africans from past times to the present. Pan-Africanism as an ethical system traces its origins from ancient times, and promotes values that are the product of the African civilization and the struggles against slavery, racism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.[6]

Alongside a large number of slave insurrections, by the end of the 18th century a political movement developed across the Americas, Europe and Africa that sought to weld these disparate movements into a network of solidarity putting an end to this oppression. In London, the Sons of Africa was a political group addressed by Quobna Ottobah Cugoano in the 1791 edition of his book Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery. The group addressed meetings and organised letter-writing campaigns, published campaigning material and visited parliament. They wrote to figures such as Granville Sharp, William Pitt and other members of the white abolition movement, as well as King George III and thePrince of Wales, the future George IV.

Modern Pan-Africanism began around the start of the twentieth century. The African Association, later renamed the Pan-African Association, was established around 1897 byHenry Sylvester-Williams, who organized the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900.[10]

In the United States, the term is closely associated with Afrocentrism, an ideology of African-American identity politics that emerged during the civil rights movement of the 1960s to 1970s.[11]

 

Concept

A mural in western Tanzania.

As originally conceived by Henry Sylvester-Williams (note: some history books credit this idea to Edward Wilmot Blyden), Pan-Africanism referred to the unity of all continental Africa.[12]

During apartheid South Africa there was a Pan Africanist Congress that dealt with the oppression of Africans in South Africa under Apartheid rule. Other pan-Africanist organizations include Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association-African Communities League, TransAfrica and the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement.

Additionally, Pan-Africanism is seen as an endeavour to return to what are deemed by its proponents singular, traditional African concepts about culture, society, and values. Examples of this include Léopold Sédar Senghor's Négritude movement, and Mobutu Sese Seko's view of Authenticité.

An important theme running through much pan-Africanist literature concerns the historical links between different countries on the continent, and the benefits of cooperation as a way of resisting imperialism and colonialism.

In the 21st century, some Pan-Africans aim to address globalisation and the problems of environmental justice. For instance, at the conference "Pan-Africanism for a New Generation"[13] held at theUniversity of Oxford, June 2011, Ledum Mittee, the current president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), argues that environmental justice movements across the African continent should create horizontal linkages in order to better protect the interests of threatened peoples and the ecological systems in which they are embedded, and upon which their survival depends.

Some universities have gone as far as creating "Departments of Pan-African Studies" in the late 1960s. This includes the California State University, where that department was founded in 1969 as a direct reaction to the civil rights movement, and is today dedicated to "teaching students about the African World Experience", to "demonstrate to the campus and the community the richness, vibrance, diversity, and vitality of African, African American, and Caribbean cultures" and to "presenting students and the community with an Afrocentric analysis" of anti-black racism.[1] Syracuse University also offers a master's degree in "Pan African Studies".[14]

 

Pan-African banner

Main articles: Pan-African flag and Pan-African colours

The red, black, and greenPan-African flag designed by the UNIA in 1920.

The Pan-African flag, also known as the UNIA flag, is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands of (from top down) red, black and green. The UNIA formally adopted it on August 13, 1920,[15] during its month-long convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City.[16][17]

Variations of the flag have been used in various countries and territories in Africa and the Americas to represent Pan-Africanist ideologies.[citation needed] Among these are the flags of Malawi, Kenya and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Several Pan-African organizations and movements have also often employed the emblematic red, black and green tri-color scheme in variety of contexts.

Additionally, the flags of a number of nations in Africa and of Pan-African groups use green, yellow and red. This color combination was originally adopted from the 1897flag of Ethiopia, and was inspired by the fact that Ethiopia is the continent's oldest independent nation.[18]

Maafa studies

Maafa is an aspect of Pan-African studies. The term collectively refers to 500 years of suffering (including the present) of people of African heritage through slavery, imperialism, colonialism, and other forms of oppression.[19][20] In this area of study, both the actual history and the legacy of that history are studied as a single discourse. The emphasis in the historical narrative is on African agents, as opposed to non-African agents.[21]

 

THE  FOLOWING IS A VIDEO PRESENTATION OF MAFFA 21  

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Africa

• Organisation of African Unity, succeeded by the African Union

• African Unification Front

• African Democratic Rally

• All-African People's Revolutionary Party (Ghana)

• Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa)

• Ubuntu Republics of Africa

•  

  In Barbados

• The Pan-African Affairs Commission for Pan-African Affairs,[22] a unit within the Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados

• In the UK

• Pan-African Federation

• Category: African-American society

•  African American port

•  

• The Council on African Affairs (CAA): founded in 1937 by Max Yergan and Paul Robeson, the CAA was the first major U.S. organization whose focus was on providing pertinent and up-to-date information about Pan-Africanism across the United States, particularly to African Americans. Probably the most successful campaign of the Council was for South African famine relief in 1946. The CAA was hopeful that, following World War II, there would be a move towards Third World independence under the trusteeship of the United Nations.[23] To the CAA's dismay, the proposals introduced by the U.S. government to the conference in April/May 1945 set no clear limits on the duration of colonialism and no motions towards allowing territorial possessions to move towards self-government.[23] Liberal supporters abandoned the CAA, and the federal government cracked down on its operations. In 1953 the CAA was charged with subversion under the McCarran Act. Its principal leaders, including Robeson, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Alphaeus Hunton (1903–70), were subjected to harassment, indictments, and 

   

• The US Organization was founded in 1965 by Maulana Karenga, following the Watts riots. It is based on the synthetic African philosophy of kawaida, and is perhaps best known for creating Kwaanza and the Nguzo Saba ("seven principles"). In the words of its founder and chair, Karenga, "the essential task of our organization Us has been and remains to provide a philosophy, a set of principles and a program which inspires a personal and social practice that not only satisfies human need but transforms people in the process, making them self-conscious agents of their own life and liberation".[25]

   

  Literature

• Imanuel Geiss: Panafrikanismus. Zur Geschichte der Dekolonisation. Habilitation, EVA, Frankfurt am Main, 1968, English as: The Pan-African Movement, London: Methuen, 1974, ISBN 0-416-16710-1 and as: The Pan-African Movement. A history of Pan-Africanism in America, Europe and Africa, New York: Africana Publ., 1974, ISBN 0-8419-0161-9.

• Colin Legum, Pan-Africanism: A Short Political Guide, revised edition, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965.

• References

• Tony Martin, Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond, Dover: The Majority Press, 1985.

•  Dictionary.com = a basic definition of Pan-Africanism. Accessed 13 September 2012.

•  Frick, Janari, et al. (2006), History: Learner's Book, p. 235, South Africa: New Africa Books.Makalani, Minkah (2011), "Pan-Africanism". Africana Age.

•  About the African Union.

•  "The objectives of the PAP", The Pan-African Parliament - 2014 and beyond.

•  Hakim Adi, Pan-Africanism and the Politics of Liberation, African Holocaust.

• Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, pp. 250-278.

•  Maguire, K., "Ghana re-evaluates Nkrumah", GlobalPost, 21 October 2009. Accessed 13 September 2012.

•  Agyeman, O. (1998), Pan-Africanism and Its Detractors: A Response to Harvard's Race Effacing Universalists.

•  The History of Pan Africanism, PADEAP (Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme).

•  See e.g. Ronald W. Walters, Pan Africanism in the African Diaspora: An Analysis of Modern Afrocentric Political Movements, African American Life Series, Wayne State University Press, 1997.

•  Crystal Z. Campbell (December 2006). "Sculpting a Pan-African Culture in the Art of Négritude: A Model for African Artist" (PDF). The Journal of Pan African Studies 1 (6).

•  Oxford University African Society Conference, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, 5 May 2012.

•  The M.A. in Pan African Studies, African American Studies at Syracuse University.

•  Wikisource contributors, "The Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World", Wikisource, The Free Library (accessed October 6, 2007).

•  25,000 NEGROES CONVENE: International Gathering Will Prepare Own Bill of Rights. 1920. The New York Times (1857-Current file), August 2 Proquest (last accessed October 5, 2007).

•  Special to The Christian Science Monitor from its Eastern News Office 1920. NEGROES ADOPT BILL OF RIGHTS: Convention Approves Plan for African Republic and Sets to Work on Preparation of Constitution of the Colored Race Negro Complaints Aggression Condemned Recognition Demanded. Christian Science Monitor (1908-Current file), August 17, Proquest (accessed October 5, 2007).

•  Smith, Whitney (2001). Flag Lore of All Nations. Millbrook Press. p. 36.ISBN 0761317538. Retrieved 7 October 2014.

•  "What Holocaust". "Glenn Reitz".

•  "The Maafa, African Holocaust". Swagga.

•  "Removal of Agency from Africa". "Owen 'Alik Shahadah". Retrieved 2005.

•  Commission for Pan-African Affairs Pan-African Barbados.

• a b Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson, 1989, pp. 296-97.

•  "Council on African Affairs", African Activist Archive.

•  "Philosophy, Principles, and Program". The Organization Us.

•  "African Resource" "Francis Ohanyido Bio" Check |url= scheme (help).

•  b Tate, Greg, "Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin' For?", Village Voice, 4 January 2005.

•  Clay, Andreana. "Keepin' it Real: Black Youth, Hip-Hop Culture, and Black Identity". InAmerican Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 46.10 (2003): 1346-1358

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Muammar Gaddafi at the first

    Africa-Latin America summit in 2006 in Abuja,Nigeria.

 

 

 

FUTHER READING

( LARGE PRINT )

 

Initially an anti-slavery and anti-colonial movement amongst black people of Africa and the Diaspora in the late nineteenth century, the aims of Pan-Africanism have evolved through the ensuing decades.

Pan-Africanism has covered calls for African unity (both as a continent and as a people), nationalism, independence, political and economic cooperation, and historical and cultural awareness (especially for Afrocentric versus Eurocentric interpretations).

History of Pan-Africanism
Some claim that Pan-Africanism goes back to the writings of ex-slaves such as Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano. Pan-Africanism here related to the ending of the slave trade, and the need to rebut the ‘scientific’ claims of African inferiority.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Pan-Africanists, such as Edward Wilmot Blyden, part of the call for African unity was to return the Diaspora to Africa, whereas others, such as Frederick Douglass, called for rights in their adopted countries.

Blyden and James Africanus Beale Horton, working in Africa, are seen as the true fathers of Pan-Africanism – writing about the potential for African nationalism and self-government amidst growing European colonialism. They, in turn, inspired a new generation of Pan-Africanists at the turn of the twentieth century – JE Casely Hayford, and Martin Robinson Delany (who coined the phrase 'Africa for Africans’ later picked up by Marcus Garvey).

 

African Association and Pan-African Congresses
Pan-Africanism gained legitimacy with the founding of the African Association in London in 1897, and the first Pan-African conference held, again in London, in 1900. Henry Sylvester Williams, the power behind the African Association, and his colleagues were interested in uniting the whole of the African Diaspora, and gaining political rights for those of African decent. Others were more concerned with the struggle against colonialism and Imperial rule in Africa and the Caribbean – Dusé Mohamed Ali, for example, believed that change could only come through economic development. Marcus Garvey combined the two paths, calling for political and economic gains as well as a return to Africa (either physically or though a return to an Africanized ideology).

Between the world wars, Pan-Africanism was influenced by communism and trade unionism, especially through the writings of George Padmore, Isaac Wallace-Johnson, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Paul Robeson, CLR James, WEB Du Bois, and Walter Rodney. Significantly, Pan-Africanism had expanded out beyond the continent into Europe, the Caribbean and Americas. WEB Du Bois organized a series of Pan-African Congresses in London, Paris, and New York in the first half of the twentieth century. International awareness of Africa was also heightened by the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935.

Also between the two world wars, Africa’s two main colonial powers, France and Britain, attracted a younger group of Pan-Africanists: Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Cheikh Anta Diop, and Ladipo Solanke. As student activists they gave rise to Africanist philosophies such as Négritude.

International Pan-Africanism had probably reached its zenith by the end of World War II when WEB Du Bois held the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester (in 1945).

African Independence
After the second World War, Pan-Africanist interests once more returned to the African continent, with a particular focus on African unity and liberation. A number of leading Pan-Africanists, particularly George Padmore and WEB Du Bois, emphasized their commitment to Africa by emigrating (in both cases to Ghana) and becoming African citizens. Across the continent, a new group of Pan-Africanists arose amongst the nationalists – Kwame Nkrumah, Sékou Ahmed Touré, Ahmed Ben Bella, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, Amilcar Cabral, and Patrice Lumumba.

 

In 1963, the Organization African Unity was formed to advance cooperation and solidarity between newly independent African countries and fight against colonialism. In an attempt to revamp the organization, and move away from it being seen as an alliance of African dictators, it was re-imagined in July 2002 as the African Union.

Modern Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism today is seen much more as a cultural and social philosophy than the politically driven movement of the past. People, such as Molefi Kete Asante, hold to the importance of ancient Egyptian and Nubian cultures being part of a (black) African heritage, and seek a re-evaluation of Africa’s place, and the Diaspora, in the world.

 

I AM MY BROTHERS KEEPER.

References
A History of Modern Africa by Richard J Reid, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Pan-African History: Political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787 by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood, Routledge, 2003.
The Routledge Companion to Decolonization by Dietmar Rothermund, Routledge, 2006.
General History of Africa: VIII Africa Since 1935 edited by Ali A Mazrui, James Currey, 1999.

In my personal opinion Pan African Ideology today should encompass a international consciousness of everyone associated with Africa to tackle social issues.  Most importantly it should focus on TACKLING the social defamation of people of color. Reversing all the negativity that has been portrayed about blackness.