Book Review: Fathers of Pan-Africanism
The authors of this book have ably demonstrated the diabolical machinations of the imperialists who even during the struggle for independence acted surreptitiously leading to the emergence of ‘Casablanca Group’ and the “Monrovia Group” of countries, the former favoured a politically united Africa immediately while the latter wanted a looser union based on gradual economic co-operation.
Samuel Philips and PD Lawton have skillfully told a story from which young Pan-Africanists can draw lessons – Prof PLO Lumumba
There are people in the world who are unaware of any freedom struggle in Africa, unaware that there is one or that there ever was a start of it. This book aims to bring to life the most brilliant minds that shaped the beginning of Pan-Africanism in Africa, what made them unique, and capable of heading revolutions of consciousness to lead entire nations. This book targets the youth of Africa, using the various lessons we could glean from the lives of the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism to create lessons that our African youths can learn and apply for continental building, in this age of speed and much vanity.
Believe it or not, Africa is facing the fight of her life. While many of her sons and daughters remain oblivious, the greatest freedom struggles the continent has faced to date is underway. The wisdom in Sankofa demands that we look back at the past to learn from it. Learning means that we will be transformed by what we encounter. Being transformed means that we will have to think and act differently for the benefit of the people and the land of Africa. This book restores life to the most brilliant minds that fought to shape Africa’s beginning after the colonial scourge. A beginning that was cut short through acts of treachery, deceit, and murder. But the betrayal of Africa was never meant to leave her in permanent despair.
There is a tendency to talk and keep talking about African unity, but African unity without an African purpose or vision is meaningless. Until we have a clear vision and purpose that we can call African and then a conscious system that is engineered to build that purpose in all levels of African life, Pan-Africanism and our unity will continue to be just theories, a mirage that will never come to pass. Where there is no vision or purpose, there can never be unity. Unity only makes sense where there is something to be united about.
But it warms the heart to know that there is a generation of young Africans who love this continent and have the mental, physical, and spiritual energy not only to bring her back from the brink but to cause her to soar once again. And soar they must, if they first disengage from the usual talking about Pan-Africanism, take time to truly look into the various aspects of the system that runs Africa, find the weak links that keep undermining our collective growth and create the appropriate system that will give accurate solutions.
Among those that this book features are the founders of the Casablanca Group. This group of visionary leaders, with Nkrumah and Nasser at the forefront, pushed for rapid industrialization in their new nations. They battled to complete mega energy infrastructure, in the case of Egypt and Ghana, these were hydroelectric power plants with which to kick-start industrialized economies. With a national energy grid, it would be possible to modernize and greatly increase agricultural output with mechanized irrigation, this Egypt did and Nkrumah was on the verge of doing, before his removal from office. Under a national electrification program, education levels dramatically increase which leads to greater prosperity. It was Nkrumah, in particular, who strove for mineral beneficiation. His economic ambition to process Ghanaian bauxite into finished aluminum products remains unrealized. Mineral beneficiation on a significant scale has yet to happen in Africa, which is a crime that must no longer be tolerated if the continent is to cease being a raw materials market for the Global North. It’s beautiful to see the young Ibrahim Traoré, the military leader of Burkina Faso, taking control of his country’s mineral resources back from France, and creating a new path for his people, just like Thomas Sankara did before him.
The leadership of the continent in the 1960s was unanimously behind the idea of unity, even though, for a very few, that was more in theory than in practice. What the leadership did not agree on was rapid industrialization. The Casablanca Group insisted that Africans were more than capable of running industrialized economies. The Monrovia Group, who opposed them, believed that change should happen gradually and that there needed to be an interregnum period of partnership with the former colonial powers. Several decades later, we can see the consequence of the inability of the Pan-African fathers to agree on the rapid industrialization of Africa. Africans are still paying the price for this grave mistake. Can this mistake be corrected now that more Africans, especially the youth are awakened to the issues of Africa?
This book features the virtues of Honesty, Honor, Love, Compassion, Self-Dignity, Self-Awareness, Hope, Vision, Purpose, Heroism, Selflessness, Truth, etc. that every African youth and even older Africans should embrace if we want a better Africa. It offers simple but thought-provoking lessons from the lives of the fathers of Pan-Africanism that every young African can interact with and use as a springboard for making effective decisions that will change the trajectory of Africa’s narrative.
Get the book: Fathers of Pan-Africanism here.
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