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Pan-Africanism

Insight into the Future of Pan-Africanism

 

Patrice Émery Lumumba - was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo.

“The day will come when History will speak... Africa will write its own history… It will be a history of glory and dignity."
 

Nnamdi Azikiwe - (1904-1996) was a well-known independence leader in Nigeria. As President of the Nigerian Senate he was one of the most powerful individuals in the government of the young nation. Azikiwe, like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Leopold Senghor of Senegal, and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, was also a leader in the Pan African Movement.

“When we speak of Pan-Africanism, what do we exactly mean? To envisage its future, we must appreciate its meaning. To some people, Pan-Africanism denotes the search for an African personality. To others, it implies negritude. Whilst to many it connotes a situation which finds the whole continent of Africa free from the shackles of foreign domination with its leaders free to plan for the orderly progress and welfare of its inhabitants. In order not to be misleading, we must also explain what we mean by the term ‘African’. Is he a member of the black race or is he a hybrid of the black and white races inhabiting Africa? It is necessary to say, too, whether an inhabitant of Africa, irrespective of his race and language, qualifies to become an African within the context of the use of this terminology."
 

Professor Jimi Adesina - Professor & DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Social Policy

“Africans serious about the future of the continent need to get beyond the “Dictatorship or Imperialism” options we are being asked to accept or the simplistic accounts of how we walk our way out of the myriad of challenges we face on our content. What Africa needs is a passionate commitment to our right as a people to stand by and for ourselves...The real task of the future of our continent is in devoting our energy and intellect to how we craft independence and decent livelihood for our people."
 

Nelson Oppong - independent analyst with Think Africa Press. His main interests are in the political economy of resources and state building in Africa and the British Caribbean.

“The New Generation, to which I proudly belong, is speaking loudly and clearly: our faith in democratic principles and social justice remain unshaken. As we have demonstrated in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, we will stop at nothing to claim these rights. We are ready to confront all forces, both internal and external, in all areas of our lives. If Pan-Africanism fails to enable us politically and economically we will sweep Pan-Africanism into the “dustbin of history”. However, if it carries with the momentous tidal waves, which destroyed the imperialist project, into fighting bad governance and leadership, environmental injustice and unbridled economic exclusion in the name market reforms, then we will embrace it for the 21st century."
 

Kwame Nkrumah - Pan-Africanist first leader of Independent Ghana

“The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities."

"Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation. The notion that in order to have a nation it is necessary for there to be a common language, a common territory and common culture has failed to stand the test of time or the scrutiny of scientific definition of objective reality... The community of economic life is the major feature within a nation, and it is the economy which holds together the people living in a territory. It is on this basis that the new Africans recognise themselves as potentially one nation, whose dominion is the entire African continent."

"As I have said time and again, the salvation of Africa lies in Unity. Only a Union Government can safeguard the hard-won freedom of the various African States. Africa is rich, its resources are vast and yet Africa states are poor. It is only a Union Government that we can find the capital to develop the immense economic resources of Africa."
 

Mwalimu Nyerere - - was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985.

“Unity will not make us reach, but it can make it difficult for Africa and African people to be disregarded and humiliated. And it will, therefore, increase the effectiveness of the decisions we make and try to implement for our development. My generation led Africa to political freedom. The current generation of leaders and peoples of Africa must pick up the flickering torch of African freedom, refuel it with their enthusiasm and determination, and carry it forward."
 

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Kenyan writer, formerly working in English and now working in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature.

"The African Union may be a shadow of the original post-colonial vision. But its potential to inspire remains."
 

Cheikh Anta Diop - was a historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture.

"Africa can and will only advance through African integration, which can be realized through the Federal United States of Africa."
 

Dr Molefi Kete Asante - African-American scholar, historian, and philosopher.

“As a people, our most cherished and valuable achievements are the achievements of spirit. With an Afrocentric spirit, all things can be made to happen; it is the source of genuine revolutionary commitment."
 

Julius Nyerere - was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985.

“Africans are Africans, They are Africans by colour, they African by soil, by culture, by way of thinking. And indeed Africans are inseparable. The unity of African comes as a natural course and there can never exist no barrier against it. It is by unity that African States will be able to command respect among other nations of the world, and it is by unity that we shall be able to satisfactorily achieve peace and prosperity."
 

Olusegun Obasanjo - former Nigerian Army general who was President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007.

“The major goal of the union must be the unity of all Africans and peoples of African descent in the Diaspora. Such unity is merely a means to the ultimate goal which is the development and transformation of our people and continent. The ultimate goals of such a political structure must be those of sustainable development, peace, security, growth, democracy and transformation of the continent."
 

Emperor Hailé Selassié - was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.

“Unless the political liberty for which Africans have for long struggled is complemented and bolstered by a corresponding economic and social growth, the breath of life which sustains our freedom may flicker out."
 

Albert Luthuli - also known by his Zulu name Mvumbi, was a South African teacher and politician. 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid.

“This is Africa’s age. This is the dawn of her fulfilment- the beginning of her climb to sublimity."
 

 

 

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