Why did Pan-Africanism fail? Pan-Africanism refers to the long-term historical process by which people of African descent have been scattered from their ancestral homelands to other parts of the world. There was, or still is, a sentiment that people of African descent have a great deal in common, a fact that deserves notice and even celebration, however, African people who were enslaved and taken to other countries will most likely never be able to trace their Ancestry to a particular Country in Africa, as there were never any records made of people being shipped to America or other countries.
In addition to fostering independence from the colonizing powers, Pan-African leaders (mainly Thomas Sankara and Kwame Nkrumah) held Communist political views. De Gaulle took Thomas Sankara’s fierce stance on African independence as a personal insult. I saw a documentary (sorry, no reference) where French ex secret service agents declare having got rid of him, as well as of other political opponents in Francophone Africa.
Definitely, one of the reasons Pan-Africanism is dead is because of its links to Communism and how the Western countries rather wanted to have pet allies and not politically independent nations in the continent.
I would say that the second most important reason is the lack of trust among African leaders. This includes the fact that whatever borders, ethnicities and resources ended up becoming a modern state under national African rule, country leaders have completely adapted to. As a result, African leadership today is as much about development as it is about self preservation and maintaining the status quo.
What is Pan-Africanism and how is it relevant today?
is the belief that africa should unite under one political, economic, and military unit. Former leader of libya ghadfi was one of the main leaders of this and tried to promote a gold backed currency that would help stablize the continent. what you should realize is this was a major thing in the 60s-70s, africa just liberated itself in countless bloody uprisings and the new leaders had little to no experience. The unite under one goverment would have been unheard of, and it would have shaped africa into a greater powerhouse than china today. sadly the C.I.A. assainted many leaders who promoted this, while a.s. companies forced their way in to dominate the landscape. ghadfi tried to counter this by teaming up with the soviets as well training insurgents from around the world. hamas, che, the venzeleun freedom fighter/terrorist the jackal, west german college kids, merican college kids, all came to libya to train and fight. It’s the main reason the west was so ready to demonize him. His people didn’t really hate him as much as say the saudi people hate the saudi princes but you wouldn’t know that watching CNN. as to how pan-africanism is relevant today…it’s not. Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa these juggernauts on the continent not only no longer see no benefits to supporting such a radical idea while also fighting radicals at home. at the same time climate change and crimes against humanity are forcing africans from all over the continent to move to Nigeria and Ethiopia and South Africa. 25% of South africa’s population is immigrants and the other 75%,whether black white or mixed, wants the forgeiners to go. While all this is happening the european union is imploding. comrade we are witinessing the death of the nation-states. 1492–2050
