Pan Africanism, Dead or Alive?

In the early 1960’s while several African states were purging themselves of their colonial rulers they were forced to face the consequences created by colonial rule. Emperor Haile Selassie addressed the problems created by colonialism and proposed the following purpose for Pan Africanism.  He states, “It [colonialism] has fostered tribal, religious and linguistic differences with the deliberate intention of preoccupying African States with qualms among themselves and obstructing their development programs and thus creating conditions for neocolonialism to thrive.  …Africans have advanced the concept of Pan-Africanism as the best method of resolving African problems and of further strengthening African Independence and Unity.”  During this same period, Doctor Kwame Nkrumah was implementing the unwritten tenets of Pan Africanism during his rule of the newly independent Ghana. As a statesman, he saw the progress of his own state of no greater importance than the progress of all African states, and thus invested the resources of Ghana into the betterment of the region of which Ghana was a part and the continent to which Ghana was a fraction.  Simultaneously, Marcus Mosiah Garvey sought to alert the children of Africa, throughout the Diaspora and within the continent, of the perils that we all faced, the world over.  He spoke of the slave conditions that we all lived under and the urgency of our reunification on the continent of Africa.  “Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad!”  It was during this period and as a result of these conditions that Pan Africanism was born and became the slogan of  all African freedom fighters. 

Pan Africanism is essentially the means and ways African people go about the work of collecting the souls, minds, and resources of African people in a concerted effort to restore the land, Africa, to African people.  Africans everywhere became impregnated with the momentum and will to reclaim their inheritance.   This resulted in further  demand of African states for their independence and the demand of Africans in the Diaspora, for their release from bondage, along with reparations.  The dawn of a new day appeared on the horizon for Africa and her children, however, her oppressors also got wind of this new wave. The colonials and slave drivers who benefit so greatly by the conditions created from a divided people and a divided continent decided to protect their interests.  They made an undeclared war on all Pan Africanist.   Thus was born programs like COINTELPRO, the counter-intelligence program that sought to root out all threats to the interest of the ruling party.  Though the COINTELPRO refers to an American solution for dissidents found among its citizens, the same formula was applied by all colonial rulers to rid the continent of Pan Africanist.  This resulted in outright murder of our leaders, staged coups and propaganda warfare to discredit our efforts and strides.  Eventually democracy was instituted in most African states and Africa found herself dethroned, once again, in the new era of neo-colonialism. 

Several decades later the war on Pan Africanism continues.  The previous colonial rulers have implanted their stogies and replaced fear tactics with that of reward tactics, creating disproportionate wealth at the expense of the masses of African people.  Nine out of ten of Africa’s present leaders were schooled, from childhood up until adulthood, in foreign sponsored schools where they were taught to protect ideals and interest of their foreign sponsors/donors while being forced to relinquish all ties to their own culture and tradition.  One would be hard pressed to find one African leader who isn’t a Hellenistic Christian or Muslim.  Such being the case, laws are exacted on the people that directly oppose the efforts of our Pan African patriarchs.  For example, the former head of Ghana made a ‘revolutionary’ claim to the effect that all Africans in the Diaspora would be granted right of abode in Ghana.  That statement dates back to 1996, since when it has been shuffled about in parliament where the neo-colonial puppets draw big words on paper and pass them back and forth, in this case, delaying the implementation of a necessary law that would provide the first real means for Africans in the Diaspora to repatriate and begin the work of reuniting with the land and her children. 

Though effective, has been their darts and arrows, the Pan African has not disappeared nor grown weary, but rather stronger in their resolve.  Pan Africanism thrives in the souls of those who have evolved in this modern warfare and learned to evade its missiles while continuing the works.  Its themes now emanates through the music of the messengers, on the walls and canvases of the artists and in the ciphers held by the youth, under the tutelage of their ancestors.  Pan Africanism was born out of necessity, born out a yoke placed upon Africa and her children.  Pan Africanism cannot die, it will only grow in intensity until its aims are met, that being the restoration of Africa to her glory and the reunification of her children.  Then it will remain as the tie the binds.