What is Pan-Africanism?
Pan-Africanism is a political and cultural movement that sees Africans and people of African descent around the world as sharing a common history, identity and destiny. It grew out of resistance to the Atlantic slave trade, racial discrimination and European colonial rule. Pan-Africanists argue that unity among African peoples and states is needed to achieve independence, dignity and economic development. The movement has taken many forms, from diaspora organizations in the Americas and Europe to the intergovernmental bodies of independent African states. Its goals range from cultural pride and solidarity to political union of the whole continent.
Core beliefs
- Africans and the African diaspora share a common history and destiny.
- Colonial rule and racial discrimination must be ended everywhere.
- African states should cooperate closely or unite politically.
- Africa should control its own resources and economic development.
- African history, culture and identity deserve pride and recognition.
- Foreign intervention and neocolonial dependence should be resisted.
History
Historians trace Pan-African ideas to the nineteenth century, when thinkers such as Edward Wilmot Blyden and Martin Delany wrote about the shared condition of Africans and Black people in the Americas. In 1900 the Trinidadian lawyer Henry Sylvester Williams organized a Pan-African Conference in London, which W.E.B. Du Bois attended. Du Bois then led a series of Pan-African Congresses from 1919. In the 1920s, Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association built a mass movement around racial pride and a return to Africa. The Manchester Congress of 1945, attended by Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta among others, focused on African independence. After Ghana became independent in 1957, Nkrumah made African unity a central aim. The Organization of African Unity was founded in Addis Ababa in 1963, and the African Union replaced it in 2002.
Variants
Continental Pan-Africanism, associated with Nkrumah, seeks political union of African states. Gradualist Pan-Africanism, which prevailed in the Organization of African Unity, favors cooperation among sovereign states. Diaspora Pan-Africanism focuses on links between Africa and people of African descent abroad, including Garveyism. Cultural Pan-Africanism includes movements such as Negritude. Socialist Pan-Africanism, linked to George Padmore and later Nkrumah, connects African unity with anti-capitalism.
Criticisms
Critics argue that Pan-Africanism treats a very diverse continent, with many languages, religions and histories, as a single identity. Others note that independent African leaders often defended national sovereignty and colonial-era borders rather than giving up power to continental bodies. Some critics argue that the Organization of African Unity tolerated authoritarian rulers and human rights abuses in member states. Economists and political scientists also debate whether rapid political union is realistic given differences in economies and institutions.
In practice
Pan-Africanism helped shape the independence movements of the 1950s and 1960s and the creation of the Organization of African Unity, which supported liberation movements in southern Africa and campaigned against apartheid. The African Union continues to promote integration, including through the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement. Pan-African ideas also influence culture, education and diaspora relations.