The Rebirth of Pan-Africanism and Rise of the Black Pantheon

The term Pan-Africanism has seemingly disappeared from the modern political lexicon. Africa’s most accomplished intellectuals and some of its most charismatic personalities rarely use the term anymore. Public officials and international technocrats steer clear of using the coinage and even self-proclaimed “Africanists” seldom invoke the phrase. Diplomats, expats, and philosophers alike are all invariably shying away from its use. This selective-ness, forgetfulness, or perhaps simple reluctance among African policymakers specifically, and among philosophers more broadly has caused some observers to question whether the Pan-African agenda itself, the once singular obsession of the pre-independence-era, is dead in the modern African geopolitical landscape. 

Pan-Africanism, from my vantage point, has simply transformed over time, however, the concept itself is still very much pertinent in the African discourse and has spurred hope among African Americans and the diaspora writ large during an increasingly tumultuous period in Black American history. The Black Lives Matter Movement is rooted in historical notions of Pan-African thought, but expands the concept to call for a more elaborative Pan-African Black Pantheon movement. Moreover, Pan-African philosophy has empowered black and brown people in the 21st century to cultivate a new voice, and has reinvigorated the spirit of diasporan unity by forging new interpretations and new meaning to philosophies of the civil rights movements (Black Panther, Black Power, Black Muslim –Nation of Islam, Black Church-led movements) of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. This new call for a Black Pantheon is quite a unique movement, as it denounces traditional confines of geography or ideology by including people of all denominations to its cause. More to the point, it promotes the forceful and immediate rejection and the fierce condemnation of all forms of overt, and perhaps more critically, subtle racial biases, systemic discrimination, racial microaggression, and institutional racism from wherever it exists. 

The Pan-African call for a Black Pantheon gives agency to the individual on behalf of the collective. It provides that everyone has the right and the responsibility to speak out against injustice; equally, it provides that everyone has authority and agency to demand equality and justice for himself and the collective. It suggests that salvation of this order, will not come from an external place but that it will only come from within, and that Africans and diasporans will have build the moral underpinnings of a new Black Pantheon of their own accord. A world that all people belong to, based firmly on an egalitarian concept of racial equality, and one that has zero tolerance for “white privilege,” “unconscious bias,” or any other neologism aimed at justifying hate and discrimination.    

Pan-African political agitators believe that despite the terms limited use, the sentiments of Pan-Africanism has endured the test of time, even if ever-so-subtly (Malisa and Nhengeze 2018) (Alamin Mazrui 2003). Nuanced scholars in the field of African and Africana Studies in this sense prefer to suggest that Pan-Africanism is more of a state of mind, a reflection, or a projection of African solidarity, and not necessarily a reference to the creation of a singular African super state. Moreover, liberal minded thinkers, prefer to ascribe Pan-Africanism to a somewhat lesser fate—viewing Pan-Africanism as a notional “way of life” for Africans to aspire to—contending that it provides a structure that enables Africans to organize their world and to work toward the idea of African unity or equality, but ultimately does not endorse it as an achievable reality (Malisa and Nhengeze 2018). More fervent proponents of Pan-Africanism, however, insist that it is indeed the quest for political, economic, and territorial unity of the African continent. That it is both a desirable and an attainable economic and political pursuit. These advocates largely adhere to the Casablanca Bloc doctrine, ideas inspired by Pan-Africanist like Nkrumah, Toure, Gaddafi, and others. To this group of Pan-Africanists, it is not merely an ideological or fantastical notion, it is in fact a real destination in place and time.

However one defines Pan-Africanism, it is evident that the idea—however faint, is alive and thriving among Africans and diasporans of all walks of life—philosophers, political scientists, government officials and lay people alike adhere to some form of the concept whether they actively use the term or not. The interesting question, however, lies in the existence of such wide variations, in their respective interpretations of Pan-Africanism, and in the underlying reasons why the once favorable term has been pushed underground. Questions that ultimately illuminate the nature of centuries-old abuse, neglect, and complete disregard of an entire race; and in the psychological torment of communities of color and the unyielding persistence of dormant ideologies.    

The answers to these questions may ultimately lay in the philosophical assumptions and epistemological underpinnings of Pan-African thought, and in examining the convergence between African pre-independence history, its post-colonial social psychology, and modern-day modes of political protectionism. Perhaps, however, when it comes to the term Pan-Africanism the historical baggage is simply too heavy. The notion of an African super state —however sexy, inspiring, or practical as it may seem to the lay-person, may simply be too fragile of a concept or too threatening of idea for even the most ambitious Africanists to utter aloud, certainly notwithstanding clarifications or nuance. 

Africans and diasporans of the 21st century instead look inward to a notional concept of a black utopia – a “Black Pantheon” of hope -as I call it, a somewhat aspirational egalitarian society that in fact exists not only in the minds of Africans and diasporans but in reality, one without geographic or territorial confines. A philosophy that allows people of color to claim agency without prescribing it to artificial limitations of customs, norms, traditions, or political correctness.  An idea that circumvents the geographical and political restrictions of Pan-Africanism or African Zionism to one that truly embraces all diasporans in their current space. A place in the here and now, that is accessible to all; an interconnected mental and physical space where Africans, Black Americans, Afro Carribeans, and other peoples of color can collectively promote equality and justice. A movement that offers all peoples of color a home, a family, a community, a nation, and ultimately a universe safe from discrimination, bias, and systemic abuse of black people. Technological advances have opened a new Pan-African space such that the idea is now one that diasporans can touch, feel, build on, and participate in.   

Pan-Africanism, as it were, has been all but disregarded as legitimate political philosophy by its critics. In fact, in most circles, it is thought to be a naïve predilection at best, and in other instances, an intransigent concept or even a menacing threat to global order. Though it is not viewed in such a negative light on the continent, we do not see much by way of its defense either. Perhaps in some sense, the utterance of Pan-Africanism alone, as a mere possibility, even in one’s mind (for a Pan-Africanist), is enough to undermine and destabilize its plausibility. This is certainly the way several African scholars have seen the issue in the past. Yash Tandon, renown African political scholar and public activist viewed it in similar fashion as far back as the 1970’s when considering “Western” attacks on Nkrumah’s ideas of Pan-Africanism. He said pundits aimed to “wreck [Pan-Africanism] completely lest it should miraculously come to the surface again (Alamin Mazrui 2003).” He, like others believe that there is a concerted effort to undermine and discredit Pan-Africanism altogether.  

Other scholars for their part, look at it quite differently. Many simply arguing that despite best intentions of a new generation of Pan-Africanists, individual state sovereignty by virtue of its existence, has ultimately superseded and in effect thwarted any larger ambitions of securing meaningful continental African unity (Getachew 2019). That is to say, the achievement of individual African national independence (in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s) along pre-established colonial borders (i.e. Berlin conference territorial lines), has only made those artificial territorial divides stronger over time. In effect making the divisions between states like Senegal and Gambia, Burundi and Rwanda, Nigeria and Niger, Congo and The Democratic Republic of Congo, or Ghana and Togo only more pronounced over that past several decades. The idea that independence, in effect, killed larger prospects of African Unity.

This fragility of the Pan African idea, a seemingly unchallenged concept among many Africans, speaks to the heavy stakes at play and to the conflicting forces keeping it just out of reach. The notion that sabotage (either self-inflicted or foreign perpetuated) can cause an entire movement to effectively crumble under the weight of skepticism or negativity speaks to the trauma experienced by Africans and the black race writ large. To many African social activists, the economic risk- by virtue of donor aid, is simply too high, and the social agony of yet another psychological defeat is too painful to allow the dream of a Pan-African utopia out of the box. Politicians, for their part, do not see any clear political benefits for raising the issue at the nation-state level, nor do they see a recognizable political vehicle for its achievement. Academic and social philosophers on the other hand, prefer to debate over matters of ethnicity, historicity, and culture as core determinants of disintegration and selectively choose to bypass the current institutional realities of modern Pan-Africanism. 

As for the African lay person, they tend to hold onto the raw unfiltered sentiments of Pan-Africanism still living on the continent. In various fora, from Nigeria to Tanzania, from South Africa to Egypt there continues to be an intrinsic societal yearning for something grander, a perceived economic necessity to collaborate with one another, and a shared political vision to build an African super state. Thus, keeping the notion of a united Africa very much pervasive in the African psyche and entrenched deep in its sociopolitical fabric. Black Pantheons welcome a united Africa as an extension and promulgation of a its broader reach for inter regional integration and collective strength. 

This psychological distortion of geopolitical ambitions, international compliance, and internal realities has had a clear effect on the African political establishment’s ability to maneuver towards a clear Pan-African agenda. It has also caused ripple-effects in the continent’s integration efforts and its economic policy posture, namely, in its disjointed regional and sub-regional messaging, uncoordinated integrations plans, and contradictory national political strategies.  Pan-Africanism, and how to achieve it, has incidentally been lost in the political shuffle between un-managed expectations, uncontrolled mythologies, mixed philosophies, and irrational methodologies. However, the idea itself survives. It lives in known and unknown places. The idea has transformed and in the American sense, lives somewhere in between the misgivings of black nationalism, the black power movement of the 1960s, the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement, and the neophiliac craze for African folklore through films like Marvel Comic’s Black Panther. The movement calls for the rise of a “Black Pantheon” as a salvation for abuse people of color around the world.

 The ongoing tug of war for the heart and soul of Pan-Africanism, and its most recent Black Pantheon iteration, has existed in varying degrees since its conception and will only continue without concerted effort to focus its agenda. Historically, the pendulum of Pan-African thought has swung widely, if not haphazardly—from liberal, laissez-faire advocacy and diasporan regional and global integration; to the promotion of socialism, Marxism, and other nonaligned political persuasions; to more aggressive and assertive advances like Ethiopianism, Negritude, black nationalism, and at its worst even a certain kind of African fascism. 

Interestingly though, the core ingredients for each of these ideas/movements are notably the same. They are, in the first instance, the demand for respect, dignity, and equality across racial and geographic lines—all noble ambitions of the grandest scale. Second, the realist recognition that military, economic, and political power are the means to demand change—a daunting supposition to some. And lastly, the acceptance that unity towards a common purpose is the most strategic way to consolidate power—albeit uncertain in both its possibility and its effectiveness. It is these core ingredients that Pan-Africanists and Pan-African Black Pantheons strive for. Their dreams for equality, justice, respect, and basic human dignity are certainly deserved and justifiably demanded. The Pan-Africanist agenda serves this singular cause. Whether in its liberal manifestation or in its more extreme fascist personality, Pan-Africanism calls on people of African descent to unite, collaborate, and consolidate resources towards the advancement of African people and its historical legacy for the sole purpose of a more equal and dignified global society. The demand for power by Pan-Africanists –however frightening of a concept to those who fear African agency, is an essential component of the concept and a necessary ingredient for its success.

The Black Pantheons for example, demand respect and exert individual agency without delay. The demand individual autonomy as people and as communities of color without seeking permission or consent. They exercise their God-given incontrovertible power, authority, and agency to advance the plight of racial dignity and black equality without reservation, restriction, or adherence to any artificial notions of legality and custom. Black Pantheons identify no particular state or territory, but instead promote and encourage the collective consciousness of people of color to stand and rise together for freedom, justice, and equality across the globe. They recognize that they have personal, familial, communal, and far reaching collective sovereignty –and in that is inherent power. Most importantly, they recognize they have a right to wield it!

Regrettably, for the Africans and diasporans, the practicability of consolidating power—in the Pan-African sense of integrating economies, or even encouraging collaboration among people of color and African nations has not come easy.  It is no secret that the numerous development conferences, the many famous Pan-African conferences, and the various calls to action over the past seven decades have seemingly achieved only nominal economic gains and very limited political change on the issue of unity. Getting people of color to reclaim personal agency through the Pan-African Pantheon prism will also surely prove difficult. However, skepticism over African development prospects as well as cynicism over the continent’s ability to overcome neo-realist institutional barriers and other underlying political divides, or underestimating black agency is not how Africans and diaporans see themselves in the 21st century. Critics may see slow progress or nominal gains as a clear indication that the unification effort on the continent is futile, or that Black diasporans are disconnected from a broader movement, Black Pantheons do not.

 Alas, when black people across the world are terrorized, brutalized, abused, and killed without recourse, dormant notions of Pan-Africanism, Black Nationalism, Black Zionism and new manifestations such as Pan-African Black Pantheonism are resurrected in full steam across the diaspora. The words of Edward Blyden, Stokely Carmichael, and Malcolm X, ring in the ears of the black collective consciousness, motivating people all across the globe to pick up a brick—not to hurl or maim, but to stack and build... To build a more equitable world for the perpetually victimized and incessantly marginalized black community. 

This is perhaps why the Garveyites and Nkrumahists, see “nominal gains” in a completely different light than their critics. For them, small seemingly inconsequential gains are but only the necessary building blocks of a successful grassroots movement. Though, they may concede that full scale African unity has not been achieved, they will also insist that the Pan-African struggle ultimately and simply just continues. What’s more, the incremental steps that seem nominal to most is what they see as their bedrock and as the foundation for broader Pan-African achievement. Similar in a sense, to Nkrumah’s gradual gains towards Ghanaian independence in the 1950s, they see Nkrumahism as a central Pan-African philosophy and incrementalism as its core tenet (Konte 2018). After all, for those that ascribe to the conservative Pan-African ideology, the effort to transform the African geopolitical landscape was never to be easy, nor was it to be particularly speedy.  

Leaning into Pan-Africanism in the 21st Century

Black people around the world are increasingly looking to Pan-Africanism and the idea of a rising Black Pantheon as a beacon of hope in the 21st century, particularly as brutal racial discrimination resurfaces, and horrific global inequality reawakens dormant collectivist ideas of African solidarity. Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, and African Americans alike look upward and outward for hope when racial injustices are carried out with impunity around the world. They look to a Black Pantheon when they are indiscriminately shot, killed, and mistreated by police (without consequence or remorse) in places like Minnesota, Philadelphia, Orlando, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. They look to the birth of a Black Pantheon, when the global community relegates them to bottom rung of society and denies them entry and access to basic opportunities. They look to a simmering Black Pantheon movement for solace, when they are treated as tangential and inconsequential to their own lives. They pray to the Black Pantheon collective to relieve themselves from the ridicule, discrimination, and subjugation they experience in every possible venue across the globe—in both subtle and overt ways. Black and brown people yearn for a Black Pantheon beacon to erupt fiercely from the calm of that despair—and emerge as a haven, a place of normalcy, a place of calm, a small enclave of equality, justice, and compassion for people of color. They inevitably look inward and find that Black Pantheon within, and submit that the struggle for black liberation continues through them, that they are the torchbearers of the movement. They submit to the reality that they must fight for the fight to go on; and that for a world of equality and freedom to emerge they must create it for themselves. The must be the Black Pantheon of hope.   

The systemic degradation of the black psyche, and the condemnation of an entire race to that of thugs, criminals, hoodlums, or simply lesser than, has resulted in an internal community resolve to pursue this type of self-preservation, unity, safety, and security at all costs. The total oppression and relentless suppression of the black race to the bottom stratum of the global community; and the complete lack of concern that poverty and inequality disproportionately affect black and brown people only instigates uprising and reaction. People of African descent in effect, recognize the need for a movement that will restore dignity, hope, and liberation to the globally oppressed. The Pan-African movement, and its 21st century global manifestation—Black Patheonism, is one such crusade that gives Africans and African Americans hope.

Pan-Africanist therefore, exercise patience in the name of what they know all too well—perseverance. Others find new hope in a movement of a different kind. Both invariably shifting and swaying in the wind, as they struggle to find commonality and resonance. In time though, black and brown people across the globe will inevitably find solace in unity and solidarity of the old kind. They will also find some reassurance in the incremental growth of regional and multilateral African organizations and other diasporic events steadily integrating regional and continental economies and their populations. The more they experience racially derived malice and institutional maltreatment, Africans and diasporans will collaborate far and wide across continents, economies, sectors, regions, industries, and ideologies to strengthen the Black Patheon commitment. Black Patheonism as a beacon of hope for the African diaspora, in essence, will persist as long as racism and subjugation persists in our society .

African autonomy and access to true political power will ultimately decide where the African continent lands on the issue of integration and development on any grand scale. The emergence of the African superpower or at a minimum an Africa with power “the kind of power that stands out signally”—as Garvey once put it, will be a key factor. The power that other nations “see,” and “feel” (Garvey 1986). Or what political theorist refer to as “the final arbiter,” quoting Robert G. Gilpin who said “the final arbiter of all things political is power.” (Keohane 1986). To Garvey and to many realist/neorealist political theorists, “power and authority” are the only true determinants of political persuasion (Garvey 1986). This was also the mind-set of some of the initiators of Pan Africanism, Commander in Chief Toussaint l’Ouverture and Captain Dessalines of Haiti, who opted for armed revolution against the French in Haiti in 1791 instead of appeasement—further emphasizing the notion that power and force are generally the only alternatives left in order for the oppressed to liberate themselves (Kinni 2015). 

Thus for Pan-Africanists—armed with Thucydidean concepts of realism, and their understandings of E.H. Carr’s neorealist suppositions of “power over morality” are particularly interested in authoritarian power in contemporary African international affairs (Keohane 1986). Ali Mazrui’s notion of Pax-Africana is also exceedingly important to Africanists, as they contemplate the idea of African integration in the 21st century. These concepts surely need refining, but their resurrection and extrapolation is to promulgate critical thinking, and spur unorthodox and innovative solutions to old issues of borders, sovereignty, and ideology in the globalized world. Ultimately it is “power” that will give Africa the space to develop and the means to control a larger share of the world’s advance productive processes, world financial institutions, world scholarship and media, and a permanent seat on the UN security council –all of which, incidentally, are factors that can bring African nations together.  

African leadership will have to play an ever-increasing role in this regard. Primacy of leadership will be key to accelerating the African integration. The task of leadership will inevitably be to provide an inspiring vision and to instill in the mindsets of Africans and diasporans a compelling need for change, anchored on a unity of purpose and personal resolve for human dignity. Leadership, in the Black Patheon spirit, however, is the duty of all. Moreover, it is the duty of the individual. In particular, individuals with economic, political, and social clout must lead with actions that unify and protect the sanctity of freedom, equality, and justice for black people. Good leadership will ultimately require the ability to make tough decisions that will demand a change. These decisions may not be politically correct or economically palatable, the key however, will be for them to be transformational. 

Critics of Pan-Africanism and its liberating potential in the 21st century may point to the continent’s diversity in languages, religion, and historical experiences to contend that it is near impossible for a” United Africa” to ever emerge. Its supporters say, the promise of Pan- Africanism still serves to galvanize generations into taking political action and in transforming their societies and economies toward a more egalitarian community of African states and the diaspora (Duffield 1984) (Kraft 1948) (Malisa and Nhengeze 2018). The Pan-African Black Pantheon movement, for their part, simply yearns for the restoration of dignity and respect to the peoples of Africa and their descendants. However, the emergence of broad support for African empowerment and the continent’s ever-growing economic and political might has the potential to ignite a new wave of interregional/intercontinental African development that will benefit the world. 

Irrefutably, the idea of a “unified Africa” will remain relevant in African political discourse for the foreseeable future. The growth of a global Black Pantheon movement will invariably increase African agency radically over the next decade, The continent's steady—albeit incremental push toward a more prosperous and unified Africa will also promote a more equitable world. These collective occurrences bode well for both Africans and diasporans in the 21st century.