Compare The Nature Of Pan-Africanism, Race And A Social Constructed Africa
Pan-Africanism, race and a social constructed Africa
Based on culture, identity and world view: slavery, slave trade and the African Diaspora
Pan-Africanism, race and a social constructed Africa
‘What is Africa to me? Once I should have answered the question simply: I should have said "fatherland" or perhaps better "motherland" because I was born in the century when the walls of race were clear and straight in the United States.’ (Du Bois:1968, 115)
This citation describes the Pan-Africanist feeling of Du Bios in his autobiography. Du Bios grew up in the United States (U.S.) and was the First African-American who graduated from Harvard (Du Bois:1968, 18.). This feeling of Pan-Africanism can be traced back for centuries in different regions in the world. This research answers the question: to what extent can we speak about one global feeling of Pan-Africanism? This article analyzes the changing opinion on Pan-Africanism from the colonial period until now. Moreover, it will elaborate on the different opinions on Pan-Africanism in …show more content…
different regions in the world. In this article the focus lies on African-American Pan-Africanism and Pan-Africanism on the African continent. To elaborate on the whole African Diaspora is beyond the scope of this article. This research will first discuss the origin of Pan-Africanism, followed by the development of Pan-Africanism now. Lastly, this research will analyze the different experiences of Pan-Africanism around the world.
The origin of Pan Africanism and the link to race
Pan-Africanism is about the complexities of black political and intellectual opinions over the centuries. The philosophies and politics of the Pan Africanists depend on the era they lived in. Moreover it depends on whether their focus is on politics, ideology or culture. However, at the basic level, Pan-Africanists share the call for solidarity on the African continent and in the Diaspora, such as the African-Americans in the U.S. (Sherwood: 2012, 106). Interestingly, the first ideas of Pan-Africanism originated outside the African continent. The oppression of African-Americans in the U.S., who were raised in a segregated society, discriminated and excluded from daily life, leaded to debates about race and destiny (Appiah:1993,6). Alexander Crummell, an African-American professor who lived in the 19th century was one of the founders of Pan-Africanism in the U.S. Crummell defines ‘Africa as the motherland of the negro race’. Crummell stated that there was a ‘common destiny for the people of Africa’. The reason for this was according to Crummell not because they shared a common history, or a common threat of imperial Europa, but because all Africans belong to a common race. The linkage between race and Pan-Africanism shaped the discourse on Pan-Africanism (Appiah:1993,5). To put differently, as Kitson states Pan-Africanism is a reaction to ‘counteract the denial of full humanity for Africans and African-Americans (Kitson:1999, 91). Assumed that Pan-Africanism is linked to race, it has consequences for the whole African population. Race means that people who belong to the same race, have the same sort of characteristics, so this would mean that there is a continent called Africa with a homogenous group of people living on this continent. In addition, according to Crummell, people who lived outside the continent but share the same ‘race’ have the same sort of characteristics.
Development of Pan-Africanism and solidarity during the centuries
This section briefly discusses the developments of Pan-Africanism on the African continent and in the U.S during the last two centuries. The main reason for doing so is to elaborate on the process how Pan-Africanism changed from a more political movement to a more ideational movement nowadays. Looking at the African continent, the colonial period is an interesting starting point. Europeans started living in small settlements in Africa. However over the years more and more European colonizers arrived on the African continent. This development leaded to discussions about land-ownership and divisions in race (Bank: 199, 269). Europeans created a monopoly-based system of landownership on race, which resulted in the oppression of African people (Bank: 1997, 275). This resulted in the foundation of several resistance movements and wars. Examples of these are the ‘Xhosa Wars’ in South Africa. (Bank: 199, 25). Pan-Africanism is used in a political way to resist the European oppression on the African continent. After World War II, Pan-Africanism focused more on independence movements in Africa. These independence movements used Pan-Africanism as a political weapon, and their aim was to unite all Africans against the suppression of the Western world. Interestingly, Pan-Africanism changed when African intellectuals got their education in the U.S. and Europe. The black students became aware of how the ‘other’, white Americans and Europeans looked at Africans and black people in general. This led to a feeling of solidarity among many black people in the world. Africans experienced how the white Americans and Europeans saw all black people as one race (Appiah: 1993, 9). The use of Pan-Africanism on the African continent changed from a political to an ideational movement nowadays. Today, Pan-Africanism is not widely used anymore for political purposes, but more based on the feeling of solidarity among all the African people in the world. Examples of these are the summits of the African-Union (AU) on the Global African Diaspora (Edozi: 2012, 22). The last summit was on the 26th of May 2012 in South Africa, which stressed the solidarity among all the African people in the world (website AU).
Black people in the U.S. experienced Pan-Africanism in a different way. First of all, African-Americans experienced race and racism in a different way than people on the African continent. In the U.S. African-Americans experienced social exclusion, discrimination and oppression. Therefore, according to Appiah, for African Americans the ‘social intercourse with white people was painful and uneasy’ (Appiah:1993,7). On the other hand, on the African continent many of the Africans ‘have warm memories of European friends’ (Appiah:1993,7). So the goal of Pan-Africanism in both regions was different. In the U.S., Pan-Africanism was used to have a sense of solidarity because of social exclusion. While on the African continent, Pan-Africanism was used to resist the European colonizers and to fight for independence. The feeling in the U.S. on solidarity among all black people in the world changed when the civil rights movements emerged. Racism was fought from the inside. This transformed the Pan-Africanism movement from a political to a more ideational concept. Pan-Africanism in the U.S. today has a more ideational perspective and can be traced back in music and orature (the oral spread of African literature) and ‘slave tourism’ (Kitson: 1999, 93). It is more based on awareness and not forgetting their roots. Some examples are the call for Africans worldwide in Hip-Hop and Slave-trade tourism in countries such as Ghana.
Reconsidering Pan-Africanism
The first part of this research focused on Pan-Africanism in general. The second part of this research discussed the development of Pan-Africanism in different periods and in different regions. The third part states that there are different points of view about what Pan-Africanism means for people around the world. First, as mentioned above, African-Americans in the U.S experienced Pan-Africanism in a different way than Africans on the African continent. They both used Pan-Africanism for different political goals. In the U.S. black people searched for solidarity among black people, and insisted on civil rights. In Africa, Pan-Africanism was mostly used to reach for independence. Second, Pan-Africanism on the African continent insists that all Africans in Africa share the same feeling of solidarity among each other. Especially when we use definitions of early Pan-Africanists such as Crummell, who proclaimed that Pan-Africanism was based on people who shared the same race. However there is an ‘extraordinary diversity of Africa’s people and its cultures’ (Appiah: 1993, 24). There was a great diversity of people living on the African continent before the colonial period (Appiah: 1993, 24). Third, the colonial period did not shape all the diverse cultures in one African culture. Moreover, different cultures had different colonial experiences. The clearest example on this is the difference between the French and British policy during their colonial rule. The French colonial policy was based on turning ‘savage Africans into evolved Frenchmen’, while the British rulers did not have the purpose to turn ‘savages’ into descent British men (Appiah: 1993, 5). This different ‘treatment’ of the indigenous people leaded to differences among the people on the African continent. The social construction of Africa
Given the three arguments mentioned above, I conclude that there is not one “feeling” of Pan-Africanism, which presumably would be shared and loved by all Africans around the world. I also argue that there is not ‘one Africa’. The African boundaries based on geography, history, culture, and representation have shifted according to the prevailing conceptions and configurations of global racial identities, which too had its influences on Pan-Africanism on the African continent. In addition, African-Americans experience a different feeling of Pan-Africanism than on the African continent. All these circumstances lead to a different perception of Pan-Africanism around the world, and therefore I conclude that Pan-Africanism itself is a social construct. So, Pan-Africanism influenced the day to day realities in its history and today. Nevertheless Pan-Africanism has a different meaning for different people and consequently, leads to different influences on the African continent as in the United States of America.
Words: 1516
Bibliograpgy * Appiah, K.A.
(1993) In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. Oxford University Press: Oxford * Bank, A. (1997) The Great Debate and the Origins of South African Historiography. The Journal of African History Vol. 38, No.2, pp.261-281 * Du Bois, W.E.B. (1968) Dusk of Dawn. Schocken Books: United States of America * Edozie, R. (2012) The Sixth Zone: The African Diaspora and the African Union’s Global era of Pan-Africanism. Journal of African American Studies. Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 268-299 * Kitson, T.J (1999) Tempering Race and Nation: Recent Debates in Diaspora Identity. Research in African Literature. Vol. 30 No. 2 pp 89-94. * Sherwood, M. (2003) Pan-African History: Political figures from Africa and the Diaspora. Routledge: London * Website African Union about the Diaspora summit: http://www.au.int/en/summit. (last visited at the 26th of
November)
Based on culture, identity and world view: slavery, slave trade and the African Diaspora
Pan-Africanism, race and a social constructed Africa
‘What is Africa to me? Once I should have answered the question simply: I should have said "fatherland" or perhaps better "motherland" because I was born in the century when the walls of race were clear and straight in the United States.’ (Du Bois:1968, 115)
This citation describes the Pan-Africanist feeling of Du Bios in his autobiography. Du Bios grew up in the United States (U.S.) and was the First African-American who graduated from Harvard (Du Bois:1968, 18.). This feeling of Pan-Africanism can be traced back for centuries in different regions in the world. This research answers the question: to what extent can we speak about one global feeling of Pan-Africanism? This article analyzes the changing opinion on Pan-Africanism from the colonial period until now. Moreover, it will elaborate on the different opinions on Pan-Africanism in …show more content…
different regions in the world. In this article the focus lies on African-American Pan-Africanism and Pan-Africanism on the African continent. To elaborate on the whole African Diaspora is beyond the scope of this article. This research will first discuss the origin of Pan-Africanism, followed by the development of Pan-Africanism now. Lastly, this research will analyze the different experiences of Pan-Africanism around the world.
The origin of Pan Africanism and the link to race
Pan-Africanism is about the complexities of black political and intellectual opinions over the centuries. The philosophies and politics of the Pan Africanists depend on the era they lived in. Moreover it depends on whether their focus is on politics, ideology or culture. However, at the basic level, Pan-Africanists share the call for solidarity on the African continent and in the Diaspora, such as the African-Americans in the U.S. (Sherwood: 2012, 106). Interestingly, the first ideas of Pan-Africanism originated outside the African continent. The oppression of African-Americans in the U.S., who were raised in a segregated society, discriminated and excluded from daily life, leaded to debates about race and destiny (Appiah:1993,6). Alexander Crummell, an African-American professor who lived in the 19th century was one of the founders of Pan-Africanism in the U.S. Crummell defines ‘Africa as the motherland of the negro race’. Crummell stated that there was a ‘common destiny for the people of Africa’. The reason for this was according to Crummell not because they shared a common history, or a common threat of imperial Europa, but because all Africans belong to a common race. The linkage between race and Pan-Africanism shaped the discourse on Pan-Africanism (Appiah:1993,5). To put differently, as Kitson states Pan-Africanism is a reaction to ‘counteract the denial of full humanity for Africans and African-Americans (Kitson:1999, 91). Assumed that Pan-Africanism is linked to race, it has consequences for the whole African population. Race means that people who belong to the same race, have the same sort of characteristics, so this would mean that there is a continent called Africa with a homogenous group of people living on this continent. In addition, according to Crummell, people who lived outside the continent but share the same ‘race’ have the same sort of characteristics.
Development of Pan-Africanism and solidarity during the centuries
This section briefly discusses the developments of Pan-Africanism on the African continent and in the U.S during the last two centuries. The main reason for doing so is to elaborate on the process how Pan-Africanism changed from a more political movement to a more ideational movement nowadays. Looking at the African continent, the colonial period is an interesting starting point. Europeans started living in small settlements in Africa. However over the years more and more European colonizers arrived on the African continent. This development leaded to discussions about land-ownership and divisions in race (Bank: 199, 269). Europeans created a monopoly-based system of landownership on race, which resulted in the oppression of African people (Bank: 1997, 275). This resulted in the foundation of several resistance movements and wars. Examples of these are the ‘Xhosa Wars’ in South Africa. (Bank: 199, 25). Pan-Africanism is used in a political way to resist the European oppression on the African continent. After World War II, Pan-Africanism focused more on independence movements in Africa. These independence movements used Pan-Africanism as a political weapon, and their aim was to unite all Africans against the suppression of the Western world. Interestingly, Pan-Africanism changed when African intellectuals got their education in the U.S. and Europe. The black students became aware of how the ‘other’, white Americans and Europeans looked at Africans and black people in general. This led to a feeling of solidarity among many black people in the world. Africans experienced how the white Americans and Europeans saw all black people as one race (Appiah: 1993, 9). The use of Pan-Africanism on the African continent changed from a political to an ideational movement nowadays. Today, Pan-Africanism is not widely used anymore for political purposes, but more based on the feeling of solidarity among all the African people in the world. Examples of these are the summits of the African-Union (AU) on the Global African Diaspora (Edozi: 2012, 22). The last summit was on the 26th of May 2012 in South Africa, which stressed the solidarity among all the African people in the world (website AU).
Black people in the U.S. experienced Pan-Africanism in a different way. First of all, African-Americans experienced race and racism in a different way than people on the African continent. In the U.S. African-Americans experienced social exclusion, discrimination and oppression. Therefore, according to Appiah, for African Americans the ‘social intercourse with white people was painful and uneasy’ (Appiah:1993,7). On the other hand, on the African continent many of the Africans ‘have warm memories of European friends’ (Appiah:1993,7). So the goal of Pan-Africanism in both regions was different. In the U.S., Pan-Africanism was used to have a sense of solidarity because of social exclusion. While on the African continent, Pan-Africanism was used to resist the European colonizers and to fight for independence. The feeling in the U.S. on solidarity among all black people in the world changed when the civil rights movements emerged. Racism was fought from the inside. This transformed the Pan-Africanism movement from a political to a more ideational concept. Pan-Africanism in the U.S. today has a more ideational perspective and can be traced back in music and orature (the oral spread of African literature) and ‘slave tourism’ (Kitson: 1999, 93). It is more based on awareness and not forgetting their roots. Some examples are the call for Africans worldwide in Hip-Hop and Slave-trade tourism in countries such as Ghana.
Reconsidering Pan-Africanism
The first part of this research focused on Pan-Africanism in general. The second part of this research discussed the development of Pan-Africanism in different periods and in different regions. The third part states that there are different points of view about what Pan-Africanism means for people around the world. First, as mentioned above, African-Americans in the U.S experienced Pan-Africanism in a different way than Africans on the African continent. They both used Pan-Africanism for different political goals. In the U.S. black people searched for solidarity among black people, and insisted on civil rights. In Africa, Pan-Africanism was mostly used to reach for independence. Second, Pan-Africanism on the African continent insists that all Africans in Africa share the same feeling of solidarity among each other. Especially when we use definitions of early Pan-Africanists such as Crummell, who proclaimed that Pan-Africanism was based on people who shared the same race. However there is an ‘extraordinary diversity of Africa’s people and its cultures’ (Appiah: 1993, 24). There was a great diversity of people living on the African continent before the colonial period (Appiah: 1993, 24). Third, the colonial period did not shape all the diverse cultures in one African culture. Moreover, different cultures had different colonial experiences. The clearest example on this is the difference between the French and British policy during their colonial rule. The French colonial policy was based on turning ‘savage Africans into evolved Frenchmen’, while the British rulers did not have the purpose to turn ‘savages’ into descent British men (Appiah: 1993, 5). This different ‘treatment’ of the indigenous people leaded to differences among the people on the African continent. The social construction of Africa
Given the three arguments mentioned above, I conclude that there is not one “feeling” of Pan-Africanism, which presumably would be shared and loved by all Africans around the world. I also argue that there is not ‘one Africa’. The African boundaries based on geography, history, culture, and representation have shifted according to the prevailing conceptions and configurations of global racial identities, which too had its influences on Pan-Africanism on the African continent. In addition, African-Americans experience a different feeling of Pan-Africanism than on the African continent. All these circumstances lead to a different perception of Pan-Africanism around the world, and therefore I conclude that Pan-Africanism itself is a social construct. So, Pan-Africanism influenced the day to day realities in its history and today. Nevertheless Pan-Africanism has a different meaning for different people and consequently, leads to different influences on the African continent as in the United States of America.
Words: 1516
Bibliograpgy * Appiah, K.A.
(1993) In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. Oxford University Press: Oxford * Bank, A. (1997) The Great Debate and the Origins of South African Historiography. The Journal of African History Vol. 38, No.2, pp.261-281 * Du Bois, W.E.B. (1968) Dusk of Dawn. Schocken Books: United States of America * Edozie, R. (2012) The Sixth Zone: The African Diaspora and the African Union’s Global era of Pan-Africanism. Journal of African American Studies. Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 268-299 * Kitson, T.J (1999) Tempering Race and Nation: Recent Debates in Diaspora Identity. Research in African Literature. Vol. 30 No. 2 pp 89-94. * Sherwood, M. (2003) Pan-African History: Political figures from Africa and the Diaspora. Routledge: London * Website African Union about the Diaspora summit: http://www.au.int/en/summit. (last visited at the 26th of
November)