Pan-Africanism

Pan-Africanism is a worldwide intellectual movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based upon a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.[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, Julius Nyerere, Ahmed Sékou Touré, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara 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]

Malcolm X in 1964
Malcolm X

Origins

Invitation to Pan-African Conference at Westminster Town Hall, London, July 1900

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 civilizations 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 disparate movements into a network of solidarity, putting an end to oppression. Another important political form of a religious Pan-Africanist worldview appeared in the form of Ethiopianism.[10] 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 the Prince of Wales, the future George IV.

Modern Pan-Africanism began around the start of the 20th century. The African Association, later renamed the Pan-African Association, was established around 1897 by Henry Sylvester-Williams, who organized the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900.[11][12][13]

With the independence of Ghana in March 1957, Kwame Nkrumah was elected as the first Prime Minister and President of the State.[14] Nkrumah emerged as a major advocate for the unity of Independent Africa. The Ghanaian President embodied a political activist approach to pan-Africanism as he championed the “quest for regional integration of the whole of the African continent”.[15] This period represented a "Golden Age of high pan-African ambitions"; the Continent had experienced revolution and decolonization from Western powers and the narrative of rebirth and solidarity had gained momentum within the pan-African movement.[15] Nkrumah’s pan-African principles, intended for a union between the Independent African states, upon a recognition their commonality; suppression under imperialism. Pan-Africanism under Nkrumah evolved past the assumptions of a racially exclusive movement, associated with black Africa and had adopted a political discourse, of regional unity [16]

In April 1958, Nkrumah hosted the first All-African People’s Conference (AAPC) in Accra, Ghana. The Conference invited delegates of political movements and major political leaders. With the exception of South Africa, all Independent States of the Continent attended: Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan.[16] The Conference signified a monumental event in the pan-African movement, as it revealed a political and social union between those considered Arabic states and the black African regions. Further, the Conference espoused a common African Nationalist identity, among the States, of unity and anti-Imperialism. Frantz Fanon, journalist, freedom fighter and a member of the Algerian, FLN Party attended the conference as a delegate for Algeria.[17] Considering the armed struggle of the FLN against French colonial rule, the attendees of the Conference agreed to support the struggle of those States under colonial oppression. This encouraged the commitment of direct involvement in the “emancipation of the Continent; thus, a fight against colonial pressures on South Africa was declared and the full support of the FLN struggle in Algeria, against French colonial rule”.[18] The years following 1958, Accra Conference also marked the establishment of a new foreign policy of non-alignment as between the US and USSR and the will to found an "African Identity" in global affairs by advocating a unity between the African States on international relations. "This would be based on the Bandung Declaration, the Charter of the UN and on loyalty to UN decisions."[18]

In 1959, Nkrumah, President Sékou Touré of Guinea and President William Tubman of Liberia met at Sanniquellie and signed the Sanniquellie Declaration outlining the principles for the achievement of the unity of Independent African States whilst maintaining a national identity and autonomous constitutional structure.[19][20] The Declaration called for a revised understanding of pan-Africanism and the uniting of the Independent States. In 1960, the second All-African People’s Conference was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[21] The membership of the All-African People’s Organisation (AAPO) had increased with the inclusion of the “Algerian Provisional Government (as they had not yet won independence), Cameroun, Guinea, Nigeria, Somalia and the United Arab Republic”.[22] The Conference highlighted diverging ideologies within the movement, as Nkrumah’s call for a political and economic union between the Independent African States gained little agreement. The disagreements following 1960 gave rise to two rival factions within the pan-African movement: the Casablanca Bloc and the Brazzaville Bloc.[23]

In 1962, Algeria gained independence from French colonial rule and Ahmed Ben Bella assumed Presidency. Ben Bella was a strong advocate for pan-Africanism and an African Unity. Following the FLN’s armed struggle for liberation, Ben Bella spoke at the UN and espoused for Independent Africa’s role in providing military and financial support to the African liberation movements opposing apartheid and fighting Portuguese colonialism.[24] In search of a united voice, in 1963 at an African Summit conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 32 African states met and established the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The creation of the OAU Charter took place at this Summit and defines a coordinated "effort to raise the standard of living of member States and defend their sovereignty" by supporting freedom fighters and decolonisation.[25] Thus, was the formation of the African Liberation Committee (ALC), during the 1963 Summit. Championing the support of liberation movements, was Algeria’s President Ben Bella, immediately “donated 100 million francs to its finances and was one of the first countries, of the Organisation to boycott Portuguese and South African goods”.[26]

In 1969, Algiers hosted the Pan-African Cultural Festival, on July 21 and it continued for 10 days.[27] The festival attracted thousands from African states and the African Diaspora, including the Black Panthers. It symbolised the new pan-African identity, of regions with a shared experience of colonisation. The Festival further strengthened Algeria’s President, Boumediene’s standing in Africa and the Third World.[27]

After the death of Kwame Nkrumah in 1972, Muammar Qaddafi assumed the mantle of leader of the Pan-Africanist movement and became the most outspoken advocate of African Unity, consistently calling – like Nkrumah before him – for the advent of a "United States of Africa".[28]

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.[29]

Concept

A mural in Ujiji, 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.[30]

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 endeavor 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-Africanists aim to address globalisation and the problems of environmental justice. For instance, at the conference "Pan-Africanism for a New Generation"[31] held at the University of Oxford, June 2011, Ledum Mittee, the current president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), argued 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 went 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.[32] Syracuse University also offers a master's degree in "Pan African Studies".[33]

Pan-African banner

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

The Pan-African flag, also known as the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) 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,[34] during its month-long convention at Madison Square Garden in New York.[35][36]

Variations of the flag have been used in various countries and territories in Africa and the Americas to represent Pan-Africanist ideologies. 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 1897 flag of Ethiopia, and was inspired by the fact that Ethiopia is the continent's oldest independent nation.[37]

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.[38][39] 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.

Political parties and organizations

Muammar Gaddafi at the first Africa-Latin America summit in 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria.

In Africa

In the Caribbean

In the United Kingdom

In the United States

Pan-African concepts and philosophies

Afrocentric Pan-Africanism

Afrocentric Pan-Africanism is espoused by Kwabena Faheem Ashanti in his book The Psychotechnology of Brainwashing: Crucifying Willie Lynch. Another newer movement that has evolved from the early Afrocentric school is the Afrisecal movement or Afrisecaism of Francis Ohanyido, a Nigerian philosopher-poet.[45] Black Nationalism is sometimes associated with this form of pan-Africanism; a representative of Afrocentric Pan-Africanism in the Spanish-speaking world is Antumi Toasijé.

Kawaida

Hip Hop

During the past three decades hip hop has emerged as a powerful force that has partly shaped black identity worldwide. In his 2005 article "Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin' For?", Greg Tate describes hip-hop culture as the product of a Pan-African state of mind.[46] It is an "ethnic enclave/empowerment zone that has served as a foothold for the poorest among us to get a grip on the land of the prosperous".[46] Hip-hop unifies those of African descent globally in its movement towards greater economic, social and political power. Andreana Clay in her article "Keepin' it Real: Black Youth, Hip-Hop Culture, and Black Identity" states that hip-hop provides the world with "vivid illustrations of Black lived experience", creating bonds of black identity across the globe.[47] Hip hop authenticates a black identity, and in doing so, creates a unifying uplifting force among Africans as Pan-Africanism sets out to achieve.

Pan-African art

See also

Literature

References

  1. ↑ Oloruntoba-Oju, Omotayo (December 2012). "Pan Africanism, Myth and History in African and Caribbean Drama". Journal of Pan African Studies. 5 (8): 190 ff.
  2. ↑ Frick, Janari, et al. (2006), History: Learner's Book, p. 235, South Africa: New Africa Books.
  3. ↑ Makalani, Minkah (2011), "Pan-Africanism". Africana Age.
  4. ↑ About the African Union.
  5. ↑ "The objectives of the PAP", The Pan-African Parliament – 2014 and beyond.
  6. 1 2 Falola, Toyin; Essien, Kwame (2013). Pan-Africanism, and the Politics of African Citizenship and Identity. London: Routledge. pp. 71–72. ISBN 1135005192. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis, pp. 250–278.
  8. ↑ Maguire, K., "Ghana re-evaluates Nkrumah", GlobalPost, 21 October 2009. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  9. 1 2 Agyeman, O. (1998), Pan-Africanism and Its Detractors: A Response to Harvard's Race Effacing Universalists.
  10. ↑ "Pan-Africanism". exhibitions.nypl.org. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  11. ↑ "A history of Pan-Africanism", New Internationalist, 326, August 2000.
  12. ↑ The History of Pan Africanism, PADEAP (Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme).
  13. ↑ Alex Lubin, "The Contingencies of Pan-Africanism", Geographies of Liberation: The Making of an Afro-Arab Political Imaginary, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014, p. 71.
  14. ↑ Smith-Asante, E., "Biography of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah", Graphic Online, 8 March 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  15. 1 2 Mkandawire, P. (2005). African Intellectuals: Rethinking Politics, Language, Gender and Development, Dakar: Codesria/London: Zed Books, p. 58. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  16. 1 2 Legum, C. (1965). Pan-Africanism: a short political guide, New York, etc.: Frederick A. Praeger, p. 41.
  17. ↑ Adi, H., & M. Sherwood (2003). Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787, London: Routledge, p. 66.
  18. 1 2 Legum (1965). Pan-Africanism, p. 42.
  19. ↑ Adi & Sherwood (2003). Pan-African History, p. 179.
  20. ↑ Legum (1965), Pan-Africanism, p. 45.
  21. ↑ Legum (1965). Pan-Africanism, p. 46.
  22. ↑ Legum (1965), Pan-Africanism, p. 47.
  23. ↑ Martin, G. (2012). African Political Thought, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  24. ↑ Adi & Sherwood (2003), Pan-African History, p. 10.
  25. ↑ "African states unite against white rule", ON THIS DAY | 25 May. BBC News. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  26. ↑ Adi & Sherwood (2003), Pan-African History, p. 10.
  27. 1 2 Evans, M., & J. Phillips (2008). Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed, Yale University Press, pp. 97–98.
  28. ↑ Martin, G. (2012-12-23). African Political Thought. Springer. ISBN 9781137062055.
  29. ↑ 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, p. 68.
  30. ↑ 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. (dead; archive link)
  31. ↑ Oxford University African Society Conference, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, 5 May 2012.
  32. ↑ "About Us". Csus.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
  33. ↑ The M.A. in Pan African Studies, African American Studies at Syracuse University.
  34. ↑ Wikisource contributors, "The Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World", Wikisource, The Free Library. Retrieved October 6, 2007).
  35. ↑ "25,000 Negroes Convene: International Gathering Will Prepare Own Bill of Rights", The New York Times, August 2, 1920. Proquest (retrieved October 5, 2007).
  36. ↑ "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, August 17, 1920. Proquest (retrieved October 5, 2007).
  37. ↑ Smith, Whitney (2001). Flag Lore of All Nations. Millbrook Press. p. 36. ISBN 0761317538. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  38. ↑ "What Holocaust". "Glenn Reitz".
  39. ↑ "The Maafa, African Holocaust". Swagga.
  40. ↑ "Pan-African Renaissance".
  41. ↑ Rodney Worrell (2005). Pan-Africanism in Barbados: An Analysis of the Activities of the Major 20th-century Pan-African Formations in Barbados. New Academia Publishing, LLC. pp. 99–102. ISBN 978-0-9744934-6-6.
  42. 1 2 Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson, 1989, pp. 296–97.
  43. ↑ "Council on African Affairs", African Activist Archive.
  44. ↑ "Philosophy, Principles, and Program". The Organization Us.
  45. ↑ "Francis Okechukwu Ohanyido". African Resource.
  46. 1 2 Tate, Greg, "Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin' For?", Village Voice, 4 January 2005.
  47. ↑ Clay, Andreana. "Keepin' it Real: Black Youth, Hip-Hop Culture, and Black Identity". In American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 46.10 (2003): 1346–1358.
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