Making Pan-Africanism Relevant Today: There Could Be No More Appropriate Place to Reflect on the Practice of Pan-Africanism Than in This New African 10th Anniversary Black History Month Special Issue. Readers Are Invited to Weigh in on Where They See Pan-Africanism Today and What Their Vision Is for the Pan-African Tomorrow

Ray, Carina, New African

In August I had the opportunity to participate in a special plenary session on the practice of Pan-Africanism sponsored by the Accra-based W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan-African Culture and the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) at the latter's biennial conference, which was held in Accra. Having just 10 minutes to address the audience forced me to identify and tersely articulate the most pressing issues facing the Pan-African movement/s today. I take the liberty of more fully fleshing my thoughts out here.

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Let me propose the following five key issues as areas that warrant our urgent consideration: first, the multi-generational composition of the Pan-African movement underscores the need to pay attention to the similarities and differences that shape the kinds of issues that are of concern to both the older and younger generation of Pan-Africanists. Second, disparate regional identities and geographic dislocations still plague the coherency and unity of the Pan-African movement. Third, the broad range of political orientations and ideologies espoused under the Pan-African umbrella can be a strength or a weakness depending on how we choose to handle our differences, while embracing our similarities. Fourth, the deepening …

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Publication information: Article title: Making Pan-Africanism Relevant Today: There Could Be No More Appropriate Place to Reflect on the Practice of Pan-Africanism Than in This New African 10th Anniversary Black History Month Special Issue. Readers Are Invited to Weigh in on Where They See Pan-Africanism Today and What Their Vision Is for the Pan-African Tomorrow. Contributors: Ray, Carina - Author. Magazine title: New African. Issue: 488 Publication date: October 2009. Page number: 34+. © 2005 IC Publications Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2009 Gale Group.

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