Brother Militant:
You are asking several questions in this thread. Some of them can be answered, others can not without further explainations on your part. To address your first question: What is Pan Africanism? Pan Africanism is the philosphical belief that all black people throughout the world should unite/connect based on our common heritage & experiences. Africa is the center of Pan Africanism; however, it is not the whole. PanAfricanism includes blacks in the Americas; blacks in Europe; blacks in Asia, and blacks in Australia. As a result you will find information on all in this forum.
To address your second question: What is the purpose of the Pan African forum? The purpose of this forum is to express the spirit of Pan Africanism. Pan Africanism is expressed with the sharing of information. It is expressed by learning about the cultures (music, food, religion, beliefs, etc) of black people in different countries. Pan Africanism is expressed through dialog. Thus I dedicate many threads on this forum which share information about the cultural aspects of black people throughout the world.
Lastly to address your third question: Should the Pan African forum be used to solve what is wrong with Africa? I think it is important to identify what exactly you feel is `"mental masturbation". As I´ve explained, sharing information about different cultures between blacks in the Diaspora IS PanAfricanism. Such information may not be important to you, but it is to others. Indeed, such information may not be new to you (the majority is well known to me), but it is new to others.
It is necessary to tackle the "hard question" and "difficult subjects like: Why are Blacks the poorest ethnic group in every country they occupy? Why do African Presidents & Prime Ministers serve the interest of Western nations more than their own countries? There have been such threads within this forum, as well as other forums on this website (the Open Forum, the Religion Forum, the Culture Forum, the forums of our Columnist). Such debates can take place anywhere on this website, they aren´t restricted to the PanAfrican forum only. However, the only way for such discussions to take place is for someone to bring them up.
In other words, if you want to address the problems of black people (as well as solutions to the problems), then simply start thread topics on what you want to discuss. Those who are with you will respond, and those who want to "mentally masturbate" will continue to do so. Either way, you will put out the issues you want to tackle.