RETHINKING PAN-AFRIKANISM: NEO-GARVEYISM AS THE 21ST CENTURY PAN-AFRIKANISM.

"There were three main strands of Pan-Africanism in the 20th century: that of DuBois, that of Garvey and that of Nkrumah. These strands each aimed to accomplish Black Africa’s emancipation from white

domination, but they differed in what they defined as the constituency to be emancipated and in the project through which that emancipation would be pursued. In other words, they differed in their answers to the two key questions: emancipation for whom? And by what means?

For DuBois [1868-1963], the constituency was the Negroes of Africa and the Negro Diaspora in the Americas; and the project was to abolish the color line and socially integrate blacks and whites.

For Garvey [1887-1940], the constituency was all the Negro peoples of the world,

wherever they were; and the means to achieve emancipation was by building “a strong and powerful Negro nation Africa,” an industrial superpower that would be “strong enough to lend protection to the members of our race scattered all over the world, and to compel the respect of

the nations and races of the earth...”

For Nkrumah [1909-1972], the champion of Continentalism, the constituency was, as in the OAU/AU, the inhabitants of the African continent, Arabs and Negroes together, but without the black Diaspora; and the means to achieve emancipation

was by building socialism and integrating the neo-colonial states on the continent into one continental state with a single continental government.

DuBois was a pioneer, with the inevitable limitations in the work of a pioneer. Garvey was a great leap forward from DuBois; and

Nkrumah was a great leap backward from both Garvey and DuBois. Why do I say that? DuBois got the constituency right and the project
wrong; Garvey got the constituency right and the project right; Nkrumah got the constituency wrong and the project also wrong. But that is a topic

for another occasion.

After 50 years of following Nkrumah and going astray into the Afro-Arab and neocolonial AU, let us, for the 21st century, get the constituency and the project right by returning to Garvey for guidance. Let us make Neo-Garveyism the Pan-Africanism of the

21st century. Why Neo-Garveyism rather than Garveyism? As we can all appreciate, though Garvey’s diagnosis and prescription are still valid, it is now a century since Garvey made them. The world has changed considerably in that century, therefore we have to interpret his

prescription and apply it in the context of today. We therefore need to bring Garveyism up to
date as Neo-Garveyism. That, in brief, is the message elaborated in my paper.

Here in Garvey’s own words is the project for the 21st century:
[T]he Negro peoples of the world should

concentrate upon the object of building up for themselves a great nation in Africa. . . [of] creating for ourselves [there] a political superstate . . . a government, a nation of our own, strong enough to lend protection to the members of our race scattered all over the world,

and to compel the respect of the nations and races of the earth..."

- Dr. Chinweizu Ibekwe, Abuja Statement on Neo-Garveyism
Preface to paper on 21st century agenda for Pan-Africanism
Presented at Abuja, Nigeria on 22 September 2010, at the CBAAC Conference on Pan-
Africanism