The Legacy of the Pan-African Movement
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The Legacy of the Pan – African Movement
By
Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes
Table of Content
Introduction
1. Defining Pan-Africanism
2. Cultural Pan-Africanism; the Legacy of Ethiopia
2.1 Origins of Ethiopianism
2.2 The Impacts of Ethiopianism
3. Intellectual Pan-Africanism
3.1 The Impacts of Intellectual Pan-Africanism
3.1.1 The Development of Discourses and Other Movements
3.1.2 Class and rhetoric
3.1.3 Unity
3.1.4 Solidarity
Conclusion
2
“No matter how hot the water from your well, it will not cook your
rice,”
African proverb cited by Amical cabral
Introduction
Pan-Africanism has been a complex movement of black people in the
world against Eurocentric domination in Africa and the Diaspora.1 The
movement witnessed fundamental changes across space and time,
and along political, geographical, and ideological variations. In Africa,
Pan-Africanism was precipitated by the 1885 Berlin conference that
witnessed the scramble for the continent among European colonial
powers (Masilela 1994:255). Therefore, during colonialism, it became
an ideological vantage point from where the European supremacist
theories and practices were challenged. Especially, after the Second
World War, Pan-Africanism offered significant inspiration and political
guidance for African nationalist movements in their struggles for
independence from colonialism. This effort became triumphant in the
1960’s when half of Africa became independent.
Pan-Africanism experienced a major ideological shift during the 1960s
when Patrice Lumumba was assassinated through the intervention of
ex-colonial powers in the political life of the newly freed African nation,
Congo. The Congo Crisis witnessed the beginning of neo-colonialism in
Africa; it shifted the Pan-African ideology from its pre-occupation with
anti-colonial struggle to anti-imperialist struggle by embracing Marxist
ideology to resist neo-colonial capitalism (Masilela 1994:310).
In the Trans-Atlantic Diaspora, Pan-Africanism was by large a response
to slavery and racial oppression. It emerged as a universal aspiration of
1 The Diaspora in this paper represents the black people of African descent who live outside the of Africa.
3
black people for emancipation, unity and prosperity. This paper treats
classical Pan-Africanism as a cultural and intellectual movement of
black people outside Africa and assesses its link to the nationalist
movements in Africa and civil rights movement in America.
1. Definition of Pan Africanism
As the challenges faced by Africans were many, the responses to those
challenges were complex and many. Pan- Africanism can be viewed as
the collective response of black people to the hegemony of
Eurocentrism. It has been shaped by complex and long period of
suppression that ranges from slavery to neo-colonialism. It
encompasses various forms of ideological, philosophical and political
beliefs that seek to end the universal oppression of black people in the
name of race, religion, culture and civilisation. Despite the variations
and contradictions it witnessed with in itself, the cardinal principle of
pan-Africanism remained to be the view that the people of one part of
Africa are responsible for the freedom and liberation of their brothers
and sisters in other parts of Africa; and indeed, black people
everywhere were to accept the same responsibility(Campbell
1994:285) Hence, Pan-Africanism became a search for Afrocentric
values, culture and history on the basis of which the unity of black
people was to be animated and the “white man’s” hegemony,
challenged. According to Horace Campbell, it was “ an exercise in self-
definition sharpened by resistance to Eurocentrism (Campbell
1994:285).
The long period of oppression endured by oppressed people created a
sense of opposing duality in their views of who they are, and what the
world is all about .This contradictory personality inhabited by the
oppressed is the direct legacy of their past. According to Albert
4
Memmi, oppressed people respond to colonial domination in two ways:
by emulating the coloniser and practicing the latter’s culture while
submerging any of their own opposing traditions to it, and by rejecting
the colonizer’s culture and endeavouring to revive their own way of life
from the cultural elements of their past (Memmi 1965:20). From this
perspective Pan-Africanism was expressed through cultural, intellectual
and political movements that are often conflated with each other - as a
movement of opposition against the west on the one hand, and as a
practical endeavour to emulate the west, on the other. It was
manifested as a movement to resist westernization as well as an
attempt to westernise Africa. As a mass movement it was driven by
cultural appeals to the glory of ancient Africa (Ethiopia), and as an
intellectual movement it was animated by European modern thoughts.
2. Cultural Pan-Africanism : the legacy of Ethiopia
The earliest and widest form of Pan-Africanism was known as
Ethiopianism (Campbell 1994:288). It started by freed ex-slaves who
withdrew from white dominated Baptist and Methodist churches, in the
late 18th and early 19th century (Fredrickson 1996: 59). In Jamaica,
when the first Ethiopian Baptist Church was established in 1784.
Ethiopianism represented the endeavour of black people to free
themselves from mental and physical bondages by instilling racial
pride among the people of colour. Although the movement was later
rejected by the Pan-African Intellectuals’ movement for having
‘demagogic leadership, intemperate propaganda and a tendency to
throwing a natural fear in to the colonial powers”, Ethiopianism was
nevertheless one of the most popular mass movements of black people
that took place outside Africa (Padmore 1947). It emanated from a
widespread belief in the glory of ancient Africa, which was symbolized
by Ethiopia. The movement aimed not only at the emancipation of
5
black people from slavery by ending racial injustices but also at their
repatriation to their original places in Africa. Therefore, Ethiopianism
was an attempt to revive African identity; it was a” back to Africa”
movement that wanted to redeem black people from Babylon, which
was the West, and to deliver them to the promised land of Israel,
which was Ethiopia. This symbolic use of Ethiopia as the representative
of the great African image indicates the endeavour of black people to
find identity and meaning for themselves outside the ideation of the
European view of history and reason. (Campbell 1994:292). Therefore,
a birds eye view to the historic portrays of Ethiopia could help to
understand what the aspiration of the pan-Africanists was during this
period.
2.1 Origins of Ethiopianism
Most historical accounts about Ethiopia and Ethiopians were
constructed from western written and legendary sources as well as
from the bible. The consistently positive references given to the name
Ethiopia from the bible and the existence of historical records about
the ancient empires of Ethiopia became the basis for the belief in the
existence of an original African civilisation and spirituality that
precedes much of Europe. The story of Ethiopia, which in Greece
means people with faces burned by the sun, came from ancient
historians including Homer, Herodotus and the Ptolemy era writers.
Homer wrote about the “blameless Ethiopians”, who were loved by the
gods, and the “high souled Ethiopians” who were the children of the
almighty son of Koronos (Frank M. Snowden 1983:46). Herodotus, who
is often viewed as the father of history, made a more detailed account
of Ethiopia of the 5th century BC (Herodotus 440 B.C.E.). According to
him, Ethiopians were people who lived by the streams of the Nile
worshipping the gods. They were “the tallest and handsomest men in
6
the whole world” and “longer lived than anywhere else”. They “clothed
in the skins of leopards and lions, and had long bows made of the stem
of the palm-leaf ... They ate boiled flesh, and had for their drink
nothing but milk“… There, [in Ethiopia], gold is obtained in great
plenty, huge elephants abound, with wild trees of all sorts, and ebony
(Herodotus 440 B.C.E.)...
The same historical accounts by Herodotus mentioned the eighteen
Ethiopian kings and one queen that ruled Egypt for long time. These
historical records from European sources about the achievements of
black people in Ethiopia contradicted with the common historiography
of European thinkers about the continent and the people.
After the 5th Century BC, the personal account of the European
geographer and historian Agatharchides about the social and economic
life of Ethiopians presented a more direct negation to the virtue of
individual accumulation that was highly regarded by the west:
They [Ethiopians] were free from want; greed, and envy. Unlike Greek, they rejected useless things; strive for a divine way of life with no desire for power; they were not distressed by strife, nor did they imperil their lives by sailing the sea for the sake of gain. Needing little, they suffered little; gaining possession of what was sufficient they sought no more. And they were not governed by laws (Frank M. Snowden 1983:49-50).
These historical records inspired black leaders to agitate the people to
redefine their identity according to their African roots and reclaim their
proper places in the world(Hensbroek 1999:47). 2 Further references
2 This refers to the discourse of neo-traditionalism that was advocated by early Pan-Africanist leaders such as Blyden who advocated the separately unique destinies of all races. Blyden referred Africans as Ethiopians and concluded that “ each race is endowed with peculiar talents.Hence Ethiopians have always served, will continue to serve the world” Hensbroek, P. B. V. (1999). Political Discourses in African Thought. London, Praeger Publishers.
7
about Ethiopia came from the Bible, especially from Psalms 68.31
which says: “ Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God’.Such
references had powerful effects in the bid to encourage black people to
change the European image of God by an African image. Marcus
Garvey declared the significance of this process to black Christianity:
We Negroes have found a new ideal. Whilst our God have no color, yet it is human to see everything through one’s own spectacle, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we see our God through our own spectacles.... We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God-God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the one God of all ages. That is the God whom we believe, but we shall through the spectacle of Ethiopia (Nelson 1997:69) .
In 1920, Garvey gave a prophecy to his followers saying: “Look to
Africa when a Black king shall be crowned for the day of deliverance is
near”(Chen 1998:241-242). This prophesy became one of the basis for
the raise of Rastafarianism in Jamaica as his followers believed that the
prophesy was fulfilled when Ras Tafari was crowned in 1930 as ‘From
The Lion of Judea, King of Kings, Haileselassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia’.
2.2 The Impacts of Ethiopianism
Ethiopia became a source of racial pride for black people due to its
ancient civilisation and glamorous history, as well as victory against
and independence from colonialism. However, there were other
cultural movements that mounted strong resistance to European
hegemony. To wit : the African Independence Church Movement of
Mourides in West Africa, the John Chilembwe movement in Malawi, the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church movement in South Africa, Harry Tuku in
Kenya, Simon Kimbangu (kimbanguism) in Congo and Rastafarianism
in Jamaica were of the most important ones(Campbell 1994:292).
However, these and many other cultural resistances were prosecuted
as witchcraft and superstitious, not only by Europeans but also by
8
Christianised Africans and hence, were harshly suppressed.
Ethiopianism on the other hand remained as an emblem of classical
Pan-Africanism due to the reputed position the name Ethiopia occupied
in the bible and history.
Ethiopianism and the Garvey movement offered strong agitation for
“negro brotherhood’ to resist the physical and psychological
domination of Europeans over black people(Campbell 1994:290). It
propagated a distinct African identity as opposed to a European or
American identity. However, its ideological and philosophical roots
emanated from the West than from Africa. Garvey himself established
the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914, and
appeared to have envisioned Africa’s future through the spectacle of
the European scientific revolution:
Now in the twenty century we are about to see the rebuilding of Africa; yes, a new civilization, a new culture shall spring up from among our people and the Nile shall once more flow through the lands of science, of art and literature, wherein will live Black men of the highest learning and the highest accomplishment (Nelson 1997:70)
Ethiopianism itself had little connection and similarity with the factual
cultural elements and practices of the people in Africa. African -
American missionaries from the Garvey movement were extensively
engaged in preaching the bible to Christianize indigenous African
beliefs in South Africa. This in effect was contrary to the cause of
emancipation as the bible was one of the twin instruments of coercion
and consent that was used to rationalize the European colonial rule
over Africa (Tongun 1994:255). Therefore, it is possible to argue that
the movement had the counter effect of legitimizing colonial
subjugation in Africa. Moreover, the earliest African National Congress
(ANC) leaders received their formal training from Black universities and
9
colleges in the US, and it is believed that the Christian influence had a
critical role in adopting a non-violent strategy for national liberation in
South Africa (Tongun 1994:255). The civil rights movement led by
Martin Luther King Jr. in the US was also highly influenced by the
Christian belief of “love your enemy” and “turn the other cheek”
(Fredrickson 1996:59).
In conclusion, although Ethiopianism and the Garvey movement were
motivated by ideological and philosophical beliefs that seek to replace
Eurocentrism by Afrocentrism, in practice they offered little alternative
when it comes to the question of what the content of Afrocentric
values should look like. On the contrary, they mitigated spiritual and
cultural resistances against the development of local conditions in the
process of Westernizing Africa. African indigenous knowledge was
discarded as irrelevant to the need of the continent and the local
cultural practices were resented as demonic, backward and useless.
Finally, the longing for modernity without achieving modernization left
Africa expectant of Europe’s assistance for development. Yet, one
legacy of the overall cultural movement of classical Pan-Africanism
appeared to have remained defiant of Eurocentric values and
consumerism. This was the rise of Rastafarianism and Bob Marley as a
popular singer for freedom:
Emancipate yourself from mental slaveryNone but ourselves can free our mindsHave no fear for Atomic energyFor none of them can stop the time.
“The power of art that Bob Marley’s music represented [did] more to
popularize the real issues of African liberation than the several leaders
of backbreaking work by Pan Africanists and international
revolutionaries”(Campbell 1994:302). Through reggae music, Pan-
Africanism maintained some aspects of its cultural elements with its
10
classic aspiration for the freedom and unity of black people anywhere
in the world.
3. Intellectual Pan-Africanism
Classical Pan-Africanism, in its narrower sense, is formally recognized
as the movement of black intellectuals in the first half of the 20th
century in America and Europe.3
The formal beginning of this movement dates back to 1900 AD, when a
black West Indies barrister, H. Silvester Williams, organised a
conference for “men and women of African blood, to deliberate
solemnly upon the present situation and the outlook for the darker
races of mankind”(Langley 1979:738). His initiative sparkled a new role
for black intelligentsia in the history of black struggle against racial
injustice and colonial domination. William’s motto: “Only a Negro can
represent a Negro”, attracted participants from England and America,
and led to the formation of the Pan African Congress (PAC), which later
became the unifying body for the entire movement of the Pan-African
intelligentsia.
Another pan-African conference was organised in 1919 at a time when
the victors of WWI were to slash a peace deal in France. Many call this
conference the first Pan African Conference due to the diversity of its
participants and the intensity of the issues raised during the
conference. It was organised with 57 delegates from 15 countries out
of which 12 participants were from 9 African countries. The main
concern of the organisers was to appeal to colonial powers to treat the
native people in their colonies, fairly. They requested the Versailles peace
treaty participants to adopt an international legal code for the social,
3 This approach however ignores the various facets of the African social movements that were lodged at various levels in Africa and across the world.
11
economic and political administration of “native peoples” in their
colonies. They pleaded for the establishment of an international body
with in the League of Nations to administer the Ex-German colonies in
Africa (Padmore 1947).
While presenting their proposal for the establishment of an African
political entity under the supervision of a mandates commission, they
were portrayed by the media as black traditionalists or Ethiopian
Utopists and black modernists or Negroes in business suits. The
Chicago Tribune, January 19th 1919 equated the move of the
participants to the vision of the movement of Ethiopianism: “An
Ethiopian utopia, to be fashioned out of the German colonies, is the
latest dream of the Negro race who are here..... It is a quite Utopian,
and it has less than a Chinaman’s chances of getting anywhere in the
peace conference, but it is nevertheless interesting” (Padmore 1947).
On the other hand the New York Evening Globe, February 22, 1919
presented the conference in a different light: “Sweated at long green
tables in the council room today were Negroes in trim uniforms of
American Army Officers, other American coloured men in flock coats or
business suits, polished French. Negroes who hold public offices,
Senegalese who sit in the French Chamber of Deputies”(Padmore
1947).
Despite the optimism that was created as the result of the end of the
First World War and the formation of the League of Nations, colonial
powers ignored the appeals of the Pan-Africanists and increased
exploiting their colonies to recoup their war losses. Moreover, racial
injustice in the Americas and Europe became increasingly intolerable.
In response to these challenges, the Pan-African Commission organised
a series of conferences in London, Paris and Brussels, in 1921. The
conferences focused on bringing the Pan-African movement to the
12
global political agenda. Participants in their resolution asserted that
“the habit of democracy must encircle the earth” and the Negro
problem should be studied by an international body(Padmore 1947). In
arguing their case, they used universally recognised moral standards
in the West, to show to the world that racial inequality was against the
dignity of human beings and is contradictory to the principles of
democracy and natural rights.
The struggle of the Pan-Africanists for racial justice had similar
ideology with the civil rights movent that came later on except the fact
that the Pan-Africanists were interested in mounting international
resistance against black oppression anywhere in the world. They called
for the “recognition of all civilised men as civilised” despite their
difference in race or colour(Padmore 1947). The chairman of the
movement, W. E. B. Du Boise’s powerful essays resonate the
conviction of the movement to universal racial justice in the world:
The doctrine of racial equality does not interfere with individual liberty; rather, it fulfils it. And of all the various criteria of which masses of men have in the past been prejudged and classified, that of the colour of the skin and texture of hair is surely the most adventitious and idiotic (Du Boise 1997:41).
This emphatic expression has its similar meaning in content with
Martin Luther King’s dream to see his people judged not by the colour
of their skin but by the content of their character. The Pan Africanists
believed that the freedom of black people in America and Europe was
inextricably bound with the freedom of black people in Africa. This view
has strong similarity with Martin Luther King’s view that injustice
anywhere was a threat to Justice everywhere. The universality and
indivisibility of justice held by the Pan-African Congress was practically
manifested in the resolution of the third Pan-African Congress that took
13
place in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1923. The conference concluded with
resolutions to be met for the development of the Negro race, the
absolute equality of all races, and the advancement of all civilisations
(Langley 1979:749). The participants condemned mob law and
lynching in America and the oppression of majority black Africans by
minority whites in Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa. Especially with
regard to South Africa, the congress vehemently condemned the
practice of the government:
What more paradoxical figure today fronts the world than the official head of the great South African state striving blindly to build Peace and Good Will in Europe by standing on the necks and hearts of millions of black Africans?(Padmore 1947)
The Fourth Congress took place in New York in 1927 and passed
similar resolutions as the previous ones. Then, the movement became
relatively dormant until it was awakened by the increasingly assertive
voices of colonised people during the Second World War. This led to
the Fifth Pan-African Congress that was convened in Manchester,
England in 1945. Participants of the congress reflected upon the past
achievements of the Pan-African movement and introduced more
radical approaches to end colonialism from Africa. Unlike the
resolutions of the previous congresses that concluded with appeals to
the colonial powers to introduce concessions for their colonial subjects
in Africa, the Fifth Pan-African Congress, through its famous
“Declaration to the Colonial Peoples” addressed the colonised people
directly:
We say to the people of the colonies that they must fight...by all means at their disposal...The object of imperialist Powers is to exploit. By granting the right to colonial peoples to govern themselves that object is defeated. Therefore, the struggle for political power by
14
colonial and subject peoples is the first step towards, and the necessary prerequisite to, complete social, economic and political emancipation(Langley 1979:760).
The declaration resonated a new ideological shift from the past
regarding the realisation of political rights in Africa. Initially, the Pan-
African movement had been advocating the progressive realisation of
civil and political rights for Africans. They appealed to colonial regimes
in Africa to grant progressive concessions to their subjects, including
participation in local government and the right to benefit from African
resources. They believed that the grant of local self determination to
Africans would gradually lead to the attainment of full self
determination by the people. However, at the Fifth Pan-African
congress, they concluded that this belief was illusive.
Two major ideological and practical shifts emerged as a result the Fifth
Pan-African Congress: Firstly, the participants declared that the
realisation of freedom cannot come merely from the will of the
coloniser but through the struggle of the colonised people themselves.
Therefore, Africans should fight first for their own independence.
Secondly, the pan-African movement should primarily be conducted in
African by Africans themselves. This in effect shifted the centre of the
struggle from the Diaspora to the mainland Africa. Consequently, the
6th and 7th Pan-African congress took place in Tanzania in 1974 and in
Uganda, in 1994, respectively. Due to these, The Fifth Pan-African
Congress became a watershed event that played a significant role in
stimulating the anti-colonial struggles and the wars of liberation of the
1950s and early 1960s in Africa (Watkins, Alkalimat et al. 1994).
3.1 Impacts of Intellectual Pan-Africanism
3.1.1 The development of discourses and other movements
15
Pan Africanism resisted the European claim of the superiority of the
white race over the black race using western and non-western
methods. Black intellectuals using western methods presented texts
that refuted the myth of white civilisation. Du Bois asserted that the
White man’s burden was the black mans burden. “ The problem of the
twentieth century is the problem of the colour-line – the relation of the
darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and
the islands of the Sea”(Du Bois 1997:54). Against the views of Hegel,
Hume, Kant, Ranke and others who view Africa out of human history
and devoid of any contribution to human civilisation, Dub Bois and
Cheikh Ante Diop articulated that Egyptian civilisation was the creation
of black Africans.4 Although less accepted by many, the presentation
of such views heightened the spirit of the struggle against racial
domination.
A unique racial discourses developed from one of the earliest leaders
of pan-Africanism, E. Blyden, who believed in the idea of the separate
destinies of races (Hensbroek 1999:43-53). He considered each race as
having its own specificity that serves mankind. For Blyden, the spirit of
service the African had was more worthy than the European spirit
towards ruling. Therefore, Blyden had no problem with the European
political hegemony over Africa because in his view, “the one serves
mankind by dominating, the other by serving”(Fredrickson 1996:68-
69). Blyden suggested that the African must advance by the methods
of his own. He must posses a power distinct from the European. Some
criticise his idea as anti-racist racism. Blyden himself accepted
scientific racism but reversed its importance and suggested that Africa
4 Cheikh Ante Diop presented his Doctoral dissertation on The African origins of Civilisation in 1955 at Sorbonne arguing that Egyptian civilisation which was the origin of Greece, was African Civilisation, and his work was rejected. Recently, the British historian Martin Bernal in his book Black Athena claims to have confirmed the claim that Egyptian civilisation was African [black] civilisation.
16
was the exemplar of Europe, not the other way round (Hensbroek
1999:52).
Unlike the discourses that tried to signify Africa’s identity, originality,
antiquity and glory in relation to or independent from Europe, other
discourses that viewed Europe as a model for Africa developed in the
Western part of Africa. One of the prominent supporters of this view
were members of freed slaves who returned from the Americas to
resettle in Africa. The resettlers brought with them the American racial
prejudice with the American political ideals and felt more Christian, whiter and
hence, more civilized than the local African population (Hensbroek 1999:29).
Members of other groups that viewed Europe as a model and an ally to Africa’s
future were called the “recaptives”. These were Africans who were captured and
sold to slavery, often by other Africans, and were rescued from slave ships by the
British. They often settled in Sierraleon while the resettlers were dominant in
Liberia. They soon became keen to learn English and follow the Christian
religion from the Angelical and Methodist missionaries, and formed the ‘Creole’
community based on European values and ideals and demanded participation
and greater role in the colonial administration. While the Creoles called
themselves “ black Europeans”, they were often portrayed in Europe as “
savages posturing as Europeans” (Hensbroek 1999:30-31). the most influential
scholar from this group was Africanus Horton who became the founder of the
modernist model of thought in Africa (Hensbroek 1999: 155).5
3.1.2 Class and Speeches
5 Horton believed in a universal and hierarchical path towards civilisation in the world. He accepted an Africa far behind Europe and declared what the mission of development in Africa should look like as :“ to raise the nations of Africa from the debased and degraded state to which they have fallen, both morally and physically, to free them from the bloody and demoralizing influence of beastly superstition; from polygamy; from domestic slavery; from the paralysing effects, as regards productive industry, of customs and institutions which…prevent the creation of that capital by which alone the works necessarily attendant on civilization can be executed” Hensbroek, P. B. V. (1999). Political Discourses in African Thought. London, Praeger Publishers.
P. 35. Horton is often criticised as “the Black Englishman”.
17
Arguably, Intellectual Pan-Africanism became the basis for the
emergence of a new ruling class in Africa. The heads of the movement
assumed leadership positions on the basis of their education in
Western universities and colleges. These intellectuals viewed
themselves as “civilised men” despite black, and struggled to shift the
“measure of man” from the colour line to the intellectual line. They
resented against the unequal treatment they received as “Negroes”
despite their intellectual excellence. In the resolution of the Second
Pan African Congress that was presented to the League of Nations,
they vehemently rejected the practice of this injustice on the class
they represented:
“...a bitter feeling of resentment, personal insult, and despair
is widespread in the world among those very persons whose
rise is the hope of the Negro race” (Padmore 1947)
The use of rhetoric language was also an important legacy of the
struggle. The Souls of Black Folk and other essays written by Du Bois
and numerous artistic expressions in the form of poetry, music and
other forms of literature heralded the cry of the oppressed souls.
“Out of the depths we have cried unto the deaf and dump
masters of the world. Out of the depths we cry to our own
sleeping souls. The answer is written in the stars” (Padmore
1047).
The legacy of such rhetorical use of language was effectively utilised
by Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement and by
President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign.
3.1.3 Unity
18
The most important contribution of the pan-African movement was the
development of the concept of unity among black people. Almost every
black movement and organisation had for its name the word unity or
union. The establishment of the Organisation of the African Unity in
1963, the proposal to establish the United States of Africa by Kwame
Nkrumah and the current African Union embody the generational
aspiration of the Pan-African movements for unity. Initially, unity was
envisioned in racial lines, as the unity of the black people, but
eventually it changed its focus to the unity of causes than that of
race/s.
The pan-African movement contributed for the idea of racial unity and
self reliance advocated by Malcolm X. In 1964, Malcolm X travelled to
Africa and gave speech in Ghana and Nigeria. He also participated in
the OAU meeting where he requested the African leaders to sue USA in
the UN for its racial injustice. Although no African leader had
implemented his request, Malcolm X continued to emphasise the
importance of the link between Africa and the African Diaspora. During
his period, Pan-Africanism started to be considered as an international
expression of Black Power (Harlow 1994:169).
3.1.4 Solidarity
During the 1960s and 1970s Pan-Africanism in the Diaspora played a
supportive role in the anti-colonial struggle. The African Liberation
Support Committee, League of Colored Peoples and the International
African Service Bureau, were formed to galvanise support for freedom
fighters in the continent. The African Liberation Support committee
observed May 25 as Africa’s liberation day and was active in
supporting independence movements in Zimbabwe, South Africa and
Namibia. Following the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini in 1935,
several organisations and campaigns were organised in the spirit of
19
Pan-Africanism, to help the country regain its sovereignty. Among
these were: The Ethiopian Research Council, The Provisional
Committee for the Defence of Ethiopia, The Friends of Ethiopia, The
Medical Committee for the Defence of Ethiopia, The United Aid for
Ethiopia and others (Johnson 2007:132). In south Africa, farmers who
heard the invasion of Ethiopia began to march up the continent to fight
for Ethiopia’s liberation, only to be forced back by the British (Campbell
1994:292-294).
Although pan-Africanism was initially motivated by racial oppression, it
did not restrict the participation of white activists in the struggle. For
example, when the first Pan-African congress was established by the
membership of only 50 blacks, there were 150 white honorary
members supporting the congress. Moreover, during the Freedom
Riders Movement, the Ku Klux Clan party killed black and white riders
together. This contributed to greater unity during the civil-rights
movement. In Africa too, the idea of African unity on the basis of race
has been changed to unity on the basis of economic and geo-political
interests. Du Bois outlining the vision of the Pan-African movement
mentioned that:‘ out of these there might come not race war and
opposition, but broader cooperation with the white rulers of the world,
and a chance for peaceful and accelerated development of black folk’
(Padmore 1947). Early poetic voices of black anti-racial movements
also underscored the unity of cause over race.
The cause is not in the skinIts war over wheat-fields and coal pitsOver clothing and houses milk and bread.We against themSlaves against mastersFuse and fireYou from the black breast I from the white
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It’s war for the earth... (Kelley 1997:44).
Conclusion
Pan- Africanism as a collective response of black people to Eurocentric
hegemony can be viewed as one of the longest and widest forms of
social movements in history. It still is a continuing mantra sing along
by various formal and informal groups under a variety of beliefs,
philosophies and ideologies. Currently, the African Union has created a
Pan - African Parliament with the view to facilitate continental
integration by enhancing the involvement of the African people and
grass-root organisations on issues affecting the continent. Although its
political impact is significantly low, the Diaspora is considered as a
regional unit in the current African unity project.
The long history of Pan-Africanism can be viewed in light of two
paradoxical movements: as a take-off-Africa movement, and as a back-
to-Africa movement; as a search for distinct identity from the West,
and as a movement towards a rightful space within the established
order of the West. However, with the development of new global and
local forces of homogenization, the Pan-African project conformed to
the Hortonian paradigm of take-off to European modernity. Cultural
movements and their leaders have been repressed and replaced by
Westernised elites who lead Africa along the contradictory paths of
opposing the West and imitating the West.
The world is still experiencing unprecedented turmoil, and the future of
Pan-Africanism is uncertain; yet, it may not be too late to pay heed to
the counsel of Frantz Fanon- to create the new than to imitate the old
(Fanon 1965).
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Du Bois, W. E. B. (1997). The Souls of Black Folk. Boston and New York, Bedford Books.
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Frantz, F. (1965). The Wretched of the Earth. London, Macgibbon and Kee
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