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.
However, the main challenge to its growth and adoption has been in rallying behind a common purpose. Earlier on newly independent nations struggled with an organisational form to encapsulate the Pan-African intent. But at the 1957 conference in Ghana and in subsequent conferences, including the 1974 Dar es Salaam Conference, differences in ideologies, political orientation, regional interests, and leadership hindered meaningful progress from being realised.
Our inability to acknowledge and reconcile divergent strands in ideology and movements has strained the development of Pan-Africanism beyond the faction. Individuals at the centre of Pan-Africanism and their politics were indicative of the shades and interests in the movement. Garvey, unlike Du Bois and others was not an intellectual or from the black elite class. He was thus not very popular among his more rationalist peers. Garvey's flamboyance and aspiration as provisional president of Africa is observed in figures like Bokassa, Mobutu, Chiluba, Amin, Mugabe and Taylor, while the more poised intellectuals like Du Bois are observed in figures like Nkurumah, Nyerere and Kaunda. These personalities could not eat at the same table, creating deep personal and political divisions that continue to the present day.
A number of leaders and countries were, however, willing to try to make the grand concept of a united and free Africa a reality. They made great sacrifices to liberate their fellows who were still in bondage, but upon liberation the latter have been reluctant to reciprocate with equal doses of good will. South Africa, a country whose anti-apartheid leadership benefited from the Pan-African experience is now a political and economic sore to African nations. The killings of mostly African immigrants in 2007 and 2008 are but an extension of wider anti-African immigration policies pursued by the South African government. Indeed stringent visa conditions against nationals of former frontline states persists, while European nations that supported apartheid have greater access to Africa's economic magnet.
Yet, at the helm of South Africa's political leadership are revolutionaries, people who were given refuge in neighbouring states to wage a liberation struggle. It is this class that has failed to translate to the masses that stayed behind the value of unity among Africans and the sacrifices neighbouring countries made and continue to make to enable peaceful coexistence in South Africa. How can a class who benefited from an emancipatory ideology in action abandon it amidst so much expectation of a renaissance in the continent?
This presents an opportune moment to explore some of the shifts that have occurred in the continent, which may signal a repositioning of the Pan-African agenda for continued relevance. I will speak only to the most salient areas that I think are critical to novel articulations of Pan-Africanism, so as to promote unity and inclusion. These are aspects that thus far have been ignored by past articulators who, being more consumed with reasoning, failed to nurture a collective will that would transform the African identity.
In many ways the Africa pre and post independence leadership embodied Pan-Africanism. These heads of states who were poll bearers have since died, been assassinated or deposed. The current generation of African leaders are not inheritors of this legacy. In fact with the bulk of the adult population in Africa being born between 1985 and 1990, a period when the original objective of liberation and independence had been achieved, the challenge is in substantiating the continued relevance of the ideology to new generation of Africans who have inherited the seeds of mistrust sown by former disciples of Pan-Africanism like Jomo Kenyatta and Kamazu Banda.
Today's Africans, if they have heard of Pan-Africanism, then it is in a context of what was, not what is or what could be. Pan-Africanism remains an obscure rhetoric that informs an increasingly obsolete academic and activist culture. It formed part of Africa's pre-independence era such that those born in an independent Africa find little attraction with its emancipatory charm. The present occupation in the continent is political and economic unity, as evidenced by the African Union's most visible project c (New Partnership for Africa's Development). Its central thesis is, however, not home-grown nor is it final outcome homebound.
At inception, Pan-Africanism was tied to strong intellectual, labour and other social movements e.g. student movements, revolutionary movements and literary movements. Pan-Africanism was a central thesis in their advocacy. Political agitation for the rights of black people was going on simultaneously both in America and in the continent calling for the end of oppression of black people. This shared purpose is no longer shared by the more recent crop of African Americans in power. Rather the perception is that the likes of Condoleezza Rice or General Colin Powell[1] are a liability to the continent. Overall, they did very little to boost image of Africa or to advocate for the continent.
African unity, among other things, is challenged by the language divide: Anglophone, Lusophone, Francophone or Arab speaking. It is ironic that as a people Africans would rather dialogue via the languages of their colonisers and oppressors but resist attempts to adopt an African language to evidence integration. Therefore Africa continues to operate not only in different language zones regionally, but also nationally, as the more educated elites who run the country and services conduct business in the tongue of the masters while the majority of the population converse in indigenous tongues. Thus indigenous Africa remains rooted while official (and professional) Africa is markedly uprooted.
Albeit philosophical, Pan-Africanism found expression in student movements such as Nkrumah's African Student Organisations in the US and the West African Student Union in Europe. Most nationalist leaders were at different points introduced and inducted to Pan-Africanism during their student days. Alas student movements globally have been weakened. In Tanzania, for example, they are not as political as they were in the 60s and 70s. Today most of their advocacy concerns survival issues and not national and international questions. Furthermore, being increasingly materialistic, young people presently do not have the same affinity to their countries or to the continent, believing that the continent owes them. Rather than involving themselves in the business of salvaging Africa, they see the opportunity to study abroad as a ticket out of Africa. If they do come back to the continent, it is foremost to work for multinational companies and international agencies.
Moreover most intellectuals from Africa, champions of Pan-Africanism, are in flight in foreign universities while labour movements have been weakened by neoliberal economic policies and agendas. Few artists have the political consciousness to contribute to political causes the way Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte and Bob Marley did. Political consciousness, nationalist fervour and matriotism are qualities that are passé in the larger political culture.
Certainly, Obama signifies many things to many people. For African American he may epitomise the fruits of a long struggle for civil rights, while for Africans he validates the continent's attribution as a natural source for global leadership - after all he is the son of an African who managed to do what his kin in America failed to for so long. Significantly, Obama redeems the rift between African and African Americans. But whether this necessarily translates in a shared Pan-Africanism remains uncertain, as Obama's politics find greater resonance in the integrationist and reconstructionist politics of Lincoln than in Du Bois, Malcom Shabazz or Martin Luther King Jr.
This is an important reality to contend with as we reconsider the utility of Pan-Africanism today, not just in the diaspora but also in the continent. Surely the face of the diaspora has since changed with Africans and people of African decent being dispersed, mostly by choice, in the East as they are in the West, this time as economic migrants as well as skilled labourers, as diplomats and traders. The more recent diaspora have countries of origin with local chapters. Today we see an African diaspora with a real not just an imagined affinity to the continent. We are dealing with a very different diaspora with different dynamics that needs to be captured in a relevant political articulation.
Remarkably, women continue to be markedly absent from the movement's face, spaces and content. It is notable that women are more visible in Marcus Garvey's populist movement than in more sophisticated chapters. Women such as Amy Ashwood and Amy Jacques, who both were married to Garvey, were active in the Back to Africa movement. The Nardal sisters from Martinique, Claudia Jones and Una Marson, the Jamaican poet were visible literary figures. Among the few African women associated with early Pan-Africanism are Constance Cummings John and Stella Thomas both from West Africa. A similar pattern is also observed in liberation movements where a certain type of freedom fighter was prized over others. Women continue to be unacknowledged and relegated to the background, raising deep suspicion among women with respect to its emancipatory potential.
Indeed, the faces and voices of Pan-Africanism tend to be male, black, mostly middle-aged, and located in academic institutions or think tanks. To a large extent Pan-Africanism remains a global phenomenon that has confined itself to global political agendas and less so on struggles on the ground. For this reason we struggle to define it appropriately in our local languages. I yearn for 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.
* Salma Maoulidi is an activist and the executive director of the Sahiba Sisters Foundation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.
NOTES
[1] The same can be said of the governor general of Canada, Michäelle Jean and black woman or Diane Abbott and Paul Boateng from Britain
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