Pan-Africanism

Pan-Africanism general term for various movements in Africa that have as their common goal the unity of Africans and the elimination of colonialism and white supremacy from the continent. However, on the scope and meaning of Pan-Africanism, including such matters as leadership, political orientation, and national as opposed to regional interests, they are widely, often bitterly, divided.

One catalyst for the rapid and widespread development of Pan-Africanism was the colonization of the continent by European powers in the late 19th cent. The First Pan-African Congress, convened in London in 1900, was followed by others in Paris (1919), London and Brussels (1921), London and Lisbon (1923), and New York City (1927). These congresses, organized chiefly by W. E. B. Du Bois and attended by the North American and West Indian black intelligentsia, did not propose immediate African independence; they favored gradual self-government and interracialism. In 1944, several African organizations in London joined to form the Pan-African Federation, which for the first time demanded African autonomy and independence. The Federation convened (1945) in Manchester the Sixth Pan-African Congress, which included such future political figures as Jomo Kenyatta from Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah from the Gold Coast, S. L. Akintola from Nigeria, Wallace Johnson from Sierra Leone, and Ralph Armattoe from Togo. While at the Manchester congress, Nkrumah founded the West African National Secretariat to promote a so-called United States of Africa.

Pan-Africanism as an intergovernmental movement was launched in 1958 with the First Conference of Independent African States in Accra, Ghana. Ghana and Liberia were the only sub-Saharan countries represented; the remainder were Arab and Muslim. Thereafter, as independence was achieved by more African states, other interpretations of Pan-Africanism emerged, including: the Union of African States (1960), the African States of the Casablanca Charter (1961), the African and Malagasy Union (1961), the Organization of Inter-African and Malagasy States (1962), and the African-Malagasy-Mauritius Common Organization (1964).

In 1963 the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded to promote unity and cooperation among all African states and to bring an end to colonialism; it had 53 members by 1995. The OAU struggled with border disputes, aggression or subversion against one member by another, separatist movements, and the collapse of order in member states. One of its longest commitments and greatest victories was the end of apartheid and the establishment of majority rule in South Africa. Efforts to promote even greater African economic, social, and political integration led to the establishment in 2001 of the African Union (AU), a successor organization to the OAU modeled on the European Union. The AU fully superseded the OAU in 2002, after a transitional period.

Bibliography: See C. Legum, Pan-Africanism (rev. ed. 1965); R. H. Green and K. G. V. Krishna, Economic Cooperation in Africa (1967); J. Woronoff, Organizing African Unity (1970); I. Geiss, The Pan-African Movement (1974); P. O. Esedebe, Pan-Africanism (1982); C. O. Amate, Inside the OAU; Pan-Africanism in Practice (1987).

Pan-Africanism A movement seeking unity within Africa. It became a positive force with the London Pan-African Conference of 1900. An international convention in the USA in 1920 was largely inspired by the Jamaican Marcus GARVEY. The invasion of Ethiopia by Italy in 1935 produced a strong reaction within Africa, stimulating anticolonial nationalism. The Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945 was dominated by Jomo KENYATTA and Kwame NKRUMAH, and by the ‘father of Pan-Africanism’, the American W. E. B. DU BOIS. In 1958 a conference of independent African states was held in Accra, followed by two further conferences in Monrovia in 1959 and 1961. In 1963 in Addis Ababa 32 independent African nations founded the ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY, by which time Pan-Africanism had moved from being an ideal into practical politics.

Pan-Africanism Historical political movement for the unification and independence of African nations. It began officially at the Pan-African Congress (1900) in London, organized by western black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois. It met five times between 1900 and 1927, and worked to bring gradual self-government to African colonial states. In 1945, the Pan-African Federation convened the Sixth Congress, attended by future leaders of post-colonial Africa, such as Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. It demanded autonomy and independence for African states. As independence was gained, the movement broke up and was eventually replaced (1963) by the Organization of African Unity (OAU).