Preview

Pan Africanism

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1731 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Pan Africanism
Pan-Africanism and the Organization of African Unity

Pan Africanism Definition

Pan-Africanism is a sociopolitical worldview, and philosophy, as well as a movement, which seeks to unify both native Africans and those of the African Diaspora, as part of a "global African community".

Pan Africanism represents the aggregation of the historical, cultural, spiritual, artistic, scientific and philosophical legacies of Africans from past times to the present. Pan Africanism as an ethical system, traces its origins from ancient times, and promotes values that are the product of the African civilization and struggles against slavery, racism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.

Pan-Africanism is usually seen as a product of the European slave trade, rather than as something arising in the continent of Africa itself. George Shepperson described it best by saying, "Pan-Africanism was the gift of the New World of America to the Old World of Africa". Enslaved Africans of diverse origins and their descendants found themselves embedded in a system of exploitation where their African origin became a sign of their servile status. Pan-Africanism set aside cultural differences, asserting the principality of these shared experiences to foster solidarity and resistance to exploitation. In reality, African American and Afro-Caribbean Pan-Africanists often adopted contradictory positions that belied their universalist Pan-Africanist aspirations.

The idea and notion of Pan-Africanism was floating around for many years and could be seen and expressed in poems before 1900 called the Negro Spirituals. This dream gradually morphed into a dynamic ideology for social political action. Author S.O Arifalo credits Henry Sylvester Williams a man of West Indian heritage whose contact and meetings with a large number of West Africans during his undergraduate studies in Britain with coining the phrase 'Pan-Africanism"

W.E.B. Du Bois

One

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Unit 3 Assignment

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages

    It is said that the Africa culture stands out more than any other culture In the World. With a rich and diverse culture African culture is known to change from county to county, many cultures along with traditions are found in Africa which makes Africa diverse, unique and mesmerizing in many ways to the world. Africa culture is all about the ethnic group’s family traditions, the literature, art and music shows the religion along with the social paths of their culture. (Nafisa Baxamusa, 2011)…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through African Eyes

    • 521 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The book Through African Eyes by Leon E. Clark, allows Africans to speak through many autobiographies, poetry, newspaper and magazine articles, letters, diaries, and many more sources in four different parts. Clark writes this book in order to let the readers think for themselves and to give Africans the opportunity to speak for themselves. Africans have always been viewed as less important than others and almost not human. While reading this book however, the reader learns a little bit more about themselves and how they have judged people throughout their lives.…

    • 521 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Africana Studies

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The north made rum which was traded for slaves. The north would build ships to participate in the slave trade, and when the slaves reached the north they would be used to build more ships to increase the amount of slaves being brought to the United States.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On African Diaspora

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Because of them, they have created various races, societies, cultures, and music. Palmer believes the whole concept of Modern African started in Africa, itself. The Modern African diaspora consist of millions of people of African ancestry who live in different societies who are joint by a past. Through this past, they were able to grow their roots or past even bigger. Even if a person has a small percentage of carrying the African ancestry is part of the African Diaspora. Even though, Palmer said that the concept of Modern African Diaspora started in Africa, does not mean it stayed there. Now that those Africans have carried their heritage with them to these new places, makes it an African Diaspora. But there is people who do not accept their African ancestry when they really are. The thing that counts is that even though you accept or not, they are playing a role of African Diaspora. This diaspora as no end, it continuous, it is like a disease but more as a good…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    experiences in the short history of the United States. As obvious as it may be, all…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The African Slave Trade by Basil Davidson showed us slavery coming from Africa and into the Americas. Davidson showed how slavery in Africa and the brutal form of slavery that would develop in the Americas were surpassingly different. African slavery was more affiliated with European servitude which was the condition of most Europeans in the 15th century. In West Africa, for example, slaves could marry, own property and even own slaves. And slavery ended after a certain number of years of servitude. That idea came to the Americas but down the line there was a shift in thought. Most importantly, African slavery was never passed from one generation to another, and it lacked the racist concept that whites were masters and blacks were slaves. Before slavery began Northern Europeans would even entertain African royalty. Europeans spoke of barbaric and cannibals in the Southern part of African but there was no idea of inferiority. “They supposed no natural inferiority in Africans, no inherent failure to develop and mature. That was to be the great myth of later years…” So the idea of racial inequality seemed to not exist initially according to Davidson.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Role Of Slavery In Africa

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages

    While some may assume that any African could be subjected to slavery, there were usually specific circumstances that resulted in their enslavement. The majority of slaves, both those in Africa and those sold to different countries, were victims of wars between African tribes. For the losing sides of these quarrels, a future of bondage was almost definite. “While no enemy was left standing in the outside world, the conquered enemies were left to serve in Africa” (Africans did not sell their own people into slavery).…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    West African Culture

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Richard Franke argues that traditional West African cultures invented better adaptations to their environments than were developed later through outside, Western Influences. As is stated in the first page, "the historical record so far suggests strongly that Western policies have been major contributors to the current degraded state of the Sahel that renders its food production systems so vulnerable to shifts in the weather." (Franke, p. 257) The thought, is that this is because we do not have the historical background or scientific knowledge to do what was envisioned. The relationship between the herder and the farmer is very important and something that you have to be very careful with when trying to find a solution.…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This capitalist driven interest motivated the “Scramble for Africa,” the mass colonization of Africa’s West coast by predominant European powers. The African people were sought out as the focus of exploitation, as they were a cheap, easily attained, hard working people. Subject to exploitation, the people were dispossessed of their land and “relocated into Canada through forced and impelled migration,” (Mensah, 41) marking the beginnings of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Once in North America, those of African origin were enslaved to European powers, obliged to function as merchandise, the people were bought and sold to provide domestic work for the dominant class/race. Dependent on the enslavement of the African people, the European economy flourished, through the development of its enslaved labour force overseas in North…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Black Nationalism

    • 4766 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Booker T. Washington “was an American political leader, educator and author” who proved to be one of the most dominate figures in African American history in the United States (Booker, par. 1). William Edward Burghardt Du Bois “was a noted scholar, editor, and African American activist…[who] sought to eliminate discrimination and racism” (.. During the late 19th and early 20th century Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two great men who significantly influenced the idea of Black Nationalism in the United States. Though they both wanted to see an America where the Negro was treated with proper respect and equality, their views on how to obtain these noble goals contrasted one another. The ideology of DuBois and Washington were so completely different that people became subjected to following the doctrine of one or the other. With the knowledge that only one could be the “spokesman” for the race the two began a bitter battle to control the Black Nationalism ideology. Amid the competition against one another, both men still had to face other obstacles such as racism in order to further the goals of blacks of the period. Even though the two men had differing opinions on the ideology of Black Nationalism, both would greatly contribute to the idea of Black Nationalism. However, their differing positions on Black Nationalism portrayed a divide amongst African Americans of the time.…

    • 4766 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    African American Culture

    • 4492 Words
    • 18 Pages

    As we begin to think about Africa and its, we must also consider how Western perceptions of "race" and "racial" difference have influenced our notions about the history of Africa. These ideas, which have usually stood out against the presumed inferiority of black peoples with the superiority of whites, arose in Western societies as Europeans sought…

    • 4492 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    African American Religion

    • 2610 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Before Africans were brought to America during the slave trade, they had their own culture and society. They had their own language and dance. They also had their own religion. History tells us that the Europeans justified their abuse toward the Africans as helping them become more civilized because the Africans lifestyle appeared primal to them and not as developed and industrialized as theirs. What is often overlooked is that even though Africans were taken from Africa and Americanized and have been stripped of their religion, culture, language and even their name, the very essence of the African as a people did not go away.…

    • 2610 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The African Diaspora

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages

    African-Americans have been systematically mistreated and unequally viewed by society. From first contact, social stigma and power relations subjugated the race to extremely harsh living conditions. This systematic mistreatment of African-Americans continued for over 300 years, until they operationalized political movements and used their independent and unique agency to overcome the hardships. Two outstanding examples of these social and political uprisings are the Civil Rights Movement and the Harlem Renaissance.…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    African particularly as universal while the Eurocentrist idea is advanced in the united states and…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Philosophy of Ubuntu

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages

    African Philosophy can be defined as a response to the problems and troubles of Africa and to the domination of Western thoughts. The most important aspects of African Philosophy is that, Unlike Western Philosophy, which regards the individual as the center of life, it puts the community first. African philosophy emphasizes the sense of communalism that we as human beings should have.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays