What Caused The Failure Of Pan-African Dream
By Daily Tab24
Category: Opinion
Published: Aug 2, 2023.
Time: 9:39 p.m
Pan-Africa dream would have changed Africa but it fell through. It was a dream worth embracing but like every other story of a good thing associated with Africa, it fell like a pack of cards on a table tossed by a whirlwind. Africa needed more than nationalists to excel or achieve her potentials because the continent has been targeted massively for exploitation by the West and other advanced continents.
Strategically; West controlled Africa by proxies during and after the colonial era except few countries they assumed physical and absolute power like South Africa ruled by Whites. Illustratively; the use of warrant chiefs during active colonial era was common in the Southern part of Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria. African countries were used to control their counterparts; so, united Africa was the solution to a better Africa devoid of exploitation and influence.
Pan-Africanism began way back in mid-19th century in the United States, led by Africans from the Western Hemisphere who were victims of slave trade, but grew into the society with influence. Martin Delany and Alexander Crummel and Edward Blyden ofWest Indian and America were the forerunners of Pan-Africanism.
It Was A Movement Instead Of Culture
Pan-Africanism began as a movement propelled by brazen racism which was a cancer to dispersed Africans in USA. Pan-Africanism was not seen as a cultural or African conservative lifestyle but a sociopolitical movement aimed to restore equity and put an end to racism. Although, Delany, Crummel and Blyden advocated for total separation from USA, they didn’t prepare an alternative black continent.
The early voices were focused on educating and advocating the similarities between Africans and the West and citing reasons there cannot be a healthy coexistence but it never inculcated or advocated for African culture. It is widely believed the driving force of the movement was aimed to fight racism and not essentially or primarily to make Africa great.
None of the early voices thought about advocating for African culture to draw a line of difference or address the brazen racism targeting Africans in USA. Being a movement; Pan-Africanism was seen as a pressure group kind of movement seeking to put an end to racism, instead of distinctively promotes African independence in African continent.
It Was Entirely About Advocacy
From the early voices; W,E,B Du Bois took over and throughout his time in the movement, he advocated for the study of African history and culture. Like his predecessors; it was about advocacy without a significant step back home. There was significant investment in awareness with the impression to put Africans in the same category as their host continent.
Theory was important but a back-home action was more important. Racism continued because it had already became the main challenge Africans were facing and what the West found joy in doing. This cannot be said that their advocacy was unimportant; like every movement that successfully existed, it has to be spoken about before action comes into play.
The idea of making Pan-Africanism a thought instead of an applied idea in the early days contributed to the fall. Had the early voices set an applicable template; successors would have built on it and fast tracked action towards a long lasting solution which was hinged on home for all Africans. Due to the theoretical nature of the movement; it focused on enlightenment that brought sympathy and forced coexistence action instead of trigger absolute remedy.
Advocacy did not bring an end to racism; it continued, and because the early voices could not find a lasting solution even though their awareness set the tune for relentless debate on the way forward and agitation that was becoming part and parcel of Africans. Advocacy meant there would be successors upon successors until Africa comes together as one.
Failed Executions
First decades of 20th century witnessed a more radical Pan-Africanist in the person of the Jamaican-born nationalist Marcus Garvey. Garvey shifted properly from mere advocacy to action after World War 1. His call for African independence changed the shape and momentum of Pan-Africanism. There was a practical shift from passive movement to action packed movement to give Africans a united home.
Garvey believed in African continent and that Africans can build an advance-capable country then. His organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was willing to do everything to ensure Africans settled in their continent with improved living conditions. The organization with millions of members across the globe was capable of anything and as a result, they envisioned a back home action.
Garvey’s Black Star Line, a shipping establishment partly provided to transport Blacks back to Africa as well as facilitate global Black commerce. It was a plan that would massively and indirectly countered by the White Supremacists who felt Garvey was going to take back their slaves and workforces. The move was unsuccessful and that was partly because Garvey did not prepare African continent for the intended exodus. Will Africans go back to Africa where the West was using as hub of slave trade?
They Did Not Start From Home
Most of the early and later prominent Pan-Africanist did not start from home. They were all of America and can be rightly called Black Atlantic Intellectual Community than African Intellectual Community.
Failed Political Trial
Garvey’s exploits though was not completely successful, but played significant role in changing and rebuilding the confidence of Africans. Garvey became a catalyst and was responsible for the bold steps Pan-Africanists took after his demise. From 1920s to 1940s, C.L.R James, George Padmore of Trinidad, Aime Cesaire, Leopold Senghor, Martinique of Senegal and the disciple of Padmore, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, all took Pan-Africanism to its prominent breakthrough.
Garvey fought for African independence and above mentioned names took the fight to another level. They were intellectuals who began from advocacy to clinging political power. Except Padmore who started Pan-African advocacy in 1930s and died in 1959, a notable theorist of Pan-African ideas.
Senghor and Kenyatta among other Pan-Africanist that was born in Africa trialed politics but could not achieve the ultimate goal. They succeeded in winning the fight for independence that Garvey championed but could not achieve the envisioned motive -an Africa that is like United States.
