Reflections on the Pan African Movement

By Ras Nathaniel Blake

When I launched the AU 6th Region Education Campaign in March of 2006, I was filled with youthful optimism that the moment had arrived when the elusive goals of the Pan African movement would now crystallize.

Ethiopia was on the eve of celebrating a new millennium (September 11, 2007). Fifty-three African Governments and their Heads of State had updated the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and transformed it into the African Union (AU), this time amending their Constitutive Act to “.. invite and encourage the full participation of the African Diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union.” For the first time since the MAAFA - Afrikan Holocasut began, there existed the prospect of Martin Delaney’s vision of an “Africa for the African race, and black men to rule them”. The government of Ghana was launching it’s “Joseph Project” to facilitate the returrn to their ancestral homeland of thirty million African people whose ancestors survived the Middle Passage, while the world was preparing for a global dialogue on the 200th anniversary of the so-called abolition of the European criminal forced displacement, illegal transportation and enslavement of African people. African people at home and abroad were now to work together and finalize the last phase of establishing a United Africa government, fulfilling the work of the Honorable Marcus Garvey. On such a climactic, yet precipitous moment, surely now was the time when all African people would come together and secure their prophesied glorious destiny!

The Rastafari Elders and Bob Marley said, “Give us the teachings of His Majesty, for we don’t want, no devil philosophy!” Having read over and over again Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s speech to African Leaders at the founding of the OAU, I was confident that,

“Today, we look to the future calmly, confidently and courageously. We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free but united. In facing this new challenge we can take comfort and encouragement from the lessons of the past. We know that there are differences among us. Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive values, special attributes. But we also know that unity can be and has been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insuperable obstacle to the coming together of peoples. History teaches us that unity is strength and cautions us to submerge and overcome our differences in the quest for common goals, to strive, with all our combined strength, for the path to true African brotherhood and unity.”

Armed with energy, a vision and an anointing, the AU 6th Region Education Campaign set out to mobilize all the Pan African forces into a unified, focused and functioning network. But how does one do such a thing? Hadn’t it been tried several times before in the past? What was different this time? What gave me the audacity to think that I could do such a thing when greater men and women than I had tried and failed?

As noted above, for one thing, the time was ripe. Fortunately, other Pan Africanists could see the coming moment of truth. Around the time of the launch of the AU 6th Region Education Campaign, The Religious Heritage of the African World-Pan Afrikan Movment (RHAWPAM) organized a Pan African Summit in Atlanta, so that is where the campaign outreach started. By April, Dr. David Horne organized a Pan African Roundtable in Los Angeles and supplied the Pan African movement with a specific “Methodolgy” to organize the entire African Diaspora. The plan was simple and based on the African way of doing things.

First, every island, every country, is divided into sub-territories variously called states, parishes, provinces, etc. Using the AU’s invitation to the African Diaspora to select twenty representatives to be a formal part of its Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) and thereby officially becoming part of the governing of the African continent as the rallying call, Black organizations in every sub-territory were to contact other known Black organizations and agree to form a Community Council of Elders that would call and oversee two Town Hall meetings for the purpose of nominating then electing representatives. That’s it! In the process, a Council of Elders, composed of representatives of all Pan Afrikan organizations, would be established, for example, in each of the fifty states in the US. This would establish one single, grand, networked Council of Elders for the African Diaspora in the US, something that has never formally been achieved. This networked Council of Elders would then, in the words of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I, take “responsibility . . . [for] creat[ing] harmony among the people in initiating them to discuss their common problems and work towards the problems and the betterment of their standard of living.” This was not something that was being done just give a few people a title or position at the AU, this was what the African Diaspora needed to do for itself in order to provide effective solutions to the onslaught of problems facing Black people everywhere. By successfully completing the elections process, the Council of Elders would oversee the networking of all Pan Afrikan groups and creating a unified African Diaspora capable of speaking with one voice.

“Our greatest weapon,” said Emperor Haile Selassie, “is the oneness which We share as Africans. Influences abound which will not hesitate to divide Us, to pit Us one against the other and to stir up disharmony and suspicion where only brotherhood and confidence should be found. Countries where the people have lost unity, spiritual or otherwise, have become playgrounds and laughing stocks of outsiders. Nobody knows better than We Africans that the policy of divide and rule is the aspiration of those who seek to benefit at others’ expense . . . The example of the developed countries amply proves the truth of the proverb, ‘Unity is strength.’ Our greatest asset is Our unity, and We must exploit it to the fullest.”

With the historical imperative and moment of truth in front of us, and now having a plan of action for organizing the African Diaspora, all that remained was the goodwill, brotherhood/sisterhood and participation of the various Pan African groups. Unfortunately, petty differences prevented veteran Pan Africans from using the Methodolgy and seizing the moment. RHAWPAN did not use its network to implement the Methodology, but rather protested against it and created a parallel process to compete with the Methodolgy already adopted, effectively dividing the Pan African Movement. At their recent 2007 Pan African Summit in Jamaica, they failed again to provide an alternative framework or methodolgy for organizing the African Diaspora that improved on the Methodology. They claimed that, “The result of the Summit is historic and a great leap forward for the full integration of the Africans of the Diaspora as a powerful family partner for the rebuilding of our Motherland, Africa.” But what exactly made the Summit a great leap forward? The PAM Summit resolution called for Honorable Dudley Thompson to hold the office of Chief Elder and President of the Interim Secretariat of the African World (Diaspora) Union (ISAWU) for the year 2007-2008 and to immediately organize a Council of Leaders for the Africans in the Diaspora. The Summit resolution also called for the: Interim Secretariat of the African World (Diaspora) Union (ISAWU) leaders to be chosen mainly from among nominations submitted at the Summit. That’s not exactly doing the groundwork necessary to build a broad-based network necessary for building an edifice of power since there were only about 60 people at the Summit. Narrowing and restricting the base of leadership, rather than develop the Council of Elders in every sub-territory to oversee the traditiona African “shimagle” or “Town Hall” meeting, is no improvement on the Methodolgy. Rather, the 2007 Pan African Summit in Jamaica should have endorsed the Methodolgy that has been proving its succes throughout the AU 6th Region, and their Summit resolution should have instructed the African Diaspora to set up their Community Council of Elders and coordinate their elections through the AU 6th Region Education Campaign. This would have united Pan Africans eveywhere, and avoided redundancy, while preserving the results already achieved.

Other Pan African groups like the Millions More Movement (MMM), the National Black United Front (NBUF), and the Global African Congress (GAC) chose not to support the campaign and implement the Methodology, nor provide an alternative plan of action/methodolgy for effectively organizing the African Diaspora in one body in order to accept the AU invitation and present a united voice at ECOSOCC. This, and the fact that the AU and ECOSOCC had no clue how to organize the African Diaspora and was content with treating the Diaspora as a step-child to be included only after dinner was served, did not bode well for the Pan African and United Africa government unity project. Surely the ancestors were starting to grumble . . . .

Thus, rather than going into the African Union Grand Debate this past July with a strong, unified African Diaspora, our disunity preceded us, and there was no effective Pan African grassroots effective representation. Instead, Jesse Jackson was pushed to the forefront as the African Diaspora’s representative, while certain African Diaspora capitalists seized the spotlight and did not fight for the African Diaspora’s unconditional right of return, righ to land and citizenship issues. Rather, they emphasized AU partnerships with “the right kind” of African Diasporans. . . .

So with the failure of the African Leaders and their betrayal of the African peoples at the AU Grand Debate, and particularly their disrespect to the African Diaspora on the one hand, and the petty divisions still dividing the Pan Afrikan movementon the other, what now?

Said Emperor Haile Selassie, “We are determined to create a union of Africans. In a very real sense, Our continent is unmade; it still awaits creation and its creators. It is Our duty and privilege to rouse the slumbering giant of Africa, not to the nationalism of Europe of the Nineteenth Century, not to regional consciousness, but to the vision of a single African brotherhood bending its united efforts toward the achievement and nobler goal.”

African people can not depend on African Heads of State to secure a prosperous future. African people themselves must build their own edifice of power capable of exercising control of their resources. African people must exercise Kujichagulia and Ubuntu!

During the AU Grand Debate, officials of the AU informed me that they planned to hold a Diaspora roundtable discussion in August hosted by the AU Representative to the U.S. to finalize the Diaspora election process. As of yet, no roundtable has been planned, nor any date given. The mandate for completing ECOSOCC elections expires December 31, 2007. The South African government is assisting the African Diaspora in Europe which will be hosting a European Diaspora event September 11. There will be a Western Hemisphere Diaspora Summit in Washigton DC on September 21, culminating with an African Diaspora Summit in South Africa November 14-18, 2007. With no final word from the AU, the AU 6th Region can not wait to finish its organizing and elections process. If we are to be ready by November, we must intensify the AU 6th Region Education Campaign and Diaspora Elections. We are determined to do this and we invite all Pan Africanists to join the campaign.

There is no better plan for organizing the African Diaspora then the Methodolgy presented by Dr. David Horne (see attached). California, Washington, and New York have completed the process and elected their representatives. Despite the attacks on the camaign and an effert to discredit the Methodology, right thinking Pan Africanists are continuing to use it successfully.

The Columbus (Ohio) Pan African Coalition held their first Town Hall meeting to discuss selecting Diaspora Representatives to the African Union on July 28, 2007 at the Frank Hale Black Cultural Center. Contact: Sister Michelle West (614) 226-3872 for More Information.

A Town Hall meeting was also held in Charleston, South Carolina on July 28. For more information contact Kumasi at

A committed group of Afrikans in Maryland has taken up the challenge to get involved with the effort to organize the Maryland Afrikan Community toward the election of Representatives and Observers to the African Union. They have had planning meetings and are aiming for Town Hall meetings on September 8 and 15th. Contact Brother Cliff at to get involved in Maryland.

Groups in Missouri and Pennsylvania have also shown an interest, while Representatives for the Central American region have already been elected using the Methodology, and the African Diaspora in Brazil, Canada and various islands in the Caribbean have been mobilizing.

Anyone desiring to have their state or sub-territory involved can contact Ras Nathaniel Blake or Dr. David Horne for more information.

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