The Relevancy of Pan Africanism to the Young People

TAJUDEEN AND THE PAN AFRICAN MOVEMENT: LESSONS LEARNT FOR THE AFRICAN UNITY AND THE AFRICAN PEOPLES

On 25^th May 2009, we were awakened by the shocking news of the passing of a great son of Africa, a great Pan Africanist, an intellectual, a friend, a father & husband ; the Secretary General of the Global Pan African Movement, Dr. Tajudeen Adbul Raheem; May His soul rest in peace.

On Monday 28^th May, 2012, the Global Pan African Movement Secretariat based in Kampala organized a memorial public lecture to honor him. The Key Note Speaker was a renowned Pan Africanist, teacher and writer, Prof Horace Campbell from Syracuse University.

Hon Kahinda Otafire, the Chairman of the Global Pan African Movement and also Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in the Ugandan Government gave opening remarks and stated that Dr. Tajudeen had volunteered his youthful years after his doctorate at Oxford University to come and serve at the Pan African Secretariat as a Secretary General since 1994. He was confirmed in this position by the Seventh Pan African Congress that took place in Kampala in 1994. Kahinda further stated that the Pan African Movement will forever be indebted to Dr. Tajudeen.

Prof. Horace Campbell in his introductory remarks said that Pan Africanism came about as a result of dehumanizing the Africans as an effort to restore dignity and values of the African people in Africa and the Diaspora. He mentioned great Pan Africanists who had given their ultimate prize for this cause and these included Mohammed Bouzazi who demanded dignity as a human being and Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem – the Secretary General of the Pan African Movement. He further mentioned the African leaders that were assassinated and these included Patrice Lumumba in 1961 and Gaddafi in 2011. He made reference to a book by Dr. Tajudeen – Speaking truth to power and asserted that an idea can never be assassinated.

He further highlighted the themes of the Pan African freedom to include:  multifaceted nature of transformation; transformation of material conditions; transformation of consciousness; transformation of political relations; women and definition of pan Africans; knowledge systems and breaking fundamentalism; lessons from reconstruction of Africa, environmental repair and the ideas of Cheik Anta Diop towards a federated peoples of Africa; what does freedom mean in the 21^st Century?

The evolution of Pan Africanism was traced to the times of W.E.B Dubois who called the four Pan African Congresses (1919-1927) and left the legacy of the struggle for intellectual integrity, among others. Popular movements in Africa include: freedom in South Africa and other parts of Africa; imperialism and military destabilization ; balkanization and wars and the popular April 6 Movement which made clear demands of ending poverty and unemployment.

He further went on to talk about the effect of the Egypt which was defined as a sudden overthrow of the existing social, economic and political order. Nkrumah once stated that “when the spirit of the oppressed people revolts against its oppressors, that revolt continues until freedom is achieved. We have not the arms with which to fight as the Americans dig against the British, but we have the moral and the spiritual forces at our disposal which outnumber all the physical weapons”.

 Horace went on to highlight what Pan Africanism looked like yesterday and the and challenges today by explaining the AIDS pandemic in the Pan African World; women and youth and the redefinition of Pan Africanism; Pan African Congress and the Pan African Leaders of yesterday and how the generation of the anti colonial period managed to resist.

He further stated that there is a need for Africa to reposition themselves in the 21^st Century and utilize technologies like the new concept of energy where humans will control computers and appliances; will be able to re arrange the shape of objects and scan DNA cells for signs of danger, among others. With the bio technology, Africa will have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming the major source of energy.  There is an urgent need for Africans to medical apartheid on the continent in the name of AIDS and mass deaths. This can only be achieved through promoting the health for all concepts. This would also address the issue of mothers dying while giving birth, a passionate topic for Dr. Tajudeen.

Prof Horace further expressed the need to address the challenges of global warming in Africa. This, he said needs a binding agreement bridging the emissions gap through the Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance. The cascading negative effects of global warming will affect agricultural productivity. He further stated that global warming requires earth democracy: the right to live and to exist; the right to be respected; the right to regenerate its bio capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free of human alteration; the right to maintain their identity and integrity as differentiated beings, self regulated and interrelated; the right to water as a source of life; the right to clean air and the right to comprehensive health.

He emphasized that “Any Pan Concept is an exercise in self definition by a people, aimed at establishing a broader redefinition of themselves than that which had so far been permitted by those in power. Invariably, however, the exercise is undertaken by a specific social or class which speaks on behalf of the population as a whole.”

Prof Campbell further noted that other countries like China and Japan are doing something to secure their economies against dependence on the collapsing American Dollar through the Yuan –Yen trade plan, 2011; African countries need also to come together and secure their economies .Setting up a United African Bank creating an African currency were some of the suggestions he gave. African Unity is more important today 21st C than before as the only viable weapon against the imperialist forces.

He highlighted the current outstanding issues for Pan Africansim to include Haiti and reparations; Independence in the Caribbean; Independence and the Western Sahara; the anti racist agenda of the 21^st century; Pan African Health networks; sharing knowledge and investing in caring and not killing. The crucial challenge facing the young people now is manipulation through the social media. Case in point is the Kony 2012 viral video that has since been accessed by millions of young people yet it’s a public relations document for the AFRICOM and pan Africanists should fight back.

On a positive note, Prof Campbell said that 2010-2020 is Africa’s decade. Africa is the only continent experiencing high economic growth rates and is projected to grow further and is now the fastest growing region in the world! It also has the highest population growth, the majority of which are youth-a productive stage. This is also a decade of revolution and Unity for Africa examples are Egypt and Nigeria. Africa as well has new social forces and new forms of organization. He mentioned the alternatives available to Africa to include socializing the ownership of monopolies, de-finacialising the management of the economy and de-globalising international relations.

He examined the priorities for Africa and these include: agriculture and fisheries, infrastructure, water and energy, health care, housing, education, telecommunications, transport, ICT, preservation of languages and cognitive skills.

He concluded by setting the research agenda for Africa for the 21^st century to include transformation of water and energy resource, great green wall and engineering for unity, the bio economy and solar democracy – implications for the re-organization of agriculture, repair and reparations for environmental democracy, infrastructure for pan African unity, health networks and coordination of access to medicine and social services and Africa canal and water transfer systems.

The lecture ended with an announcement of the great green wall of Africa campaign where the young people will plant trees covering 7,775 km of trees, an inspiration from the Late Prof Wangari Muta Maathai.

The Master of Ceremonies, Maj (Rtd) Okwiri Rabwoni then announced that it was time for questions and answers from the audience. A charged audience, full of young Pan Africanists was passionate about the status quo; future of Pan Africanism and issues of accountability by the leadership.

Key questions were about the war in Somalia, the rights of gays and the stand of Pan Africanism; the divisions in the Ugandan national chapter; the relevancy of the Egyptian revolution and implications to the rest of African democracies; maternal health; integration of African economies and the rights of Ugandan workers.

 In response, Prof Campbell asserted that the Egyptian revolution will change the world at the cross roads of humanity between Pan Arab and Pan Arab African World. He re affirmed the need to address the health and reproductive rights question in Africa especially by addressing mental health issues, and the need to promote people friendly public priorities.  On the integration of African economies, he stated that it was advantageous in Africa because the ordinary people have integrated ahead of their governments and all that the governments need to do is to make people friendly policies to facilitate this integration and economically transform the quality of their lives. An example of the Lamu project in Kenya was given and this project will greatly improve the transport networks amongst the countries of East Africa. He further remarked that East Africa is a center for destabilization because the United States can no longer compete with China, India and Brazil. African has an advantage of diversity with examples like the 2004 languages; religious tolerance, and respect for African religions. On the war in Somalia, Horace stated that there is need for a pan African approach and not a foreign mooted approach on resolving the Somalia question. On the rights of Ugandan workers, Prof Campbell stated that the Ugandan government should have laws which protect the rights of Ugandan workers and their trade unions. This should include the health, safety, well being, food, nutrition of the Ugandan workers; the youth and the women.

Hon Otafire during his response stated that the Pan African Movement organizes public lectures to allow ideas to flourish so that young people can pick them. They are a means of passing on the torch to the young generation. On homosexuality, Kahinda stated that homosexuality long existed in African societies and this is justified by the existence of corresponding local words in our languages. Bu he, however, disagrees with the advocacy campaign to promote and further spread the practice and that sexual relations is a bed room affair. On the divisions in the national Pan African Chapters, he advised the warring parties to stop exposing their bankruptcy of ideas and have dialogue to resolve their differences. He affirmed that Pan Africanism stands for “organize do not agonize, one struggle many fronts” but not intrigue and in fighting.

The meeting resolved that a Dr. Tajudeen Scholarship fund should be set up and this fund should be used to sponsor young people to study Pan Africanism in Universities. It was also resolved that the government of Uganda should support the family of Tajudeen.

In his closing remarks, Hon Otafire thanked Prof Campbell for a visionary presentation on Pan Africanism and hoped that the participants have benefited from the proliferation of ideas.