First and foremost, Pan-Africanism is an African philosophy. For those who contend that Africans have no philosophy, Pan-Africanism can be an answer. What is philosophy? Philosophy is, “an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live and their relationship to the world and to each other.
A conventional definition of pan-Africanism would be a “philosophy that is based on the belief that African people share common bonds and objectives that advocates unity to achieve these objectives. In the views of different proponents throughout its history, Pan-Africanism has been conceived in varying ways. It has been applied to all black African people and people of black African descent; to all people on the African continent, including nonblack people; or to all states on the African continent.”
To make a long story short, Pan-Africanism perfectly fits into this definition which is based on the belief that African people share common bonds and objectives and that advocates unity to achieve these objectives. In the views of different proponents throughout its history, Pan-Africanism has been conceived in varying ways. It has been applied to all black African people and people of black African descent; to all people on the African continent, including nonblack people; or to all states on the African continent.
Pan-Africanism is not only a philosophy. It is also arts and literature or it is reflected in arts and literature. According to some sources, “Pan-African literature is a form of writing that explores the common interests of people of African descent and the idea of their unity. Pan-Africanism can also be expressed through art, politics and culture. As we said above, philosophically, Pan- Africanism is a movement for the unity of Africans and the elimination of colonialism and white supremacy from the continent. Later on, this view was expanded to include black people in the Diaspora and all people who claimed belonging to the black race irrespective of their location or ethnic identities.
Various scholars have explored the potentials and possibilities of what they call literary Pan-Africanism’s possibilities and manifestations in literature, aesthetics movements, literary history and literary criticism. Many books have been written about Pan-African literature, including the 2005 book entitled, “Literary pan- Africanism, History, Contexts and Criticism” which was published by a scholar named Christel N.Temple. The book reveals, among other things, that Africans have also wondered and reflected on the losses that resulted from slavery.
African-American author and poet Maya Angelou has also written a book entitled, “All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes” in which the author writes about her sentimental experience as an African- American abroad in post-independence of Ghana.
The origins of Pan-Africanism can be traced back to the history of slavery and the colonial system. “Slavery and the colonial system were hated by Africans and were institutions that the Pan- African movement arose to combat. Pan- Africanism also developed to overcome the obstacles facing the African Diaspora-a scattered, diverse, and often disadvantaged population of people of African descent. Pan-African thinkers would maintain that, although they were dispersed throughout the world, African people and people of African descent were a unified people and should try to work together for the good of all.”
Pan-Africanism is also a reaction to colonialism in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries. It developed as a reaction to the impact of European colonialism in Africa on peoples of African descent. In the mid-20th century, activists in Africa adopted Pan-Africanism as a rallying cry for independence from colonial rule. Some African Pan-Africanists sought to unite the continent as one independent nation.
Pan-Africanism as a philosophical, political and artistic movement was the catalyst that promoted the political objectives of the movement. Pan-African arts was not arts for arts’ sake. It was arts for the liberation of Africa. It was therefore arts and literature that were engaged, militant and focused on African freedom. The movement has therefore behind the convening of landmark conferences such as the Pan-African Congress.
“The agenda of the first Pan-African Congress resembled that of the 1900 conference in its concern for the plight of Africans and people of African descent. Significant emphasis was placed on the provision of education for Africans and the need for greater African participation in the affairs of the colonies. Specific interest in the African territories of the conquered German colonial empire was also expressed.
A proposal was made that these territories be held in trust by the newly founded League of Nations with the goal of granting the territories self-determination as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the territories were placed under the nominal supervision of the league, which distributed the territories to other European colonial powers without demanding that the new colonial rulers move the territories toward self-determination.”
The Pan-African movement or pan- Africanism had also a number of ramifications. Another ramification of the Pan-African movement was the creation of the Black Power movement. It was a revolutionary movement that started in the United States in 1960s and 1970s. Like pan-Africanism, the black power movement was also manifested in arts and culture. Black consciousness in arts and culture is a movement to create a distinct Black aesthetic and challenge white artistic standards. It sought to redefine the Black experience and reclaim Black cultural heritage. Culturally, Black Consciousness espoused black cultural pride and political solidarity while firmly denouncing white liberal inactivity.
Although the black consciousness movement started in South Africa, it was inspired by the Pan-African movement that started earlier and was broader and deeper in its reach. It was not confined to one area, to one country or to one region. However, it was natural for the Black Consciousness Movement to be born in South Africa where the struggle against Apartheid had reached a critical stage.
The most prominent leader of the black consciousness movement or black nationalism was Stephen Biko, who was, “a political leader of the late 1960s, who became known as a martyr for black nationalism upon his death in prison. Biko sought to liberate the minds of Africans, arguing that liberation grows out of “the realization by the Blacks that the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” He was also one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement in the late 1960s.”
Pan-Africanism as a political practice or manifestation now seems to be in a dormant state although the fundamental objectives of the movements are not yet attained. Almost a century after its birth the philosophy and practice of Pan- Africanism has not yet achieved its stated objectives, namely securing the political, economic and social liberation of Africans from the vestiges of colonialism and neocolonialism. In the later decades of the 20th century, neocolonialism was often portrayed as a many-headed hydra. In Greek mythology, the hydra is described as a monster that has nine heads and was killed by Heracles. When one head was cut a new one grew instantly in its place.
The rise of globalism in the second half of the last century was behind the weakening of nationalist movements both in Africa and Latin America. The struggle for black liberation was thus made a subsidiary political and economic current of the global struggle between developed and developing countries while nationalist movement lost their independence as well as their mobilizing potentials that were evident in the preceding decades. Yet, a remarkable phenomenon in the last few decades is the emergence and expression of black consciousness or black power in the cultural and aesthetic fields such as in music, arts, cinema and in plastic arts.
The artistic expression of black consciousness started to occupy a prominent place in what we may perhaps call the modern black consciousness movement, is the emergence of new musical styles and genres such as Bob Marley’s reggae or the more recent Nigerian new genre music that has the flare of protest art or protest music although it has nothing to do with reggae music. Scholarly works are also appearing within and outside Africa where intellectuals are engaged in redefining the historical content and impacts of the various Pan- Africanist and black liberation movements in general. It is obvious that the initial objectives of the Pan-Africanist movement are not yet realized. Will this process lead to the revival of a new black consciousness movement at the global level or will it simply fade away and retreat into history?
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2025
