Pan-Africanism and the anti-colonial movement in southern Africa, 1950s–1990s

Malcolm X, Pan-Africanism, and the Organization of African Unity: Appealing to Shepherds on Behalf of Their Lost Sheep at the 1964 OAU Summit

“…Tanzania displayed numerous bonafides of Pan-Africanism that included becoming the headquarters of the OAU Liberation Committee in 1963 and Nyerere’s 1967 Arusha Declaration that expressed Tanzania’s intention to cooperate with liberation struggles throughout the whole continent. This commitment was not merely rhetoric; Nyerere hosted many armed liberation groups (Bedasse, 2017; Gwekwerere, 2020; Markle, 2017). Regarding the diaspora, Nyerere’s Tanzania allowed African Americans to live in the country; it became a safe haven for some African Americans to escape U.S. prosecution.…”

“…This does not mean that Pan-Africanism is irrelevant to the current context. Tavengwa Gwekwerere (2020) points out the need for reeducating Africans of the significance of Pan-Africanism to the past anti-colonial struggles in Africa. He goes as far to say that the liberation of southern Africa from colonial rule is hard to imagine without both the idea and the movement of Pan-Africanism.…”

“…For example, the end of apartheid in South Africa, according to Muiu, simply freed foreign capitalists to exploit the rest of the continent. However, much of the vulturous and neo-colonial policies that are perpetuated based on the need of European and American aid would be eliminated if Africa would become politically united under the vision of Pan-Africanism figures like Malcolm X and Nkrumah had in mind (Gwekwerere, 2020). It may be more realistic for this form of Pan-Africanism to arise from the grassroots.…”