Pan-Africanism is a term which can have two separate, but related meanings.

Pan-Africanism is a movement of solidarity among the nations of Africa, most particularly sub-Saharan Africa ("black Africa"). The Pan-Africanist perspective is one of common cause with citizens of other African nations, as a result of shared history and shared struggle against a number of threats and challenges, among them: racism, colonialist exploitation, neocolonialism, and imperialism.

In a broader sense, Pan-Africanism is the notion that all black persons are an "African people," with shared cultural traditions and a common history of struggle against many of the same threats and challenges mentioned above. According to pan-Africanism, all blacks, even if they are several generations removed from African soil, as in the case of descendants of African slaves in the Americas, are part of the African diaspora. As such, it is important that African people work together for the empowerment, self-determination and freedom from oppression of one another. This sense of group identity and solidarity of purpose has become a tenet of most black nationalist movements.

See also: Pan-African colours

History

An organization with the formal name "Pan-African Congress" held a meeting in 1919 in Paris. Prior to that the ideas of Pan-Africanism already circulated including at a conference of 1900 considered a prelude to later ones.

The most important leader of the early years was W.E.B. DuBois. Another was George Padmore.

As Africans gained independence from the colonialists, Pan-Africanists not only held meetings but started to head governments. Padmore served as a government official and Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure were vital leaders who headed states.

Also in the 1960s an organization arose specifically for the fight against apartheid in South Africa. The Pan-African Congress was responsible for much of the radicalization of the fight against apartheid, because prior to it pacifist ideas held greater sway. The Pan-Africanist Congress was one of two U.N. recognized organizations connected to South Africa (sometimes referred to as "Azania") while the white-minority regime held power.

Links

[1]All African People's Revolutionary Party and more Pan Africanist links
[2]Archives of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
[3]Early Pan African documents and some writings of George Padmore