Pan-Africanism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Pan is the Latin word for 'all'. Pan-Africanism literally means 'all Africanism' which equates as 'all African unity'. Based on that literal definition, Pan-Africanism can refer to the unity of all continental Black African cultures and countries. Pan-Africanism usually refers, however, to the unity of all Black African descended people worldwide who have been forcefully removed from the African continent and dispersed to the United States of America, the Caribean, Latin America and even parts of the Middle East and South Asia through the Atlantic and Islamic/Eastern African slave trades. This definition of pan-Africanism also includes India's Andamanese Island Negritos's and the Black Melanesian populations of the Pacific Ocean who are of proto-African descent and the indiginous people of those regions they inhabit. This article will focus on the latter definition of pan-Africanism.
Pan-Africanism as a movement actually began in the West Indies, not Africa. The Afro-Trinidadian, Henry Sylvester Williams, coined the term with his 1900 Pan-African Congress. To date, the Afro-Jamaican Marcus Garvey has led the largest pan-African movement in world history with his Unia-Acl organization that he founded in Kingston, Jamaica in 1912, and 'Garveyism' quickly spread in the United States when he moved his headquarters to Harlem in 1914. Marcus Garvey has given the pan-African movement the red, black and green flag, the red standing for the blood men must shed for their redemption and liberty, the green standing for the vegetation of the Black races African motherland and the black for African descended people themselves. Also used in the pan-African movement are the Ethiopian colors red, gold and green. The red and green standing for the same principles as Garvey's flag and the gold for the mineral wealth of Ethioipia/Africa. This flag has symbolical significance due to the fact that ( with the exception of Liberia ) Ethiopia is the only African country to have avoided European colonialsm by defeating the Italians at the famous Battle of Adowa. Many African country flags are adaptations of Garvey's red, black and green and Ethiopia's red, gold and green.
Pan-Africanism in essence means the unity of all Black/African descended people worldwide irrespective of ethnicity/culture or nationality. Famous pan-Africanists include Marcus Garvey, Edward Wilmot Blyden, W.E.B DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah, Fela Kuti, Malcolm X, Steve Biko, Patrice Lumumba,Cheikh Anta Diop, Bob Marley etc. The Rastafari movement of Jamaica grew out of pan-Africanism, when Marcus Garvey declared 'look to Africa for the crowning of a Black king', the Rastas looked to Haille Selassie of Ethiopia. Ironically, Garvey criticized Selassie on many issues. Also a branch of the pan-African movement is the Afrocentric movement, of whom Cheikh Anta Diop and his 'idealogical son' Molefi Kete Asante are the champions. This movement centers around reexamining African history from a pro-African perspective as opposed to a pro-Eurocentric one, a return to traditional African concepts and culture and often espouses the view that Egypt and some other civilizations were and should be acknowledged as having Black African origin. Also associated with pan-Africanism is Black Nationalism .
During apartheid South Africa there was a Pan-African Congress that dealth with the oppression of Black South Africans under White apartheid rule. Other pan-Africanists organizations include Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association-African Communities Leaguee, TransAfrica and the International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement.
Pan-Africanism is often criticized for overlooking the cultural and ethnic differences as well as different socio-political circumstances among Blacks worldwide.
see also Africa African-Americans West Indies Siddis Afro Textured Hair
Atlantic Slave Trade Marcus Garvey Garveyism Kwame Nkrumah