Editorial: Pan-Africanism — Dead or alive?
Dreams of a united Africa and prosperous Africans on the continent and beyond, it would seem, have been deferred if not written off entirely.
The figureheads of Pan-Africanism, like Kwame Nkrumah and Thomas Sankara, are dead, and their would-be successors grey. Political formations founded explicitly on this ideology languish in the fringes of public imaginaries while opportunistic politicians use the term like dombolo, to sop up the few among the electorate for whom Pan-Africanism still has meaning, however vague.
Increasingly, ideas of what it means to be African oppress and brutalise everyone but wealthy heterosexual cisgender men, and the rise of narrow nationalism has seen countries take on policy positions that reinforce colonial borders. Extreme inequality prevails and, while the poverty rate has decreased, the number of people living in poverty is increasing — driven by too few economic opportunities for the continent’s young, growing and rapidly urbanising population.
Dreams of a united Africa and prosperous Africans on the continent and beyond, it would seem, have been deferred if not written off entirely.
Or have they?
After all, last year alone this happened: Botswana decriminalised homosexuality, the high court in Zimbabwe passed a ruling that affirmed the rights of trans people, and Nigeria announced that it would issue visas to citizens of other African countries upon arrival. Also, Ghana declared 2019 “the Year of Return”, inviting Africans in the diaspora to settle in Ghana, and a slew of African-Americans, including rapper Ludacris and actor Samuel L Jackson, became citizens of one or the other African country.
And the year 2020 looks set to see West African countries finally roll out the Eco, the regional currency that will replace the West African CFA franc. This has inspired some in the southern and eastern Africa blocs to renew calls for a single currency for these regions, perhaps signalling that a single currency for the continent, dubbed “the Afro”, could peer above the horizon in the coming decade.
The idea is that the economic, fiscal and monetary criteria each country has to meet before being allowed to adopt the single currency would push them to implement policies that improve the lives of citizens. With the carrot being the expectation that a single regional or continent-wide currency will ease trade and investment between countries that adopt it, reducing the reliance on donor funding, trade and capital in-flows (and the strings that come with them) from Europe, North America and East Asia.
These events cap off a remarkable decade on the continent, starting with the Arab spring and ending in the deposing and death of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, the last of the liberation heroes turned dictators.
In between, a new country, South Sudan, was born. Which brings us back to age and ideology.
South Sudan’s median age of 17.3 years means that the continent’s youngest country has one of the youngest populations in the world. Yet it is led by Salva Kiir Mayardit, a man almost four times older. South Sudan is by no means an exception.
Across much of the continent, pensioners preside over young adults. This would be fine if age did indeed beget wisdom, but the past half century has raised some doubts.
There is no telling if younger leaders in politics, business, media and activism will bring about unity and prosperity on the continent. But what is clear is that the leaders of today are fast running out of time and should not be surprised if the future judges them harshly. What the continent needs urgently are new, radical ideas for its development; ideas that break from those that have led the world to war, gross inequality and environmental catastrophe.
And if these new, radical ideas are not rooted in Pan-Africanism, then what, if anything, is to be the overarching set of values that hold them together?
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