Pan-Africanism

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Pan-Africanism literally means 'all Africanism'. It is a sociopolitical world-view, as well as a movement, which seeks to unify and uplift both native Africans and those of the African diaspora, as part of a "global African community".^[1]

Contents 1 Origins 2 Key figures 3 Concept 4 Pan-African Banner 5 Academics 5.1 Pan African studies 5.2 Maafa Studies 6 Political Parties And Organizations 6.1 African Union 6.2 African Unification Front 6.3 AWRRTC 6.4 Global Afrikan Congress 6.5 All-African People's Revolutionary Party 6.6 Uhuru Movement 6.7 Us Organization 7 Pan-African Concepts and Philosophies 7.1 Kwanzaa 7.2 African Code 7.3 Afrocentric Pan-Africanism 7.4 Kawaida 8 Pan-African Art 9 Criticism 10 External links 11 References

Origins

Pan-Africanism is usually seen as a product of the Atlantic slave trade, rather than as something arising in the continent of Africa itself. Enslaved Africans of diverse origins and their descendants found themselves embedded in a system of exploitation where their African origin became a sign of their servile status. Pan-Africanism set aside cultural differences, asserting the principality of these shared experiences to foster solidarity and resistance to exploitation.

Alongside a large number of slave insurrections, by the end of the eighteenth century a political movement developed across the Americas, Europe and Africa which 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, publshed 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 beginning of the twentieth century. The African Association, later renamed the Pan African Association, was organized by Henry Sylvester-Williams around 1887, and their first conference was held in 1900^[2].

Key figures

Image:LocationAfrica.png
Pan-African topics
General
Pan-Africanism
Kwanzaa
Colonialism
Africa
Maafa
Black People
Academics
African philosophy
Black nationalism
Art
FESPACO
African Art
PAFF
People
Kwame Nkrumah
Marcus Garvey
Malcolm X
W.E.B. Du Bois
Haile Selassie
Cheikh Anta Diop
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Stokely Carmichael
Saad Gondal
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• Edward Wilmot Blyden has been labeled the Father of Pan-Africanism
• W.E.B. Du Bois has also been labeled the Father of Pan-Africanism
• Jomo Kenyatta was a Pan-African activist who became the first president of Kenya
• Kwame Nkrumah was a Pan-African activist who became the first president of Ghana
• Haile Sellassie, emperor of Ethiopia, was a key figure in Pan-Africanism due to his call for greater unity among African Nations
• Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of Egypt, allowed independence movements from all over Africa to set up offices in Cairo during the 1950's and 60's.
• Muammar al-Gaddafi, president of Libya, has in recent years been the most dominant/active organizer of African unity and has proposed the formation, based on Kwame Nkrumah's dream, of a United States of Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Concept

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 (excluding North Africa) ^[1] The concept soon expanded, however, to include the African diaspora.

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

Pan-African Banner

Main article: Pan-African colors

The red, black, and green flag represents Pan-Africanism: the red standing for the blood Africans people of African descent must shed for their redemption and liberty, the green standing for the vegetation of Africa, and the black for Africans and people of African descent. Also used in the Pan-African movement are the Ethiopian colors of red, gold, and green. The red and green stand for the same principles as Garvey's flag, and the gold stands for the mineral wealth of Ethiopia/Africa.

Academics

Two of Pan-Africanism's major goals are re-examining African history from a pro-African perspective as opposed to a pro-European perspective and a return to traditional African concepts and culture. Pan-African academics often espouse the view that Egypt and some other civilizations were and should be acknowledged as having African origin.

Pan African studies

Also related to Pan-Africanism is the academic discipline of Pan-African Studies. Departments of Pan-African Studies have existed in many North American universities since the 1960s.

Maafa Studies

Maafa is an aspect of Pan-African studies. The term collectively refers to the 500 hundred years of suffering (including the present) of people of African heritage through slavery, imperialism, colonialism, invasions, oppression, and exploitation.^[3][4][5] In this area of study, both the actual history and the legacy of that history are studied as a single discourse. Thus the paradigm is the legacy of the African Holocaust on African people globally. The emphasis in the historical narrative is on African agents, as opposed to a non-African agents.^[6].

Political Parties And Organizations

There are several currently functioning organizations that espouse Pan-Africanism.

African Union

Main article: African Union

African Unification Front

Main article: African Unification Front

AWRRTC

Afrikan World Reparations And Repatriation Truth Commission is a non-profit commission based in Accra, Ghana. It was started in 1998 by the participants of the First Emancipation Day Celebrations held in Accra. The goals of AWRRTC include Pan-African unification of people of African heritage and payment of reparations to continental and repatriated Africans by Western nations. ^[7]

Global Afrikan Congress

The Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) is an international umbrella organization created by and for Africans and people of African descent. The GAC's ultimate goals are to justly redistribute global resources and resist continued oppression; it seeks to accomplish these goals by demanding reparations for the exploitation of people of African heritage, supporting policies to combat institutional racism, and working for recognition and respect for Africans and people of African descent. ^[8]

The GAC was organized in October 2002 in Bridgetown Barbados and is a direct outgrowth of the African-African Descendants Caucus (AADC) formed before the 2001 United Nations World Conference on Racism (UNWCAR) After the UNWCAR there was no follow-up on the part of those designated to continue the work of the AADC begun during the preparatory conferences (PREPCOMS) leading up to the UNWCAR. Organized by attorney Roger Wareham, the AADC became the leading voice of Africans throughout the world during the UNWCAR. The AADC was instrumental in getting the trans-Atlantic slave trade declared "a crime against humanity", and opened the door for a direct, legal assault on nations and corporations that benefited from the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The GAC continues the AADC's work and is now organized in 35 nations. Its constitutional convention, held in October of 2004 in Paramaribo, Suriname, ratified a document considered by many to codify the direction in which the Pan-African movement should move during the 21st century. ^[9]

All-African People's Revolutionary Party

The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is based on the writings of Kwame Nkrumah and the philosophy of Nkrumah and Ahmed Sekou Toure. The A-APRP believes that Pan-Africanism is the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism: a new social synthesis in which modern technology is reconciled with human values. ^[10]

The A-APRP has branches in several countries and several US states.

Uhuru Movement

Main article: Uhuru Movement

Us Organization

The Us organization was founded in 1965 by Dr Maulana Karenga, following the Watts riots. It is based on the synthetic African philosophy of kawaida and the Nguzo Saba. In the words of its founder and chair, Dr. Karanga, 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. ^[11]

Us is perhaps most well-known for creating Kwaanza and the Nguzo Saba, or Seven Principles.

Pan-African Concepts and Philosophies

Kwanzaa

Main article: Kwanzaa

African Code

The African Code is a concept within Pan-Africanism. It stresses unity through diversity based on the seven key principles derived from Kwanzaa, and functions as an intersection of a global Pan-African ethos. The African Code has been translated into over thirty languages, and functions as a non-political, non-religious cultural common ground for African people seeking self-determination. ^[12] The African Code considers Kiswahili to be the official Pan-African language, and Ge'ez to be the official script in which all African languages should be written.

Afrocentric Pan-Africanism

Afrocentric Pan-Africanism, as espoused by Dr. Kwabena Faheem Ashanti, Ph.D 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 Dr Francis Ohanyido a Nigerian Philosopher- Poet. ^[13] Black Nationalism is sometimes associated with this form of pan-Africanism.

Kawaida

Main article: Kawaida

Pan-African Art

• See FESPACO, DPAFF and PAFF for Pan-African film festivals
• See African art

Criticism

Pan-Africanism is often criticized for overlooking the cultural and ethnic differences of African people as well as different socio-political circumstances among people of African descent worldwide.^[14]

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