Page 15 - Nigeriaone mag 2 edition en

Pan-Africanism adapted to our realities

Statue of Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou © CC BY-SA 4.0

Pan-Africanism could be defined as an impulse of solidarity between the African countries and the diaspora.
Because of historical phenomena, inalienable as slavery, the slave trade and colonization, Africans
underwent have experienced their worst bullying and humiliations, which hindered any effort of
development by annihilating any spirit of empowerment and autonomy that would have guaranteed them an
independent and prosperous development. This led to the emergence of leaders to commit to a sole cause,
through a vast movement called Panafricanisme.
This great movement of retaliations and protests has known its apogee with emblematic characters such as
Marcus Garvey, Kwame Krumah, Jommo Kenyatta, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara ....
the veterans of the resistance, the religious leaders under the islamic banner are not to be forgotten. They
have vailantly played their role in the rehabilitation of the black people.
The real challenge now is to look at pan-Africanism in a new way in this new and vibrant century and to get
people adhere to to and accept its necessity
By what tools, which alchemy, can we instill the new paradigms of a sovereign pan-Africanism?
These are the questions that we must ask ourselves on a daily basis, because it is becoming more and more
imperative for the new generations to appropriate the unalterable virtues of this great movement which can
and must help, without a doubt, the total emancipation of the continent, socially, economically and
culturally.
In its early days, pan-Africanism was more a cultural response to external denial than anything else. Today,
it is imperative for peoples who have long been dominated and exploited, at the back of the world
development line, to turn it into a powerful lever for emergence. It is the only salutary perspective that is
offered to reach this continental ideal

"National liberation , the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence
are empty words devoid of meaning if they cannot be translated into real improvement of living conditions

Amilcar Cabral.

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