Historically, pan-Africanism as it was manifested politically in the 1960s and onwards, was a negation of colonialism and a warning signal against the coming age of imperialism and/or neocolonialism. Politically, it was articulated by the early legendary leaders of African independence such as Nkrumah, Egyptian Gamal Abdel Nasser following his nationalization of the Suez Canal and Leopold Cedar Senghor who fell short of the radicalism of his contemporaries because of, as many critics argues, his excessive love of the French language and his poetic bent that refused to give up the intellectual space to political pan-Africanism.
Culturally, pan-Africanism was manifested and merged into the bigger picture of black consciousness movement. Poets like Aime César of Martinique have diligently written about the evils of colonialism and the way out of it; that is to say through black consciousness and black awakening. The political struggle against neocolonialism and for pan-African and black consciousness has taken a twisted path of a few successes and many setbacks.
According to the Encarta Encyclopedia, neocolonialism emerged, “Since the end of World War II, when most of the formal empires were dissolved, what might be called modern economic imperialism has come to predominate. Control is exercised informally and less overtly. The U.S., for instance, exerts considerable influence over certain Third World nations, as a result of its national economic power and its dominance of certain international financial organizations, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Similarly, European powers have continued to affect significantly the politics and the economics of their former colonies, and they have consequently been accused of neocolonialism—the exercise of effective sovereignty without the formality of colonial rule.”
US domination of developing post-colonial societies around the world is a well-documented issue that needs no further argument. This neocolonial domination however went through many stages, changing its forms and manifestations without however shifting its objectives and missions. Former European colonialists as well as the US could have rendered a great service to the newly independent African countries by disengaging rather than re-engaging in their internal affairs. They could have expedited the independent development of these countries had they left them alone to manage their affairs instead of intervening to cause so much chaos in the early post-colonial years.
The fundamental message of Chinua Achebe’s anti-colonial classic work entitled, “Things Fall Apart” seems to amount to the following: The encounter between European colonialism and African traditions have created a social and cultural chemistry that led to the subversion of the latter and the domination of the former by new means. The logical answer to Achebe’s fundamentally existential challenge to colonialism represented, was and is, to let Africa evolve in its natural environment and natural direction without foreign interference.
Politically, European and American interference in African affairs also took new forms, basically turning to “interference by proxy”. The post-colonial coups and counter-coups by African military elites were also manifestations of those interferences by proxy, using the local elites as vehicles of European as well as American political subversion and domination.
Non-colonized African countries have not been spared from this kind of domination. Ethiopia is the only African country that has never gone through European direct colonial rule but it was not however spared of the neocolonial cultural, linguistic and political domination of its societies however subtle they might have been. The educational system, the cultural establishment and everything that comprises the “superstructure” of society have been shaped and kept alive by foreign domination disguised as modernization and progress. Ethiopia could have evolved its own systemic reality had it been left alone rather than becoming the coveted object of foreign powers. Ethiopia had the economic, political cultural, traditional and linguistic preconditions for an inward looking autonomous development. Yet, its exposure to foreign influences has both negative and positive impacts and predominantly subversive and regressive ones.
What is more concerning in this process of subversion has not stopped even as we write these lines. European and American quest for global domination has not abetted even as these countries suffered military and diplomatic setbacks elsewhere in the world. US diplomats once called Ethiopia, “a strategic ally of the US” or a “historic friend of America”…etc. Nowadays, Washington has changed gear and considers Ethiopia something of a pariah state simply because the country is trying to follow its own independent way and manage its affairs all by itself. This does not go down well with Washington that has always been seeking African countries to serve its national interests at the const of their own.
Pan-Africanism is therefore in part a response to the colonial and post-colonial or neocolonial world whereby poor countries are subjugated by the rich ones covertly rather than overtly contrary to what was the case under direct colonialism. The US attempt to punish all the dissenting African states through embargoes and sanctions is an attempt to use the stick whenever the carrot does not serve their objectives. The West is incorrigibly hawkish towards African countries that do not serve America’s national interests. The standoff between Washington and the self-asserting African countries is bound to continue even at this particular time when American global hegemony has suffered a devastating blow.
Although pan-African consciousness against neocolonialism dates back to the post-war decades, its manifestations have increasingly become subtler as they invaded the cultural and linguistic spheres that, in the final analysis, contributed to the undermining of African cultures, languages and traditions.
Linguistically, European languages like English have caused distortions of the meanings of traditional languages as Fi Mogu, a literary critic wrote in an essay entitled, The Corruption of Indigenous African Culture through the Use of English: An Assessment of Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born saying that, “Certain aspects of indigenous culture and sensibilities cannot be clearly expressed through a foreign language. Similarly, some alien ideas and norms cannot be clearly articulated through a local language.
“Although the English language has facilitated communication and correspondence among various people in Africa and in the rest of the world, it has also abused or enveloped local cultures and altered intentions and applications. This has resulted in the alienation of some people in their ancestral lands. In Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, the unraveling corruption in post colonial Ghana connives to foster a rotten form of expression in English that is completely new and strange.”
European languages in general and English in particular have had seductive effects on African languages, cultures and traditions. Many post-colonial African writers chose to write in French or English not because they loved the languages of the colonizers but because these writers were offered opportunities for publishing and distributions of their works not only within Africa but also across the globe. The commercialization of culture has therefore forced Africans to abandon their natural vehicles of expression in order to adopt foreign languages as forced upon them for reasons we indicated above.
With the exception of a few African writers, like Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Tiongo, not many African authors resort to writing and publishing in their own languages. Ngugi’s decision to publish in his own language was not inspired by lack of publishing and distribution access but by his Pan-Africanist cultural consciousness. Most of Ngugi’s novels are exposures of Kenyans to the evils of neocolonialism. This is also the source of his humanist approach to African culture in general.
If Africa wants to throw off the cultural yoke of neocolonialism and adopt pan-Africanism as a guiding ideology, its educated elites should lead the way by affirming their commitments to their ancestral traditions that had been robbed or subverted by colonialism and then by neocolonialism. Pan-Africanism would therefore be the logical response to contemporary Western covert cultural and traditional aggressions.
In the long-run, educated Africans need to replace the vertical dominant-dominated relationships between the Western countries and Africa with horizontal relationships or reconnection between African countries that continue to be the objects of Western cultural and linguistic dominations. African countries need to express themselves with their native languages and when they translate their work into another language they should give priority to translating them in African idioms and only then in Western languages to facilitate vertical communication and understanding between Africans.
This should now however be limited to literature but should also include other artistic works such as music, sculpture, painting, and dancing. Actually there is relatively more progress in these art forms than in literary productions. African music has long conquered the Western or European hinterland and shined on their stages. Reggae as a music of rebellion and black emancipation has become so popular that there are many European reggae groups that practice the music. Jazz music which is basically Western, is evolving towards Afro-jazz thanks to the works of Ethiopian jazz artist Mulatu Astatke and other African musicians.
Hip hop and dancehall have become the craze across Africa and in each African country there are dozens of modern dance groups that reflect African issues such as poverty, oppression and anger against foreign cultural and material subversions. These positive developments should also extend to other areas of African cultures and traditions in the spirit of pan-Africanism as a sure path to the continent genuine emancipation that may take decades to be realized but is the only true African path to freedom.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
ETHIOPIAN HERALD 17 SEPTEMBER 2021
