Contemporary Africa And Pan-Africanism
9 April 2009
Articulation, unity and inclusion
Salma Maoulidi (2009-04-09)
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cc Tom MarukoPan-Africanism gave rise to the civil rights movement in the US and to independence and anti-imperialist movements in Africa, writes Salma Maoulidi, but what is Pan-Africanism to the average African today? To a large extent, Maoulidi argues, it remains a global phenomenon that has focused on global political agendas and less so on struggles on the ground. What is missing, suggests Maoulidi, is 'a popular expression of Pan-Africanism and a matching consciousness such that the concept does not appear surreal, abstract and out of touch with reality and the populace, particularly the youth who are the inheritors of its future.'
Recently I was in the audience listening to a talk hosted by the African Studies Association and the Centre for African Studies at Rutgers University in the US, featuring Paul Tiyambe Zelesa, entitled 'Obama, Africa and African Americans'.
The talk explored the Obama phenomenon, which Mr Zelesa considered has deep meaning and implications for the Pan-African world, as well as the engagement between Africa and its diasporas. As the first black president of the most powerful nation in the world, Obama's election assumes racial significance. Also significant is that it took the son of an African man, exposed from an early age to a multicultural context to realise the long dream of a population brutalised for centuries by slavery and racial injustice.
According to Zelesa, Obama's election is viewed with great optimism by African and people of African descent mostly because, 'it signals a Pan-African present in which the continent and the diaspora are mutually inscribed, invoking memories of the past and imaginations of the future that are singular and inseparable'. I wish to linger momentarily on this idea, exploring the connection between the past and the present to ask how a waning Pan-Africanist agenda can reclaim relevance in novel articulations of unity and inclusion.
I believe this examination is pertinent more so in view of the fact that Pan-Africanism as an ideology is presently confined to certain quarters of the global political intelligentsia. As a person who is mobile and politically engaged increasingly I come across Pan-Africanism mostly in global activist spaces e.g. in the World Social Forum and similar contexts and occasionally in academic spaces. Thus to claim relevance we must ask what is Pan-Africanism to the average African today? Is it a political ideology, as is feminism, or a political , as was the non-aligned movement? Is it a philosophical tradition or a viable political alternative? Where is it situated: Is it internationalist, nationalist or grassroots based? Importantly is it a popular movement or an elitist enterprise?
Africa's racial legacy spurred the movement. Pan-Africanism emerged and grew at a defining point in history. It arose at the ebb of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and at the demise of colonial empires. Early choices of where to organise - London, Paris, Lisbon and New York - indicated that initial roots were in the diaspora. The movement blossomed amidst a renegotiation of the social contract and a new global order ushered in by the creation of the League of Nations and later the United Nations, bodies which enjoyed influence and trust of the membership. It benefited from the moral issues raised by the global crises created by the two world wars, prominent among them being the question of self-determination of oppressed people.
Pan-Africanism advocated for the commonness and unity of Africans and people of African descent, seemingly oblivious to Africa's cultural vastness and diversity. Early pioneers moved to reclaim the dignity of the African, instil pride in being African and forge an Africa identify from a shared culture. At the outset, therefore, Pan-Africanism is grounded in an ideology of resistance from colonial and European domination.
Historically Pan-Africanism found diverse expressions and representations. Whether known as Négritude, Back to Africa, Pan-African or Black Power, the naming of Pan-Africanism or its conception as ideology or movement evidences its varied roots and motivations. Two main trends of Pan-Africanism are commonly acknowledged: continental Pan-Africanism and the diaspora Pan-Africanism. Historically these have had a symbiotic relationship.
Early roots of Pan-Africanism demonstrate strong kinship between Africans in the diaspora and Africa. Indeed, the movement was birthed and spearheaded in the Caribbean and in the United States mostly by intellectuals advocating for the dignity of Africans. Pioneers like Henry Sylvester Williams from Trinidad organised the first Pan-African Conference in London Edward W. Blyden W.E.B. Du Bois one of the founders of the NAACP, sponsored the Pan-African Congress of 1921, 1923 and 1927, Martin Delany developed the re-emigration scheme which was later taken up by Marcus Garvey, the founder of a nationalist movement - the Universal Negro Improvement Association - which promoted black pride and advocated for repatriation to Africa. It is also not surprising that the origins of the movement in the continent is tied to an elite class, part of which was resettled diaspora in West Africa, led by activists like S. L. Akintola of Nigeria or Wallace Johnson from Sierra Leone.
The Pan-African ideology found willing disciples among Africans educated in the US and in Europe and among those exposed to Western and urban culture. Student movements of Africa students like the West African Student Union (WASU) founded by Ladipo Solanke were critical in popularising Pan-Africanism in the continent. African students saw the usefulness of the ideology in their self-understanding and in the liberation of Africa. Most, like Kwame Nkurumah and Jomo Kenyatta came back to lead their own national independence struggles as well as partaking in the liberation of the continent from colonialism and apartheid.
Even after returning to Africa, African students maintained ties with the diaspora. In turn the leadership in the diaspora was connected to the continent ideologically, spiritually and at times physically. They made deliberate overtures to Africans, building solidarity and furthering causes related to the liberation of all people of African descent recognising connectedness in their individual and collective cause. For example Mary McLeod Bethune, the first African American woman to serve in the US government, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. formed part of the Council on African Affairs, a black lobby advocating for African interests. Specifically they advocated for the end of colonialism in Africa and for self-determination.
Pan-Africanism was and continues to be concerned with the affirmation of the African race, culture and achievements. The Encyclopedia Africana Project and numerous books like Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, or Franz Fanon's the Wretched of the Earth and Nkurumah's Africa Must Unite among many literary pieces were all attempts to reconstruct and explain global relationships from a African perspective. Scholars, activists, novelists and heads of state crystallised their idea of a liberated and proud Africa in writings, dialogues and organisation.
Today this freshness in perspective and hopefulness amidst newly found freedoms is missing from dominant discourses of African heads of state. Instead their rhetoric ranges from the fatalistic presenting of Africa as the intractable continent, a continent perpetually impoverished intellectually and materially and which can only be ruled through authoritarianism. Some of these readings are incorporated into university curriculums but in view of the small numbers of graduates from African Universities, revolutionary ideas remain elitist and a concern of the campus not the streets.
Also, there is a marked break with art and cultural forms in its expression. In its heyday, Pan-Africanism was a cultural movement, which attracted and influenced artists of different genres in both the US and in Africa. It led to the Harlem Renaissance, marked by authors and poets like Langston Hughes, Richard Right, Claude McKay, and Lena Horne. As a rallying ideology Pan-Africanism defined and gave life to race-based (and class-based) struggles. In the US it gave rise to the Civil Rights movement, while in Africa it gave rise to the independence movements and anti-imperialist movements.
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